52 



THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 



All travellers are agreed that this is the greatest of nature's wonders, 

 and that language is incapable of conveying an adequate description of 

 its beauties, its immensity creating wonder, terror and delight to 

 every eye that looks upon it, and defying delineation by pencil or pen. 

 " It has, to me,'' says Mrs. Trollope, " something beyond its vastness : 

 there is a shadowy mystery hanging about it, which neither the eye nor 

 the imagination can picture; but I dare not dwell upon this; it is a 

 dangerous subject, and any attempt to describe the sensations must lead 

 to nonsense." The river Niagara takes its rise in the western extremity 

 of lake Erie, and after flowing about 34 miles, it empties itself into lake 

 Ontario. It is from half a mile to three miles broad, its course is very 

 smooth, and its depth considerable. The sides above the cataract are 

 nearly level, but below the falls the stream rushes between very lofty 

 rocks, capped with gigantic trees, and this, forming such a contrast to the 

 level shore above, gives reason to suppose that in some long by-gone time 

 the level has been ploughed up by volcanic force. The great body of 

 water, as may be supposed, does not precipitate itself in one complete 

 sheet, but is separated by islands, and forms three distinct falls. One 

 of these, called the Great Fall, or, from its shape, the great Horse Shoe 

 fall, is on the Canadian side. Its beauty is considered to surpass that of 

 the others, although its height is considerably less. Its exact dimensions 

 can only be conjectural; its circumference is reckoned at 1,1 00 feet, with 

 a perpendicular height of 165 feet. The chief points and features of this 

 sublime scene are (besides the great Horse Shoe fall) the " Table Rock," 

 " Goat Island," and the "American Fall," with a small section thereof 

 separated at the top by a projecting rock, exclusive of other parts less_ 

 remarkable or striking. " I will not attempt a general description," 

 says a recent visitor, *' of what nature never intended should be copied, 

 for were I able to paint with human accuracy the different portions of 

 this stupendous cataract, with its ever ascending column of misty spray, 

 and give to the iris with which the morning and evening sun adorns the 

 wild scene, all the beauty and loveliness of its primitive colors, yet would 

 there be wanting the everlasting and deafening thunder, which nearly 

 destroys the sense of hearing, as well as the superior interest which 

 reality must ever possess over the most accurate and masterly copy 



