452 VISIT to parry's falls. 



scarcely less dangerous ; for, to say nothing of 

 the steep ascents, fissures in the rocks, and deep 

 snow in the valleys, we had sometimes to creep 

 along the narrow shelves of precipices slippery 

 with the frozen mist that fell on them. But it 

 was a sight which well repaid any risk. My 

 first impression was of a strong resemblance to 

 an iceberg in Smeerenberg Harbour, Spitzbergen. 

 The whole face of the rocks forming the chasm 

 was entirely coated with blue, green, and white 

 ice, in thousands of pendent icicles : and there 

 were, moreover, caverns, fissures, and over- 

 hanging ledges in all imaginable varieties of 

 form, so curious and beautiful as to surpass 

 any thing of which I had ever heard or read. 

 The immediate approaches were extremely ha- 

 zardous, nor could we obtain a perfect view of 

 the lower fall, in consequence of the projection 

 of the western cliffs. At the lowest position 

 which we were able to attain, we were still more 

 than a hundred feet above the level of the bed 

 of the river beneath ; and this, instead of being 

 narrow enough to step across, as it had seemed 

 from the opposite heights, was found to be at 

 least two hundred feet wide. 



The colour of the water varied from a very 

 light to a very dark green ; and the spray, which 

 spread a dimness above, was thrown up in clouds 

 of light grey. Niagara, Wilberforce's Falls in 



