CATARACT OF THE MENDER.
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.