256 



WANDERINGS IN 



Fourth powei' to tell the world, that he had held his sprained 



Journey. 



foot under a fall of water, which discharges six hundred 



and seventy thousand two hundred and fifty-five tons per 

 minute. A gentle pvn-ling stream would have suited better. 

 Now, it would have become AVashington, to have quenched 

 his battle-thirst in the fall of Niagara ; and there was some- 

 thing royal in the idea of Cleopatra drinking pearl-vinegar, 

 made from the grandest pearl in Egypt : and it became 

 Caius Marius to send word, that he was sitting upon the 

 ruins of Carthage. Here, Ave have the person suited to 

 the thing, and the thing to the person. 



If, gentle reader, thou wouldst allow me to indulge a 

 little longer in this harmless pen-errantry, I would tell 

 thee, that I have had my ups and downs in life, as well 

 ' as other people ; for 1 have climbed to the point of the 

 conductor above the cross on the top of St. Peter's, in 

 Rome, and left my glove there. I have stood on one 

 foot, upon the Guardian Angel's head, on the castle of 

 St. Angelo ; and, as I have just told thee, I have been 

 low down under the fall of Niagara. But this is neither 

 here nor there ; let us proceed to something else. 



When the pain of my foot had become less violent, 

 and the swelling somcAvhat abated, I could not resist 

 the inclination I felt to go doAvn Ontario, and so on to 

 Montreal and Quebec, and take Lakes Cliamplain and 

 George in my way back to Albany. 



Just as I had made up my mind to it, a family from the 



