Norway in 1848 and 1849- containing rambles among the fjelds and fjords of the central and western districts; and including remarks on its political, military, ecclesiastical, and social organization (14751137326)

Identifier: norwaycontaining00fore (find matches)
Title: Norway in 1848 and 1849: containing rambles among the fjelds and fjords of the central and western districts; and including remarks on its political, military, ecclesiastical, and social organization
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: Forester, Thomas
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Printed for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive



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e increasing roar of the cataract.The peculiar character of the whole, as it struck me,was graceful and harmonious; not without a certainair of majesty, but not reaching that highest point ofmagnificent grandeur, which rendered other and morewild and savage scenes truly sublime. After about two miles from our first point of view,the picture which I have endeavoured to sketch wascompleted, by the insertion of the central object —the Fall itself; in front of which the course of theroad then brought us. Among its most strikingfeatures were two masses of perpendicular rock, eachat least 500 feet high, which, springing from oppositesides, stood out in bold relief, the outworks of theescarped cliff, through a chasm in which the cataractpours. These massive columns formed the entrance,— the gigantic portals, — of a vast chamber whichreceives the flood of waters. Their sharp angularoutline contrasted strongly with the slopes and swellsof the surrounding heights, and the clouds of vapour
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EJUItAN-FOSS. 99 that curled around their summits. But who shallpenetrate the depths of that dim cavern, and tell allthe wonders of one of Natures most mysteriousshrines ! What pen or pencil can adequately depict<ie ever-varying play of those clouds of spray whichfilled the chamber, —eddying, whirling, drifted toand fro by the slightest breeze; and which floatedlight as air over the boiling cauldron that foamedbeneath ! Equally impossible is it to convey more than afaint idea of the body of the cataract as it was preci-pitated in one vast column into the depths below.Talk of body ; — it was water spiritualised. Its natureseemed to have been changed in its passage down therapids and along the tortuous channel, the course ofwdiich was marked by jets of steam, and in whichit chafed above the Fall. Thus elaborated and charsredA\dth air, it broke over the precipice, not so muchin a continuous sheet as in successive wreaths ofwhite vapour, which seemed to drop from the summit,fold af