snow, and boils like a cauldron. The noise of it in fair 

 weather is heard fifteer: leagues; yea, many times at Nia- 

 gara. From the place where the water falls, abundance 

 of vapour rises, resembling a very thick smoke., When 

 if is calm this rises high in the air. If you go into this 

 vapour in a few minutes yon will be as wet as if you had 

 Leon ituder water. In a calm morning, you may see it 

 rising in the air, at the distance of many leagues. And 

 a person unused to it, would be apt to think, that all the 

 forests thereabouts were on fire. 



But of all parts of the world, America supplies the 

 largest rivers. The foremost of these is the great river 

 of Amazons, which, from its source in the lake of Lau- 

 ricocha, to its discharge into the Western Ocean, per- 

 forms a course of more than twelve hundred leagues, 

 '/he breadth and depth of this river are answerable to 

 its vast length ; and where its width is more contracted, 

 its depth is augmented in proportion. Next to this it 

 that of St. Lawrence, in Canada, which, after a course 

 of nine hundred leagues, pours its collected waters inlo 

 the Atlantic Ocean. The river Missisippi is more than 

 seven hundred leagues in length. The river Plata is 

 mere than eight hundred. The river Oroonoko is seven 

 hundred and fifty-five leagues in length, from its source 

 to its discharge into the Atlantic Ocean. 



The glory of other rivers increases in proportion to 

 the length of their course. With the Rhine it is quite 

 the reverse. For some hundred miles it pours on with a 

 vast force. But at Fort .Scheneken it divides, and one 

 half of its waters takes the name of Wahail. The Yssel 

 robs it of another part, a little above Arnheim. About 

 twenty miles lower, at the town of Duerstadt, it separ 

 rates again. Here its principal branch takes a new 

 name, and is called the Leek. The poor, little, stripped 

 rivulet turns to the right, retaining still the old name of 

 Rhine, and passes on to Utrecht, where it is divided a 

 fourth time. There the Vetcht breaks oif, and the little 

 id of water, still called the Rhine, passes quietly to 



