A little to my left, the side of the Pit appeared to have collapsed altogether, forming a deep V-shaped cleft in the face of the rocky cliff.  This rift ran, from the upper edge of the ravine, nearly down to the water, and penetrated into the Pit side, to a distance of some forty feet.  Its opening was, at least, six yards across; and, from this, it seemed to taper into about two.  But, what attracted my attention, more than even the stupendous split itself, was a great hole, some distance down the cleft, and right in the angle of the V. It was clearly defined, and not unlike an arched doorway in shape; though, lying as it did in the shadow, I could not see it very distinctly.

The opposite side of the Pit, still retained its verdure; but so torn in places, and everywhere covered with dust and rubbish, that it was hardly distinguishable as such.

My first impression, that there had been a land slip, was, I began to see, not sufficient, of itself, to account for all the changes I witnessed.  And the water—?  I turned, suddenly; for I had become aware that, somewhere to my right, there was a noise of running water.  I could see nothing; but, now that my attention had been caught, I distinguished, easily, that it came from somewhere at the East end 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.