View from the Upper Falls of the Genessee River. 211 



rectness, the exactness of fact ; to feel, vividly, the imagery impressed 

 on the face of the landscape ; and the power to paint it, as graphically 

 in language, as in sketches and colors, the subject would then assume its 

 highest interest, and attract attention from a large class of admirers. 

 There are many scenes, in this country, which are interesting, in all 

 the particulars alluded to, and. sketches of them would be perfectly 

 appropriate to a Journal of Science. We have the example of the 

 Geological Society of London, whose instructive volumes are adorned 

 by many views, distinguished equally by their picturesque and scien- 

 tific character. The region of the Genessee and Niagara rivers, 

 which I had an opportunity of observing, on the same tour, in which 

 the frontispiece was sketched,* are remarkable for their very distinct 

 and almost horizontal stratification. f The rocks, consisting principal- 

 ly of limestone, sandstone and slate, although greatly indented on the 

 surface ; scooped into deep basins and valleys, swollen into high hills, 

 and presenting great variety of outline in the sweeps of bold and beau- 

 tiful curves, are, generally, laid down, with the regularity of a work of 

 of art, and remain, evidently, in the horizontal position into which they 

 first subsided. Wherever a distinct section is exposed, as at the high 

 banks of the Genessee river, near Geneseo, there are similar precipi- 

 ces, and of a height probably not inferior to that of the cliffs, described 

 and depicted by Mr. Wadsworth ; the observer is impressed by the 

 grandeur of the piles ', by the different colors of the alternating strata 

 of rocks reposing upon each other in perfect order, as if reared by the 

 mason's art and power ; by the mild beauty of the trees, shrubs and 

 verdure, on their summits and edges, and by the enormous masses, 

 which time has thrown down in ruins, to be washed by the ceaseless 

 wear of a river, always powerful, and at times, swollen to an over- 

 whelming torrent. 



The mighty Niagara, it is well known, has worn its passage through 

 rocks, similar to those on the Genessee, and the tourist, trusting io 

 the skill of the boatmen who, in open skiffs, at the very foot of the cat- 

 eract, tempt that raging flood of billows, breakers, and whirlpools, coia- 

 templates in safety, the stupendous stratification of a canal, obviously- 

 deepened, if not formed by the river ; which has been receding, m 

 time, from Lake Ontario ; is still travelling towards the upper inland 

 seas, and which may be destined, in sdll remoter time, to drain their 

 beds, and to surrender them to agriculture and the arts of Hfe, 



* I was not at that exact spot, but saw similar scenes on the same river 

 t At least, as old as the aacient secondary 



