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be seen for a greater distance than a furlong. At every instant the vessel seemed imprisoned within an
enchanted circle, having insuperable and impenetrable walls of foliage, a roof of ultramarine satin, and no
floor--the keel balancing itself with admirable nicety on that of a phantom bark which, by some accident
having been turned upside down, floated in constant company with the substantial one, for the purpose of
sustaining it. The channel now became a gorge--although the term is somewhat inapplicable, and I employ it
merely because the language has no word which better represents the most striking-- not the most
distinctive--feature of the scene. The character of gorge was maintained only in the height and parallelism of
the shores; it was lost altogether in their other traits. The walls of the ravine (through which the clear water
still tranquilly flowed) arose to an elevation of a hundred and occasionally of a hundred and fifty feet, and
inclined so much towards each other as, in a great measure, to shut out the light of day; while the long
plume-like moss which depended densely from the intertwining shrubberies overhead, gave the whole chasm
an air of funereal gloom. The windings became more frequent and intricate, and seemed often as if returning
in upon themselves, so that the voyager had long lost all idea of direction. He was, moreover, enwrapt in an
exquisite sense of the strange. The thought of nature still remained, but her character seemed to have
undergone modification: there was a weird symmetry, a thrilling uniformity, a wizard propriety in these her
works. Not a dead branch, not a withered leaf, not a stray pebble, not a patch of the brown earth, was
anywhere visible. The crystal water welled up against the clean granite, or the unblemished moss, with a
sharpness of outline that delighted while it bewildered the eye.
Having threaded the mazes of this channel for some hours, the gloom deepening every moment, a sharp and
unexpected turn of the vessel brought it suddenly, as if dropped from heaven, into a circular basin of very
considerable extent when compared with the width of the gorge. It was about two hundred yards in diameter,
and girt in at all points but one--that immediately fronting the vessel as it entered--by hills equal in general
height to the walls of the chasm, although of a thoroughly different character. Their sides sloped from the
water's edge at an angle of some forty-five degrees, and they were clothed from base to summit-- not a
perceptible point escaping--in a drapery of the most gorgeous flower-blossoms; scarcely a green leaf being
visible among the sea of odorous and fluctuating colour. This basin was of great depth, but so transparent was
the water that the bottom, which seemed to consist of a thick mass of small round alabaster pebbles, was
distinctly visible by glimpses--that is to say, whenever the eye could permit itself not to see, far down in the
inverted heaven, the duplicate blooming of the hills. On these latter there were no trees, nor even shrubs of
any size. The impressions wrought on the observer were those of richness, warmth, colour, quietude,
uniformity, softness, delicacy, daintiness, voluptuousness, and a miraculous extremeness of culture that
suggested dreams of a new race of fairies, laborious, tasteful, magnificent, and fastidious; but as the eye
traced upward the myriad-tinted slope, from its sharp junction with the water to its vague termination amid
the folds of overhanging cloud, it became, indeed, difficult not to fancy a panoramic cataract of rubies,
sapphires, opals, and golden onyxes, rolling silently out of the sky.
The visitor, shooting suddenly into this bay from out the gloom of the ravine, is delighted but astounded by
the full orb of the declining sun, which he had supposed to be already far below the horizon, but which now
confronts him, and forms the sole termination of an otherwise limitless vista seen through another chasm-like
rift in the hills.
But here the voyager quits the vessel which has borne him so far, and descends into a light canoe of ivory,
stained with arabesque devices in vivid scarlet, both within and without. The poop and beak of this boat arise
high above the water, with sharp points, so that the general form is that of an irregular crescent. It lies on the
surface of the bay with the proud grace of a swan. On its ermined floor reposes a single feathery paddle of
satin-wood; but no oarsman or attendant is to be seen. The guest is bidden to be of good cheer--that the
fates will take care of him. The larger vessel disappears, and he is left alone in the canoe, which lies
The Black Cat and Other Stories 43
The Black Cat and Other Stories
apparently motionless in the middle of the lake. While he considers what course to pursue, however, he
becomes aware of a gentle movement in the fairy bark. It slowly swings itself around until its prow points
toward the sun. It advances with a gentle but gradually accelerated velocity, while the slight ripples it creates
seem to break about the ivory sides in divinest melody--seem to offer the only possible explanation of the
soothing yet melancholy music for whose unseen origin the bewildered voyager looks around him in vain.
The canoe steadily proceeds, and the rocky gate of the vista is approached, so that its depths can be more
distinctly seen. To the right arise a chain of lofty hills rudely and luxuriantly wooded. It is observed,
however, that the trait of exquisite cleanness where the bank dips into the water, still prevails. There is not
one token of the usual river debris. To the left the character of the scene is softer and more obviously
artificial. Here the bank slopes upward from the stream in a very gentle ascent, forming a broad sward of
grass of a texture resembling nothing so much as velvet, and of a brilliancy of green which would bear
comparison with the tint of the purest emerald. This plateau varies in width from ten to three hundred yards;
reaching from the river bank to a wall, fifty feet high, which extends, in an infinity of curves, but following
the general direction of the river, until lost in the distance to the westward. This wall is of one continuous
rock, and has been formed by cutting perpendicularly the once rugged precipice of the stream's southern
bank; but no trace of the labour has been suffered to remain. The chiselled stone has the hue of ages and is
profusely overhung and overspread with the ivy, the coral honeysuckle, the eglantine, and the clematis. The
uniformity of the top and bottom lines of the wall is fully relieved by occasional trees of gigantic height,
growing singly or in small groups, both along the plateau and in the domain behind the wall, but in close
proximity to it; so that frequent limbs (of the black walnut especially) reach over and dip their pendent
extremities into the water. Farther back within the domain, the vision is impeded by an impenetrable screen
of foliage.
These things are observed during the canoe's gradual approach to what I have called the gate of the vista. On
drawing nearer to this, however, its chasm-like appearance vanishes; a new outlet from the bay is discovered
to the left--in which direction the wall is also seen to sweep, still following the general course of the stream.
Down this new opening the eye cannot penetrate very far; for the stream, accompanied by the wall, still bends
to the left, until both are swallowed up by the leaves.
The boat, nevertheless, glides magically into the winding channel; and here the shore opposite the wall is
found to resemble that opposite the wall in the straight vista. Lofty hills, rising occasionally into mountains,
and covered with vegetation in wild luxuriance, still shut in the scene.
Floating gently onward, but with a velocity slight augmented, the voyager, after many short turns, finds his
progress apparently barred by a gigantic gate or rather door of burnished gold, elaborately carved and fretted,
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