HARPER'S FERRY AND AT THE NATURAL BRIDGE.

(_From Notes on Virginia, written in 1781, published in 1801._)

[Illustration: ~Harper's Ferry.~]

The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of
the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point
of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along
the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left
approaches the Patowmac, in quest of a passage also. In the moment of
their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it
asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene
hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been created
in time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began
to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been
damned up by the Blue ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean
which filled the whole valley; that continuing to rise they have at
length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from
its summit to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but
particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disrupture
and avulsion from their beds by the most powerful agents of nature,
corroborate the impression. But the distant finishing which nature has
given to the picture, is of a very different character. It is a true
contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and delightful, as that is
wild and tremendous. For the mountain being cloven asunder, she
presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small catch of smoothe
blue horizon, at an infinite distance in the plain country, inviting
you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass
through the breach and participate of the calm below. . . . . . . . .

The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature's works, . . . is on
the ascent of a hill, which seems to have been cloven through its
length by some great convulsion. The fissure, just at the bridge, is,
by some admeasurements, 270 feet deep, by others only 205. It is about
45 feet wide at the bottom, and 90 feet at the top; this of course
determines the length of the bridge, and its height from the water.
Its breadth in the middle, is about 60 feet, but more at the ends, and
the thickness of the mass, at the summit of the arch, about 40 feet. A
part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives
growth to many large trees. The residue, with the hill on both