hundred and forty-five miles. This river is in most parts wide and deep, and has within it several fine and fruitful islands, with a fertile soil on both its banks: but it is not navigable above fifty miles for ships, on account of its cataract. At Powerscourt we also meet with a noble cataract, where the water is said, but probably with much exaggeration, to fall three hundred feet perpendicular, which is a greater descent than that of any other cataract in any part of the world. NORTH AMERICA in its lakes and cataracts surpasses all other parts of the world. That of Niagara we have already mentioned. The FALLS of ST. ANTHONY, on the river Mississippi, in lati tude 44° 30′ north, descend from a perpendicular height of thirty feet, and are upward of two hundred and fifty yards wide, whilst the shore on each side is a level flat, without any intervening rock or precipice. There are no remarkable rivers that extend far i to the state of New Jersey; but that named Passaick, or Pasaic, which discharges itself into the sea to the northward of it, has a remarkable cataract, about twenty miles from its mouth, where it is about forty yards broad, and runs with a very swift current, till arriving at a deep chasin or cleft, which crosses the channel, it falls about seventy feet perpendicular in one entire sheet. One end of the cliff is closed up, and the water rushes out at the other with incredible rapidity, in an acute angle, to its former direction, and is received into a large bason. Thence it takes a winding course through the rocks, and spreads again into a very considerable channel. The cleft is from four to twelve feet broad. When Mr. Burnaby saw it, the spray formed two beautiful rainbows, a primary and secondary, which greatly assisted in producing as fine a scene as imagination can conceive. This extraordinary phænomenon is supposed to have been produced by an earthquake. What greatly heightens this scene, is another fall, though of less magnificence, about thirty yards above.. VOL.III. hundred and forty-five miles. This river is in most parts wide and deep, and has within it several fine and fruitful islands, with a fertile soil on both its banks: but it is not navigable above fifty miles for ships, on account of its cataract. At Powerscourt we also meet with a noble cataract, where the water is said, but probably with much exaggeration, to fall three hundred feet perpendicular, which is a greater descent than that of any other cataract in any part of the world. NORTH AMERICA in its lakes and cataracts surpasses all other parts of the world. That of Niagara we have already mentioned. The FALLS of ST. ANTHONY, on the river Mississippi, in latitude 44° 30′ north, descend from a perpendicular height of thirty feet, and are upward of two hundred and fifty yards wide, whilst the shore on each side is a level flat, without any intervening rock or precipice. There are no remarkable rivers that extend far i to the state of New Jersey; but that named Passaick, or Pasaic, which discharges itself into the sea to the northward of it, has a remarkable cataract, about twenty miles from its mouth, where it is about forty yards broad, and runs with a very swift current, till arriving at a deep chasin or cleft, which crosses the channel, it falls about seventy feet perpendicular in one entire sheet. One end of the cliff is closed up, and the water rushes out at the other with incre dible rapidity, in an acute angle, to its former direction, and is received into a large bason. Thence it takes a winding course through the rocks, and spreads again into a very considerable channel. The cleft is from four to twelve feet broad. When Mr. Burnaby saw it, the spray formed two beautiful rainbows, a primary and secondary, which greatly assisted in producing as fine a scene as imagination can conceive. This extraordinary phænomenon is supposed to have been produced by an earthquake. What greatly heightens this scene, is another fall, though of less magnificence, about thirty yards above. VOL.III. SECTION X. Lakes, Lochs, and Loughs. 1. Introductory Remarks. THESE terms are synonymous, or rather, perhaps, may be re garded by the etymologist as universal; for the lough of Ireland is the loch of Scotland, and both are the lake of England; each term being derived from the Latin lacus, or the Greek xaxxos, of simi. lar import, and varied in its orthography and pronunciation by a mere provincial distinction. Lakes or loughs have a very close connexion with bogs, as these last have with moors or mosses; a bog or moss being little more than a lake loaded with vegetable matter, usually of aquatic origin". This connexion is well pointed out by Mr. W. King in the following ar. ticle, chiefly devoted to the loughs of Ireland; and which we take from the Philosophical Transactions. As to the origin of bogs, it is to be observed, that there are few places in our northern world but have been noted for them, as well as Ireland; every barbarous ill-inhabited country has them. I take the loca palustria, or paludes, to be the very same we call bogs, the ancient Gauls, Germans, and Britons, retiring, when beaten, to the paludes, is just what we have ex. perienced in the Irish, and we shall find those places in Italy that were barbarous, such as Liguria, were infested with them, so that the true cause of them seems to be the want of industry. To show this, we are to consider, that Ireland abounds in springs; that these springs are mostly dry in the summer, aud the grass and weeds grow thick about those places. In the winter they swell and run, and soften and loosen all the earth about them. Now that swerd or surface of the earth, which consists of the roots of grass, being lifted .up and made fuzzy or spongy by the water in the winter, is dried in the spring, and does not fall together, but wither in a tuft, and new grass spring through it, which the next winter is again lifted up; and thus the spring is still more and more stopped, and the swerd grows thicker and thicker, til at first it makes what is * For bogs, mosses, and the production of peat, see chap. xxvi. of the prefent part of our work. |