Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/300

296 three successive leaps, or efforts to effect a passage. These, together, comprise more than a hundred feet though neither of the separate cataracts are of any remarkable height. The stream sweeps on sinuously between each of these plunges, but gains no interval of rest, being broken upon pointed rocks that contest its course. These are of dark limestone, and rise in cliffs, from one hundred to one hundred and thirty feet, crested with evergreens of fir, spruce, and hemlock, like the waving plumes in the helmet of some ancient chieftain on the battle-day.

Our visit to Trenton Falls was immediately after a heavy rain, when, every crevice in the rocky path being filled to overflowing, we seemed to tread amid bowls of water. The intense heat of a July sun beat upon our heads, and radiated from the surrounding precipices; but the cool breath of the stream, and the foliage from every narrow cleft around and above us, striking out in wreaths and festoons, gave continued refreshment, while the surpassing beauty of that sequestered dell dispelled every sensation of discomfort.

Still it seemed more fatiguing to explore Trenton than Niagara. Ther paths are slippery and precipitous and it cannot be forgotten how repeatedly they have led to the tomb. The allusion, in the foregoing poem is to a beautiful child of Colonel Thorne, so long resident in Paris, who, in visiting this scene with her parents and family, slipped from the hand of the servant who led her, and was lost in the foaming depths.