JOURNEY TO BORGAFIORD. 
211 
some degree, to keep out the wind and cold. 
Scarcely, however, had we composed ourselves 
upon our homely bed, when a most violent 
blast tore up the pegs, and exposed us to the ut¬ 
most fury of the elements. In vain did we again 
attempt to fasten them: the force of the wind 
immediately drove them out, and the intense 
cold, and the noise like thunder of the flapping 
of the canvass prevented our enjoying a moment’s 
Sunday, rest. Very early in the morning, there- 
JuIy 30 * fore, of the following day, I hastened to 
the river, designing to pursue its course, with a 
view of entering at the deep chasm, and proceed¬ 
ing along it to the perpendicular column of rock, 
which I had previously remarked on my return 
from the Geysers. The stream, for some way, 
ran through a tolerably level country, but, in pro¬ 
portion as I advanced, its banks became more 
precipitous and rocky, and continued to increase 
in height and grandeur, so that, not unfrequently, 
nothing more was to be seen than the steep and 
craggy cliffs which arose to a great height on 
each side of me, and the impetuous torrent that 
ran foaming between them, scarcely leaving a 
narrow ledge that might afford room for my 
feet, and repeatedly tumbling in its passage over 
shelves of rock, thus forming cataracts, which 
varied in height from two to three and even 
ten feet. Occasionally, however, a cleft in the 
