Niagara Falls 



1853 present there is a proposition before the world to turn the whole 

 force of the river to profitable account in some kind of mechanical 

 processes! Why, of all conceivable names, Manchester should 

 have been selected for the village, or infant city, now in the 

 course of erection near the American fall, it would be difficult 

 to understand on any other principle than that of imparting a 

 manufacturing character to the spot. 



Manchester, if it must be so called, consists of several streets 

 in skeleton, with a large railway-station in the centre, and a 

 number of hotels stuck about for the accommodation of visitors. 



1853 KINGSTON, WILLIAM H. G. Western wanderings; or, A pleasure tour 



Kingston in the Canadas. Lond. : Chapman and Hall. 1856. 1:265-311. 



In his general description the author takes occasion to express his opinions 

 of the unsightly and " incongruous buildings " about the Falls. 



As soon as our luggage was arranged, the porters dismissed, 

 our dresses dusted, and our hands washed, we opened the 

 Venetian blinds with reverential awe, and stepped out together 

 into the broad verandah, where a full and perfect view of the 

 Falls appeared before our eyes. There were the very waters on 

 which for days past we had floated, so calm and placid generally, 

 now leaping, foaming, spouting, and dashing over a lofty cliff, 

 from a wide and liquid plain, about level with our eyes, and plung- 

 ing into a deep chasm far down below our feet. We were, how- 

 ever, very much more struck with the beautiful and picturesque 

 view than with the grandeur of the spectacle, so totally different 

 to what all prints, sketches, and models, had led us to expect. 

 We were delighted with the form of the cliffs, the varied tints of 

 the trees, the unique combination of wood and water, but we 

 were not overwhelmed with awe. The roar even was neither 

 loud nor deep, nor was it necessary to speak at all in a higher 

 key than usual to make ourselves heard. Every now and then 

 an eddy of wind would bring a light shower of spray towards us, 

 to prove to us the reality of the waterfall. Even in spite of this, 

 our feeling was for some time, till we had gone over, and under, 



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