Niagara Falls 



1854 



1854 PFEIFFER, Ida Reyer. A lady's second journey round the world. 



Pfeiffer Lond. : Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1855. 2:337-344. 



An enthusiastic account of an August visit. 



This was a day never to be forgotten in the annals of my 

 life — one of those which brilliantly rewarded me for all the 

 toils and hardships by which they were purchased; for on this 

 day I beheld one of the most sublime and wonderful scenes of 

 God's beautiful world — the falls of Niagara ! What the eye 

 sees, what the soul feels, at this spectacle, can never be described : 

 painter and poet would despair of success in such an attempt. 

 Did a man meet his mortal enemy on this spot, he must at once 

 forgive him ; and should one who has doubted of the existence of 

 God come to this, one of the noblest of His altars, he must, I 

 think, return converted and tranquilized. Oh! that I could 

 have shared with all my friends, with all mankind, the emotions 

 awakened by this wonder of creation. 



1854 Shaw, John. A ramble through the United States, Canada, and 



Shav/ the West Indies. Lond.: J. F. Hope. 1856. Pp. 32-36. 



The author visited Niagara in September, 1854, and in addition to 

 his description of the fall of water, says of the plant life he observed, 

 "' In making a botanical excursion in the locality of the great falls I 

 observed the Genus Verbascum and Gentiana, and several other beau- 

 tiful plants, foreigners to me, and very near to the grand crash of waters. 

 In botanizing further, I observed among trees the following, 

 Leather-wood, Butter-nut, Slippery elm, Hickory, Button-wood, Vine, 

 Stramonium. 



" Here the cedar tree grew in such profusion as to form a wood of 

 itself. I thought if some of our nursery-men, who sell these trees at a 

 good price, were here, how surprised they would have been." 



1854 BAXTER, W. E. America and the Americans. Lond.: Routledge. 



Baxter 1 855> p p 223-226. 



Few people know how beautiful the scenery is at these Falls, 

 apart altogether from the water. The deep defile, the steep 

 cliffs, the pine woods, the thickets of cedar and acaicia, the villas 



264 



