[A] The print is copied by the kind permission of Messrs. Ackermann, from one of the elegant series of engravings of the Falls of Niagara, published by them.
In spite of the loud roar and the violent rushing of the waters, the scene altogether produced on us feelings of deep tranquillity and beauty. The portion of the river that falls over the Horse Shoe Fall, comes on in such an unbroken mass, as if nothing dared to oppose the progress of a single drop of its water. Then the deep transparent green of the middle stream, showing at a little depth beneath its surface, shreds of milky foam, the beautiful cloud of fine spray ever decorated with a rich rainbow when the sun shines, and the thick woods of Goat Island, (the island that limits the Horse Shoe Fall,) are in such lovely harmony. Altogether, I should say that the scene from the Table Rock, is more remarkable for its beauty than its grandeur, though its grandeur is quite equal to that of anything I ever looked upon in my life.
We got down to the bottom of the falls by means of some rough steps which have been cut in the rock. As we stood on some large fragments which have fallen down from the cliff above, the roar fell with overpowering heaviness upon our ears, the fall was nearly hid from our eyes by the spray, and the river rushed past our feet in a terrible tumult of white foam. By getting along on the stones under the cliff, we went in under the fall so as actually to be between the rock and the descending sheet of water. Your imagination must tell you better than I can, the character of what we then saw by the broken light that made its way through the descending mass of waters. We stopped there, overpowered by indescribable feelings, till we got wet through by the spray, and then went back to the inn, stored with recollections, which will be a feast for us as long as we live.
A traveller who visited the Falls in winter, adds some particulars which will be interesting to you.
"At the time of my visit," says he, "the wind drove the floating ice out of Lake Erie, with the drift wood of its tributary rivers, and these were constantly precipitated over the Falls, but we were not able to discover any vestiges of them in the eddies below. Immediately in front of the sheet of falling water, on the American side, there was also an enormous bank of snow, of nearly a hundred feet in height, which the power of the sun had not been fierce enough to dissolve, and which, by giving an Icelandic character to the landscape, produced a fine effect. It appeared to me to owe its accumulation to the fallen particles of frozen spray.
"What has been said by Goldsmith, and repeated by others, respecting the destructive influence of the rapids above, to ducks and other water-fowl, is only an effect of the imagination. So far from being the case, the wild duck is often seen to swim down the rapid to the brink of the Falls, and then fly out, and repeat the descent, seeming to take a delight in the exercise. Neither are small land-birds affected on flying over the Falls, in the manner that has been stated. I observed the blue bird and the wren, which had already made their annual visit to the banks of the Niagara, frequently fly within one or two feet of the brink, apparently delighted with the gift of their wings, which enabled them to sport over such frightful precipices, without danger."
PART II.
WONDERS OF THE SEA.