eight miles farther; and the river is not sufficiently calm to admit of navigation, till it reaches Queen's-town, on the west side of the straits of Niagara, and nine miles distant from the falls.

To attempt an adequate description of them would be a fruitless task. Their wondrous reality puts to flight the most sublime ideas of anticipating fancy, and overpowers the soul of an intelligent spectator, with such enthusiastic feelings as can never be rightly conceived, unless by those who have, on some occasion, contemplated a similar scene.

FALLS OF THE MONTMORENCY.

[See Plate, No. 46.]

THE Montmorency empties itself at the distance of about eight miles north-east of Quebec, into the great river St. Laurence, to the coast of which it gradually descends from the elevated mountain on which it has its source. At a station called La Motte, situated on the northern extremity of a sloping ground, its waters diffuse themselves into shallow currents, interrupted by rocks which break them into foam, and accompanied by murmuring sounds which enhven the solitude and solemn stillness prevailing throughout the surrounding forests and desolate hills. Farther down, its channel is bounded by precipitous rocks, its breadth becoming extremely contracted, and the rapidity of its current proportionably augmented. At a place called "the natural steps" there are several beautiful cascades of ten or twelve feet. These steps, which are extremely regular, have been gradually formed by the accession of waters the river receives in its progress, at the breaking up of winter, by the melting of the snows. From the middle of April to the end of May, its waters roll with increasing height and rapidity. Being powerfully impelled in their course, they insinuate themselves between the strata of the hori zontal rock, vast fragments of which are detached by the rushing violence of the sweeping torrent.

On the eastern side, the bank, which is almost perpendicular, and fifty feet high, is surmounted by lofty trees. The south-west bank rises beyond the steps, and terminates in precipice. On the opposite side, the bank is regular,

of a singular shape, resembling the ruin of an elevated

The trees by which the banks are enclosed, united

THE TUCCOA FALL.

THIS fall, in Franklin County, Georgia, is as yet scarcely known to the best informed of our geographers, and is notwithstanding one of the most beautiful that can be conceived. It is much higher than the great fall of Niagara'; and the water is charmingly propelled over a perpendicular rock. When the stream is full, it passes down the steep in one expansive sheet magnificent to behold.

FALLS OF THE MISSOURI.

THE most prominent features of this great American river which is fed by so many streams, having their sources in a great variety of soils and climates, are its wonderful falls, rapids, and cascades, the following connected view of which is abstracted from the very accurate draught and survey made by Captain Clarke.

This river is nine hundred feet wide at the point where it receives the waters of Medicine river, which is four hundred and one feet in width. The united current continues five thousand four hundred and twelve feet, somewhat more than a mile, to a small rapid on the north side, from which it gradually widens to four thousand two hundred feet, and at the distance of nine thousand and forty-two feet (nearly a mile and three-fourths) reaches the head of the Rapids, narrowing as it approaches them. Here the hills on the north, which had withdrawn from the bank, closely border the river, which, for the space of a mile, makes its way over the rocks with a descent of thirty feet: in this course the current is contracted to sixteen hundred and forty feet, and, after throwing itself' over a small pitch of five feet, forms a beautiful cascade of twenty-six feet five inches; this does not, however, fall immediately perpendicular, being stopped by a part of the rock, which projects at about one-third of the distance. After descending this fall, and passing the Cotton-wood island, on which the eagle has fixed its nest, the river goes on for eight thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight feet (more than a mile and a half) over rapids and little falls, the estimated descent of which is thirteen feet six inches, till it is joined by a large fountain boiling up underneath the rocks near the edge of the river, into

which it falls with a cascade of eight feet. It is of the most perfect clearness, and rather of a bluish cast; and even after falling into the Missouri it preserves its colour for half a mile. From this fountain the river descends with increased rapidity for the distance of three thousand five hundred and thirty-one feet, during which the estimated descent is five feet: from this, for a distance of two thousand two hundred and twenty-seven feet, the river descends fourteen feet seven inches, including a perpendicular fall of six feet seven inches. The river has now become pressed into a space of one thousand four hundred and nineteen feet, and here forms a grand cataract, by falling over a plain rock, the whole distance across the river to the depth of forty-seven feet eight inches: after recovering itself, the Missouri then proceeds with an estimated descent of three feet, till at the distance of sixteen hundred and eighty-three feet it again is precipitated down the crooked falls of nineteen feet perpendicular; below this at the mouth of a deep ravine, is a fall of five feet, after which, for the distance of sixteen thousand and five feet (upwards of three miles) the descent is much more gradual, not being more than ten feet, and then succeeds a handsome level plain for the space of two thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven feet (more than half a mile,) with a computed descent of three feet, making a bend towards the north. Thence it descends, during seven thousand nine hundred and twenty feet, about eighteen feet and a half, when it makes a perpendicular fall of two feet, which is fourteen hundred and eighty-five feet beyond the great cataract, in approaching which it descends thirteen feet, within a distance of about six hundred feet, and gathering strength from its confined channel, which is only eight hundred and forty feet wide, rushes over the fall to the depth of eighty-seven feet and three quarters of an inch. After raging among the rocks, and losing itself in foam, it is compressed immediately into a bed of two hundred and seventy-nine feet in width; it continues for five thousand six hundred and ten feet to the entrance of a run or deep ravine, where there is a fall of three feet, which, joined to the decline of the river during that course, makes the descent six feet. As it goes on, the descent within the next three thousand nine hundred and sixty feet is only four

feet; from this, passing a run or deep ravine, the descent for one thousand six hundred feet is thirteen feet; within three thousand nine hundred and sixty feet, is a second descent of eighteen feet; thence two thousand six hundred and forty feet further, is a descent of six feet; after which, to the mouth of Portage creek, a distance of four thousand six hundred and twenty feet, the descent is ten feet.— From this survey and estimate it results that the river experiences a descent of three hundred and fifty-two feet in the course of two or three quarter miles, from the commencement of the rapids, to the mouth of Portage creek, exclusive of almost impassable rapids which extend for a mile below its entrance.

WATER-FALL OF SOUTH AFRICA.

THE great chain of mountains which runs from north to south through the colony of the cape of Good Hope, divides into two branches, one of which stretches south-east, and the other due south. At the extremity of the latter branch is "the water-fall mountain," in one of the clefts of which a large stream of water falls from the high rock above, and presents, in the winter season, when swollen by the rains, a glorious spectacle. To view this fall to advantage, the traveller has to climb to a considerable height over the steep and broken rocks which form one side of the mountain, and, on reaching the top, sees it on the other side. Its height is estimated at between eighty and ninety feet, and its breadth at between thirty and forty. Adequate terms cannot be found to describe the sublimity of this scene, after abundant rains, when it is in its full beauty. In the vale beneath, the water is collected in a vast and deep basin, excavated in the stone; and by the side of the stream is a grotto, which runs within the rock to the depth of between thirty and forty feet. The arched entrance to this grotto is close to the falling water, when the stream is full. The rocks about it are thickly grown over with shrubs, which are then sprinkled by the spray. The European travellers who proceed from Cape Town to the interior of south Africa, seldom fail to make a pilgrimage to this enchanting spot.