NINTH DAY.] REFLECTIONS. 279 



embraced at once by the eye, and the effect is almost 

 as sublime as that of the Glommen, where the river 

 is at least one hundred times as large; for the 

 Gloimnen falls, as it were, from a whole valley upon 

 a mountain of granite, and unless where you see the 

 giant pines of Norway, fifty or sixty feet in height, 

 carried down by it and swimming in its whirlpools 

 like straws, you have no idea of its magnitude and 

 power. Yet still, I think, considering it in all its 

 relations, this is the most awful fall of water I have 

 ever seen, as that of Yelino is the most perfect and 

 beautiful. I am not sure that I ought not to place 

 the fall of the Gotha above that of the Ehine, both 

 for variety of effect and beauty ; and the river, in my 

 opinion, is quite as large, and the colour of the water 

 quite as beautiful. 



HAL. But our horses are ready, and the time of 

 separation arrives. I trust we shall all have a happy 

 meeting in England in the winter. I have made 

 you idlers at home and abroad, but I hope to some 

 purpose; and I trust you will confess the time 

 bestowed upon angling has not been thrown away. 

 The most important principle, perhaps, in life is to 

 have a pursuit a useful one if possible, and at all 

 events an innocent one. And the scenes you have 

 enjoyed the contemplations to which they have led, 

 and the exercise in which we have indulged, have, 



