No. 112.1 739 



village of Keeseville, and form the embankment of the river, un- 

 til it reaches the quiet basin below the high bridge. In the vicin- 

 ity of Keeseville, the passage of the stream is through a wall upon 

 either side of fifty feet in height ; leaving this, it glides gently 

 along a low valley, until suddenly precipitated over a precipice^ 

 that creates a fall of singular beauty. Foaming and surging from 

 this point, over a rocky bed, until it reaches the village of Birming- 

 ham, it there abruptly leaps into a dark, deep chasm of sixty feet. 

 A bridge, with one abutment setting upon a rock that divides the 

 stream, crosses the river at the head of this fall. This bridge is 

 perpetually enveloped in a thick cloud of spray and mist. In 

 winter, the frost work encrusts the rock and trees, with the most 

 gorgeous fabrics, myriads of columns and arches and icy diamonds 

 and stalactites, glitter in the sun beams. In the sunshine a bril- 

 liant rainbow, spreads its radiant arQ over this deep abyss. All 

 these elements, rare in their combination, shed upon this scene 

 an effect inexpressibly wild, picturesque and beautiful. The 

 river plunges from the latter precipice, amid the embrasures 

 of the vast gulf, in which for nearly a mile it is nearly hidden, 

 to observation from above. It pours a wild torrent, now along a 

 natural canal, formed in the rocks in almost perfect and exa«t 

 courses, and now darts madly down a precipice. The wall rises 

 in a vertical face upon each side from seventy five to one hundred 

 and fifty feet, whilst the width of the chasm rarely exceeds thirty 

 feet, and at several points the stupendous masonry of the opposite 

 walls approaches within eight or ten feet. Lateral fissures deep and 

 narrow, project from the main ravine at nearly right angles. The 

 abyss is reached through one of these crevices by a stair-way des- 

 cending to the water by 212 steps. The entire mass of these walls 

 is formed of laminae of sandstone rock, laid in regular and precise 

 structure almost rivaling the most accurate mason work. The 

 pines and cedars starting from the apertures of the wall, spread 

 a canopy over the gulf. The instrumentality, which has produe- 

 ed this wonderful work, is a problem that presents a wide scope 

 for interesting, but unsatisfactory speculation. 



A report of the State Geologists asserts, ^' that near the bottom 

 of the fissure at the ' high bridge' and through an extent of 70 feet, 

 numerous specimens of a small bivalvular molusca or lingulce" are 



