neighbouring village; and taking one of my men with me, we started
at six in the morning, and after a ride of two hours over the flat
rice-fields skirting the mountains which rose in grand precipices on our
left, we reached the river about half-way between Maros and the falls,
and thence had a good bridle-road to our destination, which we reached
in another hour. The hills had closed in around us as we advanced;
and when we reached a ruinous shed which had been erected for the
accommodation of visitors, we found ourselves in a flat-bottomed
valley about a quarter of a mile wide, bounded by precipitous and often
overhanging limestone rocks. So far the ground had been cultivated, but
it now became covered with bushes and large scattered trees.
As soon as my scanty baggage had arrived and was duly deposited in the
shed, I started off alone for the fall, which was about a quarter of a
mile further on. The river is here about twenty yards wide, and issues
from a chasm between two vertical walls of limestone, over a rounded
mass of basaltic rock about forty feet high, forming two curves
separated by a slight ledge. The water spreads beautifully over this
surface in a thin sheet of foam, which curls and eddies in a succession
of concentric cones until it falls into a fine deep pool below. Close
to the very edge of the fall a narrow and very rugged path leads to the
river above, and thence continues close under the precipice along the
water's edge, or sometimes in the water, for a few hundred yards, after
which the rocks recede a little, and leave a wooded bank on one side,
along which the path is continued, until in about half a mile, a second
and smaller fall is reached. Here the river seems to issue from a
cavern, the rocks having fallen from above so as to block up the channel
and bar further progress. The fall itself can only be reached by a path
which ascends behind a huge slice of rock which has partly fallen
away from the mountain, leaving a space two or three feet wide, but
disclosing a dark chasm descending into the bowels of the mountain, and
which, having visited several such, I had no great curiosity to explore.
Crossing the stream a little below the upper fall, the path ascends
a steep slope for about five hundred feet, and passing through a
gap enters a narrow valley, shut in by walls of rock absolutely
perpendicular and of great height. Half a mile further this valley turns
abruptly to the right, and becomes a mere rift in the mountain. This
extends another half mile, the walls gradually approaching until they
are only two feet apart, and the bottom rising steeply to a pass which
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