streams of less note, all of which are situated within a few miles of
the Natural Tunnel.

"To form an adequate idea of this remarkable and truly sublime object,
we have only to imagine the creek to which it gives a passage,
meandering through a deep, narrow valley, here and there bounded on both
sides by walls, or _revetements_, of the character above intimated,
and rising to the height of two or three hundred feet above the stream;
and that a portion of one of these chasms, instead of presenting an
open, _thorough cut_ from the summit to the base of the high
grounds, is intercepted by a continuous unbroken ridge, more than three
hundred feet high, extending entirely across the valley, and perforated
transversely at its base, after the manner of an artificial tunnel, and
thus affording a spacious subterranean channel for the passage of the
stream.

"The entrance to the Natural Tunnel on the upper side of the ridge
is imposing and picturesque in a high degree; but on the lower side
the grandeur of the scene is greatly heightened by the superior
magnitude of the cliffs, which exceed in loftiness, and which rise
perpendicularly--and, in some instances, in an impending manner--two
or three hundred feet; and by which the entrance on this side is
almost environed, as it were, by an amphitheatre of rude and frightful
precipices.

"The observer, standing on the brink of the stream, at the distance
of about one hundred yards below the debouchure of the Natural Tunnel,
has, in front, a view of its arched entrance, rising seventy or eighty
feet above the water, and surmounted by horizontal stratifications of
yellowish, white, and grey rocks, in depth nearly twice the height of