Falls of Potomac 



and rushes down a precipice with incredible rapidity. 

 The spout on the Virginian side makes three falls, 

 one above another; the first about ten feet, the next 

 fifteen, and the last twenty-four or twenty-five feet 

 perpendicular: the water is of a vast bulk, and almost 

 entire. The spout on the Maryland side is nearly 

 equal in height and quantity, but a great deal more 

 broken. These two spouts, after running in sepa- 

 rate channels for a short space, at length unite in 

 one about thirty yards wide; and as we judged from 

 the smoothness of the surface and our unsuccessful 

 endeavours to fathom it, of prodigious depth. The 

 rocks on each side are at least ninety or a hundred 

 feet high; and yet, in great freshes, the water over- 

 flows the tops of them, as appeared by several large 

 and entire trees, which had lodged there. 



In the evening we returned down the river about 

 sixteen miles to Alexandria, or Belhaven, a small 

 trading place in one of the finest situations imagin- 

 able. The Potomac above and below the town, is 

 not more than a mile broad, but it here opens into a 

 large circular bay, of at least twice that diameter. 



The town is built upon an arc of this bay; at one 

 extremity of which is a wharf; at the other a dock for 

 building ships; with water sufficiently deep to launch 

 a vessel of any rate or magnitude. 



The next day we returned to Colonel Washington's, 

 and in a few days afterward to Williamsburg. 



The time of my residence in this colony was ten 



[69] 



