62 
DIFFICULT PASSAGE. 
and when a team is seen approaching, stop in 
some place where the road is widened to allow 
them to pass us. 
Once, before the road was as perfect as now, a 
lady and I were driving up here, and just as we 
were approaching a sharp curve around a lofty 
point of rocks, a four-horse stage-coach, loaded 
with passengers, came dashing into view ! The 
horses attached to the two vehicles were stopped 
while they were still a few feet apart, but for either 
party to turn out was impossible, for the roaring 
stream was not two feet from one side of our 
wheels, and piles of rocks were on the other side. 
Some gentlemen dismounted from the coach ; we 
got out of the carriage, and they, backing it to 
where the rocks would permit, lifted it up on to 
them, and held it there until the stage could 
pass. 
I believe all those curves are provided with 
passing places at present; still it isn’t advisable 
for drivers to go to sleep on the road even now ! 
Here is where the upper ditch we saw leaves 
the stream. We have hardly seemed to be com- 
ing up hill, yet in less than two miles we have 
risen more than two hundred feet. The rise in 
the heights about us has not been so impercep- 
tible. How they shut in around us ! How they 
tower up, and up, and up ! The pines on their 
summits seem only shrubs. Surely one’s hand 
