SCES'EUY OF THE FALLS. 
299 
From the summit of the rock is descried a sheet of foam, 
extending the length of a whole mile. Enormous masses of 
stone, black as iron, issue from its bosom. Some are paps 
grouped in pairs, like basaltic hills; others resemble towers, 
fortified castles, and ruined buildings. Their gloomy tint 
contrasts with the silvery spleudour of the foam. Every 
rock, every islet is covered with vigorous trees, collected in 
clusters. At the foot of those paps, far as the eye can reach, 
a thick vapour is suspended over the river, and through this 
xvhitish fog the tops of the lofty palm-trees shoot up. What 
name shall we give to these majestic plants? 1 suppose 
them to be the vadgiai, a new species of the genus Orecdoxa, 
the trunk of which is more than eighty feet high. The fea- 
thery leaves of this palm-tree have a brilliant lustre, and rise, 
almost straight toward the sky. At every hour of the day 
the sheet of foam displays different aspects. Sometimes the 
hilly islands and the palm-trees project their broad shadows ; 
sometimes the rays of the setting sun are refracted in the 
cloud that hangs over the cataract, and coloured arcs are 
formed which vanish and appear alternately. 
Such is the character of the landscape discovered from the 
f°p of the mountain of Manimi, which no traveller has yet 
described. I do not hesitate to repeat, that neither time, 
a or the view of the Cordilleras, nor any abode in the tem- 
perate vallies of Mexico, has effaced from my mind the 
powerful impression of the aspect of the cataracts. When I 
c.cod a description of those places in India that are embel- 
nshed by running waters and a vigorous vegetation, mv 
^pagination retraces a sea of foam and palm-trees, the tops 
°f which rise above a stratum of vapour. The majestic 
s cenes of nature, like the sublime works of poetry and the 
ai 'fs, leave remembrances that are incessantly awakening, 
and which, through the whole of life, mingle with all our 
eelings of what is grand and beautiful. 
The calm of the atmosphere, and the tumultuous move- 
jent of the waters, produce a contrast peculiar to this zona 
fere no breath of wind ever agitates the foliage, no cloud 
ei ‘S the splendour of the azure vault of heaven; a great 
jass of light is diffused in the air, on the earth strewn with 
Plants with glossy leaves, and on the bed of the river, which 
Mends as far as the eye can reach. This appearance sur- 
