THE VALLEYS OF THE LYN 
12 1 
Beyond, a leafy screen of overhanging trees bounds the 
view, and from either stream bank projecting branches make 
a green and shadowy vista. Away at the end of this lovely 
vista, high up against the screen of branches which impedes 
the further view of the stream’s course, the water appears to 
drop out of the greenwood, falling thence in a shimmering 
cascade, which hisses into white foam as it meets the water 
below. For a few feet only the water flows translucently on, 
and then it rolls swiftly over a long fall into the pool below. 
The next instant the volume of water impinges against a 
grassy, moss-and-Fern-covered islet, and is parted into two 
streams, which momentarily disappear from our sight, and 
then reappear in twin cascades, which on each side of the 
mossy islet roll down on to a level bed of mossy boulders. 
Hissing and roaring into cream-wliite foam amongst these 
stones for a few moments, the current collects once more into 
a rolling stream, but the next instant is again precipitated 
lower still over mossy boulders, which peep above the water- 
level. From this point, for a few yards, the current, foaming 
and troubled, eddies on in a glossy, shining stream, only 
rippling as it flows over its stony bed, until at Watersmeet it 
foams again, and the united waters hiss and roar as in one 
channel they wind away to Lynmouth. 
From Watersmeet we follow the path which, on mid-hill, 
leads away along the bank of Brendon Water. We pass 
under the shelter of overarching trees. Away on the opposite 
side rises gloriously the densely-wooded hill which terminates 
the chain dividing the Brendon Water from the East Lyn. 
On our left, above our path, the hill-side to the hill-top is 
thickly wooded. Down away to our right, in the depths of 
the ravine at the bottom of the sloping bank above which we 
are walking, we hear the roar of the stream foaming onwards 
and downwards towards Watersmeet. In a few moments 
more, as we follow on under the shelter of overhanging trees, 
