Travelers' Original Accounts: 1801-1840 



precarious cohesion. Your progress is also impeded by the thick 1818 

 rain which is every where descending ; sometimes filtering through 

 the seams of the rock, sometimes falling in heavy drops from its 

 edge, as from the eaves of a house, and in two or three places 

 spouting upon you in a continued stream. This water proceeds 

 from the marsh above, and by gradually washing out the earth 

 was doubtless the cause of the bank's giving way last summer. 



Various opinions prevail as to the most favourable situation for 

 viewing the falls. Some prefer the road to Chippawa, some the 

 Table Rock, some the rising bank above it, and some the bottom 

 of the precipice. The view from the road to Chippawa is the 

 one which a traveller from Buffalo first obtains; and after the 

 mind has become familiar with the other aspects of the scenery, 

 and can mentally associate what is hid with what is seen, per- 

 haps the circumstance of its having been the first view, may induce 

 him to think it the best. From the Table Rock the spectator has 

 a more complete view of the great fall; commending at the 

 same time the whole of the furious rapid above, from the first 

 tumultuous roll of the waves, down through its foaming course, 

 till it subsides at the middle of the curve into momentary smooth- 

 ness, and then dashes below. Here also he has a more appalling 

 impression of the terrors of the scene, for the look from the edge 

 of the rock down into the abyss, is certainly without a parallel. 

 Altogether however he is too close upon the great fall, while the 

 one on the American side seems but an episode to the other. From 

 the rising bank above the Table Rock there is perhaps a better 

 grouping of the various features of the landscape; but then you 

 are elevated considerably above the most important objects, a 

 situation which is fatal to powerful impression from objects either 

 of nature or art. At the bottom of the precipice you more ade- 

 quately appreciate the vastness of the foaming cataracts, their 

 tremendous sound, the terror of the impending precipice, and the 

 boiling of the mighty flood, but to these characteristics your view 

 is confined. 



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