BENEATH THE FALLS. 397 



gone down, and made a division in the Fall above, which 

 he would show me if I made up my mind to go under the 

 cascade. " Go on, then/' I said, " show the way." 

 " Stay, sir," replied my sable guide, " you can't go under 

 as you are ; you must come to the hotel, and put on a 

 waterproof dress. On this I accompanied him to the 

 Clifton Hotel hard by, which is so near the Falls, that of 

 all places in the world at which I would advise deaf and 

 dumb people to sojourn the Clifton Hotel is the very 

 place, for ears and speech are almost useless there, while 

 signs and converse on the fingers are much to be coveted; 

 and in the black's robing-room I put on, from head to foot, 

 an entire suit of what once had been a waterproof dress, 

 and thus attired followed my guide down some steep steps, 

 and a passage made to the very foot of the mighty Falls. 

 It is impossible to describe that strange scene. At first 

 the noise is intensely surprising. It is not a splashing of 

 water no waves in their angry ricochet are heard, and 

 no boiling or rushing currents ; but there is one ceaseless 

 heavy leaden fall and roar, which drowns every sound 

 besides, and renders a voice, though speaking close to 

 the ear, almost inaudible. There was a yard or two of 

 slippery rock, enveloped in the wettest fog I ever en 

 countered (to which a Scotch mist, though it wets a man 

 to the skin in a moment, in comparison is nothing), to 

 walk on ; and by it I passed under the small portion of 

 the cascade which had been severed from the main body 

 by the fall of the portion of the table-rock alluded to ; 

 thence I went on, followed, not led, by my sable guide, 

 till he touched me on the arm and made a sign for me to 

 stop. I did so, and contemplated the scene ! At our 

 backs was the high, wet, black rock, and over-head 

 millions of tons of water ; at our feet a slippery path of a 



