286 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



the Upper and Lower Falls of Foyers, near Loch Ness. At the upper fall, the river 

 precipitates itself, at three leaps, down as many precipices, whose united depth is 



about 200 feet ; but, at the lower, it makes a de- 

 scent at once of 212 feet, and, after heavy rains, 

 exhibits a grand appearance. The fall of the 

 Rhine at Schaffhausen is only 70 feet ; but the 

 great mass of its waters, 450 feet in breadth, 

 gives it an imposing character. The Te- 

 verone, near Tivoli, a comparatively small 

 stream, is precipitated nearly 100 feet ; 

 and the Velino, near Terni, falls 300, 

 which is generally considered the finest 

 of the European cataracts. This " hell 

 of waters," as Byron calls it, is of arti- 

 ficial construction. A channel was dug 

 by the Consul Carius Dentatus in the 

 year 274 B. c., to convey the waters to 

 the precipice, but having become filled 

 up by a deposition of calcareous matter, 

 it was widened and depened by order of 

 Pope Paul IV. " I saw," says Byron, 

 " the Cascata del Marmore of Terni twice at 

 different periods ; once from the summit of 

 the precipice, and again from the valley 

 below. The lower view is far to be preferred, 

 if the traveller has time for one only ; but in 

 any point of view, either from above or below, 

 it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland 

 put together." 



In the Alpine highlands, the Evanson descends up- 

 wards of 1200 feet, and the Oreo forms a vertical 

 cataract of 2400 ; but in these instances the quantity of 

 water is small, and the chief interest is produced by 

 the height from which it falls. At Staubbach, in the 

 Swiss canton of Berne, a small stream descends 1400 

 feet, which is scattered almost entirely into spray before it reaches the bottom. 



Waterfalls appear upon their grandest scale in the American continent. They are not 

 remarkable for the height of the precipices over which they descend, or for the pic- 

 turesque forms of the rocky cliffs amid which they are precipitated, like the Alpine 

 cataracts ; but while these are usually the falls of streamlets merely, those of the western 

 world are the rush of mighty rivers. The majority are in the northern part of the 

 continent, but the greatest vertical descent of a considerable body of water is in the 

 southern, at the Falls of Tequendama, where the river of Funza disembogues from the 

 elevated plain or valley of Santa Fe de Bogota. This valley is at a greater height above 

 the level of the sea than the summit of the great St. Bernard, and is surrounded by lofty 

 mountains. It appears to have been formerly the bed of an extensive lake, whose waters 

 were drained off when the narrow passage was forced through which the Funza river 

 now descends from the elevated enclosed valley towards the bed of the Rio Magdalena. 

 Respecting this physical occurrence Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada, the conqueror of the 

 country, found the following tradition disseminated among the people, which probably 



Falls of Terni. 



