Page:Niagara, a poem - Abraham Moore (1822).djvu/25



This bold fabric was constructed by protruding long beams of timber horizontally from the bank, and sending out men on the ends, which hung over the water, (and which were counterpoised with heavy weights placed on the ends that rested on the land,) for the purpose of driving piles, or fixing upon a pier of rock for their support. This being accomplished, a second set of beams were protruded in the same manner from the extremity of the first, till a second pier was gained; a third followed, and, by a repetition of the same process, the whole structure was completed.

For the space of about seven miles from the falls to Queenstown, the river, or rather torrent, rushes along between two rows of cliffs, rising to the height of 200 feet; through which during a series of ages it seems to have worn or torn its way. From hence some, with much appearance of reason, have supposed, that the falls were originally at Queenstown, where the level of the country sinks almost suddenly to a flat but a little higher than the surface of the river; and that as the rocky bed of the latter has given way and deepened, the falls have gradually receded to their present site.

There are many picturesque and interesting waterfalls in Wales, one at a most romantic place called the Devil's Bridge, falling above 300 feet; but very few of them fall 100 feet, and the streams which supply them are but rivulets or very narrow