FORCE OP THE WATERS. 235 



which at times reared themselves almost perpendicularly, 

 might by the poet have been taken for the shakings of the con- 

 founded and discomfited giants. Now the rushing element filled 

 up the gorge to the brim. The logs, once under way, rolled, 

 reared, tossed, and tumbled amid the foam, as they were carried 

 along. Many of the smaller trees broke across; from others, 

 great splinters were sent up, and all were in some degree seamed 

 and scarred. Then, in tumultuous majesty, swept along the 

 mangled wreck : the current being now increased to such a 

 pitch, that the logs, as they were dashed against the rocky 

 shores, resounded like the report of distant artillery, or the 

 angry rumblings of the thunder. Onward it rolls, the emblem 

 of wreck and ruin, destruction and chaotic strife. It seemed to 

 me as if I witnessed the rout of a rash army, surprised, OTer- 

 whelmed, and overthrown : the roar of the camion, the groans 

 of the dying, and the shouts of the avengers, were thundering 

 through my brain ; and amid the frightful confusion of the 

 scene there came over my spirit a melancholy feeling, which 

 had not entirely vanished at the end of many days. In a few 

 hours almost all the timber that had lain heaped in the rocky 

 gorge was floatiag in the great pond of the miUers, and as we 

 walked homewards we talked of the force of the waters." 



