Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867; Physicists -- Great Britain -- Biography
"_Monday, 19th._--Proceeding onward into Brecknockshire, we suddenly
heard the roar of water where we least expected it, and came on the
edge of a deep and woody dell. Entering among the trees, we scrambled
onwards after our guide, tumbling and slipping, and jumping, and
swinging down the steep sides of the dingle, sometimes in the path of
a running torrent, sometimes in the projecting fragments of slate, and
sometimes where no path or way at all was visible. The thorns opposed
our passage, the boughs dashed the drops in our faces, and stones
frequently slipped from beneath our feet into the chasm below, in
places where the view fell uninterrupted by the perpendicular sides of
the precipices. By the time we had reached the bottom of the dingle,
our boots were completely soaked, and so slippery that no reliance
could be placed on steps taken in them. We managed, however, very
well, and were amply rewarded by the beauty of the fall which now came
in view. Before us was a chasm enclosed by high perpendicular and
water-worn rocks of slate, from the sides of which sprang a luxuriant
vegetation of trees, bushes, and plants. In its bosom was a basin of
water, into which fell from above a stream divided into minute drops
from the resistance of its deep fall. Here and there lay trunks of
trees which had been brought down by the torrent--striking marks of
its power--and the rugged bed of shingles and rocky masses further
heightened the idea other objects were calculated to give of the force
it possessed when swelled by rains. We stepped across the river on
a few tottering and slippery stones placed in its bed, and passing
beneath the overhanging masses ran round on projecting points, until
between the sheet of water and the rock over which it descended; and
there we remained some time admiring the scene. Before us was the path
of the torrent, after the fine leap which it made in this place; but
the abundance of wood hid it ere it had proceeded many yards from the
place where it fell. No path was discernible from hence, and we seemed
to be enclosed on a spot from whence there was no exit, and where no
cry for help could be heard because of the torrent-roar."
Yet another passage should be quoted from this journal; a passage
descriptive of an ascent of Cader Idris during a thunder-storm. A
thunder-storm was, all his life long, one of the most moving things to
Faraday. It seemed always to quicken him into new life.
[Illustration: CADER IDRIS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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