232 



NEW YORK. 



but can only proceea a ^hort distance without danger of being blinded by the strong, driving 

 showers of spray and violent whirls in the air. The roar of the cataract may sometimes be 

 heard at the distance of 40 miles. 



The following description from the pen of the Rev. Mr. Greenwood of Boston, is drawn 

 with so much taste and eloquence, that we here offer it to the reader as the best within our 

 knowledge. 



" It is no matter of surprise, that lovers of nature perform journeys of homage to that sov- 

 ereign of cataracts, that monarch of all pouring floods, the Falls of Niagara. It is no matter 

 of surprise, that, although situated in what might have been called, a few years ago, but cannot 

 be now, the wilds of North America, 500 miles from the Atlantic coast, travelers from all 

 civilized parts of the world have encountered all the difficulties and fatigues of the path, to 

 behold this prince of waterfalls, amidst its ancient solitudes, and that more recently, the broad 

 highways to its dominions have been thronged. By universal consent it has long ago been pro- 

 claimed one of the wonders of the world. It is alone in its kind. Though a waterfall, it is 

 not to be compared with other waterfalls. In its majesty, its supremacy, and its influence on 

 the soul of man, its brotherhood is with the living ocean and the eternal hills. 



" I will not begin my description with the cataract itself, but take you back to the great lake 



from which the Niagara flows, 

 so that } ou may go do\^ n its 

 banks as I did, and approach 

 the magnificent scene with a 

 knowledge regularly and accu- 

 mulatively gained of its prin- 

 cipal accessories. For the 

 river and the lake, nay, the 

 whole superb chain of rivers 

 and lakes, should be taken in- 

 to view, when we would con- 

 ceive as we ought of the Falls 

 of Niagara. 



" As we approach the town 

 of Buffalo, which is situated 

 near the eastern extremity of 

 Lake Erie, that wide-spread 

 sheet of water opens to the 

 sight. If the traveler has nev- 

 er seen the ocean, he may 

 here imagine that he sees it. 

 If he has, he will say that it 

 is a sea view which here lies be- 

 fore him. As he looks to the 

 west, the horizon only bounds 

 the liquid expanse ; and it is 

 not till he descends to the 

 shore, and marks the peculiar, 

 quiet, and exact level of the 

 even and sleeping lake, that 

 Vicinity of magara Falls. l^g ^^JH thJ^g j-e- 



mind him, that he is not on the coast of the salt and swelling sea. Four miles north of Buffalo 

 we come to the village of Black Rock ;* and it is here that the boundaries of the lake con- 

 tract, and its waters begin to pour themselves out througb the sluiceway of the Niagara River. 

 The river is at this place about a quarter of a mile broad ; and, as T gazed on its dark, and 

 deep, and hurrying stream, I felt a sensation of interest stealing over me, similar to that which 

 I have experienced in reading of the preparations of men for some momentous expedition. 

 Opposite I51ack Rock, on the Canada side, is the village of Waterloo, to which we were ferried 



* According to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, Editor of the contained in the bed of carboniferous limestone," have 

 Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural furnished its name to this village. 

 Science, the " seams and patches of dark-colored chert, 



