ter came in so
furiously in front that it was impossible to see where we were going, or
what was ahead of us; but when the grade was light, and we were going at
a three or four minute pace, the view was very delightful, although it
was terrible. When the water would enable me to look ahead, I could see
the trestle here and there for miles; so small and so narrow and
apparently so fragile that I could only compare it to a chalk-mark upon
which, high in the air, I was running at a rate unknown to railroads.
One circumstance during the trip did more to show me the terrible
rapidity with which we dashed through the flume than anything else. We
had been rushing down at a pretty lively rate of speed when the boat
suddenly struck something in the bow, a nail, a lodged stick of wood or
some secure substance which ought not to have been there. What was the
effect? The red-faced carpenter was sent whirling into the flume ten
feet ahead. Fair was precipitated on his face, and I found a soft
lodgment on Fair's back. It seems to me that in a second's time--Fair
himself a powerful man--had the carpenter by the scruff of the neck, and
had pulled him into the boat. I did not know at this time that Fair had
his fingers crushed between the flume and the boat. But we sped along;
minutes seemed hours. It seemed an hour before we arrived at the worst
place in the flume, and yet Hereford tells me that it was less than ten
minutes. The flume at the point alluded to must have been very nearly
forty-five degrees inclination. In looking out, before we reached it, I
thought the only way to get to the bottom was to fall. How our boat kept
in the track is more than I know.

The wind, the steamboat, the railroad, never went so fast. In this
particularly bad place I allude to, my desire was to form some judgment
as to the speed we were making. If the truth must be spoken, I was
really scared almost out of my reason, but if I were on my way to
eternity I wanted to know exactly how fast I went, so I huddled close to
Fair, and turned my eyes toward the hills. Every object I placed my eyes
upon was gone before I could plainly see what it was. Mountains passed
like visions and shadows. It was with difficulty that I could get my
breath. I felt that I did not weigh a hundred pounds, although I knew in
the sharpness of intellect that I tipped the scales at two hundred. Mr.
Flood and Mr. Hereford, although they started several minutes later than
we, were clos