Part 15
At Goodrich the river commences one of its most remarkable bends. From Goodrich Ferry to Huntsholme Ferry is little more than a mile overland, but by the river it is eight miles. The Wye sweeps round in an easterly direction after Kern Bridge is passed, then turns abruptly and flows for a mile in an opposite course, enclosing in the loop thus formed the house and grounds of Courtfield, where, in a more ancient mansion, “Wild Prince Hal” is reported to have passed the days of early childhood, under the care of the Countess of Salisbury. The pretty village of Welsh Bicknor is also passed, and then we presently come in view of the lofty Coldwell Rocks, where the river, which for a time has pursued a southerly direction, now doubles back almost upon its former course, and makes the most remarkable curve in the whole of its windings from Plinlimmon to the sea. It is far-famed Symonds’ Yat, a limestone plateau some 600 feet above the river, which here describes a huge elongated loop, so that after a course of between four and five miles it returns again to within less than half a mile of its former channel.
More extensive prospects may, doubtless, be obtained from other view points, but for a grand combination of rocks and woodlands, this spot may well take the palm. After leaving the Yat, the Wye bends round the stone hills on its right bank. On both are remarkable encampments, whilst fossil remains of hyena, elephant, stag, and other animals have been found in a cave known as King Arthur’s Cave, on the former hill.
Very lovely is the course of the river as it flows onward through steep and densely wooded slopes and presently brings us in view of a detached cluster of rocks called the “Seven Sisters.” This part of the Wye is reported to have a greater depth than any other length in its course. At the end of the reach is the beautiful level height called King Arthur’s Plain, which in the distance assumes the appearance of towers belonging to an ancient castle. The high road turns away from the river at the apex of Symonds’ Yat, but a foot-path follows the banks on either side as far as Monmouth. Shortly before reaching that town the wilder and more romantic part of the Wye ends and the river pursues a straighter and less ruffled course.
The situation of the town of Monmouth is remarkably picturesque. Beautiful hills surround it on all sides, but the valley has expanded to allow the Monnow and the Trothy to form a junction with the Wye. A curious old bridge spans the Monnow, bearing on its first pier an ancient gatehouse, one of the few survivors of a defensive work once common in England, which, though somewhat altered by being pierced with postern arches for foot-passengers, still retains the place for its portcullis and much of its ancient aspect. Formerly the town was surrounded by a wall and moat, and was entered by four gates, of which the Monnow Gate alone remains.
A short distance below Monmouth the Wye again enters a narrow glen, hardly less beautiful if less romantic, than the gorge which it has traversed on its course from Ross to Monmouth. The hills once more close in upon the river, leaving but seldom even a strip of level meadow between its margin and their slopes. The steeply wooded banks are so wild and so continuous that at times we seem to be passing through an undisturbed remnant of primeval forest. At Red Brook, however, there are signs of human activity. A pretty glen here descends from among the hills to the left bank of the Wye. By the riverside are little quays with barges alongside, and, alas, it must also be added, tall chimneys pouring forth smoke to mar the beauty of a lovely spot.
At Bigswier the river is spanned by an iron bridge, thrown lightly from bank to bank, and is of sufficiently pleasing design to harmonize with the surroundings. From this point the Wye is affected by the tide, but not to any appreciable extent, until a few miles below, in the neighbourhood of Tintern. On a hill overlooking Bigswier stand the church and castle of St. Briavels. The castle was erected soon after the Norman conquest as one of the border defenses; it stands on the edge of the ancient Forest of Dean, and saw much rough work in its early days. The old keep is in ruins, but the other portions are used as a residence.
The next village encountered, on our way down the stream, is Llandago, which nestles among gardens and orchards, and rises tier above tier on the thickly wooded hill which rises steeply from the road beside the river. Near by is Offa’s Chair--a point in the great earthwork known as Offa’s Dyke, which once extended from Tidenham, across Herefordshire and Radnorshire, to the Flintshire hills beyond Mold, and perhaps to the coast of North Wales. As the valley again slightly expands, shelving bands of sward, dotted with houses, announce that we are approaching the precincts of the far-famed Tintern Abbey. First we must pass the long and scattered village of Tintern Parva, whose pretty white cottages and pleasant gardens extend for a mile along the river’s bank, which here makes another of its sharp bends. Cunningly indeed did the monks of old choose their dwelling places. There is no spot for many a mile which so completely fulfils the requirements of quiet and seclusion with certain mundane comforts, as that which they have selected. As one gazes at this noble relic, and the winding Wye stealing past it through the hills, one must accord the first place among the classic ruins of this island, in so far as regards the beauty of its situation. Forests were near at hand to supply them with fuel without stint, and game for their table on days of feasting. The tidal river would bring the barks of merchandise to their very door, and its leaping salmon would alleviate the severity of their fast days. Chepstow, with its castle, guarded them from marauders by the sea, and they were far enough within the line of border fortresses to fear no ill from incursions from the mountains of Wales.
The plan of the foundation of the Abbey is cruciform, and what remains of the grey skeleton of the edifice affords a fine example of early Twelfth-Century work. It was founded in the year 1131 by one Walter de Clare “for the good of his soul, and the soul of his kinsmen,” and was confined to the use of monks of the Cistercian order. Two inscribed tombs in the cloisters give the names of two of the abbots, but, apart from such fragmentary scraps of information, the history of Tintern may be said to have perished with the Abbey. The scene on entering the interior, is most impressive. Vaulted roof and central tower are gone, but the arches which supported the latter are intact. The glass, of course, has long since perished with the windows, even the mullions and tracery are gone; ivy, ferns, and herbage, form a coping for the wall; the greensward has replaced the pavement of stone or tiles; but still it is hardly possible to imagine a more imposing and lovely scene than these ruins.
Between Tintern and Chepstow the scenery of the Wye assumes an entirely fresh character. As we approach the Wynd cliff, the grassy bed of the river opens out into a sort of amphitheatre, and we can trace the huge horseshoe curve swept out upon its floors by the stream, between the base of the Wynd cliff which it washes, and the mural escarpment of Bannagor and Tidenham Crags, which form the opposite boundary of this great river-trench. It is a steep climb to the top of the Wynd cliff, but the glorious prospect obtained from the summit well repays the effort. Below is the beautiful horseshoe fold of the Wye, bounded by richly-wooded slopes that sweep from the right with a curve in the form of a sickle. Where the curve ends there stands an imposing wall of rock with a reddish base, its brow of dazzling white lined with green woodland, while far away towards the coast the point where the river enters the Severn estuary, which is here broadening out on its way towards the distant sea, is faintly visible. The beautiful grounds of Piercefield lie between the Wynd cliff and Chepstow. Art has here assisted Nature, in this domain, by carrying paths through a belt of woodland, with outlooks cunningly contrived to command the best views. These grounds are thrown open to the public on certain days.
The town of Chepstow occupies the right bank of the Wye, and is built upon a slope, which descends in places rather abruptly from the general level of the surrounding country to the river’s brink. Formerly it was enclosed by walls, like Monmouth, considerable portions of which are here and there preserved, especially in the neighbourhood of the castle. One of the gates still remains in High Street. It is called the Town Gate, and was for a long time used as a prison. Chepstow Castle is approached by a gentle acclivity clothed with greensward.
THE INDIAN RIVER
L. C. BRYAN
This river, or sound, spans a region of a hundred and forty miles from north to south, is salt, and yet almost without tide, neither rising nor falling more than a few inches by the winds; lies upon the very shore of the Atlantic, and from one to seven miles wide--a most placid, safe and beautiful inland sea in the very teeth of a wild tempestuous ocean.
Unlike the St. John’s or any other possible river, having no considerable rise or fall, its bordering lands are not overflowed, and unlike other seacoast waterways, it is not cumbered with interminable salt marshes. Its waters beat upon a bold, often abrupt shore, diversified into high and low lands of every grade and covered with the luxuriant vegetation common to warm climates.
Wonderfully beautiful is Indian River. There is no other such sheet of water in the world. Nature, with lavish hand, spread its waters and adorned its shores. The design of the Great Master Artist is seen in the narrow strip of land as a levee separating the river from the Atlantic, and in the forest on the levee as a great wind-break to curb the fierce winds of the ocean. Properly speaking, it is not a river, but a sound, or arm of the sea. Its centre is on an air line north and south 140 miles long, while its banks curve in and out in beautiful bays and grottoes. A few small creeks empty into it from the west, while the water empties into it from the Atlantic through Indian River Inlet and Jupiter Inlet.
It is a sea without its dangers, a river without a current, seldom calm, but always in motion from the winds. From this constant motion its water is kept pure. The winds of winter, coming from the north-west, are softened and warmed by the waters of the upper St. John’s River, and the pine forests on the west of the hammocks of this river, and the winds of summer coming from the east, are tempered and cooled by the Gulf Stream, making the climate most delightful in winter and summer, and, perhaps, most to be desired of any in America.
Of the Indian River we find the following from the able pen of ex-Governor Gleason:
“Indian River, as it is called, is a sound, and lies parallel to the Atlantic, separated from it by a narrow strip of land varying from a few rods to three miles in width; it is a sheet of pure tide water, salt, clear and transparent. It has two inlets from the ocean--Indian River Inlet, about 100 miles from its north head, and Jupiter Inlet at its extreme southern end. From its north head to within twenty-five miles of Jupiter Inlet, it is from one to six miles wide; from Jupiter Inlet to the mouth of the St. Lucie River, a distance of about twenty-five miles, it is from one-fourth of a mile to a mile in width, and is known as Jupiter Narrows. It is affected very little by the tide and the current moves by the wind. Being in the region of the trade winds, with almost a constant breeze from the east during the daytime, it affords peculiar facilities for sailing up and down the river, and the people take advantage of it. Every house is either on the river bank or a short distance up some navigable stream flowing into it, and has a boat landing. It is the Venice of America, and one can seldom look out upon the water without seeing boats sailing both ways. The river is well supplied with the finest oysters, sea-turtles, and a great variety of fish, among which are mullet, cavalli, snapper, blue fish, sheepshead and sea-trout. The manatee is caught at the mouth of the St. Lucie and Jupiter Inlet. Some of them weigh from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds and are very grand eating. They are found nowhere else in the United States, their principal habitat being near the mouths of the streams flowing into the Caribbean Sea, where they feed upon a peculiar grass called manatee, which grows at the bottom of most tide-water streams in the tropics.”
Merritt’s Island, which is about forty miles long and contains about thirty thousand acres is situated in the northern part of the river. The water on its east side is from one-fourth of a mile to six miles wide, and is known as Banana River. The shores of Indian River, both on the west side of Merritt’s Island and on the main land, are free from swamps and marshes, and rise at an angle of from twenty to twenty-five degrees to an elevation of from twenty-five to fifty feet. In many places the banks are high bluffs. The country on Merritt’s Island, and the west shore has the appearance of an endless park, the timber being principally scattered pines, with an undergrowth of palmettos and grass, interspersed with an occasional forest of palm, live oak and other hard wood timbers.
The orange belt is from one to three miles in width, and is principally on the west side near the river. West of the orange belt are the St. John’s prairies, which are unfit for orange culture, but afford fine pasturage, and are good for vegetables and the culture of sugar-cane and hay.
The river south of Indian River Inlet, on the eastern shore, is skirted with a narrow belt of mangrove timber of only a few rods in width, which is very dense and almost impenetrable. It is a deep green the entire year, and presents a beautiful appearance. The strip of land adjacent to the ocean between Jupiter Inlet and the mouth of St. Lucie River, is known as Jupiter Island, and is about half a mile wide and twenty miles long. It has some excellent land and is elevated from fifteen to thirty feet above the sea. The river here, at Jupiter Narrows, is less than half a mile wide. The western bank is from forty to fifty feet high and covered with a dense low scrub of live oak bushes, not more than two or three feet high, and when viewed from the Island, these heights remind one of the green pastures of the north--they are always the same colour, a beautiful green. This portion of the river is full of oysters and the inlet is the finest fishing on the coast. On the bank of the river, at various places, are large mounds of clam and oyster shells; the largest of them near Jupiter Inlet, is nearly a quarter of a mile long and about forty feet high.
At the north end of the river are some fine live oak and palm hummock lands, very rich and suitable for orange groves, sugar-cane and garden vegetables. The climate from October to May is a perpetual Indian summer, commingled with the balmiest days of spring, seldom interrupted by storms and only with occasional showers, while most of the time there is a gentle breeze coming inland from the even-tempered waters of the Gulf Stream. The prevailing winds are easterly, being the trade winds, which extend as far north as Cape Canaveral and are perceptible as far north as New Smyrna and St. Augustine. The nights are cool even in summer--the atmosphere invigourating and health restoring.
Mineral and other springs are frequent, many of them possessing medicinal properties. Game is abundant--bear, deer, quail and wild turkeys on the land, ducks on the lakes and rivers, and green turtle and fish in the waters. All of these, with its beautiful building sites, its superior surf bathing and boat sailing, the absence of swamps and marshes, will eventually cause the banks of this magnificent sheet of water to become one vast villa of winter residences.
THE NILE
J. HOWARD REED
The holy river--“the Jove-descended Nile”--formerly bore the name of Ægyptus. Professor Rawlinson in his _History of the Ancient Egyptians_, says: “The term Egypt was not known to the ancient Egyptians themselves, but appears to have been first used by the Greeks as a name for the Nile, and thence extended to the country. It is stated by some authorities that the river received its present title from Nilus, an ancient king of Thebes, who named the stream after himself.”
“Father Nile” was an object of great veneration to the ancients, and a gift of its waters was considered by them as a present fit for kings and queens. The veneration in which the river was held, of course, arose from the blessings of its annual overflow spread broadcast over its banks by fertilizing the seed of the sower, producing abundant crops for the sickle of the reaper, and thus making glad the heart of man. It is stated that the Arabs in the present day consider it a delicious privilege to slake their thirst with the salubrious and agreeable waters of the river, and I have read that they will even artificially excite thirst to indulge in the pleasure of imbibing refreshing and satisfying draughts from the “holy stream.” The general Pescennius Niger is said to have cried to his soldiers: “What! crave you for wine, when you have the water of the Nile to drink?” Homer is stated to have said, no doubt referring poetically to its regular and fertilizing overflow: “The Nile flows down from heaven.” The Egyptians say that “If Mahomet had tasted the waters of the Nile, he would have prayed God to make him immortal, that he might have enjoyed them for ever.”
The river has a total length of considerably over 3,000 miles, and is remarkable among the rivers of the world from the fact that for about the last 1,500 miles of its flow it receives no tributary--none, in fact, after the Albara or Tacazze. The consequence is that, by the time it reaches the sea, its volume is considerably reduced by evaporation, and from the large quantity of water used along its banks for irrigation and other purposes. The river is formed of two principal branches, the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, and the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, the latter of which is the main branch or true Nile. It receives also, as tributary rivers, the Atbara or Tacazze before mentioned, with the Sobat and Asua on the east side; and the Bahr-el-Gazelle on the west; besides other smaller and less important streams. Its waters are discharged into the Mediterranean through several mouths, the two principal of which are known as the Rosetta and Damietta mouths--the first-named being to the west and the other to the east. The principal island formed by the divisions of the river being shaped like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, takes the name of Delta; and the Nile is doubtless the river which first suggested what is now a technical name for all similar formations at the mouths of rivers.
The rise and overflow of the Nile caused by the seasonal rains of the interior, has been for ages noted for its regularity. The rise commences about midsummer, reaches its greatest height at the autumnal equinox, and has again subsided by Christmas; leaving the land highly enriched by the fertilizing sediment of red earth brought down by the Abyssinian tributaries and deposited by the river. The land can then be worked and the crops planted. The rise and fall of the river is watched with great anxiety by the inhabitants of the Nile valley. At intervals along its banks river gauges, or nilometers, are fixed, upon which the variations of the river are duly recorded.
Nearly five centuries before the Christian era, the first great African traveller, Herodotus, writing about the Nile, said: “Respecting the nature of this river, I was unable to gain any information, either from the priests or any one else. I was very desirous, however, of learning from them why the Nile, beginning at the summer solstice, fills and overflows for a hundred days; and when it has nearly completed this number of days, falls short in its stream and retires; so that it continues low all the winter, until the return of the summer solstice.”
Seneca writes that the Emperor Nero sent an exploring expedition under two centurions with military force to explore the countries along the banks of the Astapus or White River, and to search for the Nile’s sources. They passed down the river a considerable distance until immense marshes were met with. They forced their way through, and continued their journey southward, until the river was seen “tumbling down or issuing out between the rocks.” They were then obliged to turn back and declare their mission a failure. The centurions are stated to have brought back with them a map of the districts they had passed through, for the information of the Imperial Nero.
This early expedition succeeded in penetrating about 800 Roman miles south of Meroe--that is to say, reaching three or four degrees north latitude. The place where water was seen “tumbling down from between the rocks” was probably the Fola or Mekade cataract, again discovered in our own day by the late General Gordon. The river here rushes through a narrow ravine, over and between rocks of from thirty to forty feet high. These falls are stated to be the only insurmountable obstacle to the navigation of the Nile, for vessels of considerable size, from the Mediterranean to the Albert Lake.
About seventy years later, during the Second Century, we find Claudius Ptolemy, a celebrated geographer and astrologer of Alexandria, writing about the Nile and its sources. He tells us that the “holy stream” rises some twelve degrees south of the equator, in a number of streams that flow into two lakes, situated east and west of each other; from which, in turn, issue two rivers; these afterwards unite and form the Nile. Ptolemy also mentions that in the interior of Africa were some mountains which he called “_Selenes Oros_”--generally translated “Mountains of the Moon.”
Following in the steps of Ptolemy, come the Arab geographers, and they are stated to have practically adopted all his theories and geographical notions.
Later on we find that the Portuguese travellers obtained a considerable amount of information regarding the geography of the interior of Africa. They appear to have had some knowledge of the existence of several large lakes in the centre of the continent, and in some of their early maps these lakes find a place.
It appears to have been known to the ancients that the Nile proper is formed of two principal branches, which join and form one river close to where the town of Khartoum (or its ruin) now stands; but beyond this, as we have seen, little authentic information has been handed down.
In the year 1770, Bruce gave his attention to the Blue Nile. He was enabled to locate the sources of that branch of the river among the mountains and highlands of Abyssinia, near Lake Dembea. In 1788, the African Association was founded, and in furtherance of its objects much information was obtained of the geography of the “Dark Continent.” In 1827, M. Linant, a French traveller, passed up the White Nile to a considerable distance above its junction with the Blue Nile branch. About the year 1840 two Egyptian naval officers headed an expedition, fitted out by Mahommed Ali, the then ruler of Egypt; they forced their way through the terrible marshes to within 3° 4″ of the equator; but were, like the expedition of the Emperor Nero, at last obliged to turn back.