CHAPTER NINE
PERILOUS PASSAGE OF THE RAVINE—DESCENT INTO THE VALLEY
The fearless confidence of Toby was contagious, and I began to adopt the Happar side of the question. I could not, however, overcome a certain feeling of trepidation as we made our way along these gloomy solitudes. Our progress, at first comparatively easy, became more and more difficult. The bed of the watercourse was covered with fragments of broken rocks, which had fallen from above, offering so many obstructions to the course of the rapid stream, which vexed and fretted about them,—forming at intervals small waterfalls, pouring over into deep basins, or splashing wildly upon heaps of stones.
From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its sides, there was no mode of advancing but by wading through the wat
