Preservation of the Falls 



unveiled with its sea-green tints brilliantly illuminated by the pass- 1833 

 ing sunbeam. An hour after, and the mist had disappeared ; the 

 Falls were sparkling in the bright sunshine; and a brilliant iris 

 was resting on the body of vapour which the wind carried away 

 from the face of the descending columns. The scene at sunset, 

 day after day, was no way less majestic, when the sun, glancing 

 from the Canadian shore, lit up the precipices and woods of Goat 

 Island, and the broad face of the American Fall, which then 

 glowed like a wall of gold; while half the Fall of the Horse- 

 Shoe, and the deep recesses of the curve, were wrapped in shade. 

 Morning, noon and night found us strolling about the shore, and 

 on the island, which is an earthly paradise. 



I remember the quiet hours spent there, when fatigued with the 

 glare of the hot bright sun, and the din of the Falls, with peculiar 

 delight. We loved, too, to escape from all those signs of man's 

 presence and busy-bodying, to which I have alluded, and, bury- 

 ing ourselves in the fresh dark scarce-trodden forest still covering 

 a great part of its area, to listen to the deadened roar of the vast 

 cataracts on either hand, swelling on the air distinct from every 

 other sound. 



There, seated in comparative solitude, you catch a peep across 

 a long vista of stems of the white vapour and foam. You listen 

 to the sharp cry of the blue jay, the tap of the red-headed wood- 

 pecker, and the playful bark of the squirrel ; you scan the smooth 

 white boles of the beech or birch, chequered with broad patches 

 of dark-green moss, the stately elm and oak, the broad-leaved 

 maple, the silvery-white and exquisitely chiselled trunk of the huge 

 chestnut, garlanded with creepers; but you will hardly ever lose 

 the consciousness of the locality. The spell of Niagara is still 

 upon and around you. You glance again and again at the white 

 veil which thickens or grows dim beyond the leafy forest: the 

 rush of the nearer rapids, the din of the falling waters, the mur- 

 mur of the echoes answering the pulsations of the descending 

 mass, fill your ears, and pervade all nature. 



1067 



