346 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



found relief upon little islands flooded by winter 

 torrents, but generally it was a mere gorge, densely 

 wooded, and Avith but a strip of sky overhead. At 

 last, to my satisfaction, we left these gloomy recesses, 

 where the rushing water confused one's senses, and 

 the projecting rocks scarified and bruised one's shins, 

 and commenced boldly to scale the steep hillside. 

 But our former experience was mere child's play to 

 what we now underwent. No sooner had we, by 

 dint of most frantic exertion, succeeded in driving 

 or pulling the horses after us, to a height of about 

 a hundred feet, than one who carried the baggage, 

 thinking he had done enough, incontinently pitched 

 head-over-heels down the precipice, his laden sides 

 thumping roundly against the bank as he rolled to 

 the bottom. Fortunately it was not very steep, so that 

 his velocity was not great, and the baggage, in some 

 measure, protected him ; still it was a work of toil 

 and difficulty to reinstate him on his legs, when he 

 looked considerably humiliated and bruised, and came 

 limping after, with his pack in somewhat the same 

 shattered condition as himself. 



These adventures now became common, and our un- 

 fortunate horses had one or two more tumbles in the 

 course of the day, but not from any serious height. 

 At last we had acquired so great an elevation that the 

 stream we had left looked like a silver thread, and 

 still the path kept winding up, seldom more than 

 eighteen inches broad, very slippery from recent 



