k into the brown,
swollen waters of the Clyde.

Owing to a bend in the river, the force of the current was directed
against this particular spot, and had undermined it; and although
strong enough to bear a man or a horse, under ordinary circumstances,
yet down at once it thundered under the desperate leap of Satan.
However, it did not signify, as nothing could have prevented us from
surging into the water at the next bound.

A large quantity of rain had fallen in the upper part of the shire;
and, in consequence, the river was full from bank to brae. I was
nearly a stranger to the place; indeed, so much so, that I had
supposed we were running from the river. This, combined with the
suddenness of the shock, and the appearance of a turbid, rapid
river--sweeping down trees, brushwood, branches, hay, corn, and straw
before it, with resistless force--was so foreign to my idea of the
calm, peaceful Clyde, that when I rose to the surface, I was quite
bewildered, and had very serious doubts as to my own identity.

I was roused from this state of bewilderment by the snorting and
splashing of the horse: he was making a bold attempt to scale the
perpendicular bank. Had I been thrown into the body of the stream, I
should have been swept away, and the animal must have perished; but in
all heavy rapid runs of water, salt or fresh, there is what is termed
an eddy stream, running close inshore, in a contrary direction to the
main body of the water. I have seen Highlanders in their boats
catching fish in the eddy stream of the Gulf of Corrievrekin, within a
short distance of the main tide, which, had it but got the slightest
hold on their boat, would have swept them with fearful velocity into
the jaws of the roaring gulf. I was caught by this eddy, which kept me
stationary, and enabled me, by a few strokes, to reach the horse's
side. To cross the river, or to land here, was alike impossible; so I
took the reins in my right hand, wheeled the horse from the bank, and
dashed at once with him into the strength of the current. Away we
went, Satan and I, in capital spirits both; not a doubt of our
effecting a safe landing ever crossing my mind. And the horse evinced
his certainty upon that subject, by snatching a bite out of a heap of
hay that floated at his side, and eating it as composedly as if he had
been in the stable.

We soon swept round the high bank that had caused our misfortune, and
came to a level part of the country, which wa