Niagara Falls 



1821 as I descended the steps, was standing at a sort of reel, with 



which he draws the boat out of the water, awaiting with patience 

 the approach of adventurous passengers. 



Various kinds of trees have fixed their roots beneath the 

 impending cliffs, at a distance below the falls. Nearer and occa- 

 sionally receiving the sprinklings of the mist, shrubs and flower- 

 ing plants, in the highest perfection, lift their bright luxuriant 

 heads above the broken stones. Each crevice, and each spot of 

 earth, on this fertile though rugged part of the slope, is a garden 

 of the sweetest, gayest flowers of the forest. Under the continu- 

 ally showering spray, vast rhomboidal rocks which earthquakes 

 have shaken from the summit, are covered with long bending 

 grass, and the watery interstices among them are filled with 

 aquatic weeds. 



Here from the top of a huge block of limestone, I viewed 

 with dumb amazement the falls overhead: thundering tumult 

 shakes the basis of the cliffs ; a powerful breeze assaults the face, 

 blowing at times rolling clouds of spray. White and foaming, 

 the cataract is just perceived pitching over and breaking apart 

 ere it is half way to the bottom : dazzling mist envelopes the sight, 

 and nothing more is to be seen. Turning around as the spray 

 showers from above, the thin form of the rainbow, like some 

 etherial spirit, sweeps its radiant circles through the air. 



. . . Down drop the brimful oceans, crash upon crash , loud 

 peal the hollow rattling thunders. As a thousand crags rifted 

 at once by lightning from the top of a lofty mountain, dart head- 

 long, crumbling, to the distant valley, and reiterating with deafen- 

 ing loudness, stupify the dismayed inhabitant over whose head 

 they rebounded; so flies Niagara over us desperately swift; and 

 madly bellowing as it recoils high above the trembling earth, 

 astounds the affrighted senses of the presumptuous mortals, who 

 thus dare to break into this worse than Tartarean dungeon. An 



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