THE GORGES — FALL CREEK RAVINE. 73 



Fall Creek which tears its way between the precipitous 

 walls of this defile does not, as do most of the streams 

 of the region, pour its waters into the sluggish Inlet, 

 but after taking its last mighty plunge over the brink 

 of the Ithaca Fall, it winds in a tranquil, romantic course 

 through the leafy groves of the plain directly into the 

 lake. 



It scarcely would be possible in the length of a mile 

 to enclose by rocky walls a greater variety of beauty 

 and grandeur. A traveller who visited the gorge in 

 1820, says enthusiastically, "In the rocky substance of 

 the highest part of the mountain a dismal gulf gaps 

 dark an'd wide, and far within the shaggy cliff, steep 

 after steep in six successive leaps, Fall River rolls its 

 current downward to the plain. This is a tremendous 

 scene which those who have had opportunity of com- 

 paring with other remarkable places assert to be superior 

 to all of them in the sublimest touches of nature. ' ' 



To reach the gorge it is necessary only to follow out 

 Aurora street to the north. From the bridge by which 

 the Auburn road crosses the creek is caught the first 

 glimpse of the finest cascade of all, the Ithaca Fall. 

 Next to Niagara, which it nearly equals in height, it is 

 the largest cataract in the state. It surpasses in every 

 respect the Trenton Falls, and the cascades of the Gene- 

 see. Taughannock is higher, but for a great portion of 

 the year its channel is nearly dry. 



Formerly it was almost impossible for the most daring 

 climber to penetrate the gorge without rope and ladder, 

 and the visitor had to rest content with viewing the 

 ' 'grandeur stored within the rocky battlements' ' from 



