wondering at the magnificence of a large room; now creeping through narrow passages, hardly wide enough to admit the body of a man; and now walking in superb galleries, until we came to the largest room, called WASHINGTON HALL.

6. This is certainly the most elegant room I ever saw. It is about two hundred and seventy-five feet in length, about thirty-five in width, and between thirty and forty feet high. The roof and sides are very beautifully adorned by the tinsels which Nature has bestowed in the greatest profusion, and which sparkle like the diamond while surveyed by the light of torches. The floor is flat, and smooth, and solid.

7. I was the foremost of our little party in entering this room, and was not a little startled, as I approached the center, to see a figure, as it were, rising up before me out of the solid rock. It was not far from seven feet high, and corresponded in every respect to the common idea of a ghost. It was very white, and resembled a tall man clothed in a shroud. I went up to it sideways, though I could not really expect to meet a ghost in a place like this. On examination, I found it was a very beautiful piece of the carbonate of lime, very transparent, and very much in the shape of a man. This is called Washington's Statue.

8. In one room we found an excellent spring of water, which boiled up as if to slake our thirst, then sunk into the mountain and was seen no more. In another room was a noble pillar, called the Tower of Babel. It is composed entirely of the stalactites of lime, or, as the appearance would seem to suggest, of petrified water. It is about thirty feet in diameter, and a little more than ninety feet in circumference, and not far from thirty feet high. There are probably millions of stalactites in this one pillar.

9. Thus we wandered on in this world within a world, till we had visited twelve very beautiful rooms, and as many creeping places, and had now arrived at the end, a distance from our entrance of between twenty-four and twenty-five

a The Tower of Babel, spoken of in the Scriptures, was an immense structure of ma sonry on the Euphrates, six hundred feet high.

hundred feet, or, what is about its equal, half a mile from the mouth. We here found ourselves exceedingly fatigued; but our torches forbade us to tarry, and we once more turned our lingering steps towards the common world.

10. When we arrived again at Washington Hall, one of our company three times discharged a pistol, whose report was truly deafening; and as the sound reverberated and echoed through one room after another, till it died away in distance, it seemed like the moaning of spirits. We continued our wandering steps till we arrived once more at daylight, having been nearly three hours in the cavern.

11. To compare the Natural Bridge and Cave together, as objects of curiosity, is exceedingly difficult. In looking at the Bridge, we are filled with awe; at the Cavern, with delight. At the Bridge, we have several views that are awful; at the Cave, hundreds that are pleasing. At the Bridge, you stand and gaze in astonishment; at the Cave, awfulness is lost in beauty, and grandeur is dressed in a thousand captivating forms.

12. At the Bridge, you feel yourself to be looking into another world; at the Cave, you find yourself already arrived there. The one presents to us a God who is very "wonderful in working;" the other exhibits the same power, but with it is blended loveliness in a thousand forms. In each is vastGreatness constitutes the whole of one; but the other is elegant, as well as great.

ness.

LESSON XL.

NATURAL BRIDGE IN VIRGINIA.

1. ON a lovely morning, toward the close of spring, I found myself in a very beautiful part of the Great Valley of

a The beautiful tract of country lying between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains.

Virginia. Spurred on by impatience, I beheld the sun rising in splendor, and changing the blue tints on the tops of the lofty Alleghany" mountains into streaks of purest gold, and nature seemed to smile in the freshness of beauty. A ride of about fifteen miles, and a pleasant woodland ramble of about two, brought myself and my companion to the great Natural Bridge.

2. Although I had been anxiously looking forward to this time, and my mind had been considerably excited by expecta tion, yet I was not altogether prepared for this visit. This great work of nature is considered by many as the second great curiosity in our country; Niagara Falls being the first. I do not expect to convey a very correct idea of this bridge, for no description can do this.

3. The Natural Bridge is entirely the work of God. It is of solid limestone, and connects two huge mountains together, by a most beautiful arch, over which there is a great wagon road. Its length from one mountain to the other is nearly eighty feet, its width about thirty-five, its thickness forty-five, and its perpendicular height above the water is not far from two hundred and twenty feet. A few bushes grow on its top, by which the traveler may hold himself as he looks over.

4. On each side of the stream, and near the bridge, are rocks projecting ten or fifteen feet over the water, and from two hundred to three hundred feet from its surface, all of limestone. The visitor cannot give so good a description of the bridge as he can of his feelings at the time. He softly creeps out on a shaggy projecting rock, and looking down a chasm from forty to sixty feet wide, he sees, nearly three hundred feet below, a wild stream, foaming and dashing against the rocks beneath, as if terrified at the rocks above.

5. This stream is called Cedar Creek. He sees under the arch trees whose height is seventy feet; and yet, as he looks down upon them, they appear like small bushes of perhaps two or three feet in height. I saw several birds fly under the arch, and they looked like insects. I threw down a stone,

■ Alle-gha-ny.

and counted thirty-four before it reached the water. All hear of heights and of depths, but they here see what is high, and they tremble, and feel it to be deep.

6. The awful rocks present their everlasting butments, the water murmurs and foams far below, and the two mountains rear their proud heads on each side, separated by a channel of sublimity. Those who view the sun, the moon, and the stars, and allow that none but God could make them, will here be impressed that none but an Almighty God could build a bridge like this.

7. The view of the bridge from below is as pleasing as the top view is awful; the arch from beneath would seem to be about two feet in thickness. Some idea of the distance from the top to the bottom may be formed from the fact, that, as I stood on the bridge, and my companion beneath, neither of us could speak sufficiently loud to be heard by the other. A man from either view does not appear more than four or five inches in height.

8. As we stood under this beautiful arch, we saw the place where visitors have often taken the pains to engrave their names upon the rock. Here Washington climbed up twentyfive feet, and carved his own name, where it still remains. Some wishing to immortalize their names, have engraven them deep and large, while others have tried to climb up and insert them in this book of fame.

9. A few years since, a young man, being ambitious to p.ace his name above all others, came very near losing his life in the attempt. After much fatigue, he climbed up as high as possible, but found that the person who had before occupied his place was taller than himself, and consequently had placed his name above his reach. But he was not thus to be discouraged. He opened a large jack-knife, and in the soft limestone begun to cut places for his hands and feet.

19. With much patience and industry he worked his way upward, and succeeded in carving higher than the most ambitious had done before him. He could now triumph, but his triumph was short, for he was placed in such a situation that

it was impossible to descend, unless he fell upon the ragged rocks beneath him. There was no house near, from whence his companions could get assistance. He could not long remain in that condition, and, what was worse, his friends were too much frightened to do any thing for his relief.

11. They looked upon him as already dead, expecting every moment to see him precipitated upon the rocks below, and dashed to pieces. Not so with himself. He determined to ascend. Accordingly he plies the rock with his knife, cutting places for his hands and feet, and gradually ascended with incredible labor. He exerts every muscle. His life was at stake, and all the terrors of death rose before him.

12. He dared not look downward, lest his head should become dizzy; and perhaps on this circumstance his life depended. His companions stood at the top of the rock exhorting and encouraging him. His strength was almost exhausted; but a bare possibility of saving his life still remained, and hope, the last friend of the distressed, had not yet forsaken him. His course upward was rather oblique than perpendicular.

13. His most critical moment had now arrived. He had ascended considerably more than two hundred feet, and had still farther to rise, when he felt himself fast growing weak. He thought of his friends, and all his earthly joys, and he could not leave them. He thought of the grave, and dared not meet it. He now made his last effort, and succeeded. He had cut his way not far from two hundred and fifty feet from the water, in a course almost perpendicular; and in a little less than two hours, his anxious companions reached him a pole from the top, and drew him up.

14. They received him with shouts of joy; but he himself was completely exhausted. He immediately fainted on reaching the top, and it was some time before he could be recovered. It was interesting to see the path up these awful rocks, and to follow in imagination this bold youth as he thus saved his ife. His name stands far above all the rest, a monument of hardihood, of rashness, and of folly.