AMERICAN SCENERY, THE CATTERSKILL FALLS. (FROM BELOW.) FROM the precipice whence our first view of this Fall is taken, the descent is steep and slippery to the very brink of the torrent, which it is necessary to cross on the wild blocks which lie scattered in its rocky bed. From thence, literally buried in forest foliage, the tourist will enjoy a very different, but, perhaps, more striking and picturesque view than the other. The stream, at a vast height above him, is seen leaping from ledge to ledge-sometimes lost, sometimes sparkling in sunshine, till it courses impetuously beneath the rock on which he is seated, and is lost in the deep unbroken obscurity of the forest. The rocky ledges above, worn by time, have the appearance of deep caverns, and beautifully relieve the fall of the light and silvery stream. In the winter, the vast icicles which are suspended from the ledges of rock, and shine like pillars against the deep obscurity of the caverns behind, afford a most romantic spectacle, one which has afforded a subject to Bryant for one of the most imaginative of his poems. 2 THE CATTERSKILL FALLS. THE CATTERSKILL FALLS. "Midst greens and shades the Catterskill leaps With the sweet light spray of the mountain springs; "But when, in the forest bare and old, The blast of December calls, He builds, in the starlight clear and cold, A palace of ice where his torrent falls, "For whom are those glorious chambers wrought, In the cold and cloudless night? Is there neither spirit nor motion of thought Had wandered over the mighty wood, When the panther's track was fresh on the snow; "Too gentle of mien he seemed, and fair, "And here he paused, and against the trunk When the broad clear orb of the sun had sunk From his path in the frosty firmament, From a sky of crimson shone, On that icy palace, whose towers were seen "Is that a being of life, that moves Where the crystal battlements rise? |