302 HABERSHAM COUNTY. 



about 12 miles from Clarkesville. The river passes through a 

 range or ridge of mountains, for somewhat more than a mile, 

 forming for its bed an awful gulf, and for its banks stupendous 

 fronts of solid rock, like those of Niagara, just below its great 

 cataract, and of the Genesee river below the fall in that stream, 

 a few miles above Lake Ontario. These banks of Tallulah 

 are worn by its waters in many places into caverns and gro- 

 tesque figures, and often the sides are perpendicular, and 

 smooth beyond the means of art to imitate. Just at the head, 

 and also at the foot of the rapids, the banks of Tallulah river 

 are not more than ordinary height above common water mark. 

 In the intermediate distance, the height of the banks varies 

 from 200 to 500 feet perpendicular. The width of the river 

 is from 15 to 100 feet. There are four perpendicular pitches 

 of water, of from 50 to 80 feet, and a great many smaller cata- 

 racts of from 10 to 20 feet perpendicular pitch. There are 

 but two or three points by which a person can possibly descend 

 to the bed of the river, and these are the tracks of small rivu- 

 lets emptying themselves into the river on the west side, and 

 making several very steep precipices, down which one may 

 possibly pass by aid of the shrubbery that grows in the hol- 

 lows. When arrived at the water's edge, to look out at the 

 opening of the great cliffs above, is surprising, interesting, and 

 alarming ! 



" These cliffs, combined with the foaming, roaring, bound- 

 ing, impetuous current of water, exhibit novelty, beauty, and 

 grandeur in the greatest degree. At the instant the visiter 

 views the current some hundred feet below him, he shrinks 

 back in apprehension of his destruction : still curious to view 

 it more, he cautiously advances again, until by degrees he be- 

 comes so familiar to the scenery, as to be perfectly delighted 

 with it. At every step he beholds some new dress that gives ad- 

 ditional interest to the prospect. But there is no tinselled or- 

 nament to the banks of Tallulah. In a wild, uncultivated, and 

 barren country, no art has been introduced to deface this grand 

 exhibition of nature. Sculptured chasms and fonts, elevated por- 

 tals, formidable stockades, impregnable fortresses, deep perpen- 

 dicular cascades, and successive bounding currents, added to 

 the many rainbows that continually shine (when the sun does) 



