Niagara Falls 



1822 



1822 DwiGHT, TlMOTHY. Travels; in New-England and New- York. 



Dwight New Haven: Timothy Dwight. S. Converse, printer. 1821-1822. 



4:80-103. 



About four miles above the cataract we began to see the mist, 

 raised by the agitation of the water, ascending in the form of a 

 large white cloud, and continually varying its aspect, as it was 

 blown by the wind into every fantastical shape. At times, it 

 almost entirely disappeared ; at others, it burst suddenly upon the 

 sight; and, rising slowly, with great solemnity and grandeur, dis- 

 persed its magnificent volumes into the atmosphere. Nothing 

 could afford us more noble anticipations of the splendour of the 

 scene, to which we were approaching. 



After dining at Chippeway, we proceeded to the cataract. 

 About a mile from our inn, we were presented with one of the 

 noblest prospects in the world; the more impressive, as none of 

 us had ever heard it mentioned. Here the immense bed of lime- 

 stone, which fills this country, begins rapidly to decline. A num- 

 ber of shelves, parallel to each other, cross the river obliquely, 

 almost to the American shore. They are however irregular, 

 broken, and wild; formed into long and short ranges, sudden 

 prominences, and pointed rocks. Over this ragged and finely varied 

 surface, the river rolls its amazing mass of waters with a force 

 and grandeur, of which my own mind had never before formed 

 a conception. The torrent is thrown up with immeasurable vio- 

 lence, as it rushes down the vast declivity, between two and three 

 miles in breadth, into a thousand eminences of foam. All the 

 magnificence of water scenery shrunk in a moment into playthings 

 of Lilliput. 



When we came over against the cataract, we secured our 

 horses and descended the ancient bank of the river; a steep of 

 one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. The foot-way 

 which conducted us, was of clay; and having been wet by the 

 preceding rain, was so slippery that we could hardly keep our 

 footing. At the bottom we found a swamp, encumbered with 



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