CATARACTS OF TEQUENDAMA.

SOUTH AMERICA.

(Jamieson's Voyages)

THE cataract of Tequendama, by which the river Funza joins the Magdelena.* A short distance above the fall, the Funza or Bagola is about 140 feet in breadth as however it approaches the crevice through which it dashes, it becomes rapidly narrower, till at length it is only thirty-five feet wide. The narrowness of the channel of course encreases its force, and with two bounds down a perpendicular rock 600 feet high, it thunders to the bottom, where it is lost in an unfathomable gulf. It was not only the fall which delighted our travellers, but the variety of climate which the country close to it presented. The face of the rock which terminates the plain of Bagota is so steep near the cataract, that it requires three hours to descend it. At the top are crops of wheat, clumps of oaks, elms and other productions of the temperate zone. As they descended the plants partook, they observed, more of the nature of those found in the torrid zone, and at the bottom groves of palm presented their broad foliage.

The Funza upon issuing from the gulf, assumes a new name, and is then called Rio Meta. Our travellers attempted to get near this dark body of waters, but found it impracticable to approach nearer than 4 or 500 feet: from the dense vapour it emitted, the rapidity and deafening roar of the water, which is such as totally to bewilder the senses of the traveller. There is a curious tradition attached to this water-fall, which is worthy of notice. Many years ago, when the inhabitants were savages, a white man, called Bochica, is said to have appeared among them accompanied by his wife Chia. He was most benevolent in his disposition; but Chia, who was very beautifnl, and very mischievous.

* The Magdelena is a magnificent river, which runs through the province of Santa Fe and New Granada, emptying itself into the lake of Maracaybo.

The present plain of Bagota she caused to be overflown by the power of her magic, and a few inhabitants only escaped this great inundation by fleeing to the mountains. Bochica never forgave his wife for this exertion of her power; he drove her from the earth, and she became the moon, and was afterwards worshipped as such. Bochica had no sooner expelled his wife, than he resolved on counteracting the mischief she had done, for with one blow of his arm he struck the mountain which borders the plain and split it, so that the waters concentrating to this point as a place of egress, the plain was drained and became more fertile than ever. The ancient Bagotians, the aboriginal inhabitants of this plain, when discovered by Gonzales Ximenes de Querada about the year 1536, worshipped the sun and moon and Bochica. They also like the Mexicans offered human sacrifices to their gods.

SPRINGS.

BURNING SPRING IN CANADA.
(Hall's Travels.)

FROM Camandaigua we turned (says Lieut. Hall) nine

miles from the main road, to visit what is called "the burning spring," lately discovered. Entering a small but thick wood of pine and maple, enclosed within a narrow ravine, the deep sides of which, composed of dark clay slate, rise to the height of about forty feet; down this glen, about 60 yards wide, trickles a scanty streamlet, wandering from side to side, as scattered rocks or fallen trees afford, or deny its passage. Having advanced on its course about fifty yards, when close under the rocks of the right bank, the party perceived a bright red flame burning briskly on its water. Pieces of lighted wood being applied to different adjacent spots, a space of several yards was immediately in a blaze. Being informed by the guide, that a repetition of this phenomenon might be seen higher up the glen, they scrambled on for about 100 yards, and directed, in some

degree, by a strong smell of sulphur, applied the match to several places, with the same effect. The rocky banks at length approached so closely as to leave little more than a course to the stream, whose stony channel formed the path. About seventy yards further, they found that the glen terminated in a perpendicular rock, about thirty feet high, overgrown with moss, and encumbered with fallen pine-trees, through which the drops scarcely trickled. These fires continue burning unceasingly, unless extinguished by accident. The phenomenon was first observed by the casual rolling of some lighted embers from the top of the bank, whilst it was cleaning for cultivation. In the intensity and duration of the flame, it probably exceeds any thing yet discovered: no traces, however, could be found of a spring in its whole course : the water on which the first fire was burning, had indeed a stagnant appearance; and, probably, was so from the failure of the current; but it had no peculiar taste or smell, was of the ordinary temperature, and but a few inches deep; some bubbles indicated the passage of the inflammable air through it; and on applying a match to the adjacent parts of the dry rock, a momentary flame played along it also.

MINERAL SPRINGS.

UNITED STATES.

(Jamieson's Voyages.)

IN the county of Augusta in Virginia, near the sources of James' River, are two springs distinguished by the appellation of warm and hot, they are eight miles distant from each other, and are strongly impregnated with sulphur. They are said to be useful for rheumatic, and some other complaints. The warm spring issues with a very bold stream sufficient to work a grist mill, and to keep the waters of its bason, which is thirty feet in diameter, at blood heat, or 96° of Fahrenheit. The hot spring is much smaller, and has been so hot as to boil an gr. Some believe its degree of heat to be lessened. It raises the mercury of Fahrenheit's thermometer to 112°; it sometimes relieves where the warm spring fails. A

fountain of common water issuing near its margin, gives it a singular appearance. What are called the sweet springs are in the county of Botetourt in the same state, at the eastern part of the Aleghany, forty-two miles from the warm spring. They are quite cold, like common water, and their nature is little known; but all the three sorts of springs are much frequented. On the Potowmac, and on York River, are also some springs, supposed to be medicinal; but in favour of whose virtues little is known. In the state of Georgia, in the county of Wilkes, about a mile and a half from the town of Washington, a spring rises from a hollow tree, four or five feet in length. The inside of the tree is encrusted with a coat of nitre an inch thick, and the leaves round the spring are encrusted with a substance as white as snow, which has not been analyzed.

In the low grounds of the river called Great Kanhaway, sixty-seven miles above the mouth, is a hole in the earth, of the capacity of thirty or forty gallons, from which issues constantly a bituminous vapour, in so strong a current as to give to the sand about its orifice the motion which it has in a boiling spring. On presenting a lighted candle or torch within eighteen inches from the hole, it flames up in a column of eighteen inches diameter, and four or five feet in height, which sometimes burns out within twenty minutes, and at other times has been known to continue three days, and then has been left still burning. The flame is unsteady, of the density of that of burning spirits, and smells like burning pit coal: water sometimes collects in the bason, which is remarkably cold, and is kept in ebullition by the vapour issuing through it. If the vapour be fired in that state, the water soon becomes so warm that the hand cannot bear it, and evaporates wholly in a short time.

FOSSIL REMAINS

AND INDICATIONS OF A FORMER WORLD.

BONES OF THE MAMMOTH OR MASTODON, (By the Editor, from Various Sources.)

THE first traces of this extraordinary animal are said to be collected from a letter of Dr. Mather, of Boston, to Dr. Woodward, in 1712, and transcribed from a Work in manuscript, entitled Biblia Americana. In this work teeth and bones of prodigious size, supposed to be human, are described as being found at Albany, in New England.

North America seems to be the quarter where the remains of the Mammoth or Mastodon most abound. On the Ohio, and in many parts farther north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude, which can admit of no comparison with any animal at present known, are found in vast numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it. "A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the mouth of the Tenissee, relates," as Mr. Jefferson informs us, "that after being transferred through several tribes, from one to another, he was at length carried over the mountains west of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly; that these bones abounded there; and that the natives described to him the animal to which they belonged as still existing in the northern parts of their country; from which description he judged it to be an elephant. Bones of the same kind have been lately found some feet below the surface of the earth, in salines opened on the North Holston, a branch of the Tenissee, about the latitude of 364 N. Instances are mentioned of like animal remains found in the more southern climates of both hemispheres: but Mr. Jefferson observes, "they are either so loosely mentioned, as to leave a doubt of the fact; so inaccurately described, as not to authorize the classing them with the great northern bones; or so rare, as to found a suspicion that they have been carried thither as curiosities from more northern