Notice of the TocJzoa and TaUulah Falls. 213 



This however was the most sublime and awful hour of my 

 life. Perhaps few have ever been favored with a display 

 more magnificently impressive of the power and presence 

 of Omnipotence. Heaven and earth seemed to display 

 their most terrific operations, and conspired to make us feel 

 our own feebleness. 



The Rock House is an entrance apparently ten feet square, 

 leading into the perpendicular face of the rock, too far down 

 the side to be accessible. We were informed by the guide, of 

 an Indian tradition, that this is the door of paradise. They 

 had frequently traced their lost companions to this spot, and 

 could never hear of them again ; since which, no Indian 

 has been known to hunt alone near the Rapids of Tallulah. 

 At present the less superstitious eagle finds this a safe retreat 

 to rear her young. 



There are three places of descent to the bed of the river ; 

 two of these meet at the same place, and the other leads to 

 the bottom of the upper fall. The other falls have been ap- 

 proached very seldom, and only by fording up the stream. 

 Both descents cannot easily be performed the same day ; 

 the upper one to the fall, is the most interesting. To look 

 out at the opening of this deep gulf pays the excessive fa- 

 tigue of the lower descent, but the view from several posi- 

 tions above, produces the most enchanting effect of gran- 

 deur and sublimity. 



At these Rapids, I very forcibly felt the influence by 

 which the primitive worshippers selected grand and ter- 

 rible scenes as the most favorable places to hold con- 

 verse with the Deity. The mountain's top — the deep valley 

 — the base of the waterfall — and the mouth of the grotto 

 were selected by the rude inhabitants of untaught nations 

 as the dwelling place of a presiding divinity. 



I left this place with an unsatisfied curiosity, convinced 

 that a year might have been consumed in examining every 

 object interesting to a scientific traveller. 



In preferring the Rapids to the Table Mountain, as I deci- 

 dedly do, in common with many of superior taste in scenery, 

 I would object to no part of the admiration so justly and so 

 largely bestowed on the latter. Each presents scenes like 

 no other in the United States -, the one is so perfectly un- 

 like the other, and both are so remarkable, that a visit to 

 the one, in no respect, supercedes the propriety of seeing 

 the other. 



