Niagara Falls 



1836 JAMESON, Mrs. A. B. M. Winter studies and summer rambles in 



Jameson Canada. Lond.: Saunders & Otley. 1838. 1:82-94; 2:48-78; 



N. Y. : Wiley & Putnam. 1 839. 1 :60-7 1 ; 243-265. 



Two important chapters on Niagara in winter and summer respectively. 



January 29. 



Well! I have seen these cataracts of Niagara, which have 

 thundered in my mind's ear ever since I can remember — which 

 have been my " childhood's thought, my youth's desire," since 

 first my imagination was awakened to wonder and to wish. I 

 have beheld them, and shall I whisper it to you? — but, O tell 

 it not among the Philistines ! — I wish I had not ! I wish they 

 were still a thing unbeheld — a thing to be imagined, hoped, 

 and anticipated — something to live for : — the reality has dis- 

 placed from my mind an illusion far more magnificent than itself 

 — I have no words for my utter disappointment : yet I have not 

 the presumption to suppose that all I have heard and read of 

 Niagara is false or exaggerated — that every expression of 

 astonishment, enthusiasm, rapture, is affectation or hyperbole. No ! 

 it must be my own fault. Terni, and some of the Swiss cataracts 

 leaping from their mountains, have affected me a thousand times 

 more than all the immensity of Niagara. O I could beat myself ! 

 and now there is no help ! — the first moment, the first impression 

 is over — is lost ; though I should live a thousand years, long as 

 Niagara itself shall roll, I can never see it again for the first 

 time. Something is gone that cannot be restored. What has 

 come over my soul and senses ? — I am no longer Anna — I am 

 metamorphosed — I am translated — I am an ass's head, a clod, 

 a wooden spoon, a fat weed growing on Lethe's bank, a stock, a 

 stone, a petrification — for have I not seen Niagara, the wonder 

 of wonders; and felt — no words can tell what disappointment! 



But, to take things in order: we set off for the Falls yesterday 

 morning, with the intention of spending the day there, sleeping, 

 and returning the next day to Niagara. The distance is fourteen 

 miles, by a road winding along the banks of the Niagara river, 



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