the water nearly black in
color; and it had the appearance, as it broke and separated at the
outer part of the fall, of a shower of fragments of flat slate. The
reason of this appearance I could not comprehend, unless the water
was so mixed with mud that it drew out flat and unctuously when it
broke; but so it was: instead of spray it looked like a shower of
dirty flat bits of slate--only with a lustre, as if they had been
wet first. This, however, was the least of it, for the torrent
carried with it nearly as much weight of stone as water; the stones
varying in size, the average being, I suppose, about that of a hen's
egg; but I do not suppose that at any instant the arch of water was
without four or five as large as a man's fist, and often came larger
ones,--all vomited forth with the explosive power of a small
volcano, and falling in a continual shower as thick, constant, and,
had it not been mixed with the crash of the fall, as loud as a heavy
fire of infantry; they bounded and leaped in the basin of the fall
like hailstones in a thunder-shower. As we watched the fall it
seemed convulsively to diminish, and suddenly showed, as it
shortened, the rock underneath it, which I could hardly see
yesterday: as I cried out to Joseph it rose again, higher than ever,
and continued to rise, till it all but reached the snow on the rock
opposite. It then became very fantastic and variable, increasing and
diminishing in the space of two or three seconds, and partially
changing its direction. After watching it for half an hour or so, I
determined to try and make some memoranda. Coutet brought me up a
jug of water: I stooped to dip my brush, when Coutet caught my arm,
saying, 'Tenez;' at the same instant I heard a blow, like the going
off of a heavy gun, two or three miles away; I looked up, and as I
did, the cascade sank before my eyes, and fell back to the rock.
Neither of us spoke for an instant or two; then Coutet said, 'C'est
une pierre, qui est logee dans le creux,' or words to that effect:
in fact, he had seen the stone come down as he called to me. I
thought also that nothing more had happened, and watched the
destroyed fall only with interest, until, as suddenly as it had
fallen, it rose again, though not to its former height; and Coutet,
stooping down, exclaimed, 'Ce n'est pas ca, le ro