Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



vivid impressions of its grandeur and beauty than is produced by 186S 

 the first coup-d'oeil. 



A gradual approach does not at all diminish the power of 

 the cataract, and the mind is rather unduly excited by the aspect 

 of the Styx-like flood — black, foam-crested, and of great 

 volume, with every indication of profound depth — which hurries 

 on so swiftly and so furiously below the road on which you are 

 travelling, between banks cut down through grim, dark rock, so 

 sheer that the tops of the upper trees which take root in the strata 

 can be nearly touched by the traveller's stick. The idea that the 

 whole of the great river beneath you has just leaped over a barrier 

 of rock prepares one's conception for the greatness of the cataract 

 itself. 



In summer time there were wild ducks flying about, and terns 

 darted up and down the stream. Now it was deserted and 

 desolate, looking of more inky hue in contrast with the snow. 

 Close to the boiling cataract the fishermen's tiny barks might 

 then be seen rocking up and down, or the angler sought the bass 

 which loves those turbulent depths; but no such signs of human 

 life and industry are visible in winter. 



Before Niagara was, odd creatures enough lived about here, 

 which can now be detected fossilized in the magnesian limestone. 

 How many myriads of years it has been eating away its dear 

 heart and gnawing the rock, let Sir Charles Lyell or Sir Roderick 

 Murchison calculate; but I am persuaded that since I saw it 

 some months ago there has been a change in the aspect of the 

 Horseshoe Fall, and that it has become more deeply curved. 

 The residents, however, though admitting the occurrence of 

 changes, say they are very slow, and that no very rapid alteration 

 has taken place since the fall of a great part of Table Rock some 

 years ago; but masses of stone may be washed away every day 

 without their knowing it. 



One very natural consequence of a visit in the winter was 

 undeniable — that the Falls were visibly less ; they did not extend 

 so far, and they rolled with diminished volume. The water did 

 21 321 



