Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-01-11
VENEZUELA'S BIG CATARACT.

The recent discovery in VeneZuel
of a waterfall of great agnitude sug
gests at once a comparison with tn
world. Mr.. S. A. Thompson, one O
the exploring party, in writing from
Santa Catalin about the new find il
South America, says:
During the exploration of the con
cession of the Orinoco company head
ed by Donald Grant and other Mime
sofa men, trail was cut to the Ina
taca Mountains, starting from this
The duties assigned to some mem
bers of the party kept them upon OF
close to the Orinoco until a few
weeks ago, when two of US, Leslie o
Dart of Litchfield. Mimi, and myself
found time to make an excursion tC
the mountains. Pushing on beyond
the point reached by the other party,
we heard from the top of mountain
a sound which at first we thought to
/. be thunder. but afterward decided
that it must come from a waterfall OF
considerable magnitude. Working in
the general direction Of the sound,
over difficult trail, we came at noon
on Thursday, October Is, to a large
river, and discovered what must rank
as one of the greatest waterfalls in
the world.
''The river bursts diagonally
through an almost perpendicular
cliff, which [ estimate to be 1900 feet
in height, breaks into half a dozen
separate streams, which divide and
subdivide, spread out in broad, fan
like expansions, and twist about in
such a curious corkscre W fashion that
the water at the bottom of the falls
flows exactly in the opposite direction
comes into view.
''By clinging to bushes and going
up the giant creepers hand over
hand we climbed up the cliff until the
aneroid indicated an elevation of
more than 500 feet, but it was impos-
sible to reach the top and learn how
much higher the falls are"
The highest waterfalls, says Arnold
Guyot, are found in mountainous re-
gions IN the upper course Of rivers;
the largest in their middle course.
Among the first, that of the Yuseml-
tie, in California, is perhaps the most
hi foil oi
perpendicular ledge of rock over $500
feet high to the bottom of the valley
of the same name (ten Bunker Hill
monuments or five Washington mon
uments), forming three cataracts, the
first descending by a single leap of
1900 feet on shelf of rock, from
which it makes a series of cascades
and final plunge of $50 feet to the
base of the precipice.
The Keelfoss, in Norway, near the
Sognefiord, the highest fall in Europe,
has an uninterrupted descent of 1000
feet, and the cascade of Gavarnie, in
the Central Pyrenees, falls from a
height of over 1900 feet; the Staub-
bach, in the Swiss Alps, from 900
foot wall, and is reduced to spray be-
fore reaching the ground. In the
fails of Tequendanea, in the Andes Of
New Granada, the river Bogota, COM
pressed in chasm 80 feet wide, pre-
cipitates itself $50 feet into a deep re-
cess amid the most gorgeous tropical
vegetation.
Among the great cataracts of the
middle course of rivers, Niagara
takes the first rank by the volume of
its waters, presenting the grand spec
tacle of a river over one half a mile
wide pouring itself in two magnificent
sheets from height of $50 feet.
The Shoshone Falls, in the Snake
River branch of the Columbia, in
Idaho; the Victoria Falls of the Fam
bese, in the heart of South Africa, the
falls of the Cavera in Southern India,
which fall 500 feet in seven magnifi-
cent cascades; the splendid cataract
of Kaieteur, in British Guiana, form
ed by large affiuent of the Essequi-
DO, which jumps in a single foaming
sheet of water into vast basin 74O
feet below; the falls of the Rhine,
though but go feet high, all are said to
equal in picturesque beauty, though |
not IN grandeur, the fall of Mag
ara.
The Niagara river flows northward |
from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, /
and is about thirty six miles long.
Its descent from the level of one lake |
TO that of the other is about 334 feet. |
Where the river issues from Lake |