Niagara Falls 



1836 as we came to the brow of a hill, my companion suddenly 

 checked the horses, and exclaimed, " The Falls! " 



I was not, for an instant, aware of their presence; we were 

 yet at a distance, looking down upon them; and I saw at one 

 glance a flat extensive plain ; the sun having withdrawn its beams 

 for the moment, there was neither light, nor shade, nor color. 

 In the midst were seen the two great cataracts, but merely as a 

 feature in the wide landscape. The sound was by no means 

 overpowering, and the clouds of spray, which Fanny Butler 

 called so beautifully the " everlasting incense of the waters," 

 now condensed ere they rose by the excessive cold, fell round 

 the base of the cataracts in fleecy folds, just concealing that 

 furious embrace of the waters above and the waters below. All 

 the associations which in imagination I had gathered round the 

 scene, its appalling terrors, its soul-subduing beauty, power and 

 height, and velocity and immensity, were all diminished in effect, 

 or wholly lost. 



I was quite silent — my very soul sunk within me. On seeing 

 my disappointment (written, I suppose, most legibly in my 

 countenance) my companion began to comfort me, by telling 

 me of all those who had been disappointed on the first view 

 of Niagara, and had confessed it. I did confess; but I was not 

 to be comforted. We held on our way to the Clifton hotel, at 

 the foot of the hill; most desolate it looked with its summer 

 verandahs and open balconies cumbered up with snow, and 

 hung round with icicles — its forlorn, empty rooms, broken 

 windows, and dusty dinner tables. The poor people who kept 

 the house in winter had gathered themselves for warmth and 

 comfort into a little kitchen, and when we made our appearance, 

 stared at us with a blank amazement, which showed what a rare 

 thing was the sight of a visitor at this season. 



We now prepared to walk to the Crescent fall, and I bound 

 some crampons to my feet, like those they use among the Alps, 



