250 THE CATARACTS OF AMERICA. ON Hood's River, just within the arctic circle; of which a particular description has been given in a former Number*. Travelling southward from these Falls, across a country intersected by mountains, lakes, and rivers, the last of which abound in the minor falls, called Rapids, we arrive, after a journey of about 1100 miles, at the source of the MISSOURI, ST. ANTHONY S FALLS. HERE the Mississippi is upwards of 1800 feet wide above the fall, but not more than a third of that width below. The perpendicular height of the fall is 16 feet, besides fifty-eight feet more of a rapid below; so that when viewed from a distance in front, it appears much higher than it really is. When the Mississippi is full, which happens twice in the year, about January and June, the appearance of St. Anthony's Falls is very sublime, as the spray then thrown up reflects the prismatic colours while the sun shines; and when the sky is overcast, the whole is enveloped in a kind of majestic gloom. About twelve miles below these falls, tne Mississippi receives the waters of St. Peter's river, which is about 300 feet wide; and has several rapids and falls in the upper parts of its course. One, called ST. PETER'S FALL, is about fifty miles from the junction of the two rivers, and very in teresting in its characteristics. OHIO-PYLE FALLS. A RIVER remarkable, in its upper part, for a succession of rapids, cascades, and cataracts, during a course of nearly three miles, in which it has a descent of no less than 352 AMONG the waters of various tributary streams, the Missis feet. Its current, consequently, runs with great velocity.sippi receives those of the Ohio and its auxiliaries. The Immediately above the falls, the river is 900 feet in breadth. Ohio itself has no considerable cataract; but at Louisville, The first fall of any interest has a pitch of five feet; and it has a rapid descent of 22 feet, in two miles. Its tribu immediately after it, occurs a beautiful cascade of 26 feet. tary, the Monogahela, receives the waters of the YoughioThe width of the river is here increased to 1800 feet; and geny, and about thirty miles above their union, the latter the water falls in a smooth sheet to about one-third of the has a grand cataract of twenty feet perpendicular fall, descent. After passing over some falls of trifling height, called the OHIO-РYLE. the river is joined by the waters of a large fountain, which, springing up from beneath the rocks on its margin, form a cascade of eight feet. Below this is a fall of 14 feet down an inclined plane, a quarter of a mile in length; at the bottom of which, the river, about a quarter of a mile in breadth, is precipitated down a precipice of fifty feet. Captain Lewis describes this cataract as singularly beautiful, combining all the regular elegancies which the fancy of a painter would select to represent an elegant waterfall. At the distance of a quarter of a mile, is another cataract, nineteen feet in perpendicular height; to which Captain Lewis gave the name of the Crooked Fall. From this point, with one fall of five feet, and another of two, the river is a continued rapid, with a descent of nearly fifty feet, till it reaches the GRAND CATARACT. Here the channel is restricted to a breadth of 840 feet, by cliffs, rising, on the left side, to the height of 100 feet, but of no great altitude on the right; and through an opening in these rocks, the flood pours itself over a precipice of eightyseven feet in depth. For about 300 feet on the left side, the water rushes down in one smooth, even sheet; but the remainder of the river, being carried forward with a more rapid current, and interrupted in its fall by irregularly projecting rocks below, forms a splendid display of perfectly white foam, 600 feet in breadth, and rising to the height of 200 feet, in a thousand fanciful shapes, to which the solar rays impart the brightest tints of the rainbow. When the river is high, as is the case after the melting of the snows on the adjacent mountains, and after heavy rains, the stream makes its way over the low rocks, and increases the cataract to a breadth of 120 feet. FALLS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. ABOUT fifteen degrees of longitude eastward of the source of the Missouri, the Mississippi has its rise. On this 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. About 100 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. PACKAGAMA FALL. 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 not more than sixty feet wide, and the water rushes down a flat rock, twenty feet in perpendicular height, and having an elevation of thirty degrees. Immediately below this fall, the river widens to 1300 feet, and presents a continued series of rapids, falls, and shoals, for nearly 1000 miles, when it meets with See Saturday Magazine, for 18th August, 1832, p. 57. The course of the Mississippi, and its confluent streams, having taken us somewhat out of our way, we must return towards the north, where, on the borders of Upper Canada, we meet with a strait, uniting the lakes Superior and Huron in which is the cataract, called ST. MARY'S FALL. THE river, or strait, St. Mary, which forms a boundary between Canada and the territories of the United States, is about forty miles long, and the only outlet for the super fluous waters of Lake Superior, which it conveys into Lake Huron. About midway between the lakes, the flood, forcing its way through a confined channel, and breaking with violence among the natural impediments in its way, produces a scene of tumultuous agitation, which, combined with the noise and dazzling whiteness of the surge, is not deficient either in grandeur or romantic effect. The total descent of the fall is 22 feet, in about three quarters of a mile. From Lake Huron, into which these falls lead, the water is discharged into Lake Erie; and then again, into Lake Ontario, over the celebrated FALLS OF NIAGARA. THIS cataract has been represented by travellers, as one of the most interesting phenomena of the western world; not, indeed, on account of its height, for that is much exceeded by other falls: but for its extent, its tremendous Falls of Niagara. rapidity, and the inconceivable bulk of water, the overplus of four immense inland seas, which is precipitated down its abysm. The river, which is about 33 miles in length, and of considerable depth, varying in breadth from half a mile to a league, may be said to be a continued series of rapids, with a headstrong stream, frequently interrupted by rocky projections. About three miles above the falls, in consequence of a rapid descent of fifty-one feet, the waves break over the rocks with such terrific impetuosity, that the mere sight of them from the banks, is sufficient to make the spectator shudder. Just at the falls, the river makes an abrupt turn from west to north-east, and the line of the cataract winds obliquely across, instead of extending in the shortest direction, from one bank to the other. Here also the stream is divided into two unequal portions, by an island, called Goat Island, which, presenting a face towards the stream of about 990 feet, adds greatly to the romantic effect of the falls, and, with the ledges of the precipices, forms the chord of an irregular arc, about 3300 feet from shore to shore. The Great Fall, called also, from its shape, the Horse Shoe Fall, is on the Canadian side. Its curvature is computed at 2100 feet, and its height at rather more than 149 feet. The Lener or Schlosher Fall, so denominated from Fort Schlosher, on its margin, is on the American side, and about 1125 feet in curvilinear length, with a perpendicular height of 162 feet: it experiences an inconsiderable subdivision from a small islet, called Montmorenci, and hence, Niagara is sometimes described as a threefold cataract. As the waters approach the head of Goat Island, their previous convulsive agitation partially subsides, and they sweep forward, in a broad, ceaseless, and swift current, to the brink of the fall, down which they tumultuously roll, without interruption from rocks in their descent, with a deafening noise; and throwing up clouds of vapour, on which the solar rays are reflected in most beautiful rainbows. The noise is so great, that, in a clear day, and with a favourable wind, it is heard at the distance of forty miles; and the spray is thrown to such a height, that, at the distance of seventy miles, it is said, the cloudy vapour may be discerned. An elegant writer, who has given an elaborate description of this grand spectacle, compares "the solemn and tremendous noise, with volumes of vapour darting upwards in the air," to "the simultaneous report and smoke of a thousand cannons." The quantity of water rolling over these falls, has been estimated at 670,250 tuns per minute! FALLS ON THE OTTAWA. THE river Ottawa, or Utawas, which forms a boundary between Upper and Lower Canada, and empties its waters into the St. Lawrence, at Montreal, is intersected with numerous falls, as, the GRAND CALUMET, with a succession of cascades, varying from six to ten feet in height; the RAPIDES DU FORT, eight feet in perpendicular height; the RAPIDES DES CHATS, three miles in length, with several falls towards the end, from sixteen to twenty feet. All these present wild and romantic scenery, worthy the attention of those who seek the picturesque of nature: but the most celebrated falls on this, river, are those of the CHAUDIERES, or KETTLES. The Great Kettle, so called from its shape, and the volume of water it involves, is about sixty feet in depth, and 212 feet across; and attracts, by its forcible indraught, a considerable portion of the waters, which, strongly compressed by the circular shape of the gulf, descend in heavy torrents, struggling violently to escape, and throwing up dense clouds of spray. The Little Kettle receives its waters into a broad, elongated, strait fissure, by which a considerable portion escapes subterraneously; a circumstance not peculiar to this spot: for, in various places of the same river, the waters pass through deep but narrow rents and fissures, to dash through some subterranean passage, that defies the scrutiny of the curious. FALLS ON THE ST. MAURICE. THIS river, which joins the St. Lawrence about ninety miles above Quebec, is interesting to admirers of the beauties of nature, from its numerous cascades. Among these we shall notice, 1. The FALLS OF GABELLE, about twenty-five feet in height, and descending through a partial contraction of the river with great velocity. 2. The FALLS OF LE GRAIS, formed by some small islands, clothed with rich foliage, which separate the waters into several channels, each possessing a pleasing cascade. Between five and six miles higher up the river are the great FALLS OF SHAWENEGAN, where the water, divided by a rock into two channels, is precipitated over a ledge nearly 150 feet in perpendicular height, and rushes with terrific violence against the cliff below, where the two streams are reunited, and an immense body of water is forced through a passage, comparatively narrow, though ninety feet wide. Few falls exhibit such evident marks as this of some extraordinary convulsion of nature. ABOUT nine miles below Quebec, the St. Lawrence is joined by the Montmorenci, a river remarkable for the continued rapidity of its course, and for the falls at its mouth. The height, the magnificence, and surrounding beauties of this cataract, cause it to be visited by all travellers who arrive at Quebec, with means and leisure for gratifying a taste for the sublime. At a settlement, called La Motte, the waters are diffused into shallow currents, passing over an irregular rocky bed, which breaks them into foam, accompanied by murmuring sounds. Lower down, the channel becomes bounded by precipitous rocks; its breadth becomes contracted, and the current proportionably quickened. At a place called the NATURAL STEPS are several beautiful cascades, of ten or twelve feet each. These steps have been gradually formed by the accession of water received by the river at the breaking up of winter; and from the middle of April to the end of May, the volume of water rolls with increasing height and rapidity. After exhibiting a beautiful variety in its course, and passing over two other magnificent cascades, the river arrives at the GREAT FALL OF MONTMORENCI, where the stream is from fifty to sixty feet wide. A slight slope of the bed, before it reaches this point, gives additiona velocity to the current, so that the water is violently projected over a perpendicular rock, nearly 250 feet high, in an extended sheet, of a whiteness and fleecy appearance resembling snow. Wherever it touches the rock, it falls in white clouds of rolling foam; and beneath, where it is propelled without interruption, it forms innumerable flakes, like wool or cotton, which are gradually protracted in the descent, till received into the boiling profound beneath. An immense spray rises from the bottom in curling volumes which, when the sun displays its bright prismatic colours produce an effect inconceivably beautiful. FALLS OF THE RIVER CHAUDIERE. ABOUT six miles above Quebec, but on the opposite bank, the river Chaudière pours its tributary stream in to the St. Law rence. This river, varying in breadth from 1200 to 1800 feet, THE SATURDAY MAGAZINE. is replete with rapids, and other impediments to navigation. Among others, the cataract most celebrated for its beauty and surrounding scenery, is situated about four miles from the river's mouth, where, narrowed by jutting rocks, extending from each side, the precipice, over which the waters rush, is scarcely more than 390 feet in breadth; and the height from which they descend, is about 130 feet. Huge imasses of rock, which appear to have been rent from their primeval bed by some violent convulsion of nature, rise above the surface of the current, just at the break of the fall, and divide the stream into three portions, forming secondary cascades, which re-unite their waters, before they reach the basin below. water roll unbroken to the bottom; in other places, the In some parts, large sheets of liquid element dashes from one fragment of rock to another with wild impetuosity, bellowing and foaming in every hollow cavity that obstructs its progress; thence it rushes down, with the rapidity of lightning, into the boiling surge beneath, where it rages with inconceivable fury, till it is hurried away by a fresh torrent, and loses itself in the channel of the St. Lawrence. GREAT FALL ON THE RIVER ST. JOHN. Ar the distance of a few miles eastward of the Chaudière, rises the river St. John, which flows through New Brunswick, in its way to Fundy Bay, where its waters are discharged. Just after leaving the Canadian border, the river rushes with great fury over a rocky bed, till, being suddenly narrowed by projections of the cliffs on either side, it rolls impetuously over their ledges, in a perpendicular line of forty-five feet, into a narrow basin of pointed rocks, amid which it foams and rages till it escapes, through a narrow rocky channel, over a series of declivities, half a mile in continuance, and each forming a distinct cascade. The scenery about these falls is described as grand and sublime; consisting of towering abrupt eminences, precipitous crags, and dark unpenetrated forests. At the mouth of the river, about a mile above the town of St. John's, are alternate falls, inward and outward, every tide; occasioned by the narrowness of the channel, and a ridge of rocks across its bottom, which intercept the water in its passage to and from the sea. At the ebb, the waters of the river are penned up about twelve feet higher than those of the bay, and an outward fall occurs: but at high water, the sea rises about five feet higher than the river, and rushes through the strait, with an inward fall. BELLOWS FALLS, ON THE CONNECTICUT. PASSING from the British territories into those of the United States, the first cataract of importance we meet with is denominated the Bellows Falls, at Walpole, on the Connecticut river. The whole descent of the river, in the space of two furlongs and a half, 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 wholo stream falls into the western channel, where, being contracted to the breadth of sixteen feet, it flows with astonishing force and rapidity. A bridge has been built over these falls, from which an advantageous view is had of their interesting and romantic scenery. CAHOOS FALLS, ON THE MOHAWK RIVER. In the state of New York, about two miles from the mouth of the Mohawk river, are the falls called Cahoos, or Cahoes, where the river, about a thousand feet broad, descends, at high water, in one sheet, to the depth of seventy feet, affording a grand spectacle from the bridge, which has been built across the Mohawk, about three quarters of a mile below the cataract. FALL ON THE HOUSATONICK RIVER. THIS river rises in the western part of Massachusetts, and enters Connecticut near its north-west corner. seven miles from the boundary of the two states, the water About of the whole river, which is 450 feet across, is precipitated over a perpendicular fall of sixty feet. PASSAICK FALLS. THE river Passaick rises in the northern part of New Jersey, and, after a circuitous course, falls into Newark Bay. At the town of Patterson, about twenty miles from its mouth, is the Great Fall, where the river, about 120 feet wide, and running with a very swift current, reaches its former direction, and is received into a large basin. It at the other with incredible rapidity, in an acute angle to spreads again into a very considerable channel. The cleft thence takes a winding course through the rocks, and 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 greatly assisted in producing as fine a scene as imaginatwo beautiful rainbows, primary and secondary, which tion can conceive. It was also heightened by the effect of another fall, of less magnificence, about ninety feet above. In the same state, are the FALLS OF TRENTON, opposite the town of that name, on the Delaware River. FALLS OF THо Ротомаск. THE Potomack, which forms the boundary between the Washington; above which it is obstructed by several falls, states of Maryland and Virginia, is navigable to the city of FALLS, three miles above Washington, with a descent of of which the following are the most remarkable. 1. LITTLE thirty-seven feet. 2. 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. 3. SENECA FALLS, six miles above, descending ten feet. 4. SHENANDOAH FALLS, sixty miles higher up the river, where the Ferry. 5. HOURE'S FALLS, five miles above the ShenanPotomack breaks through the blue ridge, at Harper's ingly diversified; particularly No. 4, which is much cele doah. They all possess interesting characteristics, pleas brated for its grandeur and magnificence. IN addition to the cataracts in the United States, above 1. The FALLING SPRING, in Bath county, Virginia, which forms a beautiful cascade, streaming from a perpendicular precipice, 200 feet high. 2. The TUCCOA FALL, in Franklin county, Georgia, ceived, is scarcely yet known to our geographers. It is which, though one of the most beautiful that can be conmuch higher than the great fall of Niagara, and the water is full, it pours over the steep in one expansive magnificent is propelled over a perpendicular rock. When the stream sheet, amid clouds of spray, on which the prismatic colours are reflected with a most enchanting effect. SOUTH AMERICA. CATARACTS OF THE PUSAMBIO. Columbia, is situated on a great plain among the Andes, THE little village of Purace, in the province of Popayan, at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. This plain is bounded by two extremely deep ravines, presenting frightful precipices, the effect of earthquakes and rises the small river Pusambio, which is warm towards the convulsions of the neighbouring volcano. On the plain, phuric and muriatic acids, that the Spaniards have denosource, and so impregnated with oxide of iron, and sulminated it Rio Vinagre. This river, which, probably, owes its origin to the daily melting of the snows, and the sulphur that burns in the interior of the volcano, forms, near the plain of Corazan, three cataracts, the two uppermost of which are very considerable. The water, after making its way through a cavern, precipitates itself down nearly 400 feet. The fall is extremely picturesque, and attracts the attention of travellers; but the waters are so pernicious, that the Rio Cauca, into which it flows, is destitute of fish for four leagues afterwards. FALLS ON THE ORONOCO. THE cataracts on the Oronoco occur 740 miles from its mouth, and 760 from its source, at the villages Maypura and Atures, near the great bend of the river. They are three in number, and are represented as the most tremendous falls that have ever been observed; but no good description has been given of them, though they constitute the only outlets from the country east of the Andes, to the vast plains of the Amazons. THE TEQUENDAMA CATARACT. THIS celebrated fall is upon the River Bogota, near the town of Santa Fé, in the Columbian Republic. At a little distance above the fall, the river is about 140 feet wide; but as it approaches the chasm through which it dashes, its breadth is suddenly diminished to thirty-five feet. Thus contracted, the current gains accumulated force, and rushes down a perpendicular rock, at two bounds, to the depth of 600 feet, into a dark unfathomable abyss, out of which the river again issues, under the name of Rio Meta. The face of the rock, which finishes and borders the vast plain of Bogota, near the cataract, is so steep that it occupies three hours in the descent: and the basin, or gulf, into which the water is precipitated, cannot be approached very closely, as the rapidity of the stream, the deafening noise of the cataract, and the dense mass of spray, render it impossible to get nearer the edges of the abyss than 400 or 500 feet. The loneliness of the spot, the tumultuous roar of the waters, and the beauties of the THE NILE. AFRICA. THIS celebrated river, through its long and fertilizing range of about 2000 British miles, in winding through abrupt and precipitous countries, exhibits very considerable cataracts; ten or twelve of which, having a descent of more than twenty feet, occur before it reaches the plains of Egypt. One, styled by way of eminence, the CATARACT OF THE NILE, was visited by Mr. Bruce, from whose account the following particulars are extracted. At the distance of half a mile below the cataract, the river is confined between two rocks, over which a strong bridge, of a single arch, has been thrown; and here the current runs into a deep trough, with great roaring and an impetuous velocity. Higher up, the cataract presents itself, amid groves of beautiful trees, and exhibits a most magnificent and stupendous sight. At the time of Mr. Bruce's visit, the river had been swollen by rains, and fell in a single sheet of water, about half a mile in breadth, to the depth of at least fifty feet, with a force and noise that were truly terrific. A thick fume or haze covered the fall in every part, and hung over the course of the stream, both above and below, marking its track, though the waters were not seen. The river preserved its natural clearness, and fell, partly into a deep pool, or basin, in the solid rock, partly, in twenty different eddies, to the very foot of the precipice. In falling, a portion of the stream appeared to run back with great fury on the rock, as well as forward in the line of its course, raising waves, or violent ebullitions, which chafed against each other. Notwithstanding this animated description of Mr. Bruce, other travellers, either from possessing less vivacity of feeling, or from visiting the spot under less favourable circumstances, speak of the cataracts of the Nile, as mere rapids, scarcely deserving the title of cascades. Mr. Legh speaks of the fall at Syene, as formed mercly by the river forcing its way, in a contracted channel, through rocks, which form several ledges across it. He admits, however, that considerable grandeur of effect is produced by this wild disorder of the rocks, the absence of all cultivation, the murmur of the water, and the desolate character of the whole scene. Mr. Burckhardt describes the cataract a little higher up the river, as formed by only a part of the stream, about sixty feet in breadth. WATERFALL MOUNTAIN. THE great chain of mountains, which runs from north to south, through the colony of Good Hope, divides into two branches, one stretching south-east, the other due south. At the extremity of the latter branch is the WATERFALL MOUNTAIN; in one of the clefts of which, a large stream of water, between thirty and forty feet broad, falls from the high rock above, to a depth of from eighty to ninety feet, where it is received in a vast and deep basin, excavated in the stone by the perpetual weight and action of the descending flood. After abundant rains, this cataract is in its full beauty. ASIA. SOURCES OF THE MENDER. THE river Mender, the Scamander of Homer, has its source in some beautiful cascades, surrounded with romantic alpine scenery, in the ancient Troas. The ascent to these falls is, for a time, steep and rocky; lofty summits towering above, while the torrent, in its rugged bed, foams below. At length, the traveller reaches a kind of natural amphitheatre, surrounded with huge craggy rocks, rising perpendicularly to an immense height, and covered with pines, enormous palm-trees, and a variety of evergreen shrubs, growing in fantastic shapes, in every possible direction. The noise of the torrent drowns all other sounds; and, as the spectator advances, his eye is charmed with the sight of several foaming cascades, pouring impetuously from chasms in the face of a perpendicular rock. Prior to its descent, the water is received into a beautiful natural basin, six or eight feet in depth, which serves as a reservoir during the first moments of its emission. This basin is only to be attained by hazardous clambering up the cliff, to a height of about forty feet; and then it is seen, that the chasms are natural caverns, through which the water rushes with great force from beneath the rock, towards the basin on the outside; and the copious overflowings of this reservoir form the cascades. The scene is truly magnificent; and the flow of water is said to continue the same all the year round, unaffected by casualties from rain or melting snow. CATARACTS OF EUROPE. NORWAY AND SWEDEN. IN Norway, the multitude of springs that issue from the lofty mountains, and the vast masses of snow which accumulate on their summits, and gently dissolve during summer, give rise to numerous lakes, and a considerable number of rivers; the largest of which is the GLOMMEN; but none of them are navigable far up the country, the passage being continually interrupted by rocks, and, in some places, by fearful cataracts, where the stream precipitates itself from heights of from 250 to 500 feet. In Sweden, about fifty miles above the city of Göttenburgh, the river Götha rushes down the fall of TROLLHETTA, into a deep pit, with a terrific noise, and with such force, that trees floated down the river are frequently shattered to pieces, or dive so far beneath the water, as to disappear for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, and sometimes not less than three-quarters of an hour. The river, which is very wide before it reaches the falls, is confined by the rocks within a narrow channel; and its course is still more restricted by several rocky islands in the middle of the stream. The whole descent is estimated at 100 feet; but, as the falls are four in number, each is only about twenty-five feet, and the bottom slopes, so that the water runs as in a spout. Its rapidity is very great; the noise is heard at the distance of a league, and the falls are constantly covered with foam. The pit into which the torrent is precipitated, has been sounded with a line of several hundred fathoms, without reaching the bottom. The river DAL, the third in Sweden for size, rises in the mountains on the Norwegian borders, and, passing through Dalecarlia, forms a grand cataract, not far from its confluence with the gulf of Bothnia. NEAR the village of Lauterbrunn, in the canton of Bern, this celebrated cataract rushes tempestuously down a rocky declivity, variously estimated at 900 and 1400 feet in height. As it falls, the pillar of water disperses a fine shower, which does not descend perpendicularly, but yields a little to the wind. It then meets with a projecting ledge of rock, down the side of which a portion of the water runs in single streams, while the remainder dashes below in clouds. DURING the course of this river in Switzerland, its scenery is often bold and romantic; and at the village of Lauffen, about a league from Schaffhausen, is a tremendous cataract, where the river, not less than 450 feet in breadth, is precipitated from a rock seventy feet in height; being, for mass of waters, the largest, though not the highest cataract, in civilized Europe. Nearly midway of the stream, is a rock, which divides it into two falls at the top, but they are quickly re-united, and descend to the bottom in one broad sheet, The fall is so rapid, that the water is thrown up to a great height in a white dense cloud, which conceals all beyond it; every bush on the rocky shores is continually dripping wet; and when the sun shines, the colours of the rainbow play fancifully in the froth and rising vapour. The tumult of the water is so great, that its noise is heard, in calm weather, at the distance of two or three leagues. THIS fine river rises in the highest part of Switzerland, at the foot of Mount Furca, only five miles from the source of the Rhine. Gushing from a stupendous glacier. ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, this river precipi tates itself, with great noise, into the vale beneath, bearing the appearance of a single cataract, with several cascades. Its general rapidity is strongly marked by a fall of 3000 feet before it reaches the lake of Geneva. Its waters are augmented by an almost infinite number of tributary torrents and streams, that descend from the sides of the adjacent mountains, till it rolls a large collected volume of turbid water into the transparent lake; from the opposite extremity of which, it issues in a purer stream, to proceed to the Mediterranean, which it joins after a course of nearly 500 miles. Between Geneva and Lyons, the channel of this river is frequently narrowed by rocks; and at one |