tain
points you may look over this parapet, sheer down some ten or twelve
hundred feet, into an abyss fit only to be the habitation of the owls,
bats, and birds of prey which frequent its solitudes. There seems no
resting-place for any wingless creature: thus the strange birds which
haunt the wild recesses of the rocks do so in perfect security, and
their varied cries, along with the roar of the water, are the only
sounds that issue from below. The mysterious gloom is indescribable, and
the look down into the depths fills one with awe; and yet this singular
view is obtained from the very town itself, from the courts and windows
of the houses.

If, however, you would see this wonderful gorge to perfection, you must
go down into it and find your way to the little path which skirts the
stream along a portion of its course. First, descend to the foot of the
rock, where the river rushes out of the ravine with a mighty leap,
forming a cascade some four hundred feet in height, and you are at once
overwhelmed by the grandeur of the scene, and all the poetry in your
nature is stirred. From this point you may proceed for some distance
along the water-side above the fall. Below you roars the foaming
cataract, thundering downward and filling the whole air with its white
spray. Above, on either side, are lofty, precipitous rocks, the crests
of which are crowned by buildings. This is the town as seen from
beneath. No wonder it is called "the City in the Air."

As you advance the chasm narrows. You must walk with caution, stepping
lightly from rock to rock, till presently you come in sight of a lofty
arch, which, spanning the river from side to side, forms a gigantic
natural bridge joining the opposite sides of the gorge. Nothing in
Nature ever moved me more than the first view of that magnificent arch.
With something of the proportions of a cathedral roof it rises above you
in massive grandeur, showing beyond, through the opening, a line of sky,
and then another cavern-like arch. We could not penetrate farther, and
no daylight issued from this second opening. It looked like the
mysterious entrance into an underground world, the portal of Hades, and
in the excitement produced by the novelty of the scene our surprise
could scarcely have been increased had some of the shades from the
realms of darkness glided out from amid the gloom, or if Charon's boat
had appeared to row us over the ferry. Overhead the hawks and eagles
circled round