Travelers' Original Accounts: 1 801 -1840 



without which I could not for a moment have kept my footing 1836 

 on the frozen surface of the snow. As we approached the eson 

 Table Rock, the whole scene assumed a wild and wonderful 

 magnificence; down came the dark-green waters, hurrying with 

 them over the edge of the precipice enormous blocks of ice 

 brought down from Lake Erie. On each side of the Falls, from 

 the ledges and overhanging cliffs, were suspended huge icicles, 

 some twenty, some thirty feet in length, thicker than the body 

 of a man, and in color of a paly green, like the glaciers of the 

 Alps; and all the crags below, which projected from the boiling 

 eddying waters, were incrusted, and in a manner built around 

 with ice, which had formed into immense crystals, like basaltic 

 columns, such as I have seen in the pictures of Staffa and the 

 Giant's Causeway ; and every tree, and leaf, and branch, fringing 

 the rocks and ravines, were wrought in ice. On them, and on the 

 wooden buildings erected near the Table Rock, the spray from 

 the cataract had accumulated and formed into the most beautiful 

 crystals and tracery work; they looked like houses of glass, 

 welted and moulded into regular and ornamental shapes, and 

 hung round with a rich fringe of icy points. Wherever we stood 

 we were on unsafe ground, for the snow, when heaped up as 

 now to the height of three or four feet, frequently slipped in 

 masses from the bare rock, and on its surface the spray, for ever 

 falling, was converted into a sheet of ice, smooth, compact and 

 glassy, on which I could not have stood a moment without my 

 crampons. It was very fearful, and yet I could not tear myself 

 away, but remained on the Table Rock, even on the very edge 

 of it, till a kind of dreamy fascination came over me; the con- 

 tinuous thunder, and might and movement of the lapsing waters, 

 held all my vital spirits bound up as by a spell. Then, as at 

 last I turned away, the descending sun broke out, and an Iris 

 appeared below the American Fall, one extremity resting on a 

 snow mound ; and motionless there it hung in the midst of restless 

 terrors, its beautiful but rather pale hues contrasting with the 



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