Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



and all point to the north. Travelled blocks of various primitive 1880 

 rocks, some of them many tons in weight, lie scattered in all direc- Pldgeon 

 tions. These are evidently derived from the gneisses of the 

 watershed north of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, and 

 but for the forests which clothe the country about Niagara the 

 whole district might seem to have just emerged from the ice-sheet 

 of the glacial period. 



Whitman, Walt. Seeing Niagara to advantage. (In his Complete 188 ° 

 prose works. Phila.: David McKay. 1897. Pp. 160-161.) Whitman 



Taken from Whitman's journal " Specimen Days " under date of 

 June 4, 1 880. 



For really seizing a great picture or book, or piece of music, 

 or architecture, or grand scenery — or perhaps for the first time 

 even the common sunshine, or landscape, or maybe even the 

 mystery of identity, most curious mystery of all — there comes 

 some lucky five minutes of a man's life, set amid a fortuitous con- 

 currence of circumstances, and bringing in a brief flash the cul- 

 mination of years of reading and travel and thought. The present 

 case about two o'clock this afternoon gave me Niagara, its superb 

 severity of action and color and majestic grouping, in one short, 

 indescribable show. We were very slowly crossing the Suspen- 

 sion bridge — not a full stop anywhere, but next to it — the day 

 clear, sunny, still — and I out on the platform. The falls were 

 in plain view about a mile off, but very distinct, and no roar — 

 hardly a murmur. The river tumbling green and white, far 

 below me; the dark high banks, the plentiful umbrage, many 

 bronze cedars, in shadow; and tempering and arching all the 

 immense materiality, a clear sky overhead, with a few white 

 clouds, limpid, spiritual, silent. Brief, and as quiet as brief, that 

 picture — a remembrance always afterwards. 



1881 



Hardy, Mary McDowell Duffus, Lady. Through cities and 1881 

 prairie lands. Sketches of an American tour. N. Y. : R. Worthington. Hardy 

 1881. Pp. 56-58. 



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