Niagara Falls 



1875 In due course, I was taking my first view of the Falls. We 



had passed by the ticket office, and had paid our toll; we had 

 escaped from the importunities of bazaar keepers, and were out 

 of sight of their wares ; we had passed over bridges and between 

 rocks and had lost ourselves amidst shrubs and flowering plants 

 on Goat Island, and had surprised a party of Indian squaws 

 arranging their bead trinkets for sale when the later hours of the 

 day should bring the fashionable visitors to the place; when, as 

 in an instant, I was standing on a projecting rock in the river's 

 bank, from whence the full grandeur and majesty of the scene 

 was brought within the range of vision. Overhead, the sky was 

 without cloud or speck, and the sun shining most brilliantly. In 

 front, there were the boiling seething waters, sending up clouds 

 of spray, amongst which the sunbeams played and formed rain- 

 bows, arching each other. To the right of us there were the 

 American Falls, and to the left of us the Horseshoe Falls. In the 

 distance there was the suspension bridge crossing the river. In 

 the back ground there were wooded heights, the foliage of the 

 trees seeming to intensify the color of the water, as in one com- 

 pact mass, many feet thick, and like a huge crystal, it hung over 

 the precipice, the spray from the chasm below ascending as 

 though it were incense playing its part in one grand and never 

 ceasing act of worship, in which the utmost resources of nature 

 had been gathered together to do honour and homage to the God 

 of Nature. 



1875 OFFENBACH, JACQUES. America and the Americans. Lond. : 



Offenbach William Reeves. (1877. Pp. 74-75.) 



After having looked a long time at the fall, I crossed the bridge 

 and set foot on Canadian territory. 



" You would like to see the Indians," they said. 



I expected to find savages, but they showed me pedlars, men 

 who produced articles de Paris. I was frightened at their 

 ferocious attitude. I still recollect them. But were they really 

 Indians? I rather doubt it. 



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