form that gives beauty and ser
inner curvature, or great funne

a section; but while an apparet apo

535

How striking a contrast is there between this | fluence of the descending stream and the ascendthe eyes of the beholder! Here every object part of the scenery, and what is soon exhibited ing spray. When the stream of water is much increased

obtained, as it leaves the prodis calculated to inspire feelings of calmness and by rain, it is projected full twenty yards from

hanging limestone less secure, stars
with awful apprehension.

A grandeur, dizzy and fight.
suspended masses of rock; and he sat
to sustain reflection, feels as though;
by some dreadful phantom. Alas
must be all efforts at pictorial representa
this position; and yet here are you the
pressed with its sublime forms."
Bewildering sensations now succeed, in
be described. From painful oppressist
seeks relief by comparing the grandes
structures with what now seizes its a
and where nature has not far overset
est monument of human art, a strange
light is felt, and quiet and self-possess
But here, in vain does the mind
repose-comparisons are hardly drek
the struggle is made. A range of a
dreary chasms, perpendicular lines e
away into dizzy heights, and whitenes
ed up into the regions of lighting
present a combination of sublime is
comparison-that defy all efforts to
comprehend. The mind shrinks
awed to solemn thought and appales

above and around it. You unconsci
the ground-you cover your face n
hands, and murmur-"Lord, what
thou art mindful of him, or the sa¿.
thou shouldst regard him?"
Correspondent of Decat

serenity; and the distant roar of the cascade falls
like melodious music on the ear, to compose and

the base of the precipice, and occasions a violent wearing the rocks and pieces of timber in it whirlpool in the basin, which has the effect of smooth and round.

soothe the mind. But how soon is the beholder
awakened from this sweet and contemplative rev-
erie, when he finds himself on the brink of the Below the arched excavation, the precipice,
little stream just described! He is filled with pendicular wall of one hundred and fifty feet in
awful precipice over which tumbles the beautiful which consists of solid rock, is just like a per-
wonder and amazement when he surveys on the height. Within ten feet of the base of this wall,
one hand the stupendous cliff above, whose tow-are to be seen several large niches, which contain
ering apex seems to scale the clouds, and on the a great many bones, some of which are human,
other, the profound abyss beneath, into which the and supposed to have been deposited there by
water falls and vanishes from the sight. After some of the Indian tribes.
viewing this truly grand scene for some time, While contemplating this august scenery, my
with a pleasure which can be more easily con- guide related to me two incidents, which served
ceived than described, I turned away from the to excite in my mind feelings of a very solemn
spot, and, as I supposed, bade a final adieu to it; and melancholy character. The first was the
being more forcibly struck than I had ever been murder of a man by two gamblers, who had fol-
before, with the wondrous power and might of the lowed him from McMinnville, Middle Tennessee,
great Artificer of the universe. But to my great under the impression that he was possessed of a
surprise, I learned from the gentleman living very large amount of money. He showed me the spot
near, and who met me while retracing my steps where they committed the horrid deed, it being
to my carriage, that I had as yet seen but a small near to the basin, where they had decoyed their
part of this awfully grand scenery. He informed unsuspecting victim, under the pretence of show-
me that there was a way by which we could de- ing him this interesting spectacle. Suffice it to
scend to the base of the precipice, on the brink say, that he was most barbarously murdered,
of which I had just stood, where I could have a and then despoiled of all he had, and his man-
much better view of the fall of water. Wishing gled corpse was left exposed to the beasts of prey.
to gratify my excited cúriosity to the utmost ex- He was, however, soon discovered and received
tent, I consented to accept him as my guide. He a decent interment. The other incident was the
conducted me down a very rugged, and precipi- accidental destruction of a negro man who hav-
tous declivity of considerable extent, amid crags ing fled from his master, a trader, and being pur-
of almost mountain height. At length we reach-sued at night, leaped headlong, unconsciously,
ed the foot of the precipice, and stood in full view over this dreadful precipice to the right of the fall,
of the whole wonderful and amazing prospect. full one hundred and fifty feet, and mangled his
At first, I felt almost overwhelmed by the con-
templation, and spent some minutes in viewing
the water merely where it falls into a lovely cir-
cular basin of stone. But language is utterly in-
adequate to express my emotions, when I ven-
tured to raise my eyes to survey the lofty and
spacious concave which was suspended over my
head, and the precipitation of the water from its
brink. You can form some faint conception of
the magnificence and grandeur of this scenery,
when I tell you that the great dome above, which
looks like the firmament in miniature, is not less
than one hundred and fifty feet in diameter and
one hundred and seventy-five feet in height, from
the bottom of the basin, into which the water is
received. The excavation extends so far back,
from the point at which the water is projected
that there is a space of full forty feet between the
base of the precipice and the basin, so that per-
sons can walk with ease under the arch, without
being made wet by the spray, which is consid-
erable, and which exhibits the appearance of a
shower of rain. The water passes from the edge
of the arch above in a mass, but descending
through the air for nearly two hundred feet, it
becomes divided like large drops of rain-which
present a strikingly singular appearance. In the
afternoon, the beauty and interest of the scene
are greatly heightened by the numerous brilliant
rainbows which are formed by the refracting in-

THE CUMBERLAND WATER-PL THIS Fall is situated on the top of and mountains, East Tennessee. I y heard it spoken of by travellers whe ; and their descriptions excited reat desire to see it, as I conceived: eautiful miniature representation iagara. I have recently had an opp ratifying this desire; and I assure a ost exalted preconceptions were ized when I had the pleasure of re ost interesting scene, which ke for its beauty, and its wild and ur. This fall is within two hundred estage road crossing the Cumber

The pathway which conducts er a gently inclined plane, on the o which meanders a small stream, wi markable only for its beautif er which flows or smoothly and se y verge of the precipice over t nediately beyond the little rival abruptly steep mountain, which is c xuriant growth of ivy and laurel de which was greatly heightened when g covered with richly variegated noble yew trees, as if too proud the humble shrubbery benehn

which almost rie with

head and body against the crags beneath. His passage from time to eternity was indeed a short one! His tomb is amid the rocks not far from where he fell, and contiguous to that of his companion in misfortune.

Correspondent of Richmond Enquirer.

OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG.

THY stars and stripes abroad unfurled,—

Blest guardian of our father land,
Beamed brightly when to earth were hurled
The chains that bound each freeman's hand

Around thy fold a gathered band,

Stood ready for an open foe;
They stood not as the hirelings stand,
Waiting a sign, to strike the blow.

Their hearts were nerved for freedom's fight,
A Holy and a glorious cause;
Their emblem stood in azure light,
That light, the type of equal laws,

So mayst thou wave, Flag of the free,

As pure-as bright, as Planets are;
May Heaven protect thy spotless fame,-
Spotless alike in peace or war.

W. H. T.

FRUITS AND SCENERY OF FLORIDA.

THE general appearance of Florida is uninteresting. One half of the Territory is an immense pine barren, where little is to be seen beside the palmetto, the myrtle and the pine. Here and there, however, may be found "hammocks" of live oak, post oak and hickory, and by the borders of the lakes and rivers are delightful groves of oranges and figs. Our first approach to Florida was by the conveyance of a yawl boat, hired for the occasion Though it was the depth of winter, yet the atmosphere was, as it had been for a fortnight, singularly balmy and soft. Such air we may believe the inhabitants of Elysium enjoy. Our little sail being hoisted, the wind wafted us with speed across the bosom of the river.

The St. Johns is the most important river of this Territory. Its source is among a chain of lakes in the Middle Eastern District. These lakes are accessible to sloops. They are often deep, but of a living clearness and brilliancy. In their depths dwell unnumbered fish of various kinds the trout, the flounder, and others. Alligators dwell in these waters, and are sometimes found of the enormous length of fifteen feet! Their average size, however, is by no means so great. During the heat of noon in winter, and at all times in summer, they may be seen lying upon the sand-bars of the rivers and lakes, (leisure-loving monsters!) enjoying the repose of almost perpetual silence and warmth; indifferent to all wars and political tumults: savagely desirous of young negroes; laughing at bullets, and accounting them as stubble, and with "dignified disgust" turning from the crack of a rifle as though it were but the small voice of a popgun.

unavoidable combat, and a brief one. The captain of a steamboat, while at his post, perceived one of the inhabitants of the river pushing his way directly across before the boat. At its approach, the animal sank, and rose immediately before the wheel! He rushed at the shaft, which struck him with great violence, dragged him upward in its revolution, and flung him through the shivered boards of the wheel house, a mangled and quivering victim upon the deck. This anecdote was told us by the Captain himself, and struck us as being very horrible.

We might say some things further relating to the alligator. We might tell how he swalloweth pine knots previous to the lethargy of his winter life, and considereth them not inferior to pastry and pancakes, also how excellently well his tail tasteth to the epicure, who cooketh said tail and considereth it equal to bass; furthermore how the ladies shudder at such feats and such opinion, and consider it barbarism to devour any portion of said "varmint "-with other remarks of like char acter. But we return from the digression to the subject of our paper.

The scenery of Florida is not all uninteresting. He who has seen from some quiet nook a graceful bend of the river bordered with orange bowers and groves of the holly and magnolia and oak, and (truly tropical and stately) the cabbage palmetto and cocoa-nut, will find in his memory recollec tions wherewith to frame a dream of the loveliness of Mahomet's paradise. There are "sinks," too, in Florida-places where rivers suddenly sink or vanish in the sand, or where they rush with abandoned plunge into the dark caverns, mingling there with subterranean torrents, and gliding away through thickest gloom with many murmur. ings and discordant sounds. At some future time, the poet, looking into these dark and misty cav erns, may imagine, while he feels the inspiration of horror, that these melancholy and subterraneous sounds are the moans of the water genii, lament. ing that the river amid whose spray they spread their wings, has left the cypress shades and open sunshine to wander on through the chilliness and mist and sunless glooms of caverns.

They are the enemies of bathers. A boy from one of the towns lying on the Southern rivers, while bathing, was attacked by one of these "ugly insects," as they were laughably termed by an Some of these Stygian waters rise and sink "ancient mariner" of our acquaintance. The ad- with the tide, thereby indicating their connexion vances of the monster were unforeseen. A shout with the sea. Lakes, once wide and beautiful, have from the companions of the endangered youth sunk in a single night, leaving their beds covered failed to warn him from the spot-and-my blood with the fish. During the present winter a lake freezes while I write-he rushed into the very sunk thus, leaving millions of fish dancing upon jaws of the waterdemon before him. Oh, God! the land. Cartloads of these were carried of what an awful moment to the young spectators and cured by the neighboring "crackers," (squat was that! They saw their companion struggling in the waves, his head locked in the very jaws of the enemy. The combatants sank. With admirable adroitness, the youth seized the alligator by I was speaking of trees. Unanimously we vo the eyeholes, forcing the balls instantly from the ted the magnolia to be the most beautiful. The sockets. With a fiend-like howl, the monster re- exquisite fragrance of its blossoms, and the "imtreated to the bottom of the river, while the un- perial pride" and beauty of its foliage, have made lucky youth, blinded and drenched with blood, it a great favorite. The live oak attains, however, staggered to the shore. This is no fancy sketch. to great size. We passed some groves certainly It occurred near Darien, in Georgia. Other en- magnificent. When growing in the low grounds, counters of this kind were communicated to us. One more relation shall conclude our present remarks upon this subject.

Alligator versus Steam. This was a forced and

ters and herdsmen.) The remainder, putrifying, tainted the whole atmosphere for miles around, reminding the traveller of the plague of Egypt.

they are hung with dismal festoons of moss. A contractor, furnishing timber for naval purposes, informed me of an enormous tree, growing on the banks of a river. He measured it, and found it

537

thirty feet to the first bough, and thirty-six in cir- and were justly entitled to the high consideration cumference at base. He compared its trunk to of the committee of Agriculture, to whom his the shot tower at New York. I regarded his as-memorial was referred; and a report favorable to sertions as exaggeration and extravagance of lan- his prayer, was submitted by Mr. Linn, the chair

a vine

guage, but was assured by the planter over whose grounds its mighty shadow moved, that the state- man. The doctor founded his hope of success in ment was correct. This giant of the forest was such an undertaking, upon four leading facts: beginning to feel the inroads of decay. It was First; many valuable vegetables of the tropics do not cut, as it was found hollow in the middle. actually propagate themselves in the worst soils These trees are almost invariably hung with the and situations, in the sun and in the shade of evfestoonery of the grape. The vines of the grape ery tropical region, where a single plant arrives in Florida are sometimes of great size, bearing by accident or design. Second; for other profitabundantly. From the fruit good wine has been able plants of the tropics which require human made. The acoonta or Indian bread is skill or care, moisture is the equivalent to manure, which clambers up the forest trees. Its thorns are very sharp and malignant. From the root the for tropical cultivation evidently consists in apIndian prepares a species of flour in taste not un-propriate irrigation. Third; a tropical climate like the flour made from potatoes. The palmetto extends into southern Florida, so peculiarly fais a shrub which gives character to the scenery. Its leaf is fan-shaped and beautifully green. The pine of Florida is the long leafed-kind. It grows sometime to a great height, towering above all in lordly stateliness and strength. When the wind rages, the roar of the pine forest is indescribably grand. In Alcehua county, the soil is generally rich; there the pine is oft enormous in stature, and its roots strike deep into the fertile earth, so that the ploughman may drive his plough close to the very trunk.

The cabbage palm resembles the palmetto in its leaf, but it is a tree, and grows sometimes to the height of fifty feet. The trunk is pointed with a thousand shafts of bark, shooting out like bayonets. It resembles the cocoanut.

fruit.

vorable to human health and vegetable growth, that the fertility and benignity of its atmosphere will counterbalance the malignity and sterility of its soil. Fourth; the inundated marshes and miry swamps of the interior of southern Florida

are more elevated than the arid sands and until

lable rocks of the coast; and hence the same canals which may drain the former will irrigate the latter, and afford the appropriate proportions of

moisture for both.

Dr. Perrine confidently states, and proves by sound arguments drawn from facts, that the soils of our southern states, where tobacco, rice and cotton are cultivated, are peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of several kinds of tropical fibrousleaved plants, which are extremely useful, and important in an agricultural point of view. He considers those plants under the head of agave and yucca, as the most useful of any, and especially the agave Sisalana, or Sisal hemp, known among the Mexicans as the yashqui variety of the henequin.

The orange is of three kinds-the sweet, the bitter sweet, and the sour. The latter are not unlike the lemon as to flavor. The first mentioned is the delicious fruit brought to the north from the West Indies. The bitter sweet is most abundant, and is certainly pleasant. Figs, white and purple, are found in the hammocks of middle Florida, and are as agreeable as the cultivated Peaches are also found wild, strange as it This plant is cultivated extensively in Yucatan, may seem. Perhaps the botanist may say that they must have been introduced by the natives-and in many parts of Mexico, and is considered by the men who wandered through the wilds of a very important article of commerce. Very the territory, before the savage had passed the strong, light and elastic foliaceous fibres of the frozen ocean in his descent to the temperate and tropical climes of America. The cocoanut has been introduced from Cuba, as well as the plantain and banana, the myrtle or orange, the lemon and pineapple. Of the latter there are very few to be found though the soil and climate are highly

favorable.

[That the peninsula of Florida presents a vast field for individual as well as national enterprise, in promoting the interest of agriculture and horticulture, by the transplantation there of exotics from the tropics, cannot be doubted. During the second session of the twenty-fifth congress, Doctor Henry Perrine, late American consul at Campeachy, Yucatan, addressed several letters to the secretary of the treasury, and a memorial to congress, recommending and praying for the introduction of tropical plants into Florida. His letters abound with much useful scientific information,

yashqui are extracted from the fresh leaves by simple scraping only, and are immediately converted into bagging, &c., without spinning, twisting, or any other preparation. These fibres are

extensive consumption, and furnish cheaper equiv alents for baling, and envelopes in general, than any other material woven or plaited. They are also used there instead of hair for sieves; instead of withes for baskets; instead of leather and wood for valises and trunks, and are even made into vessels in the shape of bottles, bowls, cups and saucers. By American taste, they might be made a cheap material for many ornamental objects.

also used in the manufacture of coarse articles of

Nor is the use of the henequin confined to such articles alone, but it makes the cheapest and most durable kind of paper. Several mills are in opetion near the city of Mexico, and by a decree of the Mexican Congress, this kind of paper is or

of the north, which will supply many wants of our merchants' vessels, our navy, and our citizens in general; augment our coasting trade, and our foreign commerce, and thus contribute greatly to the prosperity and perpetuity of our Union."

dered to be used for the record of laws, and all, nish a profitable staple to the planters of the official transactions of members of government. south, and a cheap material to the manufacturers Doctor Perrine estimates, that ten thousand individuals of superior varieties of the cultivated species of sacqui and of yashqui, and one hundred each of the peculiar varieties of the wild species of chelem, cahum, chulul-qui, &c., would form a more valuable cargo than was ever before transported to the United States, should it be devoted to no other use than the manufacture of paper; and in his memorial to Congress in 1832, says, that "the domestication of the species of a single genus of tropical plants will cause a great revolution in the agriculture of the southern states, which will not only effectually relieve their present embarrassments, but will also give a productive value to their ruined fields and most steril districts; and that the extensive cultivation of a single species, the agave sisalana alone, will fur

The subject is certainly one of much interest, and it is to be hoped that when the morus multicaulis fever has somewhat abated, that the attention of both government and individuals may be turned to the formation of an acclimating nursery for these valuable exotics, and introduce their cultivation upon the peninsula of Florida and the adjacent states.

The subjoined cut exhibits the appearance of the full-grown plant, without flowers.

Agave Sisalana, or Sisal Hemp.

PRINTING AND THE ARTS.

ONE cannot but reflect on that grand revolution which took place when language, till then limited to its proper organ, had its representation in the work of the hand. Now that a man of mean estate can have a library of more intrinsic value than that of Cicero, when the sentiments of past ages are as familiar as those of the present, and the knowledge of different empires is transmitted and common to all, we cannot expect to have our

sages followed, as of old, by their five thousand scholars. Nations will not now record their acts by building pyramids, nor consecrate temples and raise statues, once the only means of perpetuating great deeds or extraordinary virtues. It is in vain that our artists complain that patronage is withheld; for the ingenuity of the hand has at length subdued the arts of design-printing has made all other records barbarous, and great men build for themselves a "livelong monument."

Bell on the Hand.

AMERICAN SCENERY.

THE OHIO.

Ir was in the month of October. The autumnal teints already decorated the shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every tree was hung with long and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine, mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage, which now predominated over the yet green leaves, reflecting more lively teints from the clear stream than ever landscape painter portrayed or poet imagined.

The days were yet warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that season produces the singular phenomenon called there the "Indian summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian of her grandeur. We glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that formed by the propulsion of our boat. Leisurely we moved along, gazing all day on the grandeur and beauty of the wild scenery around us.

Now and then a large cat-fish rose to the surface of the water in pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from the liquid element, like so many silvery arrows, produced a shower of light, while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, and with a shake of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other fishes we heard uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the strange sounds of which we discovered to proceed from the white perch, for, on casting our net from the bow, we caught several of that species, when the noise ceased for a time. Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality towards this portion of our country. As the traveller ascends or descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking that alternately, nearly the whole length of the river, the margin on one side is bounded by lofty hills and a rolling surface, while on the other, extensive plains of the richest alluvial land are seen as far as the eye can command the view. Islands of varied size and form rise here and there from the bosom of the water, and the winding course of the stream frequently brings you to places where the idea of being on a river of great length changes to that of floating on a lake of moderate extent. Some of these islands are of considerable size and value-while others, small and insignificant, seem as if intended for contrast; and as serving to enhance the general interest of the scenery. These little islands are frequently overflowed during great freshets or floods, and receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber. We foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would soon produce along those delightful banks.

As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the river, our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered far beyond the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that the cattle which bore them were gently roving from valley to valley, in search of food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of

the great owl, or the muffled noise of its wings as it sailed smoothly over the stream, were matters of interest to us; so was the sound of the boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar. When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth, with echoing notes, more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely cabin of a squatter struck the eye, giving note of commencing civilization. The crossing of the stream by a deer, foretold how soon the hills would be covered with snow.

Many sluggish flat-boats we overtook and passed-some laden with produce from the different head waters of the small rivers that pour their tributary streams into the Ohio; others, of less dimensions, crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in search of a new home. Purer pleasures I have never felt; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless indeed you have felt the like, and in such company.

The margins of the shores and of the river were at this season amply supplied with game. A wild turkey, a grouse, or a blue winged teal, could be procured in a few moments; and we fared well, for whenever we pleased we landed, struck up a fire, and provided as we were with the necessary utensils, procured a good repast.

When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the grandeur and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself the dense and lofty summits of the forest, that every where spread along the hills, and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe navigation of that river has been by the blood of many worthy Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found there; and that the vast herd of elks, deer and buffaloes, which once pastured on these hills and in these valleys, making for themselves great roads to the several salt springs, have ceased to exist; when I reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro, over the whole length of the majestic river, and forcing commerce to take root and to prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest, and transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses-when I remember that these extraordinary changes have all taken place within the short period of twenty years, I pause, and wonder; although I know all to be fact, I can scarcely believe its reality.

Whether these changes are for the best or for the worse, I shall not pretend to say; but in whatever way my conclusions may incline, I feel with great regret that there are on record no satisfactory accounts of the state of that portion of the country, from the time when our people first settled in it. This has not been because no one in America is able to accomplish such an undertaking. Our Irvings and our Coopers have proved themselves fully competent for the task.

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