156 EXPLORING THE LINN. 



this barrier, and tumbled madly through the rocky 

 gorges ; down they went, thundering with stunning 

 sound into the enormous cauldron below. Then arose 

 the strife — the dashing of the spray — the buffeting 

 against the banks — the swirling of the eddies, crested 

 with laro;e masses of foam — all was in hideous com- 

 motion. 



This state of things threatened to put an end to our 

 projected voyage. To go right onwards through the 

 centre gorge was to pass to certain destruction: as 

 well might one hope to shoot in safety down the falls 

 of Schaffhausen. 



I was prepared for all this, and was quite aware of 

 the impediment before I began my voyage ; so I did as 

 I had made up my mind to do before I started. I 

 pulled towards some alder trees wliich grew on the bank 

 above the fall, and held my boat fast by the branches ; 

 I then told Charlie to secure his boat also with a rope, 

 and to land and reconnoitre. We were enabled to 

 do these things without much difficulty, as the water 

 was in some measure arrested in its course above the 

 fall, being slightly bayed back by the barrier of rocks. 

 Being on terra firma, my hero looked ruefully at the 

 torrents : one alone appeared something like being prac- 

 ticable ; and it was one that, in the mean state of the 

 river, was nothing but a dry channel. Whether our 

 small craft could shoot down it without foundering or 

 not was by no means evident to the eye, though a 

 practised one, of the explorer. He was, however, some- 

 what encouraged by two fishermen who were mending 

 their nets. They thought, they said, that Ave "might 



