Niagara Falls 



1871 

 James 



1871 



Macaulay 



1871 



Marshall 



trees rooted on their verges, like the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio 

 at Florence. The actual whirlpool is a third of a mile farther 

 down the river, and is best seen from the cliff above. From this 

 point of view, it seems to me by all odds the finest of the secondary 

 episodes of the drama of Niagara, and one on which a scribbling 

 tourist, ineffectively playing at showman, may be content to ring 

 down his curtain. The channel at this point turns away to the 

 right, at a clean right-angle, and the river, arriving from the rapids 

 just above with stupendous velocity, meets the hollow elbow of 

 the Canada shore. The movement with which it betrays its sur- 

 prise and bewilderment — the sudden issueless maze of waters — 

 is, I think, after the Horseshoe Fall, the very finest thing in its 

 progress. It breaks into no small rage ; the offending cliffs receive 

 no drop of spray; for the flood moves in a body and wastes no 

 vulgar side-spurts; but you see it shaken to its innermost bowels 

 and panting hugely, as if smothered in its excessive volume. 

 Pressed back upon its centre, the current creates a sort of pivot, 

 from which it eddies, groping for exit in vast slow circles, 

 delicately and irregularly outlined in foam. The Canada shore, 

 shaggy and gaudy with late September foliage, closes about it like 

 the rising shelves of an amphitheatre, and deepens by contrast 

 the strong blue-green of the stream. This slow-revolving surface 

 — it seems in places perfectly still — resembles nothing so much 

 as some ancient palace-pavement, cracked and scratched by the 

 butts of legionary spears and the gold-stiffened hem of the gar- 

 ments of kings. 



MACAULAY, James. Across the ferry; first impressions of America 

 and its people. Lond.: Hodder and Stoughton. 1871. Pp. 186-197. 



An account of a September visit by the editor of the " Leisure Hour." 

 The Falls " grew on him," but he was disturbed by the crowds, the 

 obtrusiveness of the guides, and other distractions. 



Marshall, Charles. The Canadian Dominion. Lond.: Long- 

 mans Green. 1871. Pp. 85-92. 



