132 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
froth that floats upon the water/ is washed bj 
the eddies. 
We did not think of ascending; the cliff till 
the evening was far advanced, and had it been 
i 
possible to have found our way up in the dark, 
1 verily believe we should have remained at 
the bottom of it until midnight. Just as we left 
the foot of the great fall the sun broke through 
the clouds, and one of the most beautiful and 
perfect rainbows that ever I beheld was exhi- 
bited # in the spray that arose from the falL It 
is only at evening and morning that the rain¬ 
bow is seen in perfection; for the banks of the 
river, and the steep precipice, shade the sun 
from the spray at the bottom of the fall in the 
middle of the day. 
At a great distance from the foot of the ladder 
we halted, and one of the party was dispatched 
to fetch a bottle of brandy and a pair of goblets, 
which bad been deposited under some stones on 
the margin of the river, in our way to the great 
fall, whither it would have been highly incon¬ 
venient to have carried them. Wet from head 
to foot and greatly fatigued, there certainly 
was not one amongst us that appeared, at the 
moment, desirous of getting the brandy, in 
order to pour out a libation to the tutelary 
deities of the cataract; nor indeed was there 
much reason to apprehend that our piety w ould 
have shone forth more conspicuously after- 
