Close in front at his very feet was the bank, and at its base the rushing torrent.

A little farther on was the moving mass of glassy brown water which eddied rhythmically along the bank and round the shallows.

Farther still, water, banks, and cloud all merged together in impenetrable gloom.

Along the surface of the water floated black shadows, in which the experienced eyes of the Cossack detected trees carried down by the current.

Only very rarely sheet-lightning, mirrored in the water as in a black glass, disclosed the sloping bank opposite.
The rhythmic sounds of night--the rustling of the reeds, the snoring of the Cossacks, the hum of mosquitoes, and the rushing water, were every now and then broken by a shot fired in the distance, or by the gurgling of water when a piece of bank slipped down, the splash of a big fish, or the crashing of an animal breaking through the thick undergrowth in the wood.