Niagara Falls 



1818 



Duncan 



1818 



Evans 



1818 



Howison 



The truth is that you must contemplate the scene from every 

 point of view, before you can be acquainted with half its grandeur. 

 Every succeeding look, and every shifting of your position, exhibit 

 something which you did not observe before, and I believe that 

 those who have visited the falls the oftenest, admire and wonder 

 at them the most. . . . 



For the disappointment which is usually felt in gaining the 

 first look of the falls, it is not difficult to account. We are 

 accustomed to expect that the peculiar beauties of " the mountain 

 and the flood " should never be disconnected in the landscape, and 

 are not prepared to find the falls of Niagara in the midst of a 

 tract of country level to perfect deadness; a country where for 

 miles around not a solitary hillock varies the surface, and nothing 

 meets the eye but interminable forests of pine. The positions 

 from which you must view the falls, and their vast semicircular 

 width, detract most surprisingly from their apparent altitude. Add 

 to all this, the unbridled scope in which imagination delights to 

 riot, magnifying what is small and exaggerating what is great, 

 and surely it will no longer be surprising that many, who take 

 but a flying view of the wonders of Niagara, should depart utterly 

 displeased that they are not still more wonderful. 



Evans, Estwick. A pedestrious tour, of four thousand miles, through 

 the western states and territories, during the winter and spring of 1818. 

 Concord, N. H.: Joseph C. Spear. 1819. Pp. 76-81. (Thwaites, 

 Early western travels, 1 748- 1 846. 8:174-177.) 



The writer deemed a detailed account of the Falls unimportant. He 

 confines himself to a brief description of the rapids, islands and river, and 

 some remarks on recession. 



Howison, John. Sketches of Upper Canada, domestic, local, and 

 characteristic: to which are added, practical details for the information of 

 emigrants of every class; and some recollections of the United States of 

 America. 2d ed. Edinb.: Oliver & Boyd. 1822. Pp. 106-130. 



The Table Rock, from which the Falls of Niagara may be 

 contemplated in all their grandeur, lies on an exact level with the 

 edge of the cataract on the Canada side, and indeed forms a part 

 of the precipice over which the water gushes. It derives its name 



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