S72 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 9, 1901. 
afforded us no trouble, and the long, straggling, semi- 
circular mill dam around the bend below the foot of the 
rapids Avas easily passed, by running the lively boat shoot 
close u]) under the left bank, whose location had been de- 
scrilied to us by the Major. 
The river is singularly beautiful down along here — 
broad; still, majestic and imposing. One would never 
suspect it was so soon to break up into such violent, un- 
governable fvir}^. 
There is a big fish dam around the bend below, but an 
open shoot in it passed us through without difficulty. 
Capt. Conrad, of Bloomery, seems to do considerable boat- 
ing in this vicinity, and he keeps the shoots open. We 
expressed a hearty wish that the Captain could be induced 
to extend his operations to the upper river, between 
Shenandoah and Riverton. 
We passed to the right of the island opposite Bloomery, 
and the low, straggling dam presented no difficulty to us. 
The broad, lake-like expanse of Newcomer's Eddy— nearly 
half a mile wide by three times that length, with the 
crumbling walls of the old stone factory — burned years 
ago — visible at the end of the vista, was strikingly beau- 
tiful, and we dallied along its still, reflective reaches, and 
•along the grassy margin of its sloping, lawn-like banks, 
loth to pass out of it into the turmoil below. While we 
were passing along its beautiful expanse, we were hailed 
at different times by men on the bank engaged in fishing, 
road mending, etc., who warned us that the falls just be- 
low at the bottom of the "eddy" were dangerous, and 
that we risked our lives in attempting to run them. 
We appreciated the kindliness which prompted these 
people to warn us — strangers to the river, apparently — of 
the danger into which we were heedlessly drifting; but, 
assuring our friendly monitors that we were familiar with 
the falls, and had run them before, and had no intention 
of blindly drifting into them, we passed on down, and 
finally reached the lower end of the "eddy." 
We landed at a safe and respectful distance above to 
reconnoitre the falls. The reach terminated in a long, 
irregular line of broken ledges extending clear across the 
river, and which appeared to block it like a dam, while 
below masses of scrubby trees and bushes appeared to 
fill the bed of the river. 
The long, .sloping hills on the left side, where we 
landed, closed in in mountainous bluffs, which towered 
along the left bank as the river swept in a stately semi- 
circle around their bases, while a mile further down the 
moimtain. heights across the river closed in, and swept 
around in a majestic curve to the left, closing the prospect. 
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Lacy, fairly aghast, as we 
stood under the crumbling, blackened stone walls of the 
old Newcomer factory^ and surveyed the head of the 
famed and dreaded Watson's Falls. 
At this place the river begins its descent to the level 
of the Potomac, six miles away and looft. below, and 
nothing that we had encountered on the river above, in 
the way of rapids or falls, was even a suggestion of what 
was discovered in store for us here. A great limestone 
ledge, some 10 or 12ft. high, blocks the river, which cuts 
its way down across the ledge, forming a furious rapid 
or cascade of about a quarter of a mile in length. It is 
not a smooth, open descent, but the eroding process of the 
water has worn the face of the ledge into countless 
fissures, seams and crevices, of all conceivable sizes and 
shapes, down through which the water rushes in innu- 
merable channels, more or less deep and broad, while 
huge masses of stone, innumerable in number, grotesque 
in shape and countless in variety, cover the slope. Scores, 
of bush-grown islands, some of them of considerable ex- 
tent, af e scattered profusely around in the bed of the river 
up and down the falls, while the river as it slips insidiously 
down over the head of the falls, increasing in power and 
violence as it goes, is speedily lost to sight in the chaos 
of rocks, reefs and islets, and the bottom of the falls — 
although so short a distance away, cannot at any place 
be seen from the top. The heavy roar, which made con- 
versation difficult, sufficiently proclaimed the difficult and 
dangerous character of the place, without the additional 
evidence of our eyesight. 
"Great Scott !" exclaimed Lacy. "You don't mean to 
say that flat boats ever ran through here? Why, there is 
absolutely no thoroughfare!" 
"The 1x)ats went down a canal back of the factory. 
There's the old lock now," I replied, pointing with my 
pike staff to a shallow, dry ditch running along at the 
foot of the bluff behind us, and which led into a \vell- 
constructed stone lock, the gates of which had long since 
fallen into decay and been carried off by the floods, no 
remnant of them remaining, while the lock itself was 
choked and half-filled with drift, logs and flood debris. 
"I have been told," said George, moving along over the 
rocks toward the blackened stone walls of the old fac- 
tory, destroyed years ago by fire, "that the old race- 
way leading down through the fore bay of the mill might 
afford us a quick, easy passage." 
"Well, there it is," I replied, pointing as T spoke to a 
narrow, little channel close up under the walls of the old 
factory, down which the water shot in a furious torrent. 
"You see, it is entirely too rough, even were that fish trap 
not in it. It would certainly be quick enough." 
"Yes," assented Lacy, "whatever may be said as to its 
safety. It might do though, but for that fish trap," he 
conitmied, after studying it attentively. "It reaches the 
bottom of the fall all in one plunge, as you can see by that 
long, narrow neck of slack water coming up from below. 
Wouldn't it make' a rattling, lively plunge, though?" 
"There is absolutely no thoroughfare on this side," said 
I. as I led the way back to the canoes. "Suppose we 
cross over and study the falls from the other side, getting 
a good look down the middle as we go. We can't begin 
tO'see all the falls from any one side." 
This proposition being a.ssented to. we once more em- 
barked and paddled slowly across the head of the falls, 
looking attentively down the boiling .slope as we did so. 
Bristling with ledges, great masses of rocks and bush- 
grown islets, it offered no possible opportunity for a pas- 
sage not instantly fatal to our frail canoes until near the 
right bank, where a broad, open lane of water was 
discovered, leading swiftly and wildly down among the 
bristling rocks for some distance, when it disappeared 
among the innumerable small islands. 
"This might do," said I, as I paused to survey it, "if 
yj'e gqmIcI only see hoy^ it comes out belgw, §^ppo§e w§ 
drop down it a way, as far as we can see. We can then 
land on one of -those islands on tHe right and recon- 
noitre." 
"It won't do," said George, decidedly. "How are we 
going to get back if we find we can't get through below?" 
This argument being unanswerable we paddled slowly 
on over to the right bank, but fottnd nothing more en- 
couraging there. 
"We seem to have reached the foot of navigation," said 
Lacy. 
"Commodore," exclaimed George, struck with an idea. 
It isn't often that George meets with an accident of that 
character, and when he does he is obliged to relieve him- 
self at once, otherwise the consequences might be seri- 
ous. "Commodore, you remember in our '86 cruise we 
paddled back tip around the head of this island and then 
came " 
"What island?" interrupted Lacy, in bewilderment. 
"What are you talking about?" " 
"Why, this is an island, right here ahead of us/' replied 
George. 
"I thought it was the other side of the river," replied 
Lacy, still further bewildered. "Where in the the deuce is 
the other side, if this isn't it?" 
"The other side is further over, beyond this island," 
replied George, laughing at Lacy's confusion. "You 
remember," he continued, resummg his conversation with 
me, "we paddled up around behind this island and slipped 
down over part of the falls over there, where it was not 
so rough as outside? Well." he added, after my verifying 
this fact, "I think our only chance is to do it again." 
"It looks .so," I replied. "Suppose we get out on the 
island and take a look over there, and see what it is like?" 
We accordingly made a landing and all got out and 
went on an exploring expedition. A few minutes' scram- 
ble through the dense mat of bushes took us across the 
island, Avhen we found ourselves on the bank of a broad, 
still channel, leading swiftly down toward the falls. 
"Now, this looks promising," said Lacy. 
"Wait until we reach the reefs," I replied ; "we arfe still 
above the falls." 
We continued on down until about opposite the head 
of the falls outside in the main stream, when we found 
the same reefs continuing across the channel in front of 
us, as we had expected, breaking it up into a rough series 
of falls, like those outside, though not rough. 
"Pretty rough, but rather more promising," said George, 
laconically, as he stopped to light his pipe. "Let's go on 
down and see how it comes out." 
Ten minutes' further scrambling through the bushes 
brought us out on the rocky point of the island, where 
the two streams reunited. 
"Whew !" exclaimed Lacy in dismay, as we got a look 
down the falls from this point. "That's a wild river be- 
low there! Can w-e run it safely, do you think?" 
At this point the smaller, right-hand stream united with 
the outside shoot from the main stream we had before 
noted, and which we saw might possibly have afforded 
us a passage down, although a rough and risky one. Be- 
low, the united streams poured in a furious shoot of a 
hundred yards down a rock-studded defile, where the 
waters dashed from ledge to ledge, foaming and rearing 
into tremendous waves, whose spout-like crests broke 
high in the air, while, at the bottom, could be seen the 
broad, open river again. 
"I don't know." said George; "it will take us clear 
through the falls if we can run it safety; but it's horribly 
rough, and we'd better bring the boats up around the 
island and land on the further shore and walk down and 
examine it from below before we attempt it." 
"That's a sensible suggesti'on," I assented. "Once 
started down that shoot, no earthly power could keep us 
from going through, and we'd better see what's at the 
bottom before getting in at the top." 
We accordingly returned to the canoes, and re-em- 
barked, and paddled up stream looyds. or so, to the head 
of the island, which we rounded and then dropped down 
the inside channel until we reached the ledges at the head 
of the falls, where we landed on the further shore. 
"You fellows go ahead and examine it; I'll take your 
word for it," said Lacy, as he filled his pipe, adjusted his 
back rest and mattress to a flatter angle, laid his feet 
out over the hatch in front of him, procured his book and 
prepared to make himself comfortable for half an hour in 
the pleasant, shady, little nook in which he found him- 
self. 
"All right," George replied, as, with pike-poles in hand, 
he and I picked our way through the underbrush and 
started oft' down along the river bank. 
We presently found ourselves out on the river, some 
distance below the falls, down which, as we looked up, the 
water rushed and roared from a point considerably above 
the level of our heads, the irpper end being lost to view 
amid the chaos of reefs and islets. 
All around us, to a great breadth, stretched the bare, 
rocky, bush-grown bed of the river. Never had we seen 
rocks worn and gullied into such fantastic .shapes by the 
action of water, which had eaten out the softer portions 
of the great, solid ledge, leaving the harder parts standing 
up in irregular masses. 
Great, shell-like projections towered many feet above ■ 
our beads, while huge, boulder-shaped masses loomed up 
as big as small houses, with fissures and crevices between, 
many feet in depth, and varying from a few inches to 
many feet in width, running here, there and every- 
where. 
We scrambled back up along close to the water's edge 
(if there could be said to be any water's edge, where 
every fissure and gully was a rumiing stream of water, 
so interlaced with each other and running into and out of 
each other in a manner so bewildering that it seemed 
impossible to tell where the river really left off and the 
woods began) ; over this remarkable expanse of rock, 
everywhere overgrown with straggling, hardy bushes, 
whose roots found' a firm grip among the crevices of the 
rock. 
The whole bed of the river was composed of this same 
honey-combed, fissured ledge, and the water rushed 
through the crevices, and roared over the smooth, round 
heads of boulders and ledges, while higher masses stood 
up out of the water, which raged and roared ai-ound their 
sidlen-. black summits. 
A ragg.ed, frowzy collection of islands lay along the 
niiddle of the river, extending the entire length of tb? 
falls, through and among which numerous small channels 
led down. The river in front of us, between us and these 
islands, prevented a tolerably open, but very swift and 
fearfully rough channel. 
"Well, what do you think of it?" queried George, as we 
finally paused on top of a huge mass of rock as big as_a 
small house, from which we got a comprehensive, bird's- 
eye view of the entire channel from the foot of the island 
above, behind which our canoes lay, and which seemed 
to extend about half-way down the falls to the foot of 
the fahs below. 
"Well, we seem to have about reached the foot of navi- 
gation, as Lacy remarked," I replied, "but we've got to get 
through somehow. It looks very risky, but I believe if 
we can get our canoes down that inside channel above 
there and out behind that point there at the foot of the 
island, so as to place us out in line with the middle of 
this channel, it can be safely done." 
"I think so," George replied, "but it's the wildest shoot 
we ever tackled." 
"I should say so," I answered. "The principal point to 
make is to get fairly between those two big rocks out 
there." 
"That's the pinch of the falls," said George, indicat- 
ing, as he spoke, a narrow place in the channel between 
two great masses of rock, where almost the entire volume 
of water in the channel was compressed to a fourth of 
its width, with a fall of several feet, down which the 
water shot with great power and violence, and below 
which the huge waves plunged and tossed their shaggy 
crests to a height not seen by us before, in our experience 
in the rapids above. 
"We've got to make that narrow shoot, for if we bring 
up against either of those big rocks it will be good-by 
canoe," he continued. 
"Yes, and- good-by canoeist, too, most likely," I re- 
plied. "That's the rock on which poor Mr. Brown, the 
Front Royal minister, was wrecked," I continued, point- 
ing to the left-hand one. looking down the river. "I 
recognize it from the description of its location." 
"Great heavens! No wonder his boat was swamped!" 
exclaimed George. 
"The boat struck that rock and was instantly swamped," 
I replied. "It then drifted down that rough water there 
with Mr. Brown and his son clinging to it, and struck 
again some distance below, probably on those black rocks 
there, in the middle of the channel, just at the foot of 
that line of big waves — by the way, a sharp twist to the 
right will be necessary to avoid them — as I was saying, the 
boat struck again, probably on those rocks, and he and 
his son were both torn loose from their hold on the boat 
and carried down the river. The river was several feet 
higher than it now is, and correspondingly rougher. The 
son managed to get ashore, but the father was drowned." 
"No wonder!" said George; "it would be impossible 
for even the best swimmer to hold up in such water. 
What are those fellows doing over there, I wonder?" 
He pointed to a group, of four or five men and boys 
busily at work at the foot of one of the frowzy islands 
across from us, their long, low punt moored at the foot 
of the falls some distance below. 
"Putting ill a fish trap in one of those small channels 
among those islands." I replied, after inspecting their pro- 
ceedings. "They evidently don't see us." 
"No," was the reply, "and quite as evidently can't hear 
us in all this roar of the water." - ■ _ _ 
We scrambled back up along the rocks until we rejoined 
Lacy, whom we found dozing over his book, and who 
remarked that he had about arrived at the conclusion that 
we had decided to walk to Harper's Ferry, and must be 
half-way there by this time. 
We imparted the results of our observations to him, 
and, seating ourselves in our canoes, addressed ourselves 
to the critical task of running the falls. 
We had a troublesome time of it, picking our way out 
through the reefs to the foot of the island, but it was 
finally accomplished, by slipping around in and out among 
the rocks and through crevices and over falls and ledges, 
occasionally getting out to lift the boats over .some im- 
passable reef, or to swing them by hand around some 
particularly perilous corner, until finally the more open 
water immediately above the junction of the two chan- 
nels lay before us. 
"Now," said George, as we paused under the lee of a 
towering mass of rocks, to reconnoitre, "we must push 
across to that point there below, at the foot of the 
island, and hang up there while we survey the course 
ahead. I am not sure that it wouldn't be safer to slip 
the boats by hand down that shoot between those two 
rocks ; that water's frightfully rough below." 
"We can tell how the water sets when we reach the 
point," I replied. "I don't propose to take any chances, if 
it looks too ri.sky. If we can get squarely in line with the 
shoot, it's all right, even if the water is rough; but if we 
can't get in line, we'll have to contrive to make a portage 
somehow." 
George let go. and at once shot down the swift channel, 
paddling swiftly across as he went. He reached the 
point and backed his canoe up under its lee, where,_ by 
holding on to the overhanging bushes, he held it station- 
ary. I followed, and just as I was within a boat's length 
of him my bow hung on a submerged rock, and I swung 
around across the curreht. In an instant Lacy rari into 
me, and we lay there in confusion and in imminent risk of 
a capsize apiece. Lacy finally got clear, and worked 
back up under the bushes, while George got hold of my 
stern painter, and, aided by my vigorous, prods and 
shoves with my paddle, pulled me clear of the rock. 
"Just hold on a minute," cried I, as my boat swung 
to and fro in the fierce current, "while' I get a good 
look." We lay just at the junction of the two streams — 
my canoe the lowest. The furious current from the open 
riverside of the i.sland, and the scarcely less furious cur- 
rent down which we had just arrived, mingled their 
seething waters and rushed in a deep, smooth, powerful 
stream straight away for the ledge, above which the two 
rocks reared their black, threatening heads, wet and 
dripping from the spray which showered ceaselessly over 
them, while between and below them the stream surged 
and pitched in a great fall, below which a seething mass 
of white breakers and black rocks filled the sloping bed 
of the river for lOOyds.. like a huge boiling toboggan 
slide. Once in the grip of that remorseless tide no 
earthly power coyld prevent a hoat going through 
