CHAPTER X.

THE swift boats bearing the knight and his fortunes shot
down the current with the speed of swallows. By reason
of high water the Cataracts presented no great danger.
They passed Surski and Lokhanny; a lucky wave threw
them over the Voronoff bar; the boats grated a little on the
Knyaji and Streletski, but they were scratched, not broken.
At length they beheld in the distance the foaming and
whirling of the terrible Nenasytets. There they were
obliged to land and drag the boats along the shore, --- a tedi-
ous and difficult labor, usually occupying an entire day. For-
tunately a great many blocks, apparently left by previous
travellers, lay along the whole way; these were placed under
the boats to ease them over the ground. In all the region
about and on the steppes not a living soul was to be seen,
nor a single boat; for none could sail to the Saitch except-
ing those alone whom Pan Grodzitski permitted to pass
Kudak, and Pan Grodzitski cut off the Zaporojie from the
rest of the world on purpose. Only the splash of the
waves on the cliff of Nenasytets broke the silence.
While the men were dragging the boats, Skshetuski ex-
amined this wonder of Nature. An awful sight met his
eyes. Through the entire width of the river extended cross-
wise seven rooky ridges, jutting out above the water, black,
rent by waves which broke through them gaps and pas-
sages after their fashion. The river pressed with the whole
weight of its waters against those ridges, and was broken
on them; then wild and raging, lashed into white foaming
pulp, it sought to spring over like an infuriated horse, but,
pushed back again before it could sweep through the pas-
sage, it seemed to gnaw the rocks with its teeth, making
enormous circles in impotent wrath; it leaped up toward
the sky, raging like a monster, panting like a wild beast in
pain. And then again a roar from it as from a hundred
cannon, howls as from whole packs of wolves, wheezing,
struggling, and at every ridge the same conflict. Over the
abyss were heard screams of birds, as if terrified by the
sight. Between the ridges the gloomy shadows of the cliff
quivered like spirits of evil.