1876 MEETING WITH MRS. SCOTT 207 



appointment at their appearance, inevitable wherever 

 the height of a waterfall is less than the breadth, he 

 found in them an inexhaustible charm and fascination. 

 As in duty bound, he, with my mother, completed his 

 experiences by going under the wall of waters to the 

 "Cave of the Winds." But of all things nothing 

 pleased him more than to sit of an evening by the 

 edge of the river, and through the roar of the cataract 

 to listen for the under -sound of the beaten stones 

 grinding together at its foot. 



Leaving Niagara on September 2, they travelled to 

 Cincinnati, a 20-hours' journey, where they rested a 

 day; on the 4th another 10 hours took them to 

 Nashville, where they were to meet his sister, Mrs. 

 Scott. Though 11 years his senior, she maintained 

 her vigour and brightness undimmed, as indeed she 

 did to the end of her life, surviving him by a few 

 weeks. As she now stood on the platform at 

 Nashville, Mrs. Huxley, who had never seen her, 

 picked her out from among all the people by her 

 piercing black eyes, so like those of her mother as 

 described in the Autobiographical sketch (Coll. 

 Ess. i.). 



Nashville, her son's home, had been chosen as the 

 meeting-place by Mrs. Scott, because it was not so far 

 south nor so hot as Montgomery, where she was then 

 living. Nevertheless in Tennessee the heat of the 

 American summer was very trying, and the good 

 people of the town further drew upon the too limited 

 opportunities of their guest's brief visit by sending 



