136 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA : 
which sjuudeniy opposing the rapid course of 
the stream, form very dangerous eddies, in 
which boats are frequently lost when navigated 
by men who are not active and careful. On 
the shore- prodigious heaps of white sand are 
washed up by the waves, and in many places 
the path is rendered almost impassable by \dies 
of large trees, which have been brought down 
from the upper country by floods, and drifted 
together. 
The river, at the ferry which I mentioned, 
is about one mile and a quarter wide, and it 
continues much the same breadth as far as the 
Falls, where it is considerably contracted and 
confined in its channel by immense rocks on 
either side. There also its course is very sud¬ 
denly altered, so much so indeed, that below 
the Falls for a short distance it runs in an op¬ 
posite direction from what it did above, but 
soon after it resumes its former course. The 
water does not descend perpendicularly, ex¬ 
cepting in one part close to the Virginian: 
shore, where the height is about thirty feet* 
but comes rushing down with tremendous im¬ 
petuosity over a ledge of rocks in several difi* 
ferent falls. The best view of the cataract if 
from the top of a pile ’ of rocks about sixty 
feet above the level of the water, and which* 
owing to the bend in the river, is situated nearly 
opposite to the Fails. The river comes from 
