Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/387

340 growing on the bank a mile ahead. At the foot of such a decline, we heard the growl of a rapid, and found a division in the river, formed by an island. We kept to the left: we ought to have kept to the right. With a few touches, I got through; but Guiteras was "hung up" in the worst part of the rapid. He tried all ways to get off without leaving the boat; but he had to come to it in the end. And a dangerous time he had for a few minutes. The water was deep, and the powerful current swept the boat against his body, and nearly upset him. He had hard work to hold her back, and get in without capsizing.

Then we came to one of the noblest features of the whole river. On our right, rising sheer as a wall from the water, was a cliff, which must be several hundred feet high. It was formed of layers of rock, each layer perhaps forty or fifty feet deep, and each differing a little in color from the others, so that it looked like a vast storied building. On the narrow ledge at the foot of each layer, trees and shrubs grew, so that the whole face of the cliff was softened with foliage which was so feathery that still the entire wall was visible. In places it was like the outer barrier of a mighty fortress; and in others there was an absolute likeness to artificial masonry.

This majestic cliff ran for perhaps a mile,