Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Gingham's lecture was here interrupted by our reaching a river. The
bridge having been destroyed by the enemy, we could cross only by
fording; and just as we reached the ford, we saw some persons passing
on mules and horses. Half way over appeared a small island, which was
in fact only a bank of shingle, thrown up by some previous flood. We
perceived, by those who preceded us, that the depth was sufficient to
wet our boots, if we rode, as they did; and therefore it was resolved
to pass in the cart. The river, though not at the moment swollen,
was dark and rapid. It rushed sullenly on, with small whirlpools,
but without a ripple; and murmurs were heard at intervals, hoarse
and deep, which came not from its surface, but boomed up from the
gloomiest and most profound recesses of its vexed channel and hollow
banks. By the side, waiting for a passage, we found some slightly
wounded soldiers, a party of four. These Gingham mounted at once into
the cart; and I, calculating that with Joaquim the driver, Mr Wowski,
and Gingham himself, there were now quite passengers enough by that
conveyance, turned Sancho's head, and followed Coosey--who led the
way across the stream, mounted on one horse, and leading another,
while the cart brought up the rear. The cart, it appears, on reaching
the island, stuck fast. Its wheels cut into the loose gravel; and
there was no remedy, except for the passengers to alight. The wheels
were then lifted by main force; and, time having been given for
the whole party to remount, Joaquim drove on, and the remainder
of the passage was effected. All those who had started from the
opposite bank then got out, with one exception. Where was Gingham? My
attention was first attracted by an angry shout from Coosey:
"You Joe King, you precious willain, vhy, if you han't a-been and
left your master a-standin on the highland!"
To a geologist like Gingham, the loose stones of the bank of
gravel, shoved up by the force of the water from the depths of the
stream, presented an attraction which banished every other thought
from his mind. He had commenced picking up specimens the moment he
alighted from the cart; and was so intent upon this pursuit, that he
suffered the party to proceed without him. How they came to leave
him behind can only be explained by supposing that each, as soon as
he remounted, was occupied by the portion of the passage--it was
ticklish work--that remained to be effected, and therefore began
looking out ahead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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