XXV. 



CASCADILLA AND SIX MILE CREEK. 



After bursting from a wild, deep glen, which marks 

 the southern boundary of the University Grounds, the 

 Caseadilla Creek ripples through the village between 

 willow fringed banks with a cheerful murmur, little sug- 

 gestive of the lashings it has received in its downward 

 rush from the eastern hills. The Caseadilla Gorge from 

 the "Giant's Staircase" to where it opens into the plain, 

 is a series of tremendous oblong amphitheatres, whose 

 buttressed walls are festooned and richly decorated with 

 dense masses of green. There are no large falls in this 

 glen, but the bed of the stream is formed, to a great ex- 

 tent of broad plates of rock, and the water merrily 

 bounding from one ledge to another makes an almost 

 continuous series of little cascades and justifies the poetic 

 name of "Caseadilla. The "Giant's Staircase," the 

 most important of these cascades, derives its name from 

 the massive steps of rock over which the water tumbles 

 forty-five feet, in a flood of spray. The iron bridge by 

 which the roadway to the University crosses the gorge 

 spans the ravine directly above this fall. The bridge 

 furnishes the finest point of observation along the ra- 

 vine.* The beauty and grandeur of the views obtained 

 from the giddy pathway leading from the village along 



*See p. 41. 



