Niagara Falls 

 1834 from Table Rock and Terrapin bridge, — at a distance, from the 



Lieber 



point where the path winds down from the brink of the Canada 

 bank; from below, from the ferry, where the staircase on the 

 United States side reaches the rocks below, from the window of 

 the Biddle Staircase, and at its foot. Quite at a distance, a 

 noble prospect presents itself on a certain spot, about two miles 

 from the Falls on the road to Lewiston. A vista through the 

 forest gives you a view of the Cataract, and as all greatness, 

 physical or moral, requires distance for its full impression, so 

 also does the Cataract appear to you on this spot in still more 

 solemn grandeur. 



I went with a party to the whirlpool, where the waters abruptly 

 turn from a north-westerly course, to a north-easterly, and so 

 swift is the current that the water, sweeping round the corner of 

 the ravine, actually does not find time to put itself on a level, so 

 that you have before you the peculiar phenomenon of a river 

 having in its middle a high water ridge, which I must consider 

 from seven to eight feet high at least ; for it can be seen very dis- 

 tinctly from the crest of the bank — here so high that large 

 timbers in the river look like little sticks, and the waves of the 

 rapids, which are very high, appear quite small. 



From the moment when you first see Niagara, to the hour 

 when you leave it, one of the great characteristics with which it 

 strikes the soul of man, is that, like the sea or the Alps, it does 

 and will exist without him. He cannot change it; it spurns his 

 skill and power, nor does it heed thunder or season or time. The 

 changes it undergoes are worked upon itself by its own uncon- 

 querable force. 



Niagara, besides uniting the characteristic of grave solemnity 

 with that of continued and rapid motion, stands before you like 

 a giant thing, alone but perfect in its construction. The sea 

 affects us by its boundlessness, and its thousand historical and 

 geographical associations; by its horror and destruction at some 

 times, and its graceful movements and refreshing coolness at 



540 



