424 



the grandest in the province ; they have been 

 frequently described, and with so much correct- 

 ness, that a sUght notice of them may now suffice. 

 The river, in its course through a country that 

 is almost a continued forest, rolls a stream of 

 very trifling consequence, unless when swelled 

 by the melting snow in spring, or autumnal 

 rains, over an irregular broken rocky bottom, 

 until it arrives at the precipice, where its breadth 

 is from sixteen to twenty yards. A little de- 

 chnation of the bed before it reaches this 

 point gives a great velocity to the stream, 

 which, in being impelled over the brink of a 

 perpendicular rock, falls in an extended sheet 

 of water, of a whiteness and fleecy appearance 

 nearly resembling snow, into a chasm among 

 the rocks two hundred and forty feet below. 

 An immense spray rises from the bottom in 

 curling volumes, which when the sunshine dis- 

 plays their bright prismatic colours, produce an 

 effect inconceivably beautiful. At the bottom 

 of the fall the water is restrained within a basin 

 formed by the rocks, from whence, after its 

 impetuosity is subdued, it flows in a gentle 

 stream into the St. Lawrence, a distance, per- 

 haps, of two hundred and eighty or three hun* 

 dred yards. The summer-house built by the 

 late General Haldimand, and mentioned by 

 Mr. Weld and others for its appalling situation 



