waters tumbling, as it seemed, over the tops of the intervening trees,
to whose foliage the late heavy rains had restored the freshness of
early spring.

Looking about from this first point, I could have readily imagined
myself standing upon the floor timbers of a first-rate ship buried in a
wooded ravine, so evenly were the sides of the rock scooped out; and
this impression was assisted by narrow layers of different strata, which
ran in slightly curved lines placed at equal distances, giving the
effect of the ship's sheer and planking, whilst through her entrance or
cloven bow the white foam rushed.

Walking upward, along a narrow strand of bare rock, with the forest
pressing on you, as, bent almost double in some places, you stoop
beneath the overhanging cliff on which it grows; then for a time closely
shouldering the precipice, walk upon a ledge or projecting shelf of from
one to three feet wide, the current below boiling and whirling along the
while, of dazzling brilliance; I at one moment counted five rainbow
arches, perfect and imperfect. What a succession of "Maidens of the
Mist" might a lover of romance conjure up from these vexed waters on a
fine moonlight night!

Proceeding onwards, you, on quitting this point, descend once more into
the river's bed; and here the resistless power of the torrent when at
its full is made manifest by the ruin which on all sides marks its
headlong course. Trees of the largest growth lie twenty feet above its
ordinary level; some with their roots uppermost, others sustained
athwart the arms of their sturdier fellows, here decay and rot amidst
their living leaves.

Passing the second fall, we mounted a few steps to a resting-place,
named the "Rural Retreat;" and here, from a little box perched on the
point of a huge rock which abuts right upon the great abyss, we had a
scene before us and about us of great wildness and grandeur; whilst high
over all waved the original forest, contemporary with the continent
itself,--trees beneath whose shade the sachems of the warlike Mohawks
had feasted and legislated.

The last fall lies about a quarter of a mile above this point; and
immediately below is a dangerous pass, where the vast mass of falling
water is hurled in its course against a deeply-serrated rock, over which
rock the curious visitor is obliged to tread, making a step across an
angle formed by the boiling whirlpool, clinging to a stout chain, and
closely shouldering the rock;