Niagara Falls 



1858-61 boiling caldron below, there is now a shaft, down which you 

 r0 ope w iH descend to the level of the river, and pass between the rock 

 and the torrent. This Table Rock broke away from the cliff 

 and fell, as up the whole course of the river the seceding rocks 

 have split and fallen from time to time through countless years, 

 and will continue to do till the bed of the upper lake is reached. 

 You will descend this shaft, taking to yourself or not taking to 

 yourself a suit of oil-clothes as you may think best. I have gone 

 with and without the suit, and again recommend that they be left 

 behind. I am inclined to think that the ordinary payment should 

 be made for their use, as otherwise it will appear to those whose 

 trade it is to prepare them that you are injuring them in their 

 vested rights. 



the visitor stands on a broad, safe path, made of 

 shingles, between the rock over which the water rushes and the 

 rushing water. He will go in so far that the spray, rising back 

 from the bed of the torrent, does not incommode him. With this 

 exception, the farther he can go in the better; but circumstances 

 will clearly show him the spot to which he should advance. 

 Unless the water be driven in by a very strong wind, five yards 

 make the difference between a comparatively dry coat and an 

 absolutely wet one. And then let him stand with his back to the 

 entrance, thus hiding the last glimmer of the expiring day. So 

 standing, he will look up among the falling waters, or down into 

 the deep, misty pit, from which they reascend in almost as pal- 

 pable a bulk. The rock will be at his right hand, high and hard, 

 and dark and straight, like the wall of some huge cavern, such 

 as children enter in their dreams. For the first five minutes he 

 will be looking but at the waters of a cataract — at the waters, 

 indeed, of such a cataract as we know no other, and at their inte- 

 rior curves which elsewhere we cannot see. But by-and-by all 

 this will change. He will no longer be on a shingly path 

 beneath a waterfall ; but that feeling of a cavern wall will grow 



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