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BY J. II. CHRISTY & T. »I. LAMPKIN, >
EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. J
Dcuol
NEW SERIES—YOL. I., NO.
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From tbe Southern Literary Gazette.
“MY LIFE IS PASSING.”
{AFTER THE liAENEll OF BERAXGER J
M. CIURLTOK.
My life is passing—every day
•Some warning message Time doth bring :
I /eel the step of slow decay,
I hear iJeath's Angel's rustling wing;
My weary lot no pleasure knows,
No friendly hand dispels my gloom,
And soon around my bean will close
The midnight darkness of the tomb !
My life a passing—Nature's Spring
With every lovely flower is rife,
But ah! to me no charm they bring,
To deck the winter of my life;
Why should 1 heed the blooming rose,
It* blushing hue, its sweet perfume,
When soon around my heart will close
The midnight darkness of the tomb!
My life is passing—ah! to me
Misfortune stalks with heavy tread;
All joys before his coming flee,
Ana Hope hangs down her humbled bead;
My path's beset with bitter foes,
Who point me to my dismal doom,
And soon around my heart will close
The midnight darkness of the tomb.
My life is passing—let it pass;
I core not when it flits away,
For now 1 see, as in a glass,
The dawning of a blighter day *,
The grave from whienmy Saviour rose
His love will still, with hope, illume,
Though soon around my hcait will close
The midnight darkness of the tomb!
Savannah, Ga.
EPITAPH OH A CANDLE.
A wicked one lies buried here,
Who died in a decline;
He never rose in rank I fear.
Though he was born to shine.
Ho once was fat, but now, indeed,
He's tliin as any griever;
lie died—The Doctors all agreed,
Of a most burning lever.
One thing of him was said with truth,
With which I am much amused;
It is—that when he stood forsooth,
A stick he always, aacd.
Now winding-sheets be sometimes made,
Bnt this was not enough.
For fldning it a pooriali trade,
He also dealt in snuff.
If e’er yon said, M Go out, I pray,”
He much ill-nature showed:
On such occasions he would say,
44 Vy, if I do, tm blotted."
In this his friends do all agree.
Although you’ll think I’m joking,
When going out, ’tis said that he,'
Was very fond of smoking.
Since all religions he doapMod,
Let these few words suffice,
Before bo ever was baptised.
They Hipp'd him once or twic*
I
miscellaneous.
Lanman'i Description of Tallulah,
phirc-gaihcj^r. Through this immense
gorge a strong wind is ever blowing,
and the sunlight never falls upon the
cataracts without forming beautiful rain--
bows, which contrast strangely with the
surrounding gloom and horror; and
the roat of the waterfalls, eternally as
cending to the sky, comes to the ear like
the voice of God calling upon man to
wonder and admire.
Of the more peculiar features which I
have met with in the Tallulah chasm the
following are the only ones which have
yet been christened, 'viz: the Devil’s
‘ pjmhe Bevifs DweU)»e-*L®
t, the Deer Leap, Hawthorn’s Pool,
and Hanck’s Sliding Place.
The Dtc'tVs Pulpit is a double-headed
and exceedingly ragged cliff*, which ac
tually hangs over the ravine, and is esti
mated to be over six hundred feet high.
While standing upon the brow of this
precipice I saw a number of buzzards
sitting upon the rocks below, and ap
pearing like a flock of black birds.—
While looking at them the thought came
into my mind that I would startle them
from their fancied security by throwing
a stone among them. 1 did throw the
stone, and with all my might too, but,
instead of going across the ravine, as I
supposed it would, it fell out of my
sight, and apparently at the very base
of the cliff" upon which I was slanditi<
This little incident gave me a realizing
sense of the immense width aud depth
of the chasm. While upon this cliff’also,
with my arms clasped around a small
pine tree, an eagle came sailing up the
chasm in mid air, and,*as he cast his
eye upward at my insignificant form,he
uttered a loud shriek as if in anger at
my temerity, and continued on his
way, swooping above the spray of the
waterfalls.
The DcciTs Dwelling is a cave of
some twenty feet in depth, which occu
pies a conspicuous place near the sum
mit of a precipice overlooking the Hon-
con Fall. Near its outlet is a singular
rock, which resembles (from the oppo
site side of the gorge) the figure of a wo
man in a sitting posture, who is said to
be the wife or better-half of the devil. 1
do not 6c/*Vre this story, and cannot there-
. fore endorse the prevailing opinion.
* The Eagle’s Nes: is a rock which pro
jects from the brow of a cliff reputed
to be seven hundred feet high, perpen
dicular. The finest view ortms'porni
is from the margin of the water, where
it is grand beyond compare. To de
scribe it with the pen were utterly
possible, but it was just such a scene
as would have delighted the lamented
Cole, and by a kindred genius alone
can it ever be placed on the canvass,
The Deer Leap is the highest cliff ir
the whole chasm, measuring about nine
As a natural curiosity the FM of *»<»«<« f “‘- «!> , f ™"> 113 »
Tallulah are on a par with the river I lo " s ■" uvo .P ar , l,cu ’f a - . . Fr0 ” s “ ram,t
f Saguenay and the Fulls of Niagara— 1 10 bollora ,l18 al,no . 3t "' ,t , hoat a r ‘ 3su r°
• They had been described to me m thra <>r “ n evergreen and remarkably smooth;
most glowing und enthusiastic manner,. and «« it. in ‘lie most beautiful man-
and vet the reality farcsceeds the a ceno ! ner imaginable, tumbles 0 tiny stream
most glowing und enthusiastic manner,
and yet the reality far exceeds the scene j ne J[. 1 ?
vuViirh I hntl cnncoivoil* Thera VinvnBU. > W .J . . . ,
with infinite prodigality ; the purest of
diamonds and pearls appearing to be
woven into wreaths of loam. It obtain
cd me with astonishment and created
a fueling strong enough almost to induce
me to reraaiu within hearing of their
rear forever.
— , The Cherokee word Tallulah or Tur-
rurah signifies the terrible, and was orig-
inully applied to the river of that name
, . : : <m account of its fearful falls. This
«vcr rises among the Alleghany moun-
_ tains, and is a tributary of tab' Savannah.
Its entire course lies through a mountain
land, and in every particular it is a
mountain stream, narrow, deep, clear,
cold, and subject to every variety of
mood. During the first halfof its career
it winds among the bills as if in uneasy
joy, and then for several miles it wears
a placid appcarancc,and you can scarce
ly bear the murmur of its waters. Soon,
tiring of this peaceful course, however,
ik narrows itself for an approaching con
test, imd runs through a chasm whose
walls, about four miles in length, are for
the most part perpendicular; and, after
making within the space of half a mile
a number ofleaps as the chasm deepens,
itscttlcsinloaturbulentandangry mood,
and so continues for a mile and a ball
further until it leaves the chasm and re
gains its wouted character. The Falls
of Tallulah, properly sneaking, are five
in number, and have been christened
Lodora, Tcmi>c$ta, Oceana, Honcon, and
the Serpentine. Their several heights
ii arc said to be forty-five feet, one hun
dred, one hundred and twenty, fifty, and
thirty feet, making, in connexion with
the accompanying rapids, a descent of
cd its name from the circumstance that
a deer was once pursued to this point by
a hound, and in its terror, cleared a path
way through the air, and perished in
the depths below.
Hawthorn's Pool derives its name from
Savannah. l ^ c fact that in its apparently soundless
vyaters a young and accomplished Eng
lish clergyman lost his life while ba
thing ; and Hanck's Sliding-Place is so
called because a native of this region
once slipped off of the rock into a sheet
of foam but by the kindness of Provi
dence he was rescued from his peril
ous situation not much injured, but im
mensely frightened.
But of nil the scenes which I have
been privileged to enjoy in the Tallulah
chasm, the most glorious and superb
was witnessed in the night time. For
several days previous to my coming
here the woods had been on fire, and I
was constantly on the watch for a night
picture of a burniug forest. On one
occasion, as I was about retiring, I
saw a light in the direction of the Falls,
and concluded that I would take a walk
to the Devil’s Pulpit, which was dis
tant from my tarrying place some hun
dred and fifty yards. Soon as I reach
ed there I felt convinced that the fire
would soon be in plain view, fori was on
the western side of the gorge,and the wind
was blowing from the eastward. In a very
saa
k 1$
at least four hundred feet within the space
ofamilc. Atthis point the stream is par
ticularly winding, and the cliffs of solid
granite on either side, which are perpen
dicular, vary in height from six hundred
to nine hundred feet, while the moun
tains which back the cliffs reach an ele
vation of perhaps fifteen hundred feet.
Many of tbe pools are very large and
very deep, and the walls and rocks in
their immediate vicinity are alwa3*s
g reen with the most luxuriant of mosses,
’he vegetation of the whole chasm is in
few. moments «my anticipations were
more tender trees, together with lichens,
and vines and flowers, which would
keep the botanist employed for half a
centurj*. Up to the present lime only
four paths have been discovered leading
to the margin oft he water, and to make
either of these descents requires much
of the nerve aud courage of the sam-
realizcd, for I saw the flame licking up
the dead leaves which covered the
ground and .also stealiog up the trunk
of every dry tree in its path. A warm
current of air was now wafted to my
cheek by the breeze, and I discovered
with intense satisfaction that an im
mense dead pine which bung over the
opposite precipice (and whose dark
form I had noticed distinctly pictured
against tbe crimson back ground) had
been reached by the flame, and in ano
ther moment it was entirely in a blaze.
J „ fpeei
chasm, my whole frame shook with an
indescribable emotion. The magnifi
cent torch directly in front of me did!
not seem to have any effect upon the
surrouuding darkness, but threw a rod- !
dy and deathlike glow upon every ob- 1
ject in the bottom of the gorge. A*fl^ k