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American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking (Reprint)
American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking - Reprint Author:Noah Webster Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the road near this chasm, the fancy is constantly engaged in the contemplation of the most romantic and awful prospects imaginable, until, at length, the eye cat... more »ches the falls, the imagination is instantly arrested, and you admire in silence ! The river is about one hundred and thirty-five poles wide, at the falls, and the perpendicular pitch one hundred and fifty feet, i 5. The fall of this vast body of water produces a sound which is frequently heard at the distance of twenty miles, an$) a sensible tremulous motion in the earth for some poles rounjt A heavy fog, or cloud, is constantly ascending from the falls, in which rainbows may always be seen when the sun. shines. 6. This fog, or spray, in the winter season, falls upcn the neighboring trees, where it congeals, and produces a most beautiful chrystaline appearance. This remark is equally applicable to tho falls of the Cheneseco. 7. The difficulty which would attend levelling the rapids in the chasm, prevented my attempting it; but I conjecture the water must descend at least sixty-five feet. The perpendicular pitch at the cataract is tit least one hundred and fifty feet; to these add fifty-eight feet, which the water falls in the last half mil?, immediately above the falls, and we have two hundred and seventy-three feet, which the water falls in a distance of about seven miles and a half. .8. If either ducks or geese inadvertently alight in the rapids, above the great cataract, they are incapable of getting on the wing again, and are instantly hurried on to destruction. There is one appearance at this cataract, worthy of some attention, and which I do not remember to have seen noted by any writer. 9. Just below the great pitch the water and foam may be seen puffed up in spherical figures nearly as large as common ...« less