Geology of the Falls of the Kenawha. 101 



grains in the intervals. The whole stone contains considerable sili- 

 cious cement, which has given it durability, to resist the unceasing ac- 

 tion of the water for so many centuries. It is stratified in beds of 

 from one foot to three or four feet in thickness, and forms the chan- 

 nel of the river for a number of miles up both the New and the Gauly 

 rivers, filling the former stream with falls and cascades, some of which 

 are nearly equal to the "great falls" in elevation. The rock which 

 forms the great falls, takes an oblique course across the river, and, not 

 many ages since, formed a continuous cataract of twenty two feet fall, 

 from shore to shore. At this period and since the first settlements 

 on the river, the waters have cut a channel on the left bank, which is 

 gradually enlarging and extending up stream. Through this channel, 

 at low stages, the whole waters find a passage and leave the rocks 

 composing the falls naked ; resembling, and in fact constituting an 

 island ; but in floods, the whole falls present a sheet of falling water. 

 The river at the foot of the falls is four hundred yards wide, and 

 when swollen by floods, the whole body of water, rushes over the 

 rocks with tremendous force. The situation is very favorable for 

 the purposes of manufactures, and several saw mills and a grist mill 

 are erected along the course of the falls. The building of flat bot- 

 tomed boats, for the transportation of salt, is carried on here very 

 extensively. The annexed view, (see p. 33 of the wood cuts,) will 

 assist the reader in understanding the situation of the falls, and the 

 adjacent scenery. 



The surface of the rock is full of inequalities and holes worn by 

 the attrition of pebbles, kept in a continual whirl by the water. Near 

 the margin of the falls, where the rock projects over the water be- 

 low, holes have been cut entirely through it, and a number of small 

 trees and shrubs have taken root in the crevices, and give still more 

 the appearance of an island. At low water, the surface of the rock is 

 exposed, for two or three hundred feet in breadth. The face of the 

 perpendicular sandstone, over which the water pitches, is not smooth 

 and uniform, but is broken into numerous deep recesses, giving it 

 a zigzag appearance, and showing the structure of the rock to be 

 rhombic, breaking up into square blocks, having a vertical as well 

 as a horizontal line of cleavage. This, 1 have observed, is the 

 general character of many of the compact sandstone rocks through- 

 out the coal measures. It is one of the most noted spots for fish on 

 the western waters. The river here abounds with the choicest spe- 

 cies, while calm water, at the foot of the rocks, affords them a 



