340 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



write letters on the natural history and antiquities of his 

 State, and Dr. Beck, the botanist. Failing to find either 

 at home, Audubon was compelled by the depleted state 

 of his pocketbook to give up his plan of visiting Boston, 

 and being determined to see Niagara Falls, he took pas- 

 sage on a canal boat to Buffalo instead. The Falls 

 were reached on the 24th of August, and it was then, on 

 recording his name at an hotel, that Audubon wrote un- 

 derneath: "Who, like Wilson, will ramble, but never, 

 like that great man, die under the lash of a book- 

 seller." 16 Upon his first view of the Falls he was satis- 

 fied that Niagara never had been and never could be 

 painted. He wanted to cross the bridge at Goat Island 

 but was deterred by the necessity of economy. Visitors 

 it seems, had already learned to venture under a small 

 section of the American Falls, and Audubon said that 

 while looking through the falling sheet of water, "at 

 their feet thousands of eels were lying side by side, trying 

 vainly to ascend the torrent." After strolling through 

 the village to find some bread and milk, the naturalist 

 recorded that he ate a good dinner for twelve cents, and 

 that he went to bed "thinking of Franklin eating his 

 roll in the streets of Philadelphia, of Goldsmith travel- 

 ing by the aid of his musical powers, and of other great 

 men who had worked their way through hardships and 

 difficulties to fame, and fell asleep, hoping, by perse- 

 vering industry, to make a name for himself among his 

 countrymen." 



The schooner from Buffalo to Erie, Pennsylvania, 

 on which Audubon had taken deck passage, as he was 

 unable to afford a berth in the cabin, was caught in a 

 violent gale on the way and was obliged to anchor in 

 the harbor of Presque Isle. "It was on the 29th of Au- 



16 



See Vol. I, p. 219. 



