So Far The Ground Had Been
Cultivated, But It Now Became Covered With Bushes And Large
Scattered Trees.
As soon as my scanty baggage had arrived and was duly deposited
in the shed, I started off alone for the fall, which was about a
quarter of a mile further on.
The river is here about twenty
yards wide, and issues from a chasm between two vertical walls of
limestone, over a rounded mass of basaltic rock about forty feet
high, forming two curves separated by a slight ledge. The water
spreads beautifully over this surface in a thin sheet of foam,
which curls and eddies in a succession of concentric cones until
it falls into a fine deep pool below. Close to the very edge of
the fall a narrow and very rugged path leads to the river above,
and thence continues close under the precipice along the water's
edge, or sometimes in the water, for a few hundred yards, after
which the rocks recede a little, and leave a wooded bank on one
side, along which the path is continued, until in about half a
mile, a second and smaller fall is reached. Here the river seems
to issue from a cavern, the rocks having fallen from above so as to
block up the channel and bar further progress. The fall itself
can only be reached by a path which ascends behind a huge slice
of rock which has partly fallen away from the mountain, leaving a
space two or three feet wide, but disclosing a dark chasm
descending into the bowels of the mountain, and which, having
visited several such, I had no great curiosity to explore.
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