BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



half moon, a monstrous cantle out," and proceeded in a more 

 direct line to their mark. They went on in darkness through 

 the chilling dews, now and then stumbling into the patches of 

 furze which were scattered over the haugh ; soon they begin 

 to hear the rushing of the waters through the gorge of the 

 Carrywheel ; now it breaks full and loud upon the ear, for they 

 are arrived at the base of the wooded brae that overhangs the 

 cast. 



' Two groups of men, but dimly seen, here await their 

 arrival ; one consists of spectators lying on the ground with 

 their plaids thrown athwart their bodies, and the other of the 

 heroes who were to figure in the grand operation : these latter 

 were sitting on the boats, and on the masses of rock beside 

 them on the water edge. 



' All being now ready, a light was struck ; and the spark 

 being applied to rags steeped in pitch, and to fragments of 

 tar-barrels, they blazed up at once amid the gloom, like the 

 sudden flash from the crater of a volcano. The ruddy light 

 glared on the rough features and dark dresses of the leisterers 

 in cutting flames directly met by black shadows — an effect 

 which those will best understand who in the Eternal City have 

 seen the statues in the Vatican by torch-light. Extending 

 itself, it reddened the shelving rocks above, and glanced upon 

 the blasted arms of the trees, slowly perishing in their struggle 

 for existence amongst the stony crevices ; it glowed upon the 

 hanging wood, on fir, birch, broom, and bracken, half veiled, 

 or half revealed, as they were more or less prominent. The 

 form of things remote from the concentrated light was dark and 

 dubious ; even the trees on the summit of the brae sank in 

 obscurity. 



' The principals now sprang into the boats. Harry Otter 

 stood at the head, and Charlie Purdie at the stern. These 

 men regulated the course of the craft with their leisters ; the 

 auxiliaries were stationed between them, and the light was in 

 the centre by the boat side. The logs, steeped as they were in 

 pitch, crackled and burned fiercely, sending up a column of 



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