Narrative of an expedition... continued

The spray, which this cascade emits, is very considerable, and when the rays of the sun shine upon it, produces a beautiful Iris; upon the surrounding vegetation the effect of this spray is distinct; it vivifies all the plants, imparts to them an intense green colour, and gives rise to a stouter growth than is observed upon the surrounding country. On the neighbouring rock the effect is as characteristic, though of a destructive nature; the spray striking against the rock, which is of a loose structure, has undermined it in a curved manner, so as to produce an excavation, similar in form to a Saxon arch, between the surface of the rock and the sheet of water ; under this large arch we passed with no other inconvenience than that which arose from the spray. There is nothing sublime or awfully impressive in this cascade, but it has every feature that is required to constitute beauty; it is such a fall as the hand of opulence daily attempts to produce in the midst of those gardens upon which treasures have been lavished for the purpose of imitating nature; with this difference, however, that these falls possess an easy grace destitute of the stiffness which generally distinguishes the works of man from those of nature. The stream that exhibits this cascade fails into the Mississippi about two miles above the fort; it heads in a lake situated a few miles above. -- published in 1824