THE FORESTERS. T'J 



Saw its white torrents undulating pour 

 From heaven to earth with deafening-, crashing roar, 

 Dashed in the wild and torn abyss below 

 Midst dazzlino- foam and whirling storms of snow, 

 "While the whole monstrous mass, and country round, 

 Shook as with horror at the o'erwhelming sound ! (62) 



Within this concave vast, dork, frowning", deep, 

 Eternal rains and howling whirlwinds sweep ; 

 Hie slippery rocks, at every faithless tread, 

 Threaten to whelm us headlong to the dead ; 

 Our bard and pilot curious to survey, 

 Behind this sheet what unknown wonders lay, 

 Kesolvcd the dangers of th' attempt to share, 

 And all its terrors of the storm to dare ; 

 So, hand in hand, with firm yet cautious pace, 

 Along the gloom they grope this dreary space, 

 Midst rushing winds, descending deep they gain 

 iMiind th'o'rhanging horrors of the scene, 

 There dark, tempestuous, howlingregionsli*, 

 And whirling floods of dashing waters fly, 

 At once of sight deprived, of sense and breath, 

 Staggering amidst this caverned porch of death, 

 One moment more had swept them in the waves 

 * o t.ie most horrible of human mravc* ; 

 "ut danger here to desperate force gave way, 

 And drove them, drenched and gasping out to day. 



The glooms of evening now began to close, 

 O'er heaps of rocks our homeward steps we chose; 

 And one by one, th' upright ladder scaled, 



