Niagara Falls 



1836 death-like colorless objects around; it reminded me of the faint 

 Jameson ethereal smile of a dying martyr. 



It was near midnight when we mounted our sleigh to 

 return to the town of Niagara, and, as I remember, I did not 

 utter a word during the whole fourteen miles. The air was 

 still, though keen, the snow lay around, the whole earth seemed 

 to slumber in a ghastly, calm repose; but the heavens were wide 

 awake. There the Aurora Borealis was holding her revels, and 

 dancing and flashing, and varying through all shapes and all 

 hues — pale amber, rose tint, blood red — and the stars shone 

 out with a fitful, restless brilliance; and every now and then a 

 meteor would shoot athwart the skies, or fall to earth, and all 

 around me was wild, and strange, and exciting — more like a 

 fever dream than a reality. 



The Falls did not make on my mind the impression 

 I had anticipated, perhaps for that reason, even because I had 

 anticipated it. Under different circumstances it might have been 

 otherwise; but "it was sung to me in my cradle," as the Ger- 

 mans say, that I should live to be disappointed — even in the 

 Falls of Niagara. 



The moment I was alone, I hurried down to the 

 Table-rock. The body of water was more full and tremendous 

 than in the winter. The spray rose, densely falling again in 

 thick showers, and behind those rolling volumes of vapor the 

 last gleams of the evening light shone in lurid brightness, amid 

 amber and crimson clouds; on the other side, night was rapidly 

 coming on, and all was black, impenetrable gloom, and " bound- 

 less contiguity of shade." It was very, very beautiful, and 

 strangely awful too ! For now it was late, and as I stood there, 

 lost in a thousand reveries, there was no human being near, no 

 light but that reflected from the leaping, whirling foam; and in 

 spite of the deep-voiced continuous thunder of the cataract, there 

 was such a stillness thst I could hear my own heart's pulse throb 

 — or did I mistake feeling for hearing? — so I strayed home- 



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