142 LETTER VI. 



eafieft method my memory, and poor genius will 

 admit of. The River of Narva iffues out of a 

 very large Lake, called Peiptis^ and about three 

 miles before it reaches the Town, throws itfeif 

 moft furioufly down a vaft rocky Precipice, that 

 is at leaft an hundred foot high. For fome di- 

 ftance before it arrives at the Precipice, the Ground 

 has a fmall flope or gradual defcent, which adds 

 a conliderable Velocity to the natural and level 

 Stream of it, and of courfe, caufes it to rufh down 

 with incredible violence ; the Noife it makes be- 

 ing loudly heard at Narva^ when the Wind fits 

 fair, to carry it thitherwards. The Rock does not 

 rife diredlly in a perpendicular line, but it rather 

 hangs over at the top, which gives the Water a 

 call: of thirty yards diftance, at the leaft, from 

 the place where we can walk under it. When I 

 firft paid a vifit to this noble Sheet of Water, it 

 made fuch a ft range unaccountable din (like the 

 fuppofed Catadiipc^ of Nile) that I thought it 

 would have broke the Tympanum of my Ear : 

 And you will readily believe it muft do fo, when 

 it alights from above, among a heap of Rocks, 

 that fplits it as fmall as duft, and caufes it to 

 mount up into the Air again. As the Sun then 

 Ihone out brightly, I thought it one of the fineft 

 fhows in Nature : And furely it was fo ; for the 

 Refledion of its gay and glorious Beams, upon 

 this noble Sheet and Duft of Water, darted all 



around 



