74 '■'•' AND OUT or ITHACA. 



the dizzy edges* About twenty years ago a se< lire 

 pathway was hewn from the rocks along the northern 

 wall. This path is entered through a toll gate just be- 

 yond the bridge. The ascent is at first steep and 

 tortuous ; a sharp turn or two brings the visitor to a 

 shady nook, "The Rest," from which the glory of th< 

 grand amphitheatre about and beneath him is disclosed 

 This colossal basin is enclosed by steeply sloping walb 

 more than two hundred and fifty feet in height. The slop 

 are draped with verdure and the crests crowned with 

 nodding trees. The grandest feature of the view is the 

 Ithaca Fall itself lying directly in front. The reft in 

 the side of the amphitheatre by which the water enters 

 seems choked by a mammoth rock eighty-five feet aero 

 at the top, which, when dry, gives the impression that 

 a ' ascade of molten mineral had been suddenly hardened. 

 The water, after flowing smoothly for some distance be 

 tween lofty parallel cliffs, reaches the edge of this ma 

 sive rock and plunges down the surface a hundred and 

 fifty-six feet into the deep pool below. If the volume 

 of water is great it is broken and beaten into a ma 

 of seething foam, deafening in its thunder. When the 

 water is low it trickles down in sparkling drops from 

 shelf to shelf, festooning the brown rock with a veil of 

 silver}- spray. 



Prom "The Rest" the walk winds midway between 

 the pool and the summit around the semi-circular walls, 

 to a small plateau inclining toward the very brink of 

 the frdl. Every point of tin'-, pathway affords magnifi 

 cent profiles of the cataract. From this place, the path 



