of the Pit.

Slowly, I made my way in that direction; the sound growing plainer as I
advanced, until in a little, I stood right above it. Even then, I could
not perceive the cause, until I knelt down, and thrust my head over the
cliff. Here, the noise came up to me, plainly; and I saw, below me, a
torrent of clear water, issuing from a small fissure in the Pit side,
and rushing down the rocks, into the lake beneath. A little further
along the cliff, I saw another, and, beyond that again, two smaller
ones. These, then, would help to account for the quantity of water in
the Pit; and, if the fall of rock and earth had blocked the outlet of
the stream at the bottom, there was little doubt but that it was
contributing a very large share.

Yet, I puzzled my head to account for the generally _shaken_ appearance
of the place--these streamlets, and that huge cleft, further up the
ravine! It seemed to me, that more than the landslip was necessary to
account for these. I could imagine an earthquake, or a great
_explosion_, creating some such condition of affairs as existed; but, of
these, there had been neither. Then, I stood up, quickly, remembering
that crash, and the cloud of dust that had followed, directly, rushing
high into the air. But I shook my head, unbelievingly. No! It must have
been the noise of the falling rocks and earth, I had heard; of course,
the dust would fly, naturally. Still, in spite of my reasoning, I had an
uneasy feeling, that this theory did not satisfy my sense of the
probable; and yet, was any other, that I could suggest, likely to be
half so plausible? Pepper had been sitting on the grass, while I
conducted my examination. Now, as I turned up the North side of the
ravine, he rose and followed.