Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

VOL. I. Tilt: CABIN hL’ Is published every Saturday , by P- L ROBLYSOJV, IVarrentun , Geo. at three dollars per annum , which may’ be discharged by two dollars and fifij/ cents if paid within sixty days of tht’ time of subscribing. From the American Journal ot'Sc.ence. Notice of the Tockoa and Tallulah Falls in Georgia. BY A FOSTER. In a southern excursion, during the autumn of 18 c 27, I visited the T ble mountain io Pendleton, S-uth Carolina, and the To koa & rallulal Falls in flabersliam Georgia. Tlies* only who have visited and contenipl ted the interesting section of ou< country can justly appreciate tb beauty and magnificence, and tin wildness and sublimity of the naturu scenery around the southern termina tion of the Blue. Ridge. 1< is not now i:i my power togratif the curiosity of my northern friends by describingevery thing that delight, ed or astonished our little party ot travellers. But to the admirer of hb Creator’s works, never yet in their n-tive richness and variety describui by the geographer, sketched by tin artist, <r sung by the poet, permit; traveller to recommend an pyrursiw al mg the western and mountainous border of North and South-Caroling and Georgia. Ifyou have imagined southern scenery to be tame and uni form, your disappointment, like my own will be most gratifying and corn pie e A brief sketch of the two princi pal Fills is ail that will at this time bt attempt ‘d. Tockoa Fall is in a small creek of the same name, just before it runs into the Tugalo, one hundred and fifty miles above .Augusta, The perpen cli ular fall is one hundred and eigh ty six feet, measured by a line. Ii is surrounded by no wild scenery. The rivulet disturbed by no rapids, moves with a gentle current, and drops without warning into a beauti ful basin below, expanding into a fine rain before it reaches the bottom; and a breeze which always plays there, spreads a thiT'k spray around, and’ornaments the falling water, tire rock and the shrubbery with rain bows. A carriage road is within a stone’s throw of the fall, and our par ty rode to the base and to the summit of the precipice. Two beach trees grow near the base which are so closely covered with names down into tne very ground, that he who will carve his own, must intrude upon a present oc cupant.—Old and venerable names have been obliterated to give aeon spicuous position to some young as pirant forimmo tality. These beach es, said a lady of our party, are the political world in miniature. The'l’m koa produces a sensation rather of the beautiful than sublime— it pleases but does not terrify—it sat isfies, but does not overwhelm the ex pectation. It is a fine preparation for the tremendous scenery which a waits the traveller 16 miles north ward. The rapids of Tallulah are in Geor gia, ten miles above the union of the Tallulah and Chatooga rivers which form the Tugaloo, five miles from the line of North-Carolina. The river, which is forty yards wide above the rapids, is forced, for a mile and a fourth, through a range of mountains, into a channel scarcely twenty feet broad. The mountain receives the water into abroad basin, surrounded by solid rock one hundred feet in height. Here the stream pauses in Rural Cabinet. iami< tpaliuii ot liio awful gull,—linn ‘rushes down a cater act forty feet; then hurrying through a narrow winding passage, dashing from side to side against the precipice, and re peatedly turning at right angles, is precipitated one hundred feet—and in a tfioment after, fifty feet more—and making many short turns, it rushes down three or four falls of twenty and ten feet. The sum of the full in the listance of a mile is estimated at three mndred and fifty feet. The rapids, however, splendid, a part from the sublimity with which hey are surrounded, are only an ap pendage to the stupendous banks of solid rm k, descending almost perpen dieularly to the water on both sides of he river, and varying in the distance T a mile, from seven hundred tonne thousand feet in. bight, so that tin* jream literally passes that distance lira ugh the mountain, or rather Ii rough the high lands tiiat connect wo mountains. The visiter approached from the west, finds an easy descent for the ast mile, and drives his carraige to he very edge of the gulf. No uuusu -1 rppearanccs of pointed rocks or troken lands admonish him that the rapids are near, till suddenly he sees he opening abyss. He advances cautiously, trom tree to tree, till he looks down upon the water. Instant ly, his mind surrenders itself to the overwhelming sensation of awe and amazement. He neither speaks nor smiles—and even a jest or smile from a friend is painful to his feelings;! whi< h, particularly with the ladies,| (as at (he Niagara Falls.) are often relieved by weeping. Some of our company, hurrying down to the brink without giving ttse mind time to col lect itself, experien ed dizziness and faintness, and were compelled to era \ 1 ba k. Here are no artificial embellish ments. The scenery wears the art less robe of natures’ wildness. The rnnuitic variety, magnificence and sublimity of Jehovah’s works are uu touched by human hands. The rapids are in the bosom of a forest, in which are seen burrows off ixes, and dens of rattle snakes, and in which arc heard the howling of wolves, and the screaming of eagles—there, the wild deer bound gracefully through the small bushes, and pass the trees rifted by lightning In front of the spectator, the per pendicular fare of toe rock on the op posite shore, presenting an endless variety of colors—brown, white, a zureand purple—overhanging, reced ing, angular and square surfaces— figures in bass relief ornamented with shrubbery—small rivulets falling in graceful cascades down the precipice —the opening abyss, lined with mas sive rock—the foaming, roaring wa ter at the bottom encircled by rain bows, all seen at one view, produce sensations unutterable. The feeling once enjoyed you desire to recall, but it cannot be recalled only by placing yourself again upon the spot. Nor; does the scenery lose its power by long and minute examination. I lin gered about the Rapids three days, and the effect was rather lightened by new discoveries, than by familiar ity. The most magnificent general view is from a part of the precipice which projects over the abyss twenty feet, and which is gained by a descent of fifteen feet. This is half way be tween the commencement and termi nation of the rapids, near the highest part of the mountain through which they pass, not less than one thousand feet above the water, and affords the Warren ton, August 16, 1828. nest view us uie second amt third l ills, one of which is almost under the projection. Our company had just gained this site, sufficiently agitated with our situation, when instantly a P ‘dl of thunder burst over us, and the rain descended upon us. The young ladies took shelter under a projecting bank, from which one step might have precipitated them one thousand feet into the foaming river—tbe rest of the party crowded under a single umbrella upon the point of tiie over hanging rock. The rck house formerly the entrance of the Indian’s piradire, but now the eagle’s habitation, was bes ire us—the earth i>i front and on either hand open ed wide and deep—over us roared the thunder—under us, at about the same distavi e, were seen and heard the pouring and dashing of the cataracts —‘lie even's red artillery’ played a rouud—and the wind swept, by with great violence. At this moment a largo pine near us was rifted by the lightning, and its trunk entirely splintered to the ground Echo an swered echo from side to side, rum’*, ling long and loud, through the cav erns ol the broken mountain. We all trembled, and I keil at each other in silence. The ladies sustained the shock with unexpected equanimity, and kept their places. In half an hour the cloud passed over—the wind slept—the sun casting its brilliant rainbows round the falls, spread over the wilderness a mild and enchanting serenity, and we pursued our discov eries with augmented interest. This however, was the most sub- lime and awful hour of my life. LV.r haps few have ever been favoured with a display more magnificently impressive of the power and presence ot Omnipotence, Haven and earth seemed to display their terrific opera tions, and conspired to make us feel our own feebleness. The Rock House is an entrance ap paren iy ten feet square, leading into the perpendicular face of the rock, too far down the side to be access! hie. We were informed by the guide of an Indian tradition that this is the door of paradise. They had fro quently traced their lost companions to this spot, and could never hear of them again; since which no ludi an has been known to hunt alone near the Rapids of Tallulah. At present the less superstitious eagle finds this a safe retreat to rear her young. There are three places of descent to the bed of the river* two of these meet at the same place, ami the other leads to the bottom of the fall. The other falls have been approached very seldom, and only by fording up the stream. Both descents cannot be ea sily performed the same day; the up per one to the fall is the most interest ing. To look out at the opening of this deep gulf pays the excessive fa tigue of the lower descent, hut the view from several pjsitjnns above, produces the most enchanting effect of grandeur and sublimity. At these Rapids, 1 very forcibly felt the influence by which the prinii jtive worshippers selected grand tcri ble scenes as the most favorable pla , ces to hold converse with the Deity.— The mountain’s top—the deep valley ! —the base of the waterfall—and the mouth of the grotto were selected b> the rude inhabitants of untaught na lions as the dwelling place of a presid- j ing divinity. I left this place with an unsatisfied curiosity, convinced that a year might have been consumed in examining! every object interesting to a scientific traveller. In prefering the rapids to the ta- tile iitouiiiain, its 1 rte< mW Uiy do, in common with many < f superior taste in scenery, I would object to no part of the admiration so largely bestow ed on the latter. Each presents scenes like no other in the U. S. the one is perfectly unlike the other, and both are so remarkable, that a visit to the one, in no respect supersedes the pro priety of seeing the other. The efleet from the table rock is one unmixed overwhelming sensation of the sublime. As tlie spei tatur walks along the edge of the sloping precipice for a third of a mile his mind demands time for expansion to receive the full influence of its new situation. ’This is a< coiiq lished by fixing the attention upon eai h ohj rt separately—the falls of Sli king be fore him—the plantations below him— the mountain around him and tho broad bosom of the forest spreading every way—but the eftVi t of the pre*. cipiie under him prevails over all other emotions. As the spectator walks half a mile under the pre< ipice, the height of which is at this distance about seven hundreo and thirty feet, and the base ofwhuh contains a nar row path midway between the summit and base of the mountain, a variety of emotions is enjoyed too complex to be, definitely desi ribed. Objects pleasing, novel, beautiful and sublime, are every moment demanding his at tention.—On the summit his counte nance is gruvg, his words few and his imagination strongly ex bed. At the base his countenance is lighted op, and liis conversation animated and brilliant.— For his visit to the summit lie feels re warded, anil his mind Ins expttifdcd. Wnh his visit to the base lu* is more than satisfied; he is de lighted; his feelings have been kin dled; the company are endeared to him, and on retireing lie says, ‘no day of my life has passed more a greeable, or more profitably.* Tho best judges, however unanimously express a preference for the rapids of Tallulah—As at the table Mountain, so also two days at least should be de voted to the rapids* Mud Creek Fall is twenty Pre miles north of Tailuiah. I did r•.t visit, it, but was informed that tho whole fall of this cat arm t is two hun dred and eighty feet; that it is in a large creek, and the eflVct eminently interesting. Thi Cutrihee Mountain, one mile from the To< koa Fulls, :*fl‘ rds a rich reward for the toil of gaining its sum mit; O.i the north is a view of {he Blue Itidge surpassed in its'prospect of *m xmtaios piled on mountains, * peril qis by no other site in tlio U •;ir ed States. On the south, Georgia and South Carolina, with the excep tion of a few plantations oh the Tu galoo, present one unbroken forest as far as the sight extends. As you tra verse this forest you will sometimes see spSendid situations insulated from the rest of the world, in the fertile val ies, surrounded by the conveniences, the elegancies, and the domestic re finements of social life. “ IVHATB LV A The custom f altering names, if ’ ever commendable, is so in the fol lowing instan e, which we copy from a law of the State of Maine, publish ed in the S onerset Journal. ‘Resolv ed, that Moses Tvvitchell, (here fol low the names of 13 more Twitchells, ‘male and female) all of New Port land, in the county of Somerset, bo severally allowed to lay aside the sur name of Twitched, and take the sur name of Mitchell. [We think, says, tiie Savannah Georgian, that the name should have been altered to Switch ell.] No. 12.