TEGG'S MAGAZINE.

CROSSING A TORRENT IN BOOTAN BY A JHOOLA.

"And should the path be dangerous known,

The danger's self is lure alone."-SCOTT.

SUSPENSION bridges, which are amongst the most recent pretended inventions of engineers, are probably as old as the first peopling of any mountainous country, of any district intersected by ravines, or gullies, whose depth terrifies while their breadth invites an attempt to cross. The catenary curve, or the bend of a slackened rope, is but an inverted arch; and, when science had succeeded in the employment of more rigid materials, the concavity was only reversed in bridging. Uneducated artists, however, still possess a very decided superiority over the mathematicians of to-day, in the construction and application of their designs. The suspension bridge can be constructed in situations where stone arches could not be thrown, both from the difficulty of erecting centres, from the inaccessibility of the banks or the cliffs, from the depth or violence of the current beneath, or from the want of competent masons, contractors and engineers. Besides, the materials are infinitely less expensive and more readily procured in remote districts. The Chinese construct bridges of this description, of chains, and of bamboo ropes; and, in the Himalaya mountains, where many kinds of bridges are found-from the simple flag that spans the brook to the swinging Jhoola that sometimes descends to the very foam of the cataract, they have been in operation from immemorial time. There the sangha, two rude trunks of trees laid over the gulf with branches strewn across, is more popular, and adopted where practicable, but the width of the stream totally precludes their introduction in many cases. When this occurs, the Jhoola or rope bridge is put in requisition; and of all human inventions there is none perhaps in the construction of which its terrors so entirely exceed the amount of its utility.

The Jhoola over the Tonse river in the Himalaya regions consists of a rope stretched across a deep ravine, where the torrent rages with indescribable fury. On one bank two strong poles are crossed, and the upper

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vertical angle used, as in the scaffolding employed by rope-dancers, for straining the rope through, after which it is secured to a tree, or a ring in the rock. The other end of the rope is fastened, by what is termed a three-stranded joint, to the opposite cliff, and the bridge is then completed. The natives cross with the utmost facility, by coiling their legs round the rope, and propelling themselves by the strength of their arms, if ascending; but, if descending, the operation consists simply in sliding across; the weight of the body becoming then the moving power. But few who have not drunk the mountain air in infancy, or relaxed their sinews in the mountain chase, or learned to look down the dizzy precipice unmoved, could venture the passage of a Jhoola in the Hindoo manner. For those gentle spirits and less agile frames a subterfuge is provided, divested of the difficulty but retaining the danger. A loop, with a seat in the lower part of its curve, is suspended from the main rope, having handles to steady the passenger as he sits in this perilous chair. Tight cords attached to the handles are extended to both banks, and there held by some coadjutors. The passenger being seated, is allowed to descend by his own weight to the lower bank, the velocity of his transit being regulated by the person above; or, he is pulled up to the higher by the individual stationed there for the purpose.

In the history of Timor-beg or Tamerlane, many achievements are related, which, however daring, there is no reason to disbelieve. We know what innate courage will accomplish, and accomplish because its possessor never loses that presence of mind which terror in all others had put to flight. Alexander only thought of the symmetry of Bucephalus, when he discovered the cause of his restiveness-the by-standers were reflecting upon the best modes of evading injury from his violence. Timor, in his youth, displayed a courage, impetuosity, and love of adventure that gave a sure presentiment of his future greatness. In a country where agility, strength, and daring, constituted the chief features of nobility, he must indeed have been a prodigy of boldness who could have so far surpassed his fellows as we are told that Timor did. He was swift of foot, the boldest horseman, the surest marksman; no enterprise presented any attraction for him that was unaccompanied by other than imminent danger. Scarcely had he reached his eighteenth year, when he undertook to hunt down a banditti of robbers that took shelter, with their plunder, in the fastnesses of the hills; and, for this purpose, set out fully equipped, and accompanied by a little lion-hearted band of followers, passionately attached to their leader, and devoted, like himself, to the cause of chivalry. Reaching the dark recesses of a glen, down which a torrent tumbled in boiling foam from rock to rock, the gang of desperadoes was discovered seated on the bank, and dividing their booty. Close by their quarters was a Jhoola of a single rope, without any loop or other assistance to the inexperienced: upon the alarm being given, they sprang from their lair, down to the rock that hung over the cataract, and descended with the velocity of light to the opposite and lower bank. Their intended manoeuvre of cutting away the rope did not

escape the quick decision of Timor, who suddenly stopped, drew up his little army within bow-shot of the Jhoola; and, leaving every man holding his arrow to the notch, strictly enjoined them to reserve their discharge until the last of the robbers should be close to the other side. Then, said Timor, let all shoot their arrows with a godlike aim at the spot where the rope is made fast on the other side. His followers, although entirely ignorant of his project, promised the most unerring obedience; and, when the critical moment arrived, discharged the flight of arrows as commanded. Scarcely had the bow-string ceased to vibrate, when they beheld the last robber struggling in the abyss, the gang in rapid flight, and their own brave leader standing on the opposite bank, which he had reached by the Jhoola, almost on the back of the last of the bandits, and under cover of the discharge from his well-trained archers.

It is less our object, however, to celebrate the praises of Tamerlane, which have so often already been said and sung, than to invite attention to the antiquity, and to the still existing usefulness of suspension bridges. We have seen, at home, how general their adoption when uninterrupted navigation is required,-we perceive, abroad, how advantageous they prove in countries where navigation is impracticable, but the peculiar nature of the surface precludes the erection of any other. The interesting view which furnishes these notices, was taken amongst the hills of Bootan, where it forms the only medium of communication between two vast districts in which the native population is by no means scanty. Precaution is observed in preserving the rope, and the poles, and the fastenings, but the utmost vigilance has not been able to obviate the fatalities to which a contrivance so hazardous in its character is necessarily subject; and many lives are lost here annually by the breaking of either the loop or the rope, or by the timidity of the individuals themselves who have attempted the passage.

We have observed that the bridges in India and China are constructed on the principle of suspension, and expressed a belief that such contrivances are of very ancient and very general adoption. In the north of Ireland a singular bridge of ropes is stretched across the chasm that separates Carrig-a-rede Island from the mainland,-others exist amidst the Scotch Islets; and Basil Hall discovered one of very ingenious construction at Maypo, in South America. With a brief extract from this agreeable writer's journal, our leave of the subject may not be inappropriately taken. "This bridge (of hide-ropes) is curious from its simplicity, and from the close resemblance it bears to the iron bridges of suspension recently introduced into England, to which, in principle, it is precisely similar. It consists of a narrow road-way of plank laid crosswise, with their ends resting on straight ropes suspended by means of short lines, to a set of thicker ropes drawn across the stream from bank to bank. These strong sustaining ropes are six in number, three at each side of the bridge, and hang in flat curves, one above another, the short vertical cords supporting the road-way, being so disposed as to distribute the weight equally. The main or suspending ropes are firmly

secured to the angles of the rock on one side, at the height of thirty feet from the stream; but the opposite bank being low, it was found necessary to correct, in some degree, the consequent inclination, by carrying the ropes over a high wooden saddle, and attaching them afterwards to trees and to posts driven deep into the ground. The clear space from the saddle or pier on one side, to the face of the rock on the other, is 129 feet. The materials being very elastic, the bridge waved up and down with our weight, and vibrated from side to side in so alarming a manner, that, at the recommendation of our guide, we dismounted and drove our horses, one by one, before us; but it must be owned, neither man nor horse appeared much at ease during the passage.”

LATE HOURS.

THEIR PERNICIOUS EFFECTS UPON YOUTH AND UPON SOCIETY IN GENERAL, EXPOSEDACCOMPANIED BY DELINEATIONS OF LATE HOUR SCENES AND INDIVIDUALS.

BY E. H. MALCOLM.

"Pleasure delights in contrasts; it is from dissipation we learn to enjoy solitude; and from solitude dissipation."-Sir H. L. Bulwer; Last Days of Pompeii.

(Continued from page 440.

Ar the close of the foregoing remarks we arrived at a point from which we must necessarily recede, for various cogent reasons, and for one in particular, that we have small desire to "break a lance" upon academic ground; or to dispute with moralists and educationists upon their disciplinarian questions. To us the schoolmen form an imaginative phalanx, whose serried ferulas excite an alarm and timidity vividly recalling school-boy days.-Soberly, then, the education of youth upon its broader principles, is a subject that we dare but glance at, as one protected only by the mere experience of natural observation, and as one denied a profound knowledge of the workings of rules and systems. Therefore, having drawn what we apprehend to be the two extremes of faulty training as regards youth, we must be permitted to leave to the "infallibles" themselves the duty of directing the erring step, between one extreme and the other, to that middle course, which is best understood under the designation of the "happy medium."

The course we had promised ourselves to follow, we hope we may now proceed in, unobstructed. It is the actually committed errors of youth we essay to exhibit, and to exhibit them in their true lineaments; if the exposed deformity of the pleasure-idol should not excite disgust and produce distaste in the individual who steadily fixes his gaze upon it, that man must have a perverted mind, and unruly passions, quite