A HAZARDOUS LEAP. 97 



dashed furiously beneath me, wrought up into one 

 mass of creamy foam, made my brain reel rather 

 unpleasantly, and I began to repent that we had not 

 taken the ford in preference to the leap ; nor was I 

 much assured when told, for my comfort, that no living 

 creature had ever been known to survive an immersion 

 in the waters of the Poit bhruich, which could not be 

 less than forty feet deep. 



While I stood silently watching the stream, as it 

 plunged wildly along, until fairly lost in the brine of 

 the ocean, Donald seemed to derive a malicious amuse- 

 ment from telling me that not only had sundry sheep 

 there found a watery grave, but that more than one 

 unlucky human being had, by a single false step, been 

 hurled into the foaming " pot," there to boil and roll 

 through its inmost caverns to the end of time. With 

 such consoling thoughts, wherefrom to gather encou- 

 ragement, I determined to put the best face on the 

 matter, and, whatever might be my real sensations, to 

 afford my companions no excuse for cavilling at the 

 courage of an Englishman. " Fortes fortuna adjuvat." 

 Grasping therefore my rod firmly in my hand, without 

 further delay, I sprang over the chasm, which in 

 reality, when viewed apart from all the other enhancing 

 considerations, was an obstacle of but trifling moment. 

 I am told that at the high tides, when the sea almost 

 reaches this narrow throat, the salmon may be seen in 

 numbers, passing by one leap from the salt to the 

 fresh water, though they will not often take the fly so 

 near the sea. On the present occasion, my tackle 

 being packed I did not make the attempt, but rny 

 companion cast carelessly three or four times into the 

 " Pot," while I proceeded on our homeward route. 

 Scarcely however had I advanced ten yards, when I 

 was arrested by a shout, and on looking round saw 



