Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1858-07-23

-'rhe whole cOnccrn"-to the mental
vision Of your admiring readers. They
must come and look for themselves, and
60 into ecstacics on their own account.
This is not all of the exhibition, how
ever. The curtain drops sometimes. and
gives glimpse of performances behind
the scenes showing how things are done,
as we'll as the fact that they are done. 1t
is rather startling, some sultry noon, to
suddenly hear heavy peals of thunder, that
make the walks tremblc like an earthquake,
comiay up from Je}ow, instead Of down
from above, according to established Gus
tom. Rushing to the verand!h, you find
the landscape shroudcd from view, and the
entire mountain girdled, half way down,
by dense masses Of revolving, wLirling,
tumultuoGs clouds, white as the driven
snow, aud blazing all the while in the ver-
teal sun with binding, iuiescribable cf
fulgenca the vollied lightning ever and
amen lifting their lurid flashes, suggested
rather than seen, followed by peal after
peal Of crashing, scpulchral, reverberating e
thunder, as if earth's final hour had come,
and We had been charitably forgotten.
(Tell "Jaeh," that his way Of getting up
electricity for telosraphic purposes, by a
bit of platinum stuck into cup OF agra
.fJrtis, is small potatoes. Let him take
the CattskiI mountain in his thumb aud
finger, and thrust it up through a cunt
lous storm-cloud, with the thermometer at
90', and lie will have ''battery," that
will charge the wires FOX him with Il ven
geance. ).....By and bv- the "-h""7t,d
Glands dissolve their leagued battallions,
sending them off eastwardly in vanishing
squadrons, and nature smiles again, re-
frcshed and jubilant.
The gorge behind US is about half a
mile wide, reaching westwardly some three
or four miles, descending rapidly the last
half Of the way, when it meets similar
gorge from the north. west, and the two
uniting, break through the mountain by
a still deeper chasm to the south-east-the
outlet to the Hudson, miles farther south,
for their brooks and freshets-adding
much to the tangled wildness and sublim-
ity Of the scenery in that direction.
In the gorge, mile and a half west Of
the Mountain House, is pond or lake,
r";'h el.~-:-a, III e,,,o1l ho."l. .'~
Laurel House. A ledge of rocks at the
outlet, towards the west, forms the Kaater-
skill Falls. The supply Of water is less
than half its primitive volume, except
during melting SHOWS or heavy rains con-
soqucntly they dam it uP, SO as to make
special sensation for vsters, once day.
Looking down from the platform above,
the descent seems to be some sixty feet,
with a second descent, few yards farther
on, of five or six feet. Clambering to the
bottom By stairs, and rock and bushes, you
are astonished to find the falls one hun
dred and eighty feet perpendicular !. and
the second descent eighty feet, instead of
six, So much for the colossal scale Of
natures performances in these parts, and
inexperienced eye-mcasurements.
Thirty feet from the bottom, the hard
slate gives way for layer of soft red
shalc, which has been worn away by the
reverse action of the falling waters, until
a cavernous recess has been formed, of a
perfect semi,circular form, thirty yards
deep aud hundred yards across. The roof
slopes down from above, and the worn de-
posits slope steep!y up from below, until
at the point of meeting at the red
shale vein, is narrow path around
which visitors can pick their way behind
the falls from one side to the other some
times erect, but mostly in cramped and
tieklish STOPPING postu-e-ladics with
hoops being the most embarrassed, and in
the most danger Of trolling down into
the abyss.
At a given signal the food gate is hoist
ed, above, and the small silvcry stream
swels to foaming tumult of waters that
vividly recall its palmy days, and richly
repays the risk and fatigue of the visit.
If quarters could be had at the bottom,
had rather stay down there for cool COM
fort than any where else.
The Rocky mountains can not present
more of unshorn wildness than these rear
ward gorges and SUBMITS. A gentleman
and two young ladies undertook, the other
day, to scale yonder loftiest cone to the
southwest of the falls, merely for days
pastime. Their absence was prolonged to
the compulsory period of forty eight hours;
spending the night on the summit, distur-
bed occasionally by wild animals, and get
ting back at sunset the next evening, with
ta,tcrcd garments, bleeding hands and feet
and faces, and famished arpetites; but
gloryiDg in the achieyement-which, how
ever. they do not propose to repeat