THE Falls of Niagara have been very frequently and minutely described, though it must be acknowledged, as has been well said by the celebrated Audubon, that all the pictures you may see, all the descriptions you may read of these mighty falls, can only produce in your mind the faint glimmer of a glow-worm compared with the overpowering glory of the meridian sun. ‘What!’ said he, ‘have Icome here to mimic nature in her grandest enterprise, and add my caricature of one of the wonders of the world to those which Ihere see? No.—I give up the vain attempt. Iwill look on these mighty cataracts, and imprint them where they alone can be represented,—on my mind!’ The following very full and accurate description by Mr.Schoolcraft, is the best with which we are acquainted.

‘On the first of May, Ivisited the celebrated Falls of Niagara.14 Keeping the American shore, the road lies over an alluvial country, elevated from ten to twenty feet above the water of the river, without a hill or a ledge of rocks, and with scarce an undulation of surface, to indicate the existence, or prepare the eye for the stupendous prospect which bursts, somewhat unexpectedly, into view. The day was clear and warm, with a light breeze blowing down the river. We stopped frequently on our approach to listen for the sound of the Fall, but at the distance of fifteen, ten, eight, and even five miles, could not distinguish any, even by laying the ear to the ground. It was not until within three miles of the precipice, where the road runs close to the edge of the river, and brings the rapids in full view, that we could distinctly hear the sound, which then, owing to a change in the wind, fell so heavily upon the ear, that in proceeding a short distance, it was difficult to maintain a conversation as we rode along. On reaching the Falls, nothing struck me with more surprise, than that the Baron La Hontan, who visited it in August, 1688, should have fallen into so egregious a mistake, as to the height of the perpendicular pitch, which he represents at seven or eight hundred feet. Nor does the narrator of the discoveries of the unfortunate La Salle, Monsieur Tonti, approach much nearer the truth, when he states it at six hundred feet. Charlevoix, whose work is characterized by more accuracy, learning, and research, than those who had preceded him, and who saw the Falls in 1721, makes, on the contrary, an estimate which is surprising for the degree of accuracy he has attained. “For my own part,” he says, “after examining it on all sides, where it could be viewed to the greatest advantage, Iam inclined to think we cannot allow it less than a hundred and forty or fifty feet.” The latter, (one hundred and fifty,) is precisely what the Fall on the Canadian side is now estimated at. There is a rapid of two miles in extent above, and another of seven miles, extending to Lewiston, below the Falls. The breadth across, at the brink of the Fall, which is serrated and irregular, is estimated at four thousand two hundred and thirty feet, or a little more than three fourths of a mile. The Fall on the American shore is one hundred and sixty-four feet, being the highest known perpendicular pitch of so great a volume of water. The fall of the rapid above, commencing at Chippewa, is estimated at ninety feet, and the entire fall of Niagara river from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, a distance of thirty-five miles, at three hundred feet. Goat Island, which divides the water into two unequal sheets, has recently been called Iris, (in allusion to the perpetual rainbows by which it is characterized) by the commissioners for settling the boundaries of the United States, acting under the treaty of Ghent.

‘In approaching this cataract from Lewiston, the elevated and rocky description of country it is necessary to cross, together with the increased distance at which the roar is heard in that direction, must serve to prepare the mind for encountering a scene which there is nothing to indicate on approaching from Buffalo; and this impression unquestionably continues to exercise an effect upon the beholder, after his arrival at the Falls. The first European visiters beheld it under this influence. Following the path of the Couriers de Bois, they proceeded from Montreal up the St.Lawrence, to Fort Caderacqui, and around the shores of Lake Ontario, to the alluvial tract which stretches from the mouth of Niagara river, to the site of Lewiston. Here the Ridge, emphatically so called, commences, and the number of elevations which it is necessary to ascend in crossing it, may, without a proper consideration of the intermediate descents, have led those who formerly approached that way into error, such as La Hontan and Tonti fell into. They must have been deprived also of the advantages of the view from the gulf at the foot of the Falls, for we are not prepared to admit the possibility of a descent without artificial stairs, or other analogous laborious and dangerous works, such, as at that remote period, must have been looked upon as a stupendous undertaking; and could not, indeed, have been accomplished, surrounded as the French then were, by their enemies, the jealous and ever watchful Iroquois. The descent at the present period, with every advantage arising from the labors of mechanical ingenuity, cannot be performed without feeling some degree of personal solicitude.

‘It is in this chasm that the sound of the water falls heaviest upon the ear, and that the mind becomes fully impressed with the appalling majesty of the Fall. Other views from the banks on both sides of the river, and from the Island of Iris in its centre, are more beautiful and picturesque; but it is here that the tremulous motion of the earth, the clouds of irridescent spray, the broken column of falling water, the stunning sound, the lofty banks of the river, and the wide spreading ruin of rocks, imprint a character of wonder and terror upon the scene, which no other point of view is capable of producing. The spectator, who, on alighting at Niagara, walks hastily to the brink, feels his attention imperceptibly riveted to the novel and striking phenomenon before him, and at this moment is apt either to overrate or to underrate the magnitude of the Fall. It is not easy to erect a standard of comparison; and the view requires to be studied, in order to attain a just conception and appreciation of its grandeur and its beauties. The ear is at first stunned by the incessant roar, and the eye bewildered in the general view. In proportion as these become familiarized, we seize upon the individual features of the landscape, and are enabled to distinguish between the gay and the sombre, the bold and the picturesque, the harsh and the mellow traits, which, like the deep contrasted shades of some high wrought picture, contribute to give effect to the scene.

‘It was some time before Icould satisfy myself of the accuracy of the accredited measurements of the height of the Fall, and not until after Ihad made repeated visits, and spent a considerable time in the abyss below. There appears a great disproportion between the height and the width of the falling sheet, but the longer Iremained, the more magnificent it appeared to me; and hence it is, that with something like a feeling of disappointment, on my first arrival, Ileft the Falls after a visit of two days, with an impression of the scene which every thing Ihad previously read, had failed to create. At the time of my visit, the wind drove the floating ice out of Lake Erie, with the drift-wood of its tributary rivers, and these were constantly precipitated over the Falls, but we were not able to discover any vestiges of them in the eddies below. Immediately in front of the sheet of falling water on the American side, there was also an enormous bank of snow, of nearly an hundred feet in height, which the power of the sun had not yet been fierce enough to dissolve, and which, by giving an Icelandic character to the landscape, produced a fine effect. It appeared to me to owe its accumulation to the falling particles of frozen spray.

‘What has been said by Goldsmith, and repeated by others, respecting the destructive influence of the rapids15 above to ducks and other water fowl, is only an effect of the imagination. So far from being the case, a wild duck is often seen to swim down the rapid to the brink of the Falls, and then fly out, and repeat the descent, seeming to take a delight in the exercise. Neither are small land-birds affected on flying over the Falls, in the manner that has been stated. Iobserved the blue-bird and the wren, which had already made their annual visit to the banks of the Niagara, frequently fly within one or two feet of the brink, apparently delighted with the gift of their wings, which enabled them to sport over such frightful precipices without danger. We are certainly not well pleased to find that some of the wonderful stories we have read of the Falls, during boyhood, do not turn out to be the truth; but, at the same time, a little attention is only necessary to discover that many interesting facts and particulars remain unnoticed, which fully compensate for others that have been over-strained or misstated. Among these, the crystalline appearances disclosed among the prostrate ruins, and the geological character of the Fall itself, are not the least interesting.

‘The scenes where nature has experienced her greatest convulsions, are always the most favorable for acquiring a knowledge of the internal structure of the earth. The peaks of the highest mountains, and the depths of the lowest ravines, present the greatest attractions to the geologist. Hence this cataract, which has worn its way for a number of miles, and to a very great depth, through the stony crust of the earth, is no less interesting for the geological facts it discloses, than for the magnificence of its natural scenery. The chain of highlands, called the Ridge, originates in Upper Canada, and running parallel with the south shore of Lake Ontario, forms a natural terrace, which pervades the western counties of New-York, from north to south, affording, by its unbroken chain, and the horizontal position of its strata, the advantages of a natural road, and terminates in an unexplored part of the county of Oswego, or thereabout. It is in crossing this ridge, that the falls of the Niagara, of the Gennessee, and of the Oswego rivers, all running into Lake Ontario, are produced; together with those of an infinite number of smaller streams and brooks. Through this, the Niagara has cut its way for a distance of seven miles, and to a depth of more than two hundred feet, disclosing the number, order of stratification, and mineral character, of the different strata of secondary rocks, of which it is composed.

‘These rocks, (sandstone, slate, and limestone,) however their properties may be found modified by future discoveries, will probably be found, with a proper allowance for local formations and disturbances, to pervade all that section of country, which lies between the Niagara and Seneca rivers, between lakes Ontario and Seneca, and between the Alleghany river and the south shore of Lake Erie, as general boundaries. All this section of country appears to be underlayed by a stratum of red sandstone, such as appears at the Gennessee Falls, but which is imbedded at various depths, as the country happens to be elevated above, or depressed below the level of the Niagara stratum, in which no inclination is visible. No order of stratification could have been effected by nature, which would have afforded greater facilities to the wasting effects of falling water, so visible as these Falls. The slate which separates the calcareous from the sandstone rock, by a stratum of nearly forty feet in thickness, is continually fretting away, and undermining the superincumbent stratum of limestone, which is thus precipitated in prodigious masses into the abyss below. The most considerable occurrence of this kind, that has recently taken place, is that of the Table Rock,16 on the Canadian shore, which fell during the summer of 1818, disclosing a number of those crystallized substances, which have already been alluded to. By these means, the Falls, which are supposed by the most intelligent visitors to have been anciently seated at Lewiston, have progressed seven miles up the river, cutting a trench through the solid rock, which is about half a mile in width, and two hundred feet in depth, exclusive of what is hidden by the water. The power, capable of effecting such a wonderful change, still exists, and may be supposed to operate with undiminished activity. The wasting effects of the water, and the yielding nature of the rocks, remain the same, and manifest the slow process of a change, at the present period, as to position, height, form, division of column, and other characters, which form the outlines of the great scene; and this change is probably sufficiently rapid in its operation, if minute observations were taken, to imprint a different character upon the falls, at the close of every century.’

The Great Falls of the Missouri are the grandest in all North America, those of Niagara excepted, and though inferior to these in volume of water, depth of descent, and awful grandeur, yet they are far more diversified and beautiful. These Falls are within sixty geographical miles of the easternmost range of the Rocky Mountains. Here the river, two hundred and eighty yards, or eight hundred and forty feet wide, is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff on the left, one hundred feet high, and extending for a mile up the river; on the right, the bluff, or high steep bank, is also perpendicular for three hundred yards above the falls. For ninety or one hundred yards from the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth even sheet over a precipice of eighty-seven feet eight inches, according to Captain Lewis; but ninety-eight feet, according to Cass, and Captain Clarke. The remaining part of the river precipitates itself with a more rapid current; but being received as it falls by the irregular and projecting rocks below, forms a splendid prospect of perfectly white foam, two hundred yards in length, and eighty in perpendicular elevation. This spray is dissipated into a thousand different shapes; sometimes flying up in columns of fifteen or twenty feet, which are then oppressed by larger masses of the white foam, on all which the sun impresses the brightest colors of the rainbow. As it rises from the fall, it beats with fury against a ledge of rocks extending across the river, at one hundred and fifty yards from the precipice. From the perpendicular cliff on the north, to the distance of one hundred and twenty yards, the rocks rise only a few feet above the surface of the water; and when the river is high, the stream finds a passage across them; but between the southern extremity of this ledge and the perpendicular cliff on the south, the whole body of water runs with great rapidity. At the distance of three hundred yards is a second abutment of solid perpendicular rock, sixty feet high, projecting at right angles from the small plain on the north for one hundred and thirty-four yards into the river. Below this, the Missouri regains its usual breadth of three hundred yards, but there is a continued succession of rapids and cascades. At the second grand fall, the river, four hundred yards wide, precipitates itself, for the space of three hundred yards, to a depth of nineteen feet perpendicular, and so irregularly, that Captain Lewis termed it the Crooked Fall.

Above this fall, the Missouri bends suddenly to the northward, where, four hundred and seventy-three yards wide, it is suddenly stopped by one shelving rock, which without a single niche, and with an edge as straight and regular as if it had been formed by art, stretches itself across from one side of the river to the other. Over this the Missouri precipitates itself in one even, uninterrupted sheet, of four hundred and seventy-three yards broad to the perpendicular depth of forty-seven feet eight inches; whence, dashing against the rocky bottom, it rushes rapidly down, leaving behind it a spray of the purest foam across the river. At the distance of less than half a mile, another of a similar kind is presented. Here a cascade stretches across the whole river, for a quarter of a mile, with a descent of fourteen feet seven inches, though the perpendicular pitch is only six feet seven inches. For the space of one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven yards above this cascade the river descends fifteen feet. Immediately above this, one of the largest springs in America falls into the river. Its water is cold, of the most perfect clearness, and of a bluish color, which it preserves, even for half a mile after falling into the Missouri, notwithstanding its rapidity. This fountain rises in the plain, twenty-five yards from the river, on the south side. In its course to the river, it falls over some steep, irregular rocks, with a sudden descent of eight feet perpendicular, in one part of its progress. The water boils up from among the rocks, and with such force near the centre that the surface seems higher than the earth on the sides of the fountain, which is a handsome turf of green grass. The water is pleasant to the taste, not being impregnated with lime or any adventitious substance. For the space of a mile and one thousand one hundred and sixty-six yards above the mouth of this spring, the descent of the river is thirteen feet six inches.

During the upper part of its course, this river is remarkable for a succession of rapids, cascades, and cataracts, and in a course of about three miles it has a descent of no less than three hundred and fifty-two feet.

On the Mississippi River are several sets of rapids. One called Les Rapides des Moines, is eleven miles long, and consists of successive ledges and shoals, extending from shore to shore across the bed of the river. One hundred miles higher up is another, about eighteen miles in length, and consisting of a continued chain of rocks, over which the water flows with turbulent rapidity.

About thirty miles from its source, the Mississippi, after winding through a dismal country, covered with high grass meadows, with pine swamps in the distance, which appear to cast a deeper gloom on its borders, is suddenly pent up in a channel about eighty feet wide, where it has a descent of twenty feet in three hundred yards. This fall is called Peckagama. Immediately at the head of the falls is the first island noticed in the river. It is small, rocky, covered with spruce and cedar, and divides the channel nearly in its centre.

St.Anthony’s Falls are situated on the Mississippi river, more than two thousand miles above its mouth. Above the falls, the river has a width of five or six hundred yards. Immediately below, it contracts to a width of two hundred yards; and there is a strong rapid for a considerable distance below. This beautiful spot in the Mississippi is not without a tale to hallow its scenery, and heighten the interest, which, of itself, it is calculated to produce. In the narrative of Long’s Second Expedition, we find the following romantic story, related by an old Indian, whose mother was an eye-witness to the transaction:

‘An Indian of the Dacota nation had united himself early in life to a youthful female, whose name was Ampota Sapa, which signifies the Dark Day; with her he lived happily for several years, apparently enjoying every comfort which the savage life can afford. Their union had been blessed with two children, on whom both parents doated with that depth of feeling which is unknown to such as have other treasures besides those that spring from nature. The man had acquired a reputation as a hunter, which drew around him many families, who were happy to place themselves under his protection, and avail themselves of such part of his chase as he needed not for the maintenance of his family. Desirous of strengthening their interest with him, some of them invited him to form a connection with their family, observing, at the same time, that a man of his talent and importance required more than one woman to wait upon the numerous guests whom his reputation would induce to visit his lodge. They assured him that he would soon be acknowledged as a chief, and that, in this case, a second wife was indispensable.

‘Fired with the ambition of obtaining high honors, he resolved to increase his importance by an union with the daughter of an influential man of his tribe. He had accordingly taken a second wife without ever having mentioned the subject to his former companion; being desirous to introduce his bride into his lodge in the manner which should be least offensive to the mother of his children, for whom he still retained much regard, he introduced the subject in these words: “You know,” said he, “that Ican love no woman so fondly as Idoat upon you. With regret have Iseen you of late subjected to toils which must be oppressive to you, and from which Iwould gladly relieve you, yet Iknow no other way of doing so, than by associating with you in the household duties, one who shall relieve you from the trouble of entertaining the numerous guests, whom my growing importance in the nation collects around me. Ihave, therefore, resolved upon taking another wife, but she shall always be subject to your control, as she will always rank in my affections second to you.”

‘With the utmost anxiety, and the deepest concern, did his companion listen to this unexpected proposal. She expostulated in the kindest terms, entreated him with all the arguments which undisguised love and the purest conjugal affections could suggest. She replied to all the objections which his duplicity led him to raise. Desirous of winning her from her opposition, the Indian still concealed the secret of his union with another, while she redoubled all her care to convince him that she was equal to the task imposed upon her. When he again spoke on the subject, she pleaded all the endearments of their past life; she spoke of his former fondness for her, of his regard for her happiness and that of their mutual offspring; she bade him beware of the consequences of this fatal purpose of his. Finding her bent upon withholding her consent to this plan, he informed her that all opposition on her part was unnecessary, as he had already selected another partner, and that if she could not receive his new wife as a friend, she must receive her as a necessary incumbrance, for he had resolved that she should be an inmate in his house.

‘Distressed at this information, she watched her opportunity, stole away from the cabin with her infants, and fled to a distance where her father was. With him she remained until a party of Indians with whom he lived, went up the Mississippi on a winter hunt. In the spring, as they were returning with their canoes loaded with peltries, they encamped near the Falls. In the morning as they left it, she lingered near the spot, then launched her light canoe, entered into it with her children, and paddled down the stream, singing her death-song. Too late did her friends perceive it; their attempts to prevent her from proceeding were of no avail; she was heard to sing in a doleful voice the past pleasures which she had enjoyed, while she was the undivided object of her husband’s affection; finally her voice was drowned in the sound of the cataract; the current carried down her frail bark with an inconceivable rapidity; it came to the edge of the precipice, was seen for a moment enveloped in spray, but never afterwards was a trace of the canoe or its passengers seen. Yet it is stated by the Indians, that often in the morning a voice has been heard to sing a doleful ditty along the edge of the fall, and that it dwells ever on the inconstancy of her husband. Nay, some assert that her spirit has been seen wandering near the spot with her children wrapped to her bosom. Such are the tales or traditions which the Indians treasure up, and which they relate to the voyager, forcing a tear from the eyes of the most unrelenting.’

There are many other falls in the United States, which have been the subject of no extended descriptions, but which would excite admiration in any quarter of the world. In New York, the Great Falls of the Genesee, about half a mile below Rochester, are ninety feet perpendicular, and a few rods above is another of five feet, surmounted by a rapid. On the same river are several other falls. Trenton Falls are on West Canada Creek, a tributary of the Mohawk, fourteen miles north of Utica; they consist of several grand and beautiful cascades, some of them forty feet in descent. The river here passes through a rocky chasm four miles in length, presenting the greatest variety of cascades and rapids, boiling pools and eddies. The rock is a dark limestone, and contains abundance of petrified marine shells. Glen’s Falls are upon the Hudson, eighteen miles above Saratoga, and are a grand rapid, falling sixty-seven feet in a course of one hundred and seventy yards. Jessup’s Falls and Hadley Falls are beautiful cataracts on the same stream, a few miles above. Claverack Falls are upon a stream near the city of Hudson; they descend down a precipice of dark rocks into a deep chasm shaded with forest trees. The cataracts near Ithaca comprise four hundred and thirty-eight feet of descent in a mile; the fall of the Cohoes on the Mohawk is seventy feet.

At Bellows Falls, five miles from the town of Walpole, on the Connecticut, the whole descent of the river, in the space of half a mile, is forty-four feet; and it includes several pitches, one below another, at the highest of which a large rock divides the stream into two channels, each about ninety feet wide. When the water is low, the eastern channel is dry, being crossed by a solid rock, and the whole stream falls into the western channel, where, being contracted to the breadth of sixteen feet, it flows with astonishing force and rapidity. Abridge has been built over these falls, from which an advantageous view is had of their interesting and romantic scenery. Some years ago a canal, over half a mile long, was dug through the rocks around the falls, for the passage of flat-bottomed boats and rafts. Notwithstanding the velocity of the current, salmon used to pass up the fall in great numbers. Amoskeag Falls, in the Merrimack, consist of three successive pitches, falling nearly fifty feet. The Housatonic Falls, in the north-west part of Connecticut, are the finest in New England.

The Passaic Falls, in Paterson, New Jersey, twenty-two miles north-west of New York, are highly picturesque and beautiful. The river Passaic rises in the northern part of New Jersey, and after a circuitous course, falls into Newark Bay. At the town of Paterson, about twenty miles from its mouth, is the Great Fall, where the river, about one hundred and twenty feet wide, and running with a very swift current, reaches a deep chasm, or cleft, which crosses the channel, and falls perpendicularly about seventy feet, in one entire sheet. One end of the cleft is closed up, and the water rushes out at the other with incredible rapidity, in an acute angle to its former direction, and is received into a large basin. It thence takes a winding course through the rocks, and spreads again into a very considerable channel. The cleft is from four to twelve feet in breadth, and is supposed to have been produced by an earthquake. When this cataract was visited by a late British traveller, the spray refracted two beautiful rainbows, primary and secondary, which greatly assisted in producing as fine a scene as imagination can conceive. It was also heightened by the effect of another fall, of less magnificence, about ninety feet above.

The spirit of utility, in its stern disregard of the picturesque, has diverted the current of the Passaic into so many channels for the supply of manufactories, that the cascade is now an object of interest only during the wet season.

The Potomac, which forms the boundary between the states of Maryland and Virginia, is navigable to the city of Washington; above which it is obstructed by several falls, of which the most remarkable are Little Falls, three miles above Washington, with a descent of thirty-seven feet: Great Falls, eight and a half miles further up, with a descent of seventy-six feet; which have been made navigable by means of five locks: Seneca Falls, six miles above, descending ten feet: Shenandoah Falls, sixty miles higher up the river, where the Potomac breaks through the Blue Ridge at Harper’s Ferry: Houre’s Falls, five miles above the Shenandoah.

In addition to the cataracts above enumerated, we may notice the Falling Spring, in Bath county, Virginia, which forms a beautiful cascade, streaming from a perpendicular precipice, two hundred feet high; and the Tuccoa Fall, in Franklin county, Georgia, which, though one of the most beautiful that can be conceived, is scarcely yet known to geographers. It is one hundred and eighty-seven feet in height, and the water is propelled over a perpendicular rock. When the stream is full, it pours over the steep in one expansive magnificent sheet, amid clouds of spray, on which the prismatic colors are reflected with a most enchanting effect.

The cascades of the Catskill Mountains are very romantic and beautiful. The Kasterskill is formed by the union of two branches, one rising in two lakes, about one and a half miles east of the western cascade, the other about half the distance in a northerly direction. The best view of the western fall is from below, the foliage above being so thick as in a great measure to obscure it. Below the fall the banks of the stream, which are nearly three hundred feet in height, rise almost perpendicularly from the surface of the water. The following description is from the pen of Mr.H.E. Dwight.

‘The rocks on each side of the stream project so as partially to eclipse the sides of the fall. They have fallen from time to time, in such a manner as to form seventeen natural steps, rising one above another. We stationed ourselves on these steps, to enjoy the scenery around us. Before us the stream fell in a beautiful sheet, exhibiting its transparent waters, when, striking the inclined plane, it rushed down with headlong fury, bearing on its surface a foam of silvery whiteness. On the right and left, the banks rose over our heads in silent grandeur, as if on the point of detaching their projecting masses into the ravine where we were standing, while below us, the water was visible for about thirty rods, descending in the form of a rapid, when, bending around the point of a projection of the mountain, it disappeared from our view. The spray was so thick as to make a dense cloud, on which the sun, shining with great brilliancy, and being nearly vertical, imprinted a perfect rainbow. This bow, which was not more than eight feet in diameter, formed a circle around us slightly elliptical, near the centre of which we stood. As we approached the fall, the spray thickened, the splendor of the colors increased, and the shrubs, the rocks, and the water, were tinged with its choicest hues. To complete the view, a small rivulet, caused by the late rains, fell about two hundred feet, in the form of a cascade, down the precipice, on the southern bank of the stream, displaying its crystal waters through the green foliage which adorned it. We remained here enjoying the prospect for some minutes, when, drenched with spray, we reluctantly bade it adieu, with all those emotions which the sublimity and beauty of such a scene would naturally awaken.

‘I visited the eastern cascade immediately after viewing the western fall on the Kaaterskill, when the column of water was swollen to eight or ten times its common size, and shall describe it, as it then appeared. The rock over which the water descends, projects in such a manner that the cascade forms part of a parabolic curve. After striking a rock below, it runs down an inclined plane a few rods in length, when it rushes over another precipice of one hundred feet. The column of water remained entire for two thirds the descent, and its surface was covered with a rich sparkling foam, which, as it fell, presented to the eye a brilliant emanation. Here it was broken, and formed a continued succession of showers. Large globules of water, of a soft, pearly lustre, enriched with a prismatic reflection, shot off in tangents to the curve of the cascade, and being drawn by the attraction of gravitation, united again with the stream. The sun, shining through a clear atmosphere, imprinted on it his glittering rays, appearing like a moving column of transparent snow. The spray, rising to the height of several hundred feet, was continually agitated by a strong wind, which gave birth to a number of rainbows. They were elevated one above the other, and increased in brilliancy towards the base of the cascade, where, as well as at the lower fall, an iris spread its arch of glory, tinging the rocks and foliage with its brightest colors.

‘The ground below these cascades continued descending at an angle of forty-five degrees, forming a hollow like an inverted cone, of one thousand feet in depth. This was lined with lofty trees, whose verdant tops, varying from the dark hemlock to the light maple, were bending with the wind. Through this waving forest the cascade appeared at various distances, sparkling with the rays of the sun, and forming a fine contrast to the sombre rocks which surrounded it. From this cavity, at the distance of several miles, a peak rose to an elevation of two thousand feet, while the mountains on the right and left, impressed their bold outlines on the sky beyond them.

‘The best view of this scene, is a few rods from the base of the lower fall. These cascades are both of them in a direct line, and by standing in this position can be united in one. By raising your eyes, a fall of four hundred feet appears precipitated from the precipices above, apparently ready to overwhelm you, while the rocks above overhang the abyss in wild sublimity, threatening you with destruction.

‘The appearance of the upper cascade, in the middle of winter, is very interesting. The rock over which the stream descends, projects in such a manner, that the icicles, which form in that season, meet with no interruption in their descent towards the base of the fall. The water, which strikes the rocks below, begins to congeal and rise (between the column of water and the rock) towards the icicles above. These project towards the base, increasing in magnitude from day to day, while the column from below is greatly enlarged by the water and the spray, which, immediately congealing, in a short time surround the stream. Acolumn of ice, resembling a rude cone, of between two and three hundred feet, is thus formed, through the centre of which the stream pours its current, dwindled, by the congelation of its waters, to one tenth its common size. When illumined by the rays of the sun, it presents a transparent column glowing with brilliancy, reflecting and refracting its rays in such a manner as to present all the colors of the prism. It remains some weeks, a striking example of the power of hoary frost, when, partly dissolved by the genial warmth of spring, it falls, scattering its thousand fragments on the rocks around it.’