THE JUNCTION OF THE ARVE.
One evening, when Rollo was walking with his father and mother on one of
the bridges which led over the river, they stopped at a place where two
boys were fishing, and looked down over the railing into the water. The
water was quite deep, but they could see the stones on the bottom of it
almost as distinctly as if they had been looking only through the air.
"How very clear the water is!" said Mrs. Holiday; "and what a beautiful
tinge it has! What is the reason of it?"
"I don't know what the reason is of the blue tinge," said Mr. Holiday;
"but the cause of its being so clear is, that it flows out of this great
lake, where it has been lying so long that it has had time to settle
perfectly.
"There is a great difference in the streams of Switzerland," continued
Mr. Holiday. "Some are exceedingly clear, and some are exceedingly
turbid. There are two ways by which the turbid waters become purified.
One is, by being filtered through the sands under ground; and the other
is, by '_settling_', as we call it, in the lakes. The water of the
fountain that we saw on our way to Ferney was beautifully clear, and it
was made so by filtration in the sand, in coming down through the heart
of the mountain. This water, on the other hand, is made clear by its
impurities subsiding in the lake."
"And it comes in muddy at the other end," said Rollo.
"Not muddy, exactly," rejoined Mr. Holiday, "but very turbid. The
turbidness of it is not mud precisely. It comes from the grinding up of
rocks by the slow march of the glaciers over and among them. Thus all
the streams that come from glaciers are very turbid; and so long as the
waters flow on in an uninterrupted stream they continue turbid; but when
they form a lake, the particles of stone subside, and the water comes
out at the lower end of the lake perfectly clear."
"And then continues clear till it gets to the ocean, I suppose," said
Mrs. Holiday.
"Yes," replied Mr. Holiday, "unless some other turbid stream, which has
no lake to settle itself in, falls into it and pollutes it again.
"That is the case with this river. It is very clear and beautiful here,
where it comes out of the lake, but the Arve comes in a mile or two
below Geneva, and brings an immense volume of turbid water. This makes
the whole river turbid again after the waters of the two rivers have
flowed long enough together to get well mixed, and then it continues
turbid all the way to the sea. There is no other lake to settle it.
"I am told," said Mr. Holiday, "that the coming in of the turbid torrent
of the Arve into the clear blue waters of the Rhone is a very pretty
spectacle, and I should like very much to see it; but it is rather too
far to go."
"O, no, father," said Rollo; "let us go."
"How far is it?" asked Mrs. Holiday.
"About a mile, I should think, by the map," said Mr. Holiday; "but there
seems to be no carriage road to the place. If there had been a carriage
road I should have taken you there; for I should like very well to have
you see the place."
"But, father, we can walk there very easily," said Rollo. "There is a
nice path along the bank of the river. I saw it the other day, when I
was down below the bridge."
"Well," said Mrs. Holiday, "I should like to go very much, if we could
go in the morning or in the evening, when it is cool. Is the walk shady,
Rollo?"
"Yes, mother, it is shady in the morning. There is a high hedge all
along on one side of the path, and that keeps the sun off in the
morning. In the evening the sun comes round to the other side."
"Then we will go in the morning," said Mrs. Holiday. "Let us get up
early to-morrow morning, and go before breakfast."
Mrs. Holiday was really desirous of seeing this famous junction of the
Rhone and the Arve; but her chief interest in making the excursion arose
from her sympathy with Rollo, and from observing how much he wished to
go. It is always so with a mother. When her children are kind and
attentive to her, and obedient to her wishes, she always desires most
strongly to do what will most gratify them.
The plan was arranged according to Mrs. Holiday's proposal, and the next
morning the party set out at half past six o'clock. Rollo led the way.
"What I should like best," said Rollo, turning round so as to face his
father and mother, and walking backward, "would be to take a boat, and
shoot down the river under these bridges."
"Ah," said his father, "that would not do. The current is too swift. At
any rate, if you were to go down you would never get the boat back
again. The water runs like a mill race.
"Indeed, it _is_ a mill race," continued Mr. Holiday. "Don't you see the
mill wheels projecting into the stream, here and there? They are carried
by the natural force of the current."
After passing by the buildings of the town, Rollo led the way over a
narrow wooden bridge, which passed across the old moat of the town. The
remains of a monstrous bastion were to be seen beyond it.
"This is a part of the old fortifications," said Rollo. "They are
cutting them all to pieces now with roads and bridges leading in and out
the town."
After going beyond these embankments, Rollo led the way to a path which
lay along the river side. Very soon the path began to be a very pleasant
one indeed. Mrs. Holiday was delighted with it. It was close to the
margin of the water, and only a very few inches above the level of it.
The current was very swift, and the water was so blue, and clear, and
beautiful, that it was a continual pleasure to look down into it, and to
watch the little waves and ripples that curled, and twirled, and dashed
against the shore.
There was a row of willows between the paths and the water, or rather in
the margin of the water, for the path was so near to the stream that
there was scarcely room for the willows on the land. On the other side
of the path there was a close hedge, which formed the boundary of a
region of fields, meadows, and gardens. Here and there were gates
leading through this hedge; and the party, as they walked along, could
look through the openings and see the peasant girls coming out to their
work from the houses. The whole region, though it was highly cultivated
and extremely beautiful, was very flat and level, and was only raised
two or three feet above the level of the water.
From each gateway or other opening through the hedge there were paths
leading off through the fields and gardens to the houses; and there were
steps at the gates leading down to the pathway that lay along the margin
of the stream. The people of the houses were accustomed, it seemed, to
come down there to get water.
Thus the party walked along, with the rapid current of the river close
to their feet on one side, and the high green hedge shutting them in on
the other, while the tops of the willow trees spreading over their heads
completed the coolness and shadiness of the pathway. Rollo led the way,
and his father and mother followed, one by one, for the path was not
wide enough for two to walk together.
[Illustration: THE WATER WHEEL.]
Presently they came to a place where a large water wheel of a very
curious construction was seen revolving quite near the shore. They
stopped to look at it. They liked to see it revolving; and then besides
they wished to examine the construction of it. It was mounted on a frame
of timbers that had been set up for it in the water, at a little
distance from the shore. The wheel itself was much like the wheel of a
steamboat; only, in addition to the ordinary float boards, it had a
series of buckets on the edge of it, which took up the water from the
stream, as the wheel revolved, and emptied it into a trough above, as
they went over. From this trough there was a circular pipe, made very
strong, which conveyed the water by a subterranean aqueduct into the
field opposite, where it rose into a reservoir by the pressure of the
column in the pipe, and was used to irrigate the ground.
Across the river at this place was a beautiful view of fields,
vineyards, terraces, and gardens; for on that side the bank was high,
and as the sun shone directly upon it, the whole scene presented to view
was extremely bright and beautiful.
At one of the gates which opened through the hedge, Rollo stopped to
look in. He saw gardens laid out in squares, with corn, and beans, and
various garden vegetables growing luxuriantly in them. There were rows
of fruit trees, too, bordering the paths, and at a distance were to be
seen houses scattered here and there over the plain, the dwellings of
the owners of the land. Each house had its little barns and granaries
connected with it, the whole group being half concealed by the foliage
of the trees and shrubs that had been planted around it.
"Will it do for us to go in," said Rollo to his father, "and walk a part
of the way through these gardens?"
"Yes," said his father, "I presume it will do; but perhaps we had better
go down all the way by the path, and come back by the gardens."
"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "that will be much the best plan.
"But, father," continued Rollo, "if we should go across these gardens,
and keep on in that direction for some time, I suppose that we should
come to the Arve."
"Yes," said his father; "the Arve is coming down from the mountains, and
flowing towards the Rhone not very far from here, on the other side of
this flat land. This land constitutes a sort of tongue lying between the
two rivers. I suppose it has been formed by the deposits that the Arve
brings down. I have no doubt that if we should walk across the tongue of
land, we should come to the Arve; but it is better to go on down the
path till we reach the point where the two rivers come together."
"Well," said Rollo, "we will go on."
So they went on along the path, as before.
Rollo soon had occasion to be glad that he had acceded so readily to his
father's wishes to continue in the path; for he soon came to something
that amused him very much. It was a man sitting in the top of one of the
willow trees that overhung the path, fishing. The willow leaned very
much, and this made it easy to climb the stem of it. It had been headed
down, too, so that there was a pretty good place to sit on the top of
it. It was on the very brink of the stream, and indeed the leaning of
the stem carried the top of the willow somewhat over the water, and thus
it made quite a good place to sit and fish.
The current flowed very swiftly under the willow tree, and the fishing
line was carried far down the stream.
"Ah!" said Rollo; "that is just such a place as I should like to have. I
should like to sit up in that tree and fish all the morning."
"I should think it might be a little lonesome," said Mr. Holiday.
"No," said Rollo; "or perhaps there might be some other boys in the
other trees."
So saying, Rollo looked up and down the stream, to see if there were
any other trees so formed as to furnish a seat for a fisherman in the
top of them; but there were none.
Here you see a picture of the man as Rollo saw him.
[Illustration: FISHING.]
As the party went on after this they found evidences increasing that
they were drawing near to the junction of the rivers. The hedge became
less regular, and at length ceased altogether. Its place was supplied
by dense thickets formed of alders, willows, and long grass. The ground
became more and more uneven, and at length nothing of the path was left
but a narrow ridge or dike that had been formed artificially along the
shore, with a crooked little footway on the top of it.
At last Rollo began to see through the bushes occasional glimpses of
water on the other side.
"There, father!" said he, "there! We are coming to the Arve."
"Yes," said Mrs. Holiday; "and I don't suppose that we can go much
farther."
Indeed, it would have been impossible to go much farther, if there had
not been a small embankment made to serve for a pathway. The party,
though expecting every moment to be obliged to turn back, still went on.
At length the whole expanse of the Arve opened before them as it came in
from the left--its waters boiling, whirling, and sweeping in great
circles as it came on, and the whole surface of it as gray as the sand
on the shores. On the other side was the Rhone, blue, and pellucid, and
beautiful as the sky above.
"What an extraordinary spectacle!" said Mr. Holiday.
"Come, mother," said Rollo, "we can go on a good deal farther yet."
Rollo was right; for the walk, instead of coming to an end at the
extremity of the point which separated the two rivers, was continued
along a little dike or embankment which seemed to have been made
artificially some distance down between the two streams. This dike was
very narrow, being just wide enough indeed for a narrow footpath.
In advancing along this path it was very curious to observe the totally
different aspects of the water on the two sides of it. On the one side
it was turbid and gray, and perfectly opaque. You could not have seen
the pollywogs in the shallowest places along the margin. On the other
side it was so clear and transparent that you could have seen fishes
swimming where it was ten feet deep. It was of such a rich and beautiful
blue color, too, as if it had been tinted with a dye, and the color was
of so rich and brilliant a hue, that Mrs. Holiday was continually
admiring and praising it.
This narrow path, dividing thus the waters of the two rivers, continued
several yards; but at length it came to an end. The party all went on
till they reached the extremity of it, and there, looking still farther
on, they saw the line of demarcation between the gray water and the
blue extending itself before them as far as they could see. The two
rivers remained for a long distance perfectly distinct, though
struggling and contending against each other, as it were, all the way.
The line was broken and indented all along by the strife of the
waters--the gray for a moment penetrating into the blue, and then the
next instant the blue forcing itself into the gray. The waters went on
struggling against each other in this manner as far as the eye could
follow them.
The party remained on the extremity of the point a long time, observing
this singular phenomenon. At length it began to be pretty warm there;
for the narrow tongue of land which projected so far between the two
currents was exposed to the sun, which had now risen so high that there
was a good deal of heat in his rays.
So they set out on their return home. On the way back they walked a
considerable distance through the fields and gardens. They went into
them from the path along the shore, through one of the open gates, and
they went back to the path again by another.