of a recent Continental Tour. 25 



panied by our jacks-o'-the-lantern. We had not proceeded 

 above a mile, when the noise of rushing water began to be 

 heard, and presently we encountered the first, and, as it after- 

 wards turned out, the worst torrent. At a place where the 

 road was cut upon the declivity of a hill, which on one side 

 rapidly declined, but on the other was a gentle but broken 

 slope, a tremendous rain torrent was discharging itself over 

 the road. It had ah^eady carried above two feet deep of 

 shining slaty stone out over the road for the length of fifty 

 or sixty paces ; and in some places it had excavated deep 

 hollows. At the other side of the road the water fell with 

 prodigious noise over the abrupt bank ; so that, in fact, it 

 was the head of a temporary cataract. 



Some of the guides seized the horses by their heads ; the 

 rest stood fast at each side of the carriage ; the driver whipped 

 the frightened animals; and we rushed in. But, before we had 

 passed over ten feet, one of the wheels sunk into a gully, 

 so deep as to require the utmost exertions of the guides to 

 prevent its upsetting) which, had it happened, we and it would 

 assuredly have been washed down the abrupt bank over which 

 the torrent rolled. For some time the carriage remained 

 immovable, and was every moment becoming less mobile, 

 from the wedging of the stones into the spokes of the wheels, 

 which we could hear over the noise of the water rattling and 

 clashing along the bottom. The torrent here was of a depth 

 and force that rendered standing in it difficult, and falling 

 destruction ; so that our unstable equilibrium in our carriage, 

 lying nearly on its beam ends, in the momentary expectation 

 of a ducking, was by no means agreeable. However, a sud- 

 den and united exertion of our guides and horses dragged us 

 out of the gully, and we got in a second or two out of the 

 main rush, and soon after on dry land again. We passed 

 two or three similar, but less formidable torrents, before we 

 came to where the whole breadth of the valley seemed, as far 

 as we could judge by the light, or rather the darkness, to be 

 entirely flooded. The rain had now ceased ; and through the 

 water we were dragged, the guides poking out the road with 

 lantern and pole. In a short time we began to hear the 

 hoarse bra3nngs of the swollen Pisse-Vache. The guides, 

 whenever they communicated with one another, s^ioke patois, 

 which was uliintelligible to us ; but it soon became apparent, 

 by their hesitation, that they had lost the road track, which, 

 I suppose, was, as roads '"a the Swiss valleys usually are, 

 without side fences. However, we got oil without accident, 

 if not without danger, until we came close opposite the cataract ; 

 and then the water became so deep that we came to a full 



