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companiments. At one time you are sweeping along for many leagues together, where either shore is a boundless and pathless wilderness. A contrast is thus strongly forced upon the mind, of the highest improvement and the latest pre-eminent invention of art, which with the most lonely aspect of a grand but desolate nature,—the most striking and complete assemblage of splendour and comfort, the cheerfulness of a floating hotel, which carries perhaps two hundred guests, with a wild and uninhabited forest, it may be an hundred miles in width, the abode only of bears, owls and noxious animals.

LESSON CIX.

Falls of Niagara.—DWIGHT.

ABOUT four miles above the cataract we began to see the mist, raised by the agitation of the water, ascending in the form of a large white cloud, and continually varying its aspect, as it was blown by the wind into every fantastical shape. At times, it almost entirely disappeared; at others, it burst suddenly upon the sight; and, rising slowly, with great solemnity and grandeur, dispersed its magnificent volumes into the atmosphere. Nothing could af ford us more noble anticipations of the splendour of the scene, to which we were approaching.

After dining, at Chippeway, we proceeded to the cataract. About a mile from our inn, we were presented with one of the noblest prospects in the world; the more impressive, as none of us had ever heard it mentioned. Here the immense bed of lime-stone, which fills this country, begins rapidly to decline. A number of shelves, parallel to each other, cross the river obliquely, almost to the American shore. They are, however, irregular, broken and wild, formed into long and short ranges, sudden prominences, and pointed rocks.

Over this ragged and finely varied surface, the river rolls its amazing mass of waters with a force and grandeur, of which my own mind had never before formed a conception. The torrent is thrown up with immeasurable violence, as it rushes down the vast declivity, be

tween two and three miles in breadth, into a thousand eminences of foam. All the magnificence of water scenery shrunk in a moment into playthings of Lilliput.

When we came over against the cataract, we secured our horses, and descended the ancient bank of the river, a steep of one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. The foot-way which conducted us was of clay; and, having been wet by the preceding rain, was so slippery that we could hardly keep our footing. At the bottom we found a swamp, encumbered with trees, bushes, mire, and water. After stooping, struggling, and sliding, near a quarter of a mile, we came to the Table Rock; a part of the stratum over which the river descends, and the edge of the precipice which at this place forms the British bank of the river. This rock is at a small distance from the cataract, and presents the spectator with as perfect a view as can be imagined.

These falls are situated twenty-one miles, reckoned on the British, and twenty-three, reckoned on the American arm of the river, (where it is divided by Grand Isle,) from Buffaloe, two miles less from the outlet of Lake Erie, and fourteen miles from the entrance of the river into Lake Ontario, between Newark and Fort Niagara. The river bends, on the American side, about twelve miles to the north-west, and, on the British side, about four, immediately below Navy Island. It is here little less than four miles wide, and sufficiently deep for any navigation. It gradually becomes narrower as it approaches the falls, but immediately above them its breadth is not far from three miles. From one mile and three quarters above, or opposite to the Stedman farm, it begins to descend with a rapid and powerful current. At the falls it turns instantly, with a right angle, to the north-east, and in a moment is contracted to three quarters of a mile.

Below the falls the river is not more, and in some places it is less, than half a mile in breadth. Its depth here is great, being said to exceed three hundred feet; and its current is violent, proportionally to this contraction. The cataract is formed by the brow of that vast bed of lime-stone, which is the base of all this country. Here its surface is, perhaps, one hundred and fifty feet beneath the common surface of the earth; elsewhere it approaches nearer. The brow extends, as I am informed,

into the county of Ontario on the east, and on the west into Upper Canada a distance which is unknown.

The great falls of the Genesee are formed by the same brow. On the river Niagara it approaches near to Queenstown, at the distance of seven miles below the cataract. The whole height of the ledge above Lake Ontario is estimated by Mr. Ellicott to be four hundred and ten feet. At Lake Erie the common level of the shore is about twenty feet above its waters. This level continues to the falls, and probably to the neighbourhood of Queenstown; the river gradually declining, till it arrives at the rapids. Here, within the distance of one mile and three fourths, it declines fifty-seven feet.

The precipice, over which the cataract descends, is, according to Major Prescott's survey, one hundred and fifty-one feet. This vast descent is perpendicular, except that the rocks are hollowed underneath the surface, particularly on the western side. The length of the precipice is three fourths of a mile.

At the cataract the river is divided by an island, whose brow is perpendicular, and nearly coincident with the common line of the precipice. It occupies about one fifth or one sixth of the whole breadth. This island, it is reported, was visited by General Putnam during the last Canadian war, or that which began in the year 1755. A wager, it is said, was laid, that no man in that part of the army would dare to attempt a descent upon it. Putnam, with his customary resolution, undertook the enterprise. Having made fast a strong rope to a batteau, he proceeded a considerable distance up the stream. Then, taking some stout, skilful rowers, he put out into the river directly above the island. The rope, in the mean time, was holden firmly by several muscular soldiers on the shore. The batteau descended securely enough to the island, and, the enterprise being accomplished, was drawn again to the shore by his attendants.

The noise of this cataract has often been the object of admiration, and the subject of loose and general description. We heard it distinctly, when crossing the ferry, at the distance of eighteen miles; the wind blowing from the north-west, almost at right angles with the direction of the sound. Two gentlemen, who had lived some time at York, on the north side of Lake Ontario, and who

were my companions in the stage, informed me that it was not unfrequently heard there. The distance is fifty miles.

The note or tone, if I may call it such, is the same with the hoarse roar of the ocean; being much more grave, or less shrill, than that which proceeds from other objects of the same nature. It is not only louder, but seems as if it were expanded to a singular extent; as if it filled the atmosphere, and spread over all the surrounding country. The only variety which attends it, is a continual undulation, resembling that of long musical chords, when struck with a forcible impulse. These undulations succeed each other with great rapidity. When two persons stand very near to each other, they can mutually hear their ordinary conversation; when removed to a small distance, they are obliged to halloo; and, when removed a little farther, cannot be heard at all.

Every other sound is drowned in the tempest of noise made by the water, and all else in the regions of nature appears to be dumb. This noise is a vast thunder, filling the heavens, shaking the earth, and leaving the mind, although perfectly conscious of safety, and affected with a sense of grandeur only, lost and astonished, swelling with emotions which engross all its faculties, and mock the power of utterance. The strength of this sound may be illustrated in the following manner: The roar of the ocean on the beach, south of Long Island, is sometimes heard in · New Haven, at the distance of forty miles. The cataract of Niagara is heard ten miles farther.

All cataracts produce greater or less quantities of mist; a proof to the common eye, that vapour may rise by mere agitation. The mist raised here is proportioned to the greatness of the cause. A large, majestic cloud, visible, from an advantageous position, for a great number of miles, rises without intermission from the whole breadth of the river below; and, ascending with a slow, solemn progress, partly spreads itself down the stream by an arching, and wonderfully magnificent motion; and partly mounts towards heaven, blown into every wild and fantastical form; when, separating into smaller clouds, it successively floats away through the atmosphere.

Nearest to the shore a considerable quantity of this vapour impinges against the rock; and, continually accumu→

lating, descends in a constant shower of drops and little streams. A person, standing under the shelving part of these rocks, would, in a short time, be wet to the skin.

In the mist, produced by all cataracts, rainbows are ordinarily seen in a proper position, when the sun shines; always, indeed, unless when the vapour is too rare. Twice, while we were here, the sun broke through the clouds, and lighted up, in a moment, the most lucid rainbow, which I ever beheld. In each instance the phenomenon continued a long time, and left us in perfect leisure to enjoy its splendours. It commenced near the precipice, and extended, so far as I was able to judge, at least a mile down the river.

When the eye was fixed upon any spot, commencing a few rods above the precipice, that is, where the cataract begins to be formed, the descending water assumes every where a circular figure from the place where it begins to descend to that where it falls perpendicularly. The motion here remarkably resembles that of a wheel rolling towards the spectator. The section is about one fifth or one sixth part of a circle, perhaps twelve rods in diameter. The effect of this motion of so vast a body of water, equally novel and singular, was exquisitely delightful. It was an object of inexpressible grandeur, united with intense beauty of figure; a beauty greatly heightened by the brilliant and most elegant sea-green of the waters, fading imperceptibly into a perfect white at the brow of the precipice.

The emotions excited by the view of this stupendous scene are unutterable. When the spectator casts his eye over the long ranges of ragged cliffs, which form the shores of this great river below the cataract; cliffs one hundred and fifty feet in height, bordering it with lonely gloom and grandeur, and shrouded every where by shaggy forests; when he surveys the precipice above, stretching with so great an amplitude, rising to so great a height, and presenting in a single view its awful brow, with an impression not a little enhanced by the divison which the island forms between the two great branches of the river; when he contemplates the enormous mass of water, pouring from this astonishing height in sheets so vast, and with a force so amazing; when, turning his eye to the flood beneath, he beholds the immense convulsion of the mighty

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