A GRAND SIGHT. 107 
water; to my right, a grassy slope, smooth and 
green as a well-kept lawn, extends for miles, 
until lost in the distant haze. A heavy thun- 
dering sound directs me to the cataract, which 
is at present hidden. | walk down the slepe, and 
unexpectedly reach the edge of a narrow channel, 
about thirty feet in width and three hundred in 
~ depth. 
Not a hundred yards from where I stand, the 
entire river plunges over a vertical face of smooth 
rocks; down it surges a depth of 300 feet, and 
possibly more, into the narrow channel into 
which J am looking. The singularity of this fall 
consists in the extremely narrow channel of 
basaltic rock through which the entire river is 
obliged to make its way before it dashes down this 
wondrous cliff. The river, at least a hundred 
feet wide on the plain, is narrowed to about thirty 
at the place where it falls over the rocks; hence 
the water leaps, if I may so express it, some 
distance from the rock on emerging from this 
natural launder, and falls vertically into the black 
chasm with a deafening roar like perpetual 
thunder. 
The sun shining brightly lights up the gloomy 
chasm, and gives the foaming current a brilliancy 
unlike anything I have ever seen—an effect 
