Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



noble than the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so 1858-61 

 astounding in their solitude. The valleys of the Blue Mountains ' ope 

 in Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris is 

 less invariable: and the full tide of trade round the Bank of 

 England is not so inexorably powerful. 



• • • • • 



In visiting Niagara, it always becomes a question on which side 

 the visitor shall take up his quarters. On the Canada side there 

 is no town; but there is a large hotel beautifully placed immedi- 

 ately opposite to the falls, and this is generally thought to be 

 the best locality for tourists. In the State of New York is the 

 town called Niagara Falls; and here there are two large hotels, 

 which, as to their immediate site, are not so well placed as that 

 in Canada. . . . My advice on the subject to any party 

 starting for Niagara would depend upon their habits or on their 

 nationality. I would send Americans to the Canadian side, 

 because they dislike walking ; but English people I would locate 

 on the American side, seeing that they are generally accustomed 

 to the frequent use of their own legs. The two sides are not very 

 easily approached one from the other. Immediately below the 

 falls there is a ferry, which may be traversed at the expense of 

 a shilling; but the labor of getting up and down from the ferry 

 is considerable, and the passage becomes wearisome. There is 

 also a bridge; but it is two miles down the river, making a walk 

 or drive of four miles necessary, and the toll for passing is four 

 shillings, or a dollar, in a carriage, and one shilling on foot. As 

 the greater variety of prospect can be had on the American side, 

 as the island between the two falls is approachable from the 

 American side and not from the Canadian, and as it is in this 

 island that visitors will best love to linger, and learn to measure 

 in their minds the vast triumph of waters before them, I recom- 

 mend such of my readers as can trust a little — it need be but a 

 little — to their own legs to select their hotel at Niagara Falls 

 town. 



It has been said that it matters much from what point the falls 



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