ROCKBRIDGE* 
2£l 
ten miles from Fluvanna River, and nearly the 
same distance from the Blue Ridge. It ex¬ 
tends across a deep cleft in a mountain, which, 
by some great convulsion of nature, lias been 
split asunder from top to bottom, and it seems 
to have been left there purposely to afford a 
passage from one side of the chasm to the other. 
The cleft or chasm is about two miles long, and 
is in some places upwards of three hundred 
feet deep ; the depth varies according to the 
height of the mountain, being deepest where 
the mountain is most lofty. The breadth of 
the chasm also varies in different places : but in 
every part it is uniformly wider at the top than 
towards the bottom. That the two sides of 
the chasm were once united -appears very evi¬ 
dent, not only from projecting rocks on the 
one side corresponding with suitable cavities on 
the other, but also from the different strata of 
earth, sand, clay, &c. being exactly similar 
from top to bottom on both sides: but by 
what great agent they were separated, whether 
by fire or by water, remains hidden amongst 
those arcana of nature which we vainly en¬ 
deavour to develope. 
The arch consists of a solid mass of stone, 
or of several stones cemented so strong: 
gether that they appear but as one. This 
mass, it is to be supposed, at the time that 
ly to- 
