Preservation of the Falls 



out of tune. Living at Niagara was not like ordinary life; its 1841 

 not over loud, but constant solemn roar, has in itself a mysterious Carllsle 

 sound: is not the highest voice to which the Universe can ever 

 listen, compared by inspiration to the sound of many waters? 

 The whole of existence there has a dreamy but not a frivolous 

 impress; you feel that you are not in the common world, but in 

 its sublimest temple. 



1842 

 LyELL, Sir CHARLES. Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, 1842 

 Bart. Lond.: Murray. 1881. 2:61. Lyell 



A brief paragraph in a letter to Leonard Horner, dated Lewiston, 

 June 13, 1842, commenting on the strange effect of locomotives, tourists, 

 and traffic on one absorbed in sky, wood, and water. The distinguished 

 scientist thought Goat Island a perfect fairyland but longed for a view of 

 the Falls in their aboriginal setting. He speaks with apprehension of the 

 approaching intrusion of factories on the scene. 



1847 



WARBURTON, GEORGE DROUGHT. Hochelaga; or England in the 1847 

 new world. Lond.: Colburn. 1847. 1:230-244. Warburton 



Impressions of the Falls are interspersed with anecdotes of casualties. 



By painting and by description, Niagara had been familiar to 

 me for many years, as no doubt it has been to every one else; so 

 much has been said and written on the subject that any attempt 

 to throw new light upon it is hopeless. I, therefore, mean, with 

 simple egotism, to give the impressions it made upon myself. 



The sight was precisely what I expected — the sensations it 

 caused, totally different. I did not start with an exclamation of 

 awe, neither did I only look upon it as " an everlasting fine 

 ' water-privilege.' ' I thought it a magnificent cataract, far 

 grander than anything I had before seen, and more beautiful. 

 I sat down on the turf near Table Rock, whence there is the best 

 view, with something approaching to disappointment on my 

 mind, that, after all, it should be only a " magnificent cataract." 

 But as I looked and listened, the eye and ear, as it were, matured 

 into the power to fit perception; then, admiration and astonish- 

 es 1073 



