Niagara Falls 



1841 shore, and come suddenly, near Queenston, under the shadow of 

 Bonnycas the rocky barrier which there hems in the mighty river, with a 

 wall of rock almost perpendicular, and severed, as if by an earth- 

 quake, into a dreadful chasm only five or six hundred feet in 

 width, up which neither steam, sail, nor oar will ever navigate; 

 for from Queenston to the Falls, seven miles more, the angry river 

 rushes between these aged walls, in a succession of rapids, whirl- 

 pools, and rushings without affording even a continuous edge, 

 whereon the human foot may tread, to behold these mysterious 

 strugglings of the pent-up Father of Rivers. 



If you go by stage to Queenston and the Falls, almost the 

 whole line of journey, for fourteen miles, reminds you of dear 

 England, being a succession of fine fields, farms, and orchards, 

 interspersed with noble groves of chestnut, whose dark foliage 

 adds sublimity to the swift and deep current that rolls, in cease- 

 less course, so frequently within your view, for the first seven 

 miles of the journey. 



I attempted to make a road from the Clifton Hotel towards 

 the Whirlpool, but found so many conflicting interests, that I had 

 not the success which a longer residence might have afforded me. 

 At present the road is somewhat difficult to follow along the top 

 of the high, rocky precipitous wall which hems in the stream ; but 

 an active adventurous person may achieve it, and well he is repaid. 

 A succession of magnificient rapids, caverns, and precipices are 

 presented to his view; and the road itself, as it exists, is not bad 

 for the first distance, or about a mile down to the Devil's Cavern, 

 which is a large excavation, or natural hole, in the face of the 

 precipice, about one-third of the way down. Rattlesnakes' Den 

 is another on the opposite side. This road is a military reserva- 

 tion, and should be opened. It has not to contend with the diffi- 

 culties which avarice otherwise threw in the way of the military 

 reserve at the Falls being made free to the public. 



Sir John Colborne, and his predecessor Sir Peregrine Mait- 

 land, attempted to make the Falls available to all visitors with- 



1218 



