had some analogy both to goatsuckers and crows. Their wings were so long as to extend three feet and a half in width. It is difficult, says this gentleman, to form an idea of the horrible noise occasioned by the screaming, or croaking, of thousands of these birds in the dark interior parts of the cavern. The noise increased as the travellers advanced, and until the birds were alarmed at the light of the torches. It then ceased for a little while, and they heard, at a distance, the plaintive cries of birds that were at roost in other more distant recesses of the cavern.

Baron de Humboldt says, that it is customary with the Indians of the adjacent country, every year about midsummer, to enter this cavern armed with poles; and that on these occasions they kill many thousands of birds, and take from the inside of each a great quantity of fat. This is a substance half liquid, transparent, without smell, and so pure, that it may be kept more than a year without becoming rancid. At the convent of Caripe no other oil was used in the kitchen of the monks than that obtained from the Guacharo birds. M. Bonpland succeeded in killing one of them: and, on examination, found it to be a species of the feathered tribe which had before been unknown.

The travellers followed the course of the torrent, which appeared to be about thirty feet wide; and, after a while, came to a part of the cave beyond which the Indians objected to proceed, as they believed that the interior recesses of the cavern were inhabited by the souls of their ancestors. With some difficulty, however, they were induced to go on. They soon afterwards arrived at a spot where the bottom of the cavern was considerably elevated, and where the river formed a small cascade. With some difficulty they climbed along the side of the water. From this place the grotto was perceptibly contracted in its dimensions. They now walked, through thick mud, to a spot where they beheld with astonishment the progress of subterraneous vegetation. The seeds which the guacharoes had carried into the grotto to feed their young ones, had sprung up in great abundance; and a singular kind of crop, with blanched stalks and half formed leaves had risen, in the midst of

Q

the darkness, to the height of two feet and upwards. The Indians examined them in silent horror. It might have been thought that these subterraneous vegetables, pale and disfigured, appeared to them phantoms banished from the face of the earth. The missionaries, with all their authority, could not prevail with them to penetrate further into the cavern; and the travellers, compelled to yield to the pusillanimity of their guides, had now no alternative but to trace back their steps.

When they reached the entrance, they found that the missionaries had prepared a comfortable repast to refresh then after the fatigues they had undergone. Baron de Humboldt made many inquiries respecting this extraordinary cavern; and particularly whether any fossil, or mineralized remains of animals, had been found in it; but he could not obtain any satisfactory information whatever concerning it.

ROCKS.

SINGING VALLEY.

UNITED STATES.

(New York Paper.)

POTTSTOWN, (Penn.) Sept. 4th, 1822.-A few days since a party of gentlemen from this village rode to the celebrated Klingleberg. Klingleberg is a German name, and the proper definition is, a sounding hill or chiming rocks, or singing valley, about three miles from this place. Although our expectations were very highly raised by the reports which we had heard, still they were more than realized on our arrival there. A large and irregular mass of ill-shaped stones presented themselves to our view at first. They appear to have been thrown together by some terrible convulsion of nature. From the appearance of the stone, probably at some former time, a volcanic eruption must have taken place here. By striking on the stones, the most varied sounds imaginable are produced. The chime of the finest bells in the world could not exceed in variety the sounds produced here, from the most sonorous bass

to the most delicate treble-the gradations beautifully fine. Near the Klingleberg there is a considerable cave, which extends some distance under the rock, and is really worthy the attention of the curious. Many visitors heretofore have been at this place, but of late 1 understand it has been almost deserted. When the inhabitants of our country are much troubled to kill time, I am of opinion that there is not a place in the country that would better, compensate a traveller than a visit to this celebrated singing valley.

DORIC ROCK.

ON THE LAKE SUPERIOR.

(From Schoolcraft's Travels.)

ON going three leagues, we reached the commence

ment of the Pictured Rocks, a series of lofty bluffs, which continue for twelve miles along the shore, and present some of the most sublime and commanding views in nature. We had been told, by our Canadian guide, of the variety in the colour and form of these rocks, but were wholly unprepared to encounter the surprising groups of overhanging precipices, towering walls, caverns, water falls, and prostrate ruins, which are here mingled in the most wonderful disorder, and burst upon the view in every varying and pleasing succession. All these front upon the lake, in a line of aspiring promontories, which, at a distance, present the terrible array of dilapidated battlements and desolate towers.

"Their rocky summits split and rent,
"Form'd turret, dome, or battlement,
"Or seemed fantastically set

"With cupola or minaret,

"Wild crests as pagod ever decked,
"Or mosque of eastern architect."

In some places the waves have lashed down the lower strata, while the upper ones hang in a threatening posture over the lake; in others, extensive caverns have been worn into the rock, and in this way rocky bluffs, nearly severed from the main, or left standing upon rude and massy pillars, between which barges and canoes might with safety sail. All that we have read of the

natural physiognomy of the Hebrides, of Staffa, the Doreholm, and the romantic Isles of the Sicilian coast, is forcibly recalled on viewing this scene; and it may be doubted whether, in the whole range of American scenery, there is to be found such an interesting assemblage of grand, picturesque, and pleasing objects. Among many striking features, two attracted particular admiration, the Cascade la Portaille and the Doric Arch.

The DORIC ROCK is a mass of sand-stone, consisting of four natural pillars, supporting a stratum or entablature of the same material, and presenting the appearance of a work of art. On the top of this entablature rests a stratum of alluvial soil, covered with a handsome growth of pine and spruce trees, some of which appear to be fifty or sixty feet in height. To add to the factitious appearance of the scene, that part of the entablature included between the pillars is excavated in the form of a common arch, giving it very much the appearance of a vaulted passage into the court-yard of some massy pile of antiquated buildings.

MOUNT PLEASANT ROCK.

UNITED STATES.

(Blowe's America.)

THE face of the country about Lancaster presents a peculiar aspect. The land seems generally level; but abrupt, precipitous, and coni-form piles of rocks, producing very little timber or herbage, are occasionally interspersed in a promiscuous manner, in every direc tion. They are of divers altitudes and magnitudes. Some people might perhaps conjecture them to have been works of art, did not their numbers and magnitude preclude the idea. One of these, called Mount Pleasant, about one mile northerly from Lancaster, is veryremarkable. It is situated near a large prairie, and encompassed by a wide plain. The south-west front of this huge pile of rocks is about 500 feet in perpendicular height: the base is about a mile and a half in circumference, while the top is about thirty by 100 yards across it.

ROCK BRIDGE.

THE SAME.

(Universal Science.)

THIS bridge is described by Mr. Jefferson in his State of Virginia. It commences at the ascent of a hill, which seems to have been cloven asunder by some convulsion of nature, the fissure at the bridge is by some measurements said to be 270 feet, by others only 205; width at bottom forty-five feet, at top ninety, which gives the length of the bridge; the thickness at the summit of the arch is forty feet; a considerable part is of earth, upon which grow many large trees, the residue is of the same materials with the hill on both sides, which is a solid lime-stone rock, and forms the arch, which is of a semi-elliptical form, very flat.

The height of this arch above the water (the whole being 205, and forty the thickness) is 165 feet, the breadth at the middle is about sixty feet. It has no ledges, but what is formed on some parts by the rock, but even at these few can stand upon their feet to look down, but go on hands and feet to peep over. On the contrary, the view from below is most delightful, and enchanting. The fissure continuing narrow and straight, both above and below, and of such height that it exhi bits a prospect for about five miles; gives a short but very pleasing view of Blue Ridge on the one side, and North Mountain on the other; the stream that passes below it, is called Cedar Creek, and falls into James's river. The bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to which it has given the name. We have no account of the time when it was produced. It has, however, formed a passage between two mountains otherwise impassable.

NATURAL BRIDGE AND CAVE.

THE SAME.

(Blowe's America)

Adams township, Berkshire, is a great natural cu riosity. A pretty mill stream, called Hudson's-brook,