40 



&l)c .farmer's iitontljlu Visitor. 



of the foaming flood which boils round and 

 round and over from the impending rush and 

 weight of waters from above : this rapid climb- 

 ing up and down the steeps and again down- 

 ward to the space left under the mighty sheet of 

 wa'ers in the cavern of the clifted limestone 

 rock which underlays the country at a level both 

 above and below the falls, was followed by the 

 chased walk of more than a mile around Goat 

 Island over the then recently erected bridges 

 which connected that with the main land. A 

 quarter dollar apiece for foot passengers pays 

 well the proprietors for the expense of this erec- 

 tion. The lands and bridges hereabout belonged 

 to Judge Potter, whose brother made a figure as 

 a military man on that frontier during the war, 

 and was afterwards Secretary of War. It is 

 strange, when we see how simple and cheap the 

 bridges were made, thaj the work had not been 

 before thought of. The timbers, of which there 

 is a great abundance in this country, were laid 

 down over the channel supported by a superin- 

 cumbent weight from the shore: at the other 

 end underneath on the waterside a stone pier was 

 made to stand. From this point other timbers 

 were laid over further into the stream, and made 

 to rest upon another foundation ; and so the 

 bridging was completed at an expense hardly 

 more than a similar erection over a common 

 stream. Our rapid pedestrian travel around 

 Goat Island of a summer day in July 1833, 

 brought us in contact with the descendant and 

 representative of the Kembles and Siddons, who 

 at this distant day is holding the mirror of 

 Shakespeare's fame up to the admiring gaze of 

 the amateurs of the stage, then young and with 

 a face of enchantment, on a tour with her lover 

 and future husband : Mr. Butler and Miss 

 Kemhle were sauntering upon the island 

 as if returning from its circuit near the 

 bridge. Her then well-known peculiar face 

 was ascertained as one of perhaps little more 

 than half a dozen actors we ever recognized off 

 the stage, many of whom in more youthful days 

 we had admired as better representing than we 

 could read the productions of the immortal 

 bard. 



The curiosities, new and splendid, that broke 

 upon us seventeen yeais ago, on this 6th day of 

 September, 1848, were magnified still beyond 

 every body's conceptions of things then formed. 

 In a hurry leaving the cars near Whitney's at the 

 village against the American side of the falls, we 

 took our chance in a crowded omnibus for the 

 new suspension bridge two miles below, in com- 

 pany with gentlemen and ladies, who talked on 

 the way of its trembling and its perils. Alone, 

 as if undertaking this expedition in shortened 

 time, we jumped from the omnibus, paid our 

 fare, and in a rapid walk commenced our journey 

 over the deep chasm which in the course of 

 time the receding of the immense mass of wa- 

 ters bad worn down, broken and forced off. 

 This suspension bridge, whose commencement 

 was in a rope shot as a target from one side to 

 the other, was intended as the instrument to aid 

 in the erection of another of enlarged dimen- 

 sions for carriages or perhaps railroad cars, is in 

 a single span of eight hundred feet across : its 

 strength is in iron wires or rods, stronger when 

 several are united than the same quantity of 

 metal in one body alone. The wires are sup- 

 ported on either side by a tower of rocks whose 

 stable standing are its sole security. The path- 

 way of the bridge may be five or six feet wide: 

 each side has an open trellis like rounded basket 



work. Our walk was quick with a sensible vi- 

 bration every step over to the British side. 

 Arrived there we made no tarry longer than to 

 listen to invitations to ride and see the battle 

 grounds and other curiosities on the British side, 

 for which we had no time. Returning near the 

 centre, a clever Irish attendant invited us to the 

 view of the foaming over the whirlpool of wa- 

 ters, a large body of which protruded constantly 

 from the surface more than twenty feet: the 

 view was over the basket work. The distance 

 looking down reducing all objects to a pigmy 

 size, we prepared by holding on as a protection 

 from the head swimming : it was strange to us 

 that neither the fragile nature of the bridge 

 trembling in mid air, nor the whirling and boil- 

 ing of the waters, at all discomposed the nerves. 

 Hastening back, we found the company we had 

 left just entering upon the bridge in trembling 

 hesitation, answering to their inquiries that we 

 had no belief of more danger to them than we 

 had encountered. 



To adil to the attractions of visitors to the 

 falls an excavation has been made upon the 

 great hank of the American side which the wa- 

 ters have cut out encountering the rise from the 

 water in an inclined plane for foot travel- 

 lers or for carriages down to the water's edge. 

 To the geologist the several strata of this deep 

 excavation present abundant subjects for specu- 

 lation in the lapse of time since creation on the 

 long, long distance which from high to low the 

 several layers represent. As for ourselves we 

 can oidy look upon such a series of the varying 

 rock formed myriads of ages after the granite 

 which has been upheaved to make the moun- 

 tains of more primitive origin, with admiration 

 how little the better science of the better in- 

 formed of mankind can yet grasp and compre- 

 hend. At the foot of this excavation ingenious 

 contrivance has been able to introduce up the 

 boiling waters below a steamer of the smaller 

 class, which has been named ''Maid of the Mist." 

 The daily expeditions of this craft we thought 

 full more dangerous than a foot journey over the 

 suspension bridge. Joined in a party of some 

 hundred persons of the two sexes, we paid the 

 fare and entered as passenger, looking up a mile 

 and a half through the chasm directly into the 

 face of the gteat falls. The waters in this inter- 

 val are by no means quiet at any point: the cur- 

 rents are in many directions from one side to the 

 other, now forcing downwards and receding in 

 seemingly endless eddies. The boat under a 

 headway of steam, more and more trembling as 

 the waters became of stronger force, first ap- 

 proached the falls on the American side, after 

 duly warning the passengers that they must re- 

 tire under cover to avoid an entire immer- 

 sion from the spray which goes off from 

 the falling body that knows no cessation. 

 The falls on the American side, which seem 

 when at that point as iarge as the great horse 

 shoe on the British side, hut which are probably 

 not half their magnitude, come down in a lesser 

 and larger channel parted by a rocky protube- 

 rance between the shore and Goat Island, the 

 whole of which with the channels of waters on 

 on both sides is broken off with that cliff of 

 rocks which composes the immediate height and 

 depth of the falls and the body of waters in which 

 the fall is merged. Breaking off in fragments the 

 uncovered rocks in masses preserve yet the 

 shape below of the cliff above out of which tin) 

 have fallen. The boat came into the spray of 

 the falls on the American side so near as when 



looking up the mighty waters rushing down 

 seemed to he poured directly overhead : turning 

 and touching even the rocky base of the fallen 

 down material, the Maiil of the Mist emerged 

 from the mist going over to take her position 

 still further up the chasm into the very centre of 

 the horse-shoe which has been enlarged within 

 our own recollection by the breaking off at once 

 of a large portion of the Table rock not less 

 famed as the first viewing spot than the falls 

 themselves. The misty Maid on this occasion, 

 under the power of raised steam, forced herself 

 into the very jaws of the narrowed inside of the 

 shoe, passing far by an even line of the great 

 sheet of water rushing down on either hand. 

 Pushing forward until the power of the water 

 became stronger than the power of steam, the 

 Maid, as the fabled Venus from her Adonis, re- 

 luctantly was forced out of the contest into the 

 comparatively smoother waters down below, 

 which we had been taught years ago to regard 

 as not dangerous, yet seeming to be yawning for 

 victims of such as should have the temerity to 

 venture upon the fragile vessel that might be 

 capsized in a commotion that looked much less 

 hazardous. Returning to Buffalo, our intelligent 

 new acquaintance the editor of the Buffalo Ad- 

 vertiser expressed his hesitation about encoun- 

 tering an expedition in the Maid of the Mist, 

 since it was his belief that if any of the machin- 

 ery of the boat should give out while under way 

 in the falls, the whole craft must encounter in- 

 evitable destruction. Returning over the exca- 

 vated plane road out of the chasm, we made our- 

 selves the witness of the assured talent of the 

 untutored aborigines of the country by purchas- 

 ing from the hands of one of two females busily 

 employed at their work in the shade of a tree, 

 an elegant head bag resembling the Indian moc- 

 casons that are always found at Buffalo, orna- 

 mental to the lady's foot as they are exceedingly 

 conducive to the lady's warm feet and better 

 health and enjoyment in a northern country cli- 

 mate. The females we found to he of the Tus- 

 carora tribe, whose residence upon the high 

 grounds about three miles out of Lewiston, we 

 visited twenty-three years before. 



The river shore between the Falls and Buffalo 

 seems not much to have improved : it is emi- 

 nently a fever and ague country, which appears 

 to have forbidden its rapid growth. The Erie 

 canal comes along down the bank of the river 

 till it reaches the mouth of Tonnewanda creek 

 entering Niagara river above the falls, which has 

 been made for several miles towards Batavia a 

 navigable part of the canal itself. Navy island 

 on the American side lies down along the shore 

 for several miles: it is mostly covered with mag- 

 nificent trees. An eastern company erecting 

 mills here for the purpose of taking the manu- 

 factured lumber through the canals to Albany 

 and thence by water to Boston, has not well suc- 

 ceeded. At the mouth of the Tonne wanta creek 

 is a settlement from which some entire families 

 have moved away, after having suffered much 

 from chills and (ever, which often accompany 

 their victim years after he has removed back to 

 a more healthy position. 



Our visit at Buflalo was crowned with that ex- 

 treme hospitality and attention which have been 

 personally bestowed on us at all distant places 

 where we find men and women from New 



Hampshire. Mrs. S , the daughter of an 



old friend in Grafton county, made a party i'm- 

 our second evening, at which we in a pleasant 

 interview, met as former acquaintance, Mr. Fill- 



