CURIOSITIES. 



iiules from its mouth, the river is navigable through- 

 out. In the northern parts, are three great bend- 

 ings, called cohosses, about 100 miles asunder. Two 

 hundred miles from the sound, is a narrow, of five 

 yards only, formed by two shelving mountains of 

 isolid rock; whose tops intercept the clouds. Through 

 this chasm are compelled to pass all the waters, 

 which in the time of the floods, bury the northern 

 country. At the upper cohos, the river then spreads 

 24 miles wide; and for five or six weeks, ships of 

 "war might sail over lands, that afterwards produce 

 the greatest crops of hay and grain in all America, 

 People who can bear the sight, the groans, the trem- 

 blings and surly motion of water trees and ice, through 

 this awful passage, view with astonishment one of 

 the greatest phenomena in nature. Here water is 

 consolidated, without frost; by pressure, by swiftness, 

 between the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a degree 

 of induration, that no iron crow can be forced into 

 it: here iron, lead, and cork, have one common 

 weight; here, steady as time, and harder than mar- 

 ble, the stream passes irresistible, if not swift as 

 lightning: the electric fire rends trees in pieces with 

 no greater ease, than does this mighty water. The 

 passage is about 400 yards in length, and of a zig-zag 

 form, with obtuse angles. 



At high water are carried through this strait, 

 masts and other timber, with incredible swiftness, 

 and sometimes with safety; but when the water is 

 too low, the masts, timber, and trees, strike on one 

 side or the other, and though of the largest size, are 

 rent, in one moment, into sliivers and splintered like 

 a broom, to the amazement of the spectatoi-s. The 



