276 The Unknown River. 



both the vessel and her owner were transported by 

 a fast-trotting horse to a place four kilometres lower 

 down, whilst Tom galloped along the road with a sense 

 of freedom much greater than any which he had enjoyed 

 amongst the tangled vegetation of the river's bank. 



When the boat was launched again, the stream took 

 quite a new character. Instead of flowing with a cur- 

 rent of equal breadth, and almost equal rapidity, it now 

 alternately slept in calm pools and rushed hurriedly over 

 short pebbly shallows. It is difficult, in words, to convey 

 any idea of the variety of these beautiful pools, except 

 by simply saying that they are various. If there were 

 eighty of them, or a hundred of them, or however many 

 there may have been, there were just as many new and 

 admirable pictures. The shallows, too (though in pass- 

 ing rapidly over them we had not time to think of much 

 but the safety of the canoe), were by no means the least 

 interesting portions of the voyage, especially when they 

 turned mysterious corners, and opened out new glimpses 

 down the stream. At length we came to a pool so very 

 long and so very tranquil that it seemed as if it would 

 never end. The canoe glided over its glassy surface for 

 many a long minute, and, just as the explorer rested on 

 his paddle and the little vessel had gone forward alone 

 so long that the impetus was dying gradually away, 

 something unwonted was reflected in the smooth water ; 

 and, instead of the accustomed intricacy of boughs and 

 fluttering of innumerable leaves, the voyager saw great 

 stones as of a feudal castle, and surely on the green 

 shore there stood a great ruin ! 



