Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1870-09-23

burst, rending the shale and rock from
summit to base, often leaving a jagged
rent through the solid rock 800 feet in
depth for miles. Simultaneously with
this shock of volcanic action. huge masses
rolled into the abyss, falling torrents
poured through the whirling avalanche,
and bore it lashed and furious through the
chasm, into the subsiding Lake.
The supply of floods being then abund-
ant, this watery tornado secured and wash
ed in its flying wrath the granite sides Of
the colossal rent, until in time their in
cessant abrasion smoothed, and shaped
and polished them to its will.
As the mountains dried the foods abat-
ed. and to-day as we enter those rents.
(now called Glens. we see but a limpid
stream, tumbling in cascades over galle-
ries of granite smoothed of old-into ba-
sins followed of old by the rude torrents,
which poured their wreck and rocky frag-
ments from above And as we look aloft
aud around through the dim gloom, we
can only realize (grand. sublime, terrific
rs is the spectacle. the influence Of two
ideas: The magnitude Of the rent. and
the overwhelming violence of the foods
which swept through it.
Several of those Glcns occur along the
range. but the mammo Glens of the re-
gion occur almost opposite each other, near
the center of the valley, one at Havana
and the other at Watkins. The Havana
Glen breaks across the eastern range; the
Watkins Glen separates the opposing
mountain, evidencing how similar causes
will produce similar results.
Seldom has Nature, either in freak or
convulsion, produced anything so thrill
ing, startling, or really terrific in sublim-
ity as the mountain rent, or Glen at Wat
kins. The town stands at the headwaters
of the Lake, and leans against the noun
tain range which fence Lake and valley
upon the west. Here the ascent is abrupt,
at some places almost perpendicular
Where the river that intersects the town
starts from the mountain descent is broke,
and huge precipice Of rock, smooth, con-
cave in form, about 800 feet in height and
600 in base, confronts the town. From
beneath the base of this colossal precipice,
and through an aperture resembling the
old blackened bee hole upon the bottom
Of 4 black, mammoth bee hiye, sgshes
lortS tEs river q Watkins. Does this
river come from Hades, Cerebus, or the
Stygian Pool? would not be irrational
questions, unless, indeed. we surmise this
may be the rock which Moses struck, for
behind the mouth of the, orifce nothing is
visible.
On the top, reaching from the sight,
tall pines and hemlocks clasp the giddy
brink and, rising against the sky, look as
wierd sentinels of the realm within. AS
we approach, strange sounds float toward
US, and strange feelings with those sounds
creep consciously through our senses. A
dark line now shows adown the precipice
"a little nearer the line widens-a little
nearer still, and now we see it is no line.
but deep cut or cash right through the
precipice, 800 feet in depth, and 25 or 80
feet in width. Within the jaws Of this
rent all seems black, while from its chasm-
ed throat beneath rolls this prurient and
troubled stream, moaning aud seething as
if it were the life blood of some internal
expiring world. We almost feel inclined
to ask our guide: Shall we enter that
dcathlike opening? We almost ask him {:
Can there be life beyond? But Yes !!
Yes! This is the Watkins Glen. We
enter. What cataclasm of wild sounds
The moaning of the wind rushing through
the pines aloft-the dulled bellowings Of
distant cataracts-the clang of wandering
echoes sinking through the Glen, all fall
ing upon the gloom, come upon your ears
with melancholy resonance from the inner
vaults. We ascend balustrade which
stands pinioned to the cliff, and reach a
platform about so feet from the ground,
70 over the river. and enter in. through
the yawning portal of this awful, gloomy,
and mysterious way.
Here no lofts interrupt the lines Of pre-
cipice which. formed of strati6ed, consoli-
dated rock, rise wall-like on either side,
almost 200 feet above the platform. A
bout 10 feet below this platform the stra-
tilted rock rests upon the silurian system,
while the rent from thence downward to
the spice, some 30 or 40 feet, is through
igncous irrupsions resting on the latter
From this we may JUICE the terrific char
aeter of the shock which toTe mountain
Of stratifed rock and granite, 25G feet in
depth. apart as if it had been bill OF
sand. Some distance on, the aspect
changes. The Glen widens above, and
gives evidence of the cliffs having toppled
in, and being carried away. The breaches
left became coated over with alluvium,
aud vegetation sprang up. Thus. while
at the mouth of the Glen the pines spread
their mantling shade from summit to sum-
nit. or. lolling over the chasm, hang their
withered limbs far down into the gloom,
looking like swords of Damocles suspend
ed by so many threads, here the scene is
different, for they occupy the place of the
fallen precipice, and clothe the sloping
though precipitous upper SUBMITS of the
Glen. Fern and limogeu, and berbaceous
plants, mingled with shrub and under
brush, spread along the turf; while occa-
sionally Towering ''Empetracea, ga
lanthus," or "Geum Rivale." with its
''nodding blossoms, deck the upper tableau