Chap. VII. best view of the great fall. 181 



another promontory, and flows away to the east, in a third 

 chasm ; then glides round a third promontory, much nar- 

 rower than the rest, and away back to the west, in a fourth 

 chasm; and we could see in the distance that it appeared 

 to round still another promontory, and bend once more in 

 another chasm towards the east. In this gigantic, zigzag, 

 yet narrow trough, the rocks are all so sharply cut and 

 angular, that the idea at once arises that the hard basaltic- 

 trap must have been riven into its present shape by a force 

 acting from beneath, and that this probably took place 

 when the ancient inland seas were let off by similar 

 fissures nearer the ocean. 



The land beyond, or on the south of the Falls, retains, 

 as already remarked, the same level as before the rent 

 was made. It is as if the trough below Niagara were 

 bent right and left, several times before it reached the 

 railway bridge. The land in the supposed bends being of 

 the same height as that above the Fall, would give stand- 

 ing-places, or points of view, of the same nature as that 

 from the railway-bridge, but the nearest would be only 

 eighty yards, instead of two miles (the distance to the 

 bridge) from the face of the cascade. The tops of the 

 promontories are in general flat, smooth, and studded with 

 trees. The first, with its base on the east, is at one place 

 so narrow, that it would be dangerous to walk to its 

 extremity. On the second, however, we found a broad 

 rhinoceros path and a hut ; but, unless the builder were a 

 hermit, with a pet rhinoceros, we cannot conceive what 

 beast or man ever went there for. On reaching the apex 

 of this second eastern promontory we saw the great river. 

 of a deep sea-green colour, now sorely compressed, gliding 

 away, at least 400 feet below us. 



Garden Island, when the river is low, commands the 

 best view of the Great Fall chasm, as also of the pro- 

 montory opposite, with its grove of large evergreen trees, 



