an,--not only as typical of his
genius, which thus gave a local charm to the scene, but because the
country-people, in their heartfelt wish to do him honor, had hung
wreaths of laurel upon the rude planks.

Fragments, as well as entire roadways and arches of natural bridges, are
more numerous in rocky, mountainous, and volcanic regions than is
generally supposed; the action of the water in excavating cliffs, the
segments of caverns, the, accidental shapes of geological formations,
often result in structures so adapted for the use and like the shape of
bridges as to appear of artificial origin. In the States of Alabama and
Kentucky, especially, we have notable instances of these remarkable
freaks of Nature: there is one in Walker County, of the former State,
which, as a local curiosity, is unsurpassed; and one in the romantic
County of Christian, in the latter State, makes a span of seventy feet
with an altitude of thirty; while the vicinity of the famous Alabaster
Mountain of Arkansas boasts a very curious and interesting formation of
this species. Two of these natural bridges are of such vast proportions
and symmetrical structure that they rank among the wonders of the world,
and have long been the goals of pilgrimage, the shrines of travel. Their
structure would hint the requisites, and their forms the lines of
beauty, desirable in architectural prototypes. Across Cedar Creek, in
Rockbridge County, Virginia, a beautiful and gigantic arch, thrown by
elemental forces and shaped by time, extends. It is a stratified arch,
whence you gaze down two hundred feet upon the flowing water; its sides
are rock, nearly perpendicular. Popular conjecture reasonably deems it
the fragmentary arch of an immense limestone cave; its loftiness imparts
an aspect of lightness, although at the centre it is nearly fifty feet
thick, and so massive is the whole that over it passes a public road, so
that by keeping in the middle one might cross unaware of the marvel. To
realize its height it must be viewed from beneath; from the side of the
creek it has a Gothic aspect; its immense walls, clad with forest-trees,
its dizzy elevation, buttress-like masses, and aerial symmetry make this
sublime arch one of those objects which impress the imagination with
grace and grandeur all the more impressive because the mysterious work
of Nature,--eloquent of the ages, and instinct with the latent forces of
the universe. Equally remarkable, but in a diverse styl