Page 357 - The snake's pass

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THE FULFILMENT. 345
We toon our way first down the hill, and then west-
ward to the Shleenanaher, for we intended, under Dick's
advice, to follow, if possible, up to its source the ravine
made by the bog. When we got to the entrance of the
Pass we were struck with the vast height to which the
bog had risen when its mass first struck the portals. A
hundred feet overhead there was the great brown mark,
and on the sides of the Pass the same mark was visible,
declining quickly as it got seaward and the Pass widened,
showing the track of its passage to the sea.
We climbed the rocks and looked over. Norah clung
close to me, and my arm went round her and held her
tight as we peered over and saw where the great waves of
the Atlantic struck the rocks three hundred feet below us,
and were for a quarter of a mile away still tinged with
the brown slime of the bog.
We then crossed over the ravine, for the rocky bottom
was here laid bare, and so we had no reason to fear water-
holes or pitfalls. A small stream still ran down the
ravine and, shallowing out over the shelf of rock, spread
all across the bottom of the Pass, and fell into the sea
something like a miniature of the Staubach Pall, as the
water whitened in the falling.
We then passed up on the west side of the ravine, and
saw that the stream which ran down the centre was
perpetual—a live stream, and not merely the drainage of
the ground where the bog had saturated the earth. As
we passed up the hill we saw where the side of the
slope had been torn bodily away, and the great chasm