The cataract which constitutes the source of this river, the Scamander
of the ancients, is thus beautifully described by Doctor Clarke. “Our
ascent, as we drew near to the source of the river, became steep and
rocky. Lofty summits towered above us, in the greatest style of alpine
grandeur; the torrent, in its rugged bed below, all the while foaming on
our left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest natural
amphitheaters the eye ever beheld; and here the guides desired us to
alight. The noise of waters silenced every other sound. Huge craggy
rocks rose perpendicularly, to an immense hight; whose sides and
fissures, to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were covered with
pines. These grew in every possible direction, among a variety of
evergreen shrubs; and enormous plane-trees waved their vast branches
above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulf, we beheld several
cascades, all of foam, pouring impetuously from chasms in the naked face
of a perpendicular rock. It is said the same magnificent cataract
continues all seasons of the year, wholly unaffected by the casualties
of rain or melting snow. Having reached the chasms whence the torrent
issues, we found, in their front, a beautiful natural basin, six or
eight feet in depth, serving as a reservoir for the water during the
first moments of its emission. It was so clear that the minutest object
might be discerned at the bottom. The copious overflowing of this
reservoir causes the appearance, to a spectator below, of different
cascades, falling to the depth of about forty feet, but there is only
one source. Behind are the chasms whence the water issues. We entered
one of these, and passed into a cavern. Here the water appeared, rushing
with great force, beneath the rock, toward the basin on the outside. The
whole of the rock about the source was covered with moss; close to the
basin grew hazel and plane trees; above were oaks and pines; and all
beyond a naked and fearful precipice.”
The bold and precipitous country of the Alps offers a variety of
waterfalls and perpendicular torrents which are well deserving of
notice; more particularly those in the vicinity of Mount Rosa, a part of
the northern boundary of Piedmont. The river Oreo, fed by numerous
streams from Mount St. Gothard, Mount Cenis, and several branches of the
Apennines, forms, at Cerosoli, a vertical cascade, estimated at four
hundred fathoms, or twenty-four hundred feet; while the torrent Evanson,
descending from another part of Mount Rosa, exhibits a fall of more than
two hundred fathoms, rolling down pebbles of quartz, veined with the
gold which is occasionally traced in the mountains of Challand. The
Cascata del Marmore, or Marble Cascade, so denominated from the mountain
down which the Velcino falls being almost wholly of marble, lies about
three miles from Terni. In proceeding toward it, the traveler is struck
with terror on viewing the precipices, which are of a romantic hight;
but is sufficiently rewarded, when, on reaching the summit of the
mountain, he regards the stupendous cataract, formed by the river as it
rushes from the mountain. Having reached the declivity of its channel,
the waters descend with a rapid course for a short space, and then fall
from a perpendicular hight of three hundred feet, breaking against
lateral rocks, which cause vapors to ascend much higher than the summit
of the cataract, by which the neighboring valley receives a perpetual
fall of rain. After this descent, the waters rush into the cavities of
the rocks, and then bursting through several openings, at length reach
the bed of the river.
The grand cascade of the Anio, near Tivola, flows down the edge of a
steep rock; and at its foot, the water, in a succession of ages, has
hollowed grottos of various shapes and sizes, in a manner so beautifully
picturesque, as to baffle all description. Of these, the grotto of
Neptune is the most celebrated. Near to it are three smaller cascades,
which rush murmuring through the ruins of the villa Mecænas, down the
woody steep which forms the opposite bank of the river, and present the
painter with one of the most picturesque views imaginable, the
foreground varying beautifully at every step he takes.
In Savoy, the Arve flows many miles between high, craggy and
inaccessible rocks, which appear to have been purposely cleft to give
its waters a free passage. The surprising echoes and continual sounds
occasioned by its streams, the trampling of the horses and mules, the
hallooing of passengers, &c., are, in these places, reverberated three,
four, and even in some parts six or seven times, with a noise so deep
and wild, as to strike with terror the traveler who is unaccustomed to
them; and the firing of a gun or pistol, is there more terrible than the
loudest claps of thunder. A steep precipice, with monstrous impending
rocks, which seem ready to fall, joined to the roaring of the river, add
largely to the general sublimity. The cataracts of this river are more
or less loud and terrible, in proportion as the waters are more or less
swollen by the melting snows, with which the tops of the mountains are
covered. One in particular, called the Nun of Arpena, falls from a
prodigiously high rock with great noise and violence: its descent is
said to exceed eleven hundred feet.
In Dalmatia, the river Cettina forms a magnificent cascade, called by
the inhabitants Velica Gubavisa, to distinguish it from a less fall a
little below. The waters precipitate themselves from a hight of above
one hundred and fifty feet, forming a deep majestic sound, which is
caused by the echo resounding between the steep and naked marble banks.
Many broken fragments of rocks, which impede the course of the river
after its fall, break the waves, and render them still more lofty and
sonorous. By the violence of the repercussion, their froth flies off in
small white particles, and is raised in successive clouds, which are
scattered, by the agitation of the air, over the valley. When these
clouds ascend directly upward, the inhabitants expect the noxious
south-east wind called the sirocco.
The fall of the Staub-Bach, in the valley of Lauterbrannen, is estimated
at nine hundred feet of perpendicular hight; and about a league from
Schaffhausen, at the village of Lauffen, in Switzerland, is a tremendous
cataract of the Rhine, where that river precipitates itself from a rock
said to be seventy feet in hight, and not less than four hundred and
fifty feet broad.
In Sweden, near Gottenburgh, the river Gotha rushes down from a
prodigiously high precipice into a deep pit, with a dreadful noise, and
with such amazing force, that the trees designed for the masts of ships,
which are floated down the river, are usually turned upside down in
their fall, and shattered in pieces. They frequently sink so far under
water, as to disappear for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, and
sometimes for three-quarters of an hour. The pit into which the torrent
precipitates them, is of a depth not to be ascertained, having been
sounded with a line of several hundred fathoms, without the bottom being
found.
In addition to the other North American cataracts already described, may
be noticed the Passaic falls, formed by the river Passaic, which
discharges itself into the sea at the northern extremity of the state of
New Jersey. About twenty miles from the mouth of this river, where it
has a breadth of about a hundred and twenty feet, and runs with a very
swift current, it reaches a deep chasm, or cleft, which crosses its
channel, and falls about seventy feet perpendicularly in an entire
sheet. One end of the cleft is closed up, and the water rushes out of
the other with incredible rapidity, in an acute angle to its former
direction, and is received into a large basin. It thence takes a winding
course through the rocks, and spreads again into a very considerable
channel. The cleft is from four to twelve feet in breadth, and is
supposed to have been produced by an earthquake. The falls of St.
Anthony, on the river Mississippi, descend from a perpendicular hight of
thirty feet, and are nearly eight hundred feet in width, while the shore
on each side is a level flat, without any intervening rock or precipice.
In England, among the cataracts which merit a brief mention, may be
cited the one in Devonshire, near the spot where the Tamer receives the
small river Lid. The water there falls above a hundred feet: it proceeds
from a mill at some distance, and after a course on a descent of nearly
one hundred feet from the level of the mill, reaches the brink of the
precipice, whence it falls in a most beautiful and picturesque manner,
and, striking on a part of the cliff, rushes from it in a wider cataract
to the bottom; where falling again with great violence, it makes a deep
and foaming basin in the ground. This fine sheet of water causes the
surrounding air at the bottom to be so impregnated with aqueous
particles, that those who approach it find themselves in a mist. In
Cumberland there are several cataracts; but these are exceeded in beauty
by a remarkable fall of the Tees, on the western side of the county of
Durham, over which is a bridge suspended by chains, seldom passed unless
by the adventurous miners. Asgarth force, in Yorkshire, is likewise a
very interesting fall.
In Scotland, the fall of Eyers, near Loch Ness, is a vast cataract, in a
darksome glen of a stupendous depth. The water rushes beneath, through a
narrow gap between two rocks, and thence precipitating itself more than
forty feet lower into the bottom of the chasm, the foam, like a great
cloud of smoke, rises and fills the air. The sides of this glen are
stupendous precipices, blended with trees overhanging the water, through
which, after a short space, the waters discharge themselves into the
lake. About half a mile to the south of this fall, is another which
passes through a narrow chasm, whose sides it has undermined for a
considerable distance. Over the gap is a true alpine bridge, formed of
the trunks of trees covered with sods, from the middle of which is an
awful view of the water roaring beneath. In Perthshire, the river Keith
presents a very considerable cataract, the noise produced by which is so
violent as to stun those who approach it. The western coast of
Ross-shire is, however, peculiarly distinguished by these natural
wonders, among which may be cited the grand cataract of the river
Kirkag, and the cascade of Glamma, which latter being situated amid the
constant obscurity of woody hills, is truly sublime.
In Ireland, the noble river Shannon has a prodigious cataract, which, at
about fifty miles from its mouth, prevents it from being longer
navigable for vessels of a large burden.