Niagara Falls 



1822 and the cusps of the bow were depressed as much beneath the 

 wg ' horizontal level, as the sun was above it. It was therefore a 



semicircle; and the vertex was half a mile above the base. In 

 the former instance the dimensions were somewhat smaller. Both 

 were however interrupted. The Southern part of that, here prin- 

 cipally insisted on, or the division next to the precipice, was con- 

 tinued from the base to the vertex, and was therefore a full 

 quadrant. The Northern part, commencing at the base, did not 

 exceed one quarter of the other. 



In one respect both these rainbows differed widely from all 

 others, which I had seen; and, so far as I remember, from those 

 of which I have read. The red, orange, and yellow, were so 

 vivid, as to excite in our whole company strong emotions of sur- 

 prise and pleasure; while the green., blue, indigo, and violet, 

 were certainly not more brilliant than in those, which are usualfy 

 seen on the bosom of a shower. I thought them less bright; pos- 

 sibly because they were so faint, compared with the other colours. 

 The cause of this peculiarity I have not attempted to investigate. 

 The fact was certain; and the phenomenon more glorious than 

 any of the kind, which I had ever seen, or than I am able to 

 describe. 



When the eye was fixed upon any spot, commencing a few 

 rods above the precipice, that is, where the cataract begins to 

 be formed, the descending water assumes every where a circular 

 figure from the place, where it begins to descend, to that, where 

 it falls perpendicularly. The motion, here, remarkably resembles 

 that of a wheel, rolling towards the spectator. The section is 

 about one fifth or one sixth part of a circle, perhaps twelve rods 

 in diameter. The effect of this motion of so vast a body of 

 water, equally novel and singular, was exquisitely delightful. It 

 was an object of inexpressible grandeur, united with intense 

 beauty of figure; a beauty, greatly heightened by the brilliant 

 and most elegant sea-green of the waters, fading imperceptibly 

 into a perfect white at the brow of the precipice. 



The emotions, excited by the view of this stupendous scene are 



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