CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 221 



which are very strong and beautiful, and others so old and crazy, 

 that it is almost impossible to cross them without danger. 



On the north-eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, in Dalmatia, the 

 river Cettina forms a magnificent cascade, called by the natives 

 Velica Gubaviza, to distinguish it from a less fall a little below. 

 The Abbe Fortis is almost the only traveller who speaks of this 

 natural curiosity, and to enable himself to do it he was obliged to 

 creep, and sometimes to leap from one rock to another, in order 

 to arrive at the statioti where he could obtain a full view of it. 

 Notwithstanding 'the difficulty of access, here, he says, the shep- 

 herds, with their leathern flasks full of water, climb with surprising 

 dexterky from the bottom of the abysses to the level tops of the 

 hills, where their thirsty flocks feed. If any of them miss a step, 

 they must inevitably fall, and become food for the vultures; but 

 such accidents rarely happen. The waters precipitate themselves 

 from a height of above one hundred and fifty feet, forming a deep 

 majestic sound, which is heightened by the echo resounding be- 

 tween the steep and naked marble bunks. Many broken fragments 

 of rocks, which impede the course of the river after its fall, break 

 the waves, and render them still more lofty and sounding; their 

 froth, by the violence of the repercussion, flies off in small white 

 particles, and is raised in successive clouds, which, by the agitated 

 air, are scattered over the moist valley, where the rays of the sim 

 seldom penetrate to rarefy them. When these clouds ascend di- 

 rectly upward, the inhabitants expect the noxious south-east wind, 

 which the Abbe styles " tiie sciocro," and their presage seldom 

 fails. Two huge pilasters stand, as it' for a guard, where the river 

 takes its fall; one of which is joined to the craggy brink, having 

 its top covered with earth, and adorned with trees and grass; the 

 other is of marble, bare and insulated. 



About a league from Schaflhauscn, at Lauffen, in Swisserland, 

 is a tremendous cataract on the Rhine, where the river precipitates 

 ithelf from a rock said to be seventy feet high, and ninety paces in 

 breadth. 



Near the city of Gottenburgh, or Gotliebwg, in Sweden, the 

 river Gotha rushes down from a prodigious high precipice into a 

 deep pit, with a terrible noise, and such vast force, that the trees 

 designed for the masts of .ships, which are floated down the river, 

 are usually turned upside down in their fall, and are frequently 



