The character of gorge was maintained only in the height
and parallelism of the shores; it was lost altogether in their other
traits. The walls of the ravine (through which the clear water still
tranquilly flowed) arose to an elevation of a hundred and occasionally
of a hundred and fifty feet, and inclined so much toward each other
as, in a great measure, to shut out the light of day; while the long
plume-like moss which depended densely from the intertwining
shrubberies overhead, gave the whole chasm an air of funereal gloom.
The windings became more frequent and intricate, and seemed often as
if returning in upon themselves, so that the voyager had long lost all
idea of direction. He was, moreover, enwrapt in an exquisite sense
of the strange. The thought of nature still remained, but her
character seemed to have undergone modification, there was a weird
symmetry, a thrilling uniformity, a wizard propriety in these her
works. Not a dead branch- not a withered leaf- not a stray pebble- not
a patch of the brown earth was anywhere visible. The crystal water
welled up against the clean granite, or the unblemished moss, with a
sharpness of outline that delighted while it bewildered the eye.
Having threaded the mazes of this channel for some hours, the
gloom deepening every moment, a sharp and unexpected turn of the
vessel brought it suddenly, as if dropped from heaven, into a circular
basin of very considerable extent when compared with the width of
the gorge.
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