MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) - FREDERICK MARRYAT (books to read this summer txt) 📗

Noon We

Struck Upon A Large Trail, Running Directly West; This We Followed, And

On Reaching The Main Chasm, Found That It Led to The Only Place Where

There Was Any Chance Of Crossing. Here, Too, We Found That Innumerable

Trails Joined, Coming From Every Direction--Proof Conclusive That We

Must Cross Here Or Travel Many Weary Miles Out Of Our Way.

 

 

 

Dismounting From Our Animals, We Looked at The Yawning abyss Before Us,

And Our First Impression Was, That The Passage Was Impracticable. That

Buffaloes, Mustangs, And, Very Probably, Indian Horses, Had Crossed

Here, Was Evident Enough, For A Zigzag Path Had Been Worn Down The Rocky

And Precipitous Sides; But Our Three Horses Were Unused to Sliding Down

Or Climbing Precipices, And They Drew Back On Being Led to The Brink Of

The Chasm.

 

 

 

After Many Unsuccessful Attempts, I At Last Persuaded my Steed to Take

The Path; The Others Followed. In some Places They Went Along The Very

Verge Of Rocky Edges, Where A False Step Would Have Precipitated them

Hundreds Of Feet Down, To Instant Death; In others, They Were Compelled

To Slide Down Passes Nearly Perpendicular. Gabriel'S Horse Was Much

Bruised, But After An Hour'S Severe Toil, We Gained the Bottom, Without

Sustaining any Serious Injury.

 

 

 

Here We Remained a Couple Of Hours, To Rest Our Weary Animals And Find

The Trail Leading Up The Opposite Side. This We Discovered, And, After

Great Exertions, Succeeded in clambering Up To The Top, Where We Again

Found Ourselves Upon A Smooth And Level Prairie. On Looking Backs I

Shuddered to Behold The Frightful Chasm We Had So Successfully Passed,

And Thought It A Miracle That We Had Got Safely Across; But A Very Short

Time Afterwards, I Was Convinced that The Feat We Had Just Accomplished

Was A Mere Nothing.

 

 

 

After Giving Our Animals Another Rest, We Resumed our Journey Across The

Dreary Prairie. Not A Tree Or Bush Could Be Seen In any Direction. A

Green Carpeting Of Short Grass Was Spread Over The Vast Scene, With

Naught Else To Relieve The Sight.

 

 

 

People May Talk Of The Solitude Of Forests As Much As They Please, But

There Is A Company In trees Which One Misses Upon The Prairie. It Is In

The Prairie, With Its Ocean-Like Waving Of Grass, Like A Vast Sea

Without Landmarks, That The Traveller Feels A Sickly Sensation Of

Loneliness. There He Feels As If Not In the World, Although Not Out Of

It; There He Finds No Sign Or Trace To Tell Him That There Are, Beyond

Or Behind Him, Countries Where Millions Of His Own Kindred are Living

And Moving. It Is In the Prairie That Man Really Feels That He

Is--Alone.

 

 

 

We Rode Briskly Along Till Sun-Down, And Encamped by The Side Of A Small

Water-Hole, Formed by A Hollow In the Prairie. The Mustangs, As Well As

The Deer And Antelopes, Had Left This Part Of The Prairie, Driven Out,

Doubtless, By The Scarcity Of Water. Had It Not Been For Occasional

Showers, While Travelling Through This Dreary Waste, We Should Most

Inevitably Have Perished, For Even The Immense Chasms Had No Water In

Them, Except That Temporarily Supplied by The Rains.

Chapter XXII

The Morning Broke Bright And Cloudless, The Sun Rising From The Horizon

In All His Majesty. Having Saddled our Horses, We Pursued our Journey In

A North-East Direction; But We Had Scarcely Proceeded six Miles Before

We Suddenly Came Upon An Immense Rent Or Chasm In the Earth, Far

Exceeding In depth The One We Had So Much Difficulty In crossing The Day

Before. We Were Not Aware Of Its Existence Until We Were Immediately

Upon Its Brink, When A Spectacle Exceeding In grandeur Anything We Had

Previously Witnessed burst Upon Our Sight Not A Tree Or Bush, No Outline

Whatever, Marked its Position Or Course, And We Were Lost In amazement

And Wonder As We Rode Up And Peered into The Yawning abyss.

 

 

 

In Depth It Could Not Have Been Less Than One Thousand Feet, In width

From Three To Five Hundred yards, And At The Point Where We First Struck

It, Its Sides Were Nearly Perpendicular. A Sickly Sensation Of Dizziness

Was Felt By All Three Of Us, As We Looked down, As It Were, Into The

Very Bowels Of The Earth. Below, An Occasional Spot Of Green Relieved

The Eye, And A Stream Of Water, Now Visible, Now Concealed behind Some

Huge Rock, Was Bubbling and Foaming along. Immense Walls, Columns, And,

In Some Places, What Appeared to Be Arches, Filled the Ravine, Worn By

The Water Undoubtedly, But So Perfect In form, That We Could With

Difficulty Be Brought To Believe That The Hand Of Men Or Genii Had Not

Been Employed in raising Them. The Rains Of Centuries, Failing Upon The

Extended prairie, Had Here Found A Reservoir And Vent, And Their Sapping

And Undermining Of The Different Veins Of Earth And Stone Had Formed

These Strange And Fanciful Shapes.

 

 

 

Before Reaching The Chasm, We Had Crossed numerous Large Trails Leading

A Little More To The Westward Than We Had Been Travelling, And We Were

At Once Convinced that They All Centred in a Common Crossing Close At

Hand. In this Conjecture We Were Not Disappointed; Half-An-Hour'S

Trotting Brought Us Into A Large Road, The Thoroughfare For Years Of

Millions Of Indians, Buffaloes, And Mustangs. Perilous As The Descent

Appeared, We Well Knew There Was No Other Near. My Horse Was Again

Started ahead While The Two Others Followed. Once In the Narrow Path,

Which Led circuitously Down The Deep Descent, There Was No Possibility

Of Turning Back, And Our Maddened animals Finally Reached the Bottom

In Safety.

 

 

 

Several Large Stones Were Loosened from Under Our Feet During This

Frightful Descent. They Would Leap, Dash, And Thunder Down The

Precipitous Sides, And Strike Against The Bottom Far Below Us With A

Terrific Crash.

 

 

 

We Found A Running Stream At The Bottom, And On The Opposite Side Of It

A Romantic Dell Covered with Short Grass And A Few Scattered cotton-Wood

Trees. A Large Body Of Indians Had Encamped on This Very Spot But A Few

Days Previous; The _Blazed_ Limbs Of The Trees And Other "Signs" Showing

That They Had Made It A Resting-Place. We, Too, Halted a Couple Of Hours

To Give Our Horses An Opportunity To Graze And Rest Themselves, The

Trail Which Led up To The Prairie On The Opposite Side Was Discovered a

Short Distance Above Us To The South.

 

 

 

As We Journeyed along This Chasm, We Were Struck With Admiration At The

Strange And Fanciful Figures Made By The Washing Of The Waters During

The Rainy Season. In some Places, Perfect Walls, Formed of A Reddish

Clay, Were To Be Seen Standing; In any Other Locality It Would Have Been

Impossible To Believe But That They Had Been Raised by The Hand Of Man.

The Strata Of Which These Walls Were Composed was Regular In width,

Hard, And Running Perpendicularly; And Where The Softer Sand Which Had

Surrounded them Had Been Washed away, The Strata Still Remained,

Standing In some Places One Hundred feet High, And Three Or Four Hundred

In Length.

 

 

 

Here And There Were Columns, And Such Was Their Architectural

Regularity, And So Much Of Chaste Grandeur Was There About Them, That We

Were Lost In admiration And Wonder. In other Places The Breastworks Of

Forts Would Be Plainly Visible, Then Again The Frowning Turrets Of Some

Castle Of The Olden Time. Cumbrous Pillars, Apparently Ruins Of Some

Mighty Pile, Formerly Raised to Religion Or Royalty, Were Scattered

About; Regularity And Perfect Design Were Strangely Mixed up With Ruin

And Disorder, And Nature Had Done It All. Niagara Has Been Considered

One Of Her Wildest Freaks; But Niagara Falls Into Insignificance When

Compared with The Wild Grandeur Of This Awful Chasm. Imagination Carried

Me Back To Thebes, To Palmyra, And The Edomite Paetra, And I Could Not

Help Imagining That I Was Wandering among Their Ruins.

 

 

 

Our Passage Out Of This Chasm Was Effected with The Greatest Difficulty.

We Were Obliged to Carry Our Rifles And Saddle-Bags In our Hands, And,

In Clambering Up A Steep Precipice, Roche'S Horse, Striking His Shoulder

Against A Projecting Rock, Was Precipitated some Fifteen Or Twenty Feet,

Falling Upon His Back. We Thought He Must Be Killed by The Fall; But,

Singular Enough, He Rose Immediately, Shook Himself, And A Second Effort

In Climbing Proved more Successful. The Animal Had Not Received the

Slightest Apparent Injury.

 

 

 

Before Evening We Were Safely Over, Having Spent Five Or Six Hours In

Passing This Chasm. Once More We Found Ourselves Upon The Level Of The

Prairie, And After Proceeding Some Hundred yards, On Looking Back, Not A

Sign Of The Immense Fissure Was Visible. The Waste We Were Then

Travelling Over Was At Least Two Hundred and Fifty Miles In width, And

The Two Chasms I Have Mentioned were The Reservoirs, And At The Same

Time The Channels Of Escape For The Heavy Rains Which Fall Upon It

During The Wet Season.

 

 

 

This Prairie Is Undoubtedly One Of The Largest In the World, And The

Chasm Is In perfect Keeping With The Size Of The Prairie. At Sundown We

Came Upon A Water-Hole, And Encamped for The Night By This Time We Were

Entirely Out Of Provisions, And Our Sufferings Commenced.

 

 

 

The Next Day We Resumed our Journey, Now Severely Feeling The Cravings

Of Hunger. During Our Journey We Saw Small Herds Of Deer And Antelopes,

Doubtless Enticed to The Water Courses By The Recent Rains, And Towards

Night We Descried a Drove Of Mustangs Upon A Swell Of The Prairie Half A

Mile Ahead Of Us. They Were All Extremely Shy, And Although We

Discharged our Rifles At Them, Not A Shot Was Successful. In the Evening

We Encamped near A Water-Hole, Overspreading an Area Of Some Twenty

Acres, But Very Shallow. Large Flocks Of Spanish Curlews, One Of The

Best-Flavoured birds That Fly, Were Hovering about, And Lighting On It

On All Sides. Had I Been In possession Of A Double-Barrelled gun, With

Small Shot, We Could Have Had At Least One Good Meal; But As I Had But A

Heavy Rifle And My Bow And Arrows, We Were Obliged to Go To Sleep

Supperless.

 

 

 

About Two O'Clock The Next Morning We Saddled and Resumed our Travel,

Journeying By The Stars, Still In a North-East Direction. On Leaving The

Wakoes, We Thought That We Could Be Not More Than One Hundred miles From

The Comanche Encampment. We Had Now Ridden Much More Than That Distance,

And Were Still On The Immense Prairie. To Relieve Ourselves From The

Horrible Suspense We Were In--To Push Forward, With The Hope Of

Procuring Some Provisions--To Get Somewhere, In short, Was Now Our

Object, And We Pressed onward, With The Hope Of Finding Relief.

 

 

 

Our Horses Had, As Yet, Suffered less Than Ourselves, For The Grazing In

The Prairie Had Been Good; But Our Now Hurried march, And The Difficult

Crossing Of The Immense Chasms, Began To Tell Upon Them. At Sunrise We

Halted near A Small Pond Of Water, To Rest The Animals And Allow Them An

Hour To Feed.

 

 

 

While Stretched upon The Ground, We Perceived a Large Antelope Slowly

Approaching--Now Stopping, Now Walking a Few Steps Nearer, Evidently

Inquisitive As To Who, Or Rather What, We Might Be. His Curiosity Cost

Him His Life: With A Well-Directed shot, Gabriel Brought Him Down, And

None But A Starved man Could Appreciate Our Delight. We Cooked the Best

Part Of The Animal, Made A Plentiful Dinner, And Resumed our Journey.

 

 

 

For Three Days More, The Same Dreary Spectacle Of A Boundless Prairie

Was Still Before Us. Not A Sign Was Visible That We Were Bearing Its

Edge. We Journeyed rapidly On Till Near The Middle Of The Afternoon Of

The Third Day, When We Noticed a Dark Spot A Mile And A Half Ahead Of

Us. At First We Thought It To Be A Low Bush, But As We Gradually Neared

It, It Had More The Appearance Of A Rock, Although Nothing Of The Kind

Had Been Seen From The Time We First Came On The Prairie, With The

Exception Of Those At The Chasms.

 

 

 

"A Buffalo" Cried roche, Whose Keen Eye At Last