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MB W&F* S0#»» l ;.*w: rRlWfiW BY J. II. CHRISTY & T. »I. LAMPKIN, > EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. J Dcuol NEW SERIES—YOL. I., NO. I Ipoetrg. 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