American Scenery, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic natureWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
American Scenery, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
United States -- Description and travel
Trenton Falls (called Cayoharie by the Indians) are formed by the
descent of a considerable stream, known by the name of West Canada
Creek, through a mountainous ravine of singular formation and beauty.
The Creek, which is swollen to a tremendous torrent by rains in the
mountains, or by the spring thaws, has evidently worn through the strata
which now enclose it, and runs at present over a succession of flat
platforms, descending by leaps of forty or fifty feet from one to the
other, and forming the most lovely chain of cascades for a length of
three or four hundred miles. The walls that shut it in are either
perpendicular, or overhanging it in broad table ledges; the wild
vegetation of the forest above, leaning over the chasm with an effect
like foliage of a bright translucent green, painted on the sky.
Although but fourteen miles distant from a town containing twelve or
fourteen thousand inhabitants, Trenton Falls were unknown till within a
very few years. They were discovered by an artist in search of the
picturesque, and are now visited, like Niagara and Terni. A quiet but
excellent inn, which contrasts strongly, by its respectful service, and
its neat and secluded air, with the noisy and carelessly kept hotels of
the country, stands on the edge of the pine forest, a little back from
the brink of the chasm; and being off the business line of travel, and
requiring a little time and expense to reach, it is frequented
principally by the better class of travellers, and forms a most
agreeable loitering-place, either for the invalid, or the lover of quiet
leisure.
In company with the artist to whom the public is indebted for these
admirable drawings, I lately visited the ravine by moonlight. We had
passed the day in rambling up and down the creek, (a term, by the way,
that, differing from its use in England, describes usually in America
the finer class of streams;) and I had already made myself familiar by
many visits in former years with every turn and phase of its matchless
waters, as seen by the light of day. The moon rose about ten, and lifted
her perfect orb, without a mist or a cloud, over the shoulder of the
mountain which turns the outlet of the ravine. The fine and majestic
wood, through which winds the narrow footpath to the Falls, let in the
white light in silvery and broken masses—sometimes sliding a long
argent line down the dark body of a pine, sometimes pouring in upon the
horizontal branches of the hemlock, like an open hand sprinkled with
snow; and here and there lighting up a broad circle upon the carpet of
tassels and dead leaves, which, in contrast with the heavy shadows of
the surrounding wood, looked illuminated with the special brightness of
a fairy ring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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