Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



in the rainbow robe of its own mist. There we tremble, in per- 1851 

 feet security, mocking with our little Maid the might of Niagara. urtl * 

 For man is the magician, and as he plants his foot upon the neck 

 of mountains, and passes the awful Alps, safely as the Israelites 

 through the divided sea, so he dips his hand into Niagara, and 

 gathering a few drops from its waters, educes a force from 

 Niagara itself, by which he confronts and defies it. The very 

 water which as steam was moving us to the Cataract, had plunged 

 over it as spray a few hours before. 



— Or go, some bright morning down the Biddle staircase, 

 and creeping along under the cliff, change your dress at the little 

 house by the separate sheet of the American Fall. The change 

 made, we shall reappear like exhausted firemen, or Swampscot 

 fishermen. Some of us will not insist upon our '* bunnets " but 

 will lay them aside and join the dilapidated firemen and fisher- 

 men outside the house, as Bloomerized Undines, mermaids, or 

 naiads. A few descending steps of rock, and we have reached 

 the perpendicular wooden staircase that leads under the Fall. 

 Do not stop — do not pause to look affrighted down into that 

 whirring cauldron of cold mist, where the winds dart, blinding, 

 in arrowy gusts. Now we see the platform across the bottom — 

 now a cloud of mist blots it out. And it roars so ! 



Come, Fishermen, Mermaids, Naiads, Firemen and Undine, 

 down! down! Cling to the railing! Lean on me! Thou gos- 

 samer blossom which the softest summer zephyr would thrill, 

 whither will these mad gales beneath the Cataract whirl thee! 

 We are here upon the narrow platform; it is railed upon each 

 side, and the drops dash like sleet, like acute hail, against our 

 faces. The swift sweep of the water across the floor would slide 

 us also into the yawning gulf beyond, but clinging with our 

 hands, we move securely as in calm airs. And now look up, for 

 you stand directly beneath the arching water, directly under the 

 fall. The rock is hollowed, and the round pebbles on the ground 

 rush and rattle with the sliding water as on the sea-beach. You 

 leave the platform, you climb between two rocks, and sliding 



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