158 HisTOKY or 



of an African prospect; which delights the eye, even while it 

 destroys the constitution. 



liesides these annually periodical inundations, there are many 

 nvers that overflow at much shorter intervals. Thus most ot 

 tliose in Peru and Chili have scarce any motion by night ; but 

 upon the appearance of the morning sun, they resume their for 

 mer r;i])idity : this proceeds from the mountain snows, which, 

 melting with the heat, increase the stream, and continue to drive 

 on the current, while the sun continues to dissolve them. Some 

 rivers also flow with an even steady current, from their source 

 to the sea ; others flow with greater raj)idity, theii' stream being 

 poured down in a cataract, or swallowed by the sands, before 

 they reach the sea. 



The rivers of those countries that have been least inhabited, 

 are usually more rocky, uneven, and broken into waterfalls or 

 cataracts, than those where the industry of man has been more 

 pre\alent. Wherever man comes, uature puts on a milder ap- 

 pearance : the terrible and the sublime, are exchanged for the 

 gentle and the useful : the cataract is sloped away into a placid 

 stream ; and the banks become more smooth and even.' It 

 must have required ages to render the Rhone or the Loire na- 

 vigable : their beds must have been cleaned and directed ; their 

 inequalities removed ; an.d by a loiig course of industiy. Nature 

 must hxvii been taught to conspire with the desires of her con- 

 iroUer. Every one's experience must have supplied instances 

 of rivers thus being made to flow more evenly, and more bene- 

 ficially to mankind ; but there are some whose currents are 

 so rapid, and falls so precipitate, that no art can obviate ; and 

 that must for ever remain as amazing instances of incorrigible 

 nature. 



Of this kind are the cataracts of the Rhine ; one of which I 

 have seen exhibit a very strange appearance ; it was that at 

 Schathausen, which was frozen quite across, and the water stood 

 in columns where the cataract had formerly fallen. The Nile, 

 as was said, has its cataracts. The river Vologda, in Russia, 

 has two. The river Zara, in Africa, has one near its source. 

 The river Velino, in Italy, has a cutaract of above an hundred 

 and fifty feet perpendicular. Near the city of Gottenburgh/ iii 



1 BiifiVm, vol. ii. p. 90. 2 riiil Trans, vol. ii. p. 325. 



