How He Had Descended I Could Not Perceive;
Nothing Like Human Footsteps Appeared, And The Horrific Crags Seemed
To Bid Defiance Even To The Goat's Activity.
It looked like an
abode only fit for the eagle, though in its crevices some pines
darted up their
Spiral heads; but they only grew near the cascade,
everywhere else sterility itself reigned with dreary grandeur; for
the huge grey massy rocks, which probably had been torn asunder by
some dreadful convulsion of nature, had not even their first
covering of a little cleaving moss. There were so many appearances
to excite the idea of chaos, that, instead of admiring the canal and
the works, great as they are termed, and little as they appear, I
could not help regretting that such a noble scene had not been left
in all its solitary sublimity. Amidst the awful roaring of the
impetuous torrents, the noise of human instruments and the bustle of
workmen, even the blowing up of the rocks when grand masses trembled
in the darkened air, only resembled the insignificant sport of
children.
One fall of water, partly made by art, when they were attempting to
construct sluices, had an uncommonly grand effect; the water
precipitated itself with immense velocity down a perpendicular, at
least fifty or sixty yards, into a gulf, so concealed by the foam as
to give full play to the fancy. There was a continual uproar. I
stood on a rock to observe it, a kind of bridge formed by nature,
nearly on a level with the commencement of the fall.
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