CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 21Q 



The greatest rise of water in Loch -Ness is fourteen feet. The 

 lakes from whence it receives its supplies are Loch-Oich, Loch- 

 Garrie, and Loch-Quich. There is but very little navigation on it; 

 the only vessel is a gaily belonging to the fort, to bring the stores 

 from the east end, the river Ness being too shallow for navigation. 



It is violently agitated by the winds, and at times the waves are 

 quite mountainous. November 1, 1755, at the same time as the 

 earthquake at Lisbon, these waters were affected in a very extraor- 

 dinary manner: they rose and flowed up the lake from east to 

 west with vast impetuosity, and were carried above 200 yards up 

 the river Oich, breaking on its banks in a wave near three feet 

 high ; then continued ebbing and flowing for the space of an hour: 

 but at eleven o'clock a wave greater than any of the rest came up 

 the river, broke on the north side, and overflowed the bank for 

 the extent of 30 feet. A boat near the General's Hut, loaden with 

 brush-wood, was thrice driven ashore, and twice carried back 

 again ; but the last time, the rudder was broken, the wood forced 

 out, and the boat rilled with water and left on shore. At the same 

 time, a little isle, in a small loch in Badenoch, was totally re. 

 versed and flung on the beach. But at both these places no agita- 

 tion was felt on land* 



[Pennant's Tour in Scotland.] 



4. Brief Survey of other remarkable Cataracts. 



THE bold and precipitous country of the Alps offers us a variety 

 of waterfalls and perpendicular torrents that are well worthy of 

 notice ; and especially those about Mount Rosa, a northern boun- 

 dary of Piedmont, and probably the Mons Sylvius of the ancients. 

 Thus the river Oreo, ted by numerous streams from St.Gothard, 

 Mount Cenis, and some branches of the Appennines, forms at Ce. 

 resoli a vertical cascade computed at 400 fathoms, or 2,400 feet : 

 while the torrent Evanson, descending from another part of Mount 

 Rosa, exhibits, about half a mile from Vernez, a fall of more than 

 'JOO fathoms, and rolls down pebbles of quartz, veined with the 

 sold that is occasionally traced in the mountains of ChaUand. 



o 



The C as cat a del Marmore, or Marble Cascade, so denomi- 

 nated from the mountain down which the Velcino falls, br inn; almost 

 wholly of marble, lies about three miles from Terni, and the road 

 to it, part of which is cut in the rock in the side of the mountain, 



