EAGLE FALLS, HAVANA GLEN.
Portland Cascade is another charming fall, but the chasm being wider at this point and broken by many shelves, the water flows with less turbulence, though the cascades are made more beautiful by spreading into thin, veil-like sheets, so transparent that the wall behind them is visible. A bridge is thrown across the leaping stream, from which a glorious view is had of the chasm as it winds away towards the south, while the copse which fringes the western edge constitutes a bower of extraordinary loveliness.
Eagle Falls, a hundred yards below the cascades, is, perhaps, the most daintily exquisite object in all this vale of natural wonders, a very poem of beauty and charming sequestration, where the brown cliffs sleep to the lullaby of flowing waters, and the wild flowers listen to the murmurs of the breeze. Stairs lead to the brink, under overarching trees that provide a delightful nook, but a more entrancing view is obtainable from the bottom of the charming dell into which the waters fall. There is neither grandeur nor sublimity in the sight afforded, but a soft witchery, a gentle soul-rapture that is kin to inspiration in the monody of the stream as it pours over the ledge in a rhythm that is as musical as April rain upon a cottager’s roof, and shimmers in its fall like a lace curtain stirred by the wind. Eagle Falls is plainly a misnomer, for the name suggests a thing of prey. The Nymphs’ Bath is more appropriate, for here it would seem that all the little people of the water and the wood might find what Titania and Diana longed for—a place of absolute seclusion, “where the bright eyes of angels only might behold a paradise so pure and lonely.”
COUNCIL CHAMBER, WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK.—This is one of the most imposing and impressive points of the Glen, and has been well named the Council Chamber. The walls that enclose this strip of river are exceedingly beautiful, built up as they are with thin layers, of a few inches’ thickness, each stratum being very distinct, and the face of the cliffs wrought into lovely shapes with shelving spaces here and there as if inviting lovers to seek them for the delightful seclusion which they offer. The chamber is spanned by a rustic bridge that is hung upon opposite ledges, affording a safe passage-way and a desirable point of view.
