19* HISTORY OF 



of this circular wall of waters, a little island, that 

 has braved the fury of the current, presents one 

 of its points, and divides the stream at top into 

 two ; but it unites again long before it has got to 

 the bottom. The noise of the fall is heard at 

 several leagues distance ; and the fury of the 

 waters at the bottom of their fall is inconceivable. 

 The dashing produces a mist that rises to the 

 very clouds ; and that produces a most beautiful 

 rainbow when the sun shines* It may easily be 

 conceived, that such a cataract quite destroys the 

 navigation of the stream ; and yet some Indian 

 canoes, as it is said, have been known to venture 

 down it with safety. 



Of those rivers that lose themselves in the 

 sands, or are swallowed up by chasms in the 

 earth, we have various information. What we 

 are told by the ancients, of the Alplieus, in 

 Arcadia, that sinks into the ground, and rises 

 again near Syracuse, in Sicily, where it takes the 

 name of Arethusa, is rather more known than 

 credited. But we have better information with 

 respect to the river Tigris being lost in this man- 

 ner under Mount Taurus ; of the Guadalquiver, 

 in Spain, being buried in the sands ; of the ri- 

 ver Greta, in Yorkshire, running under ground, 

 and rising again ; and even of the great Rhine 

 itself, a part of which is no doubt lost in the 

 sands, a little above Leyden. But it ought to be 

 observed of this river, that by much the greatest 

 part arrives at the ocean : for although the an- 

 cient channel, which fell into the sea a little to 

 the west of that city, be now entirely choked up, 



