Travelers' Original Accounts: / 801 —1 840 



feeling at first is the inadequacy of language to express the 1833 

 strength of the emotion. One of the ladies alluded to, of a Henr y 

 refined mind and ingenuous nature, after gazing for the first 

 time, with a long and fixed expression, on the sublime object 

 before her, looked for an instant in my face and burst into 

 tears. There are others so constituted as to be fascinated by 

 the spectacle to such a dangerous and overpowering extent, as 

 to feel a strong desire to throw themselves into the abyss. A 

 lady of good sense and mature age assured me, that as she 

 stood on the edge of the Table Rock, this impulse became so 

 strong and overmastering, that she was obliged to recede rapidly 

 from the brink, for fear of the consequences. Here the mind 

 must have been momentarily deranged by the awful grandeur of 

 the scene. 1 am now of a calm and subdued temperament, the 

 result of long effort and much reflection on the silliness of giving 

 the rein to strong feelings and emotions. But when, on my first 

 visit, I proceeded through the Pavilion garden towards the Table 

 Rock, and beheld an ocean moving over the precipice, and flash- 

 ing and gliding into the enormous milk-white pool below, without 

 any apparent effort, and with all the ease of a quiet rivulet 

 stealing through a meadow, all mental restraint gave way, and 

 my inmost spirit burst out in loud and enthusiastic admiration. 



Kemble, Frances Anne. Records of a girlhood. N. Y. : Holt. 1833 

 1879. Pp. 579-585. KembIe 



The account occurs in familiar letters written in July and August, 1 833. 

 "As for Niagara," says Mrs. Kemble, " words cannot describe it, nor 

 can any imagination, I think, suggest even an approximate idea of its ter- 

 rible loveliness. I feel half crazy whenever I think of it." 



O'BRYAN, WlLLIAM. A narrative of travels in the United States. 1833 

 . . . Lond.: Printed for the author. 1836. Pp. 192-196. O'Bryan 



The narrative of a clergyman who visited the Falls in April, 1833. 

 His account is accompanied by a queer picture of the Falls done by the 

 author. 



Willis, Nathaniel Parker. American scenery. Lond.: 1840. 1833 

 See index. Willis 



187 



