280 The Unknown River, 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE shipwreck that ended the last chapter occurred 

 just at sunset. After a night's rest in a poor cot- 

 tage, the voyage was resumed in the brilliant light of a 

 new and cloudless day. 



The river was still most dangerous, slipping furtively 

 .and fast through the thickest underwood, turning sharply 

 in unforeseen ways and places, like a panther in the 

 dense jungle. 



At last, after being hurried down a narrow channel, 

 with about as much freedom of will as the train in an 

 atmospheric tube, we came suddenly out upon a great 

 open pool. This was the confluence of the Arroux and 

 the Dree, and the Arroux had doubled his substance 

 by this alliance. 



Before it, he had been a wild young rivulet of the 

 most imprudent and impetuous character ; after it, he 

 had times of leisure, and lived in visible dignity, an im- 

 portant occupier of land. Imagine a constant succes- 

 sion of large and beautiful pools linked together by rapid 

 babbling shallows on which the canoe darted gayly and 

 swiftly without grounding. The pools were deep, with 

 sloping bottoms of the finest sand, perfect bathing-places 

 every one, and every one a picture. 



After many windings, one curve of the beautiful river 

 disclosed a noble city, rising far off on the slope of a 



