SCALE FORCE
by Abdullah Quilliam
“God is the creator of all things; He is the one,
the victorious God. He causeth water to descend from heaven, and the brooks flow according to their respective measure, and the floods bear the flowing froth.”
Sura xiii. Ar Rad (Thunder), Koran.
“It falls Within a rift between the granite walls,
On either side, the bleak cold stone
Where leafy ferns, and tender moss alone
Find resting place. Between the waving shrubs on high,
Calm and serene, is dimly seen the sky.
Whilst down the narrow gorge the stream
In one long, silvery thread doth seem,
In one continual glittering shower,
An avalanche of diamonds to outpour.
Beneath the fall, a cup like bowl
Receives the stream, then onward it doth roll,
With a low rumbling, grumbling sound,
O’er ruddy boulders, now worn smooth and round
Until another smaller leap it takes,
While all around the spray, like snowy flakes,
Is scattered. Then, as though its mighty wrath
Had been in one great angry burst poured forth,
It gently ripples through the grassy mead,
And to the distant lake doth slowly speed,
And seems as though it murmured on its road
Low cadences of hymns to Nature’s God,
Whose mighty power hath formed them all,
The brook, the lake, the rocks,
the waterfall.”
Scale Force is the largest
waterfall in the Lake District
