FORMOSA. [chap. 



be better lying off a little distance from the shore, she was re- 

 launched, an operation which took some little time, and which 

 resulted in her becoming more than hall" filled with water. 



The valley was grand in the extreme. The entrance was 

 guarded by magnificent cliffs, which rose to a height of over five 

 thousand feet, the lower third being almost perpendicular. Ex- 

 cepting on the sea face, these mountains were clothed from base to 

 summit with the densest vegetation, of which the rattan and 

 innumerable ferns formed a conspicuous feature. The river bed, 

 composed of large, water-worn quartz pebbles, was dry, save for the 

 presence of a small stream of clear and ice-cold water. It 

 was barely 500 yards in width, and narrowed rapidly as we 

 advanced, the mountains rising almost straight up on either side 

 for some thousands of feet, and effectually precluding any attempt 

 to penetrate the jungle. Continuing onwards for a couple of miles, 

 and rounding an abrupt bend in the valley, the river bed widened 

 out into a sort of circular basin, and a view of unsurpassed magnifi- 

 cence lay before us. At the farther end the river was seen to 

 debouch by a narrow gorge into the pebbly amphitheatre at our 

 feet. The mountains had closed in, and towered above it to a yet 

 greater height than those we had left behind us, ridge crossing 

 ridge in glorious confusion ; a chaotic jumble of ^N'ature on a 

 Titanic scale, over which the densest tangle of tropic vegetation 



ran riot. 



" A valley terrible 

 As that dim gulf, where sense and being swoon 

 When the soul parts ; a giant chasm strewn 

 With giant rocks — asleep, and vast, and still." 



It was hard, indeed, at this juncture, to have to turn back. But, 

 alas ! the commonest prudence dictated a retreat without loss of 

 time. For an hour or more the strong breeze blowing up the 

 valley had warned us that, before long, all communication with the 

 ship might be cut off", a contingency that we hardly cared to 

 contemplate, so, reluctantly enough, we set our faces seaw^ard. 



