Travelers' Original Accounts: / 801 -1 840 



whence a causeway, hewn in the side of the precipice, goes 1834 

 winding down to the Ferry, about half a mile below the Table Haw,llornc 

 Rock. The sun was near setting, when I emerged from the 

 shadow of the trees, and began the descent. The indirectness 

 of my downward road continually changed the point of view, 

 and showed me, in rich and repeated succession, now, the 

 whitening rapids and majestic leap of the main river, which 

 appeared more deeply massive as the light departed; now, the 

 lovelier picture, yet still sublime, of Goat Island, with its rocks 

 and grove, and the lesser falls, tumbling over the right bank 

 of the St. Lawrence, like a tributary stream; now, the long vista 

 of the river, as it eddied and whirled between the cliffs, to pass 

 through Ontario toward the sea, and everywhere to be won- 

 dered at, for this one unrivalled scene. The golden sunshine 

 tinged the sheet of the American cascade, and painted on its 

 heaving spray the broken semicircle of a rainbow, heaven's own 

 beauty crowning earth's sublimity. My steps were slow, and 

 I paused long at every turn of the descent, as one lingers and 

 pauses who discerns a brighter and brightening excellence in 

 what he must soon behold no more. The solitude of the old 

 wilderness now reigned over the whole vicinity of the falls. My 

 enjoyment became the more rapturous, because no poet shared 

 it, nor wretch devoid of poetry profaned it; but the spot so 

 famous through the world was all my own! 



MARTINEAU, HARRIET. Retrospect of western travel. Lond. : 1834 

 Saunders and Otley. 1838.1:96-109. Martineau 



It is not my intention to describe what we saw at Niagara 

 so much as to relate what we did. To offer an idea of Niagara 

 by writing of hues and dimensions is much like representing the 

 kingdom of Heaven by images of jasper and topazes. 



I visited the Falls twice: first in October, 1834, in company 

 with the party with whom we traversed the state of New- York, 

 when we stayed nearly a week; and again with Dr. and Mrs. F., 

 and other friends, in June, 1836, when we remained between 



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