The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
A substance supposed to be Pumice, found floating on the
Mississippi, has induced a conjecture that there is a volcano on
some of its waters; and as these are mostly known to their
sources, except the Missouri, our expectations of verifying the conjecture
would of course be led to the mountains which divide
the waters of the Mexican Gulf from those of the South Sea;
but no volcano having ever yet been known at such a distance
from the sea, we must rather suppose that this floating substance
has been erroneously deemed Pumice.
QUERY V.
_Its Cascades and Caverns?_
The only remarkable cascade in this country is that of the
Falling Spring in Augusta. It is a water of James' river where
it is called Jackson's river, rising in the warm spring mountains,
about twenty miles south west of the warm spring, and flowing
into that valley. About three-quarters of a mile from its source
it falls over a rock two hundred feet into the valley below. The
sheet of water is broken in its breadth by the rock, in two or
three places, but not at all in its height. Between the sheet and
the rock, at the bottom, you may walk across dry. This cataract
will bear no comparison with that of Niagara as to the
quantity of water composing it; the sheet being only twelve or
fifteen feet wide above and somewhat more spread below; but
it is half as high again, the latter being only one hundred and
fifty-six feet, according to the mensuration made by order of
M. Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, and one hundred and thirty
according to a more recent account.
[Illustration: An eye draught of Madison's cave on a scale of
67 feet to the inch. The arrows show
where it descends or ascends.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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