Travelers Original Accounts: 1801-1840 



attract the slightest part of our attention from the simple, but 1836 

 sublime spectacle before us. It is quite enough of itself to fill 

 the mind with all the awe and admiration which such objects are 

 capable of inspiring. 



1838 



Buckingham, James Silk. America historical, statistic and 1838 

 descriptive. Lond.: Fisher. (1841.) 2:498-534. Buckingham 



The author visited the Falls in August, 1838. He gives a detailed 

 description of the scenery and the impressions created by the different points 

 of view. His lines addressed to Niagara are much quoted. 



Buckingham, James Silk. The eastern and western states of 

 America. Lond. and Paris: Fisher, Son. (1843.) 3:452-471. 



The succeeding morning opened with rain, the only aspect 

 under which we had not yet seen the Falls; and though it con- 

 fined us to the hotel during the early part of the day, we were 

 enabled to continue our excursions in the evening, and had 

 not, therefore, much cause for regret. One effect of the rain 

 was to produce a much greater appearance of mist rising from 

 the bottom of the Fall, the column or cloud ascending some- 

 times 1 00 feet above its ordinary line of height. Another effect, 

 produced by the strong west wind that blew was to accelerate 

 the speed of the current above the Falls, and consequently to 

 send a much larger volume of water over both. We were 

 assured, by those who constantly reside here, that an easterly 

 wind keeps back the current, and a westerly one accelerates it, 

 to a degree sufficient to make a difference of from 20 to 30 feet 

 in the elevation of the surface in the Strait below. This we could 

 readily believe, from the increased fury of the Rapids above, 

 whose waves were much more lofty, and their foam a more con- 

 tinuous and unbroken white than yesterday, while the mass of 

 waters rolling over the upper edge of the Falls, seemed to leap 

 farther out from the rock, and plunge with greater force into 

 the stream below, from which, by this increased impetus of 

 descent, and the general moisture of the upper atmosphere com- 



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