122 
THE FERN WORLD 
the bank on our right falls almost sheer to the river below, 
trees growing out from its steep, grassy, mossy, and Fern- 
covered bank. On the opposite bank of the river the hill-side 
is bared in one place of its trees by a huge rock, from the 
crannies of which grow many a Fern and shrub. The top of 
the rock is crowned by trees, above which rise the densely 
wood-covered sides of the hill. 
As we pursue our path, and a bend in the course of the 
stream below us hides its further course from view, we appear 
for a moment surrounded by a great amphitheatre of wooded 
hills, densely clothed with their dress of glorious trees, except 
where, on our left, a rocky place in the hill-side is bared of 
all vegetation, and the surface of the rock — split and shivered 
into thousands of fragments — contrasts picturesquely with 
the dark green mantle of the hill-sides around, and with the 
white foam of the river on our right, where the rushing 
water roars along in its bed of huge boulders. From this 
point our path for a moment descends, until it runs almost 
parallel with the river level ; and here, for some forty or fifty 
yards, the stream flows calmly along what is, for that distance, 
its nearly level bed. 
On still, winding ever, our path again ascends the hill- 
side, and just where it rises, the stream on the right — its 
level course once more roughly broken — becomes completely 
overhung by trees, and it is only by peering in and down 
between the branches that we can see the white foam of 
the roaring water. Looking across the narrow glen at this 
spot, the scene appears supremely beautiful, as our eyes are 
carried upwards from the boulder-bed of the roaring, 
foaming stream, to the glorious wood-crowned hill which 
rises against the sky. As we follow on our way, the path 
slightly descends, and the scene changes enchantingly. 
Fronting us the trees rise up as on the side of an amphi- 
theatre, and over them golden fleecy clouds float in the sky. 
