This Is Nearly Two Miles Above The Steps By Which The
Descent Is Made; And Not A Foot Of This Distance But Is Wildly
Beautiful.
When the river is very low there is a pathway even
beyond that block; but when this is the case there can hardly be
enough of water to make the fall satisfactory.
There is no one special cataract at Trenton which is in itself
either wonderful or pre-eminently beautiful. It is the position,
form, color, and rapidity of the river which gives the charm. It
runs through a deep ravine, at the bottom of which the water has
cut for itself a channel through the rocks, the sides of which rise
sometimes with the sharpness of the walls of a stone sarcophagus.
They are rounded, too, toward the bed as I have seen the bottom of
a sarcophagus. Along the side of the right bank of the river there
is a passage which, when the freshets come, is altogether covered.
This passage is sometimes very narrow; but in the narrowest parts
an iron chain is affixed into the rock. It is slippery and wet;
and it is well for ladies, when visiting the place, to be provided
with outside India-rubber shoes, which keep a hold upon the stone.
If I remember rightly, there are two actual cataracts - one not far
above the steps by which the descent is made into the channel, and
the other close under a summer-house, near to which the visitors
reascend into the wood. But these cataracts, though by no means
despicable as cataracts, leave comparatively a slight impression.
They tumble down with sufficient violence and the usual fantastic
disposition of their forces; but simply as cataracts within a day's
journey of Niagara, they would be nothing. Up beyond the summer-
house the passage along the river can be continued for another
mile; but it is rough, and the climbing in some places rather
difficult for ladies. Every man, however, who has the use of his
legs should do it; for the succession of rapids, and the twistings
of the channels, and the forms of the rocks are as wild and
beautiful as the imagination can desire. The banks of the river
are closely wooded on each side; and though this circumstance does
not at first seem to add much to the beauty, seeing that the ravine
is so deep that the absence of wood above would hardly be noticed,
still there are broken clefts ever and anon through which the
colors of the foliage show themselves, and straggling boughs and
rough roots break through the rocks here and there, and add to the
wildness and charm of the whole.
The walk back from the summer-house through the wood is very
lovely; but it would be a disappointing walk to visitors who had
been prevented by a flood in the river from coming up the channel,
for it indicates plainly how requisite it is that the river should
be seen from below and not from above.
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