Niagara Falls 



1834 With smoke of incense ever streaming up, 



igoumey ^j round thy breast, the folded bow of heaven. 



Few are our words before thee. 

 For 'tis meet 

 That even the mightiest of our race should stand 

 Mute in thy presence, and with child-like awe, 

 Disrobed of self, adore his God through thee. 



" Deep calleth unto deep, at the noise of thy waterspouts." 

 Most appositely did the poet Brainerd, in his beautiful apostrophe 

 to Niagara, quote from the inspired minstrel, " deep calleth unto 

 deep." Simple and significant also, was its Indian appellation, 

 the " Water-thunderer." To the wandering son of the forest, 

 "whose untutored mind 

 Saw God in clouds, or heard him in the wind," 

 it forcibly suggested the image of that Great Spirit, who in dark- 

 ness and storm sends forth from the skies a mighty voice. 



The immense volume of water which distinguishes Niagara 

 from all other cataracts, is seldom fully realized by the casual 

 visitant. Transfixed by his emotions, he forgets that he sees the 

 surplus waters of those vast inland seas, Superior, Huron, 

 Michigan, and Erie, arrested in their rushing passage to the 

 Ocean, by a fearful barrier of rock, 160 feet in height. He 

 scarcely recollects that the tributaries to this river, or strait, cover 

 a surface of 1 50,000 miles. Indeed, how can he bow his mind 

 to aught of arithmetical computation, when in the presence of 

 this monarch of floods. 



The view from the boat while crossing the Ferry is unique and 

 impressive. It gives the first strong idea of the greater magnifi- 

 cence that awaits you.* You are encompassed by an amphitheatre 

 of towering rocks and hills. Fragments of rainbows and torrents 

 of mist hover around you. A stupendous column rises, whose 

 base is in the fathomless depth, whose head, wrapped in cloud, 

 seems to join earth and heaven. It strikes you as a living personi- 



* That is crossing from the American side. 



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