Page 328 - The snake's pass

316 THE snake's pass.
I knew this would interest Dick exceedingly, so I went
for him. When he heard it he got quite excited, and
insisted that we should go off to Knocknacar at once.
Accordingly Andy was summoned, the mare was har-
nessed, and with what protection we could get in the way
of wraps, we went off to Knocknacar through the rain
storm.
As we went along we got some idea of the damage
done—and being done— by the wonderful rainfall. Not
only the road was like a river, and the mountain streams
were roaring torrents, but in places the road was flooded
to such a dangerous depth that we dared not have
attempted the passage only that, through our repeated
journeys, we all knew the road so well.
However, we got at last to Knocknacar, and there
found that the statement we heard was quite true. The
bog had been flooded to such a degree that it had burst
out through the cutting which we had made, and had
poured in a great stream over all the sloping moorland on
The brown bog and black mud
which we had opened it.
lying all over the stony space looked like one of the lava
streams which mark the northern side of Vesuvius. Dick
went most carefully all over the ground wherever we
could venture, and took a number of notes. Indeed,
the day was beginning to draw in, when, dripping and
chilled, we prepared for our return journey through the
rain. Andy had not been wasting his time in the shee-
been, and was in one of his most jocular humours ; and
when we too were fortified with steaming hot punch we*