THE EARTH .93 



are four hundred yards over. Their direction is not straight across, 

 But hollowing inwards like a horse-shoe; so that the cataract, which 

 oends to the shape of the obstacle, rounding inwards, presents a kind 

 of theatre the most tremendous in nature. Just in the middle 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 

 (\vo ; 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 con- 

 ceived, 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 Alpheus, 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 

 manner under mount Taurus ; of the Guadalquiver in Spain, being 

 buried in the sands ; of the river Grcatah, 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 ancient channel which fell into 

 the sea, a little to the west of that city, be now entirely choakcd up, 

 yet there are still a number of small canals, that carry a great body of 

 waters to the sea ; and, besides, it has also two very large openings, 

 the Lech, and the Waal, below Rotterdam, by which it empties itself 

 abundantly. 



Be this as it will, nothing is more common in sultry and sandy 

 deserts, than rivers being thus either lost in the sands, or entirely dried 

 up by the sun. And hence we see, that under the line, the small 

 rivers are but few ; for such little streams as are common in Europe, and 

 which with us receive the name of rivers, would quickly evaporate, in 

 those parching and extensive deserts. It is even confidently asserted, 

 that the great river Niger is thus lost before it reaches the ocean ; and 

 that its supposed mouths, the Gambia and the Senegal, are distinct 

 rivers, that come a vast way from the interior parts of the country. 

 It appears," therefore, that the rivers under the line are large ; but it is 

 otherwise at the poles,* where they must necessarily be small. In 

 that desolate region, as the mountains are covered with perpetual ice. 

 which melts but little, or not at all, the springs and rivulets are fur- 

 nished with a very small supply. Here, therefore, men and beasts 

 would perish, and die for thirst, if Providence had not ordered, that 

 in the hardest winter, thaws should intervene, which deposit a small 

 quantity of snow-water in pools under the ice ; and from this source 

 the wretched inhabitants drain a scanty beverage. 



* f'rantz's History of Greenland, vol. i. p. 4J 



