Chapter 169

156 MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE 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 labor has been suffered to remain. The chiseled stone has the hue of ages, and is profusely overhung and overspread with the ivy, the coral honey-suckle, 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 slightly 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, and reflecting the direct rays of the now fast sinking sun