178 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



me of first impressions, and these were what I cannot describe. 

 How any one could be disappointed in Niagara is to me amaz- 

 ing. I have no such powers of imagination as to expect a more 

 magnificent sight in this world — greater majesty combined with 

 nobler beauty. I am upwards of eight-and-thirty, and therefore 

 in some respects obtuse, yet I was moved to tears, and I sat 

 long without a desire to see beyond this first view, though 

 aware that I was not at one of the grandest points. But fortu- 

 nately I had no guide to bother me, which was the next best 

 thing to having some one to sympathise with me. No picture 

 can give a just impression, and certainly no description. To 

 convey, then, something of that inexpressible feeling which 

 brought tears, I must have recourse to the poetical descriptions 

 of St. John, where he speaks of having heard " the voice of a 

 great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the 

 voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia! for the Lord 

 God Omnipotent reigneth !" It was that combination of 

 majesty with power, and with a sense of continuance that so 

 impressed me. That this glorious scene should have been 

 going on day and night for thousands of years was a startling 

 thought, and it brought up so many other thoughts of things — 

 " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever " — and so many 

 others besides followed, that I do not know where my mind had 

 wandered to before I thought of stirring. The enormous volume 

 of water brought before me what a huge breaker like those at 

 Miltown would be, if the sea ever rose so high as the cliffs at 

 Kilkee and then toppled over. On the Canada side, where the 

 river is deeper, this is still more striking, for the crest of the 

 Fall is a full emerald green, as clear as glass, and the water, as it 

 falls, foams gradually, till at last it rushes down, and is then 

 lost in the white smoke-like spray which is continually rising. 

 This spray appears at first like a white shifting cloud, but 

 watching it, you distinctly see the jet upwards, and have, in 

 one view, the plunge of the heavy waters into the abyss, the 

 upward feathers from below, and the misty diffusion of the light 

 particles in the air. I was reminded of the Devil's Tablecloth 

 on Table Mountain, which is perpetually rolling down, and 

 then, as it were, dissolving into spray. I often thought it 

 looked like a waterfall, and now I find a waterfall like it. 

 Eainbows, of course, are seen at different hours in great variety 



