Travelers' Original Accounts: 1 801 -1 840 



were ridiculous, therefore, to think of describing it. The ordi- 1827-28 

 nary materials of description, I mean analogy, and direct com- 

 parison with things which are more accessible, fail entirely in the 

 case of that amazing cataract, which is altogether unique. 



Yet a great deal, I am certain, might be done by a well- 

 executed panorama, drawn from below, at a station near the 

 projecting angle of the rock which must be passed, after leaving 

 the bottom of the ladder, on the way to the carve I have been 

 speaking about. An artist, well versed in this peculiar sort of 

 painting, might produce a picture which would probably distance 

 every thing else of the kind. He must not, however, trust to the 

 sketches of others, but go to the Falls himself; and there become 

 acquainted with those feelings which the actual presence of that 

 stupendous scene is capable of inspiring. For without some 

 infusion of these local sentiments into his painting, v/ere it ever 

 so correct in outline, the result would be nothing but a large pic- 

 ture of a large waterfall, instead of the noblest, and perhaps the 

 most popular of those singular works of art, which, by a species 

 of magic, transport so many distant regions to our very 

 doors. . . . 



On Sunday night, the 8th of July, we returned to the Falls, 

 and walked down to the table rock to view them by moonlight. 

 Our expectations, as may be supposed, were high, but the sight 

 was even more impressive than we had expected. It possessed, 

 it is true, what may be called a more sober kind of interest than 

 that belonging to the wild scene behind the sheet of water above 

 described. I may mention one curious effect: It seemed to the 

 imagination not impossible that the Fall might swell up and 

 grasp us in its vortex. The actual presence of any very powerful 

 moving object, is often more or less remotely connected with a 

 feeling that its direction may be changed ; and when the slightest 

 variation would evidently prove fatal, a feeling of awe is easily 

 excited. At all events, as I gazed upon the cataract, it more 

 than once appeared to increase in its volume, and to be accele- 

 rated in its velocity, till my heated fancy became strained, 



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