18° Account of the Kaatskill Mountains. 
we had encountered. The stream, which was then fifty feet 
in breadth, descended in the form of a rapid for some dis- 
tance above the precipice, when, reaching it, it presented a 
perpendicular fall of 120 feet; then striking on a rock, 
which makes ar angle of 40°, it “rises down this rock, en- 
veloping it in foam. ‘he water fell in such a manner as 
not to strike the precipice, but formed a plane parallel to it. 
A number of shrubs rooted in the crevices of the rocks 
which form the precipice, appeared through the fissures of 
the stream, waving their green foliage with the wind, which 
was = great, owing to the suction through these parallel 
plan 
- The s rocks on each side of the stream project so as par- 
tially to eclipse the sides of the fall. They have fallen 
from time to time, in such a manner as to form seventeeit 
natural steps rising one above another. We stationed our- 
selves on these steps, to enjoy the scenery around us. e- 
fore us the stream fell ina bemesien sheet, exhibiting its 
transparent waters, W. cl plane, it 
shed down it with hea y, bearing on its surlace a 
foam of silvery whitenes: =the right and left, the banks 
rose over our heads in aileat 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 eliptical, near 
the centre of which we stood. As we approached the fall, 
the spray thickened, the splendour of the colours ee 
and the shrubs, the rocks, and the water, were tinged with 
its choicest hises, 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 enjoy- 
ing the prospect for some minutes, when, drenched with 
ray, we reluctantly bade it adieu, with all those emotions 
which the sublimity and beauty of sucha scene would 
naturally awaken. 
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