Germans, and obtain honours and patronage among them, would be consigned to laughter among us.

CHAP. XXXII.

FALLS OF NIAGARA.

“You were speaking to me lately," said the Bachelor," of the Falls of Niagara, as described by Mr Howison, in his Sketches of Upper Canada. I do not recollect the passage, indeed I may say that I have scarcely looked at the book.”

"Then you have a treat to receive which you are not aware of," replied the Nymph: "it is a pleasing work, written with considerable taste and great purity of feeling, and no one who is not possessed of the same delicate sense of physical grandeur, and of the beauties of nature, should write about America. I never read a book relative to that country but which reminded me of the new-built suburbs of some of our great manufacturing towns. There is a traffic-like something about every description of the inhabitants, by which one is brought to think only of profits and of labour,-good and very necessary things, and highly essential to the prosperity of a state, but not just the sort of topics that delight in books of travels. Mr Howison, however, is an exception to the generality of travellers in America,—he gives us little of what, in the course of business and of political economy, is called valuable information, but he gives a great deal of very pleasing description ;-now it is

description which I long for. Every body has heard and read of the vast scale on which nature has formed the scenery of America ;-but few accounts of its appearance present any image to the mind. It is easy to conceive, from the dimensions of the American mountains, lakes, and rivers, that they prodigiously exceed every thing of the kind in this country; but the moral excitement which they produce, when first seen, has never been well described. The best that I have almost ever met with is certainly Mr Howison's sketch of the Falls of Niagara. I had never before any just idea of their might and majesty; but he makes one feel something of what he himself experienced in beholding the magnificence of that unequalled scene. As you say you do not recollect the passage, I will read it to you.'

"Now that I propose to attempt a description of the Falls of Niagara, I feel myself threatened with a return of those throbs of trembling expectation, which agitated me on my first visit to these stupendous cataracts, and to which every person of the least sensibility is liable, when he is on the eve of seeing any thing that has strongly excited his curiosity, or powerfully affected his imagination. I fear I will not be able to convey a correct idea of the scene I mean to describe. Yet, anxious as I am that you should have just conceptions of it, I would not willingly have accepted your company when I first visited Niagara Falls,-as any object that did not enter into the real composition of the mighty scene, would have proved a source of painful interruption to me while engaged in contemplating its magnificent fea

tures.

"The form of Niagara Falls is that of an irregular semicircle, about three quarters of a mile in extent.

This is divided into two distinct cascades by the intervention of Goat Island, the extremity of which is perpendicular, and in a line with the precipice over which the water is projected. The cataract on the Canada side of the river is called the Horseshoe, or Great Fall, from its peculiar form-and that next the United States the American Fall.

"Three extensive views of the Falls may be obtained from three different places. In general, the first opportunity travellers have of seeing the cataract is from the high-road, which, at one point, lies near the bank of the river. This place, however, being considerably above the level of the Falls, and a good way beyond them, affords a view that is comparatively imperfect and unimposing.

"The Table Rock, from which the Falls of the Niagara may be contemplated in all their grandeur, lies on an exact level with the edge of the cataract on the Canada side, and indeed forms a part of the precipice over which the water gushes. It derives its name from the circumstance of its projecting beyond the cliffs that support it like the leaf of a table. To gain this position, it is necessary to descend a steep bank, and to follow a path that winds among shrubbery and trees, which entirely conceal from the eye the scene that awaits him who traverses it. When near the termination of this road, a few steps carried me beyond all these obstructions, and a magnificent amphitheatre of cataracts burst upon my view with appalling suddenness and majesty. However, in a moment the scene was concealed from my eyes by a dense cloud of spray, which involved me so completely, that I did not dare to extricate myself. A mingled and thundering rushing filled my ears. I could see nothing except when the wind made a chasm in the spray, and then tremendous cataracts seemed to encompass me on every side, while below, a raging and

foamy gulf of undiscoverable extent lashed the rocks with its hissing waves, and swallowed, under a horrible obscurity, the smoking floods that were precipitated into its bosom.

"At first the sky was obscured by clouds, but after a few minutes the sun burst forth, and the breeze subsiding at the same time, permitted the spray to ascend perpendicularly. A host of pyramidal clouds rose majestically, one after another, from the abyss at the bottom. of the Fall; and each, when it had ascended a little above the edge of the cataract, displayed a beautiful rainbow, which in a few moments was gradually transferred into the bosom of the cloud that immediately succeeded. The spray of the Great Fall had extended itself through a wide space directly over me, and, receiving the full influence of the sun, exhibited a luminous and magnificent rainbow, which continued to over-arch and irradiate the spot on which I stood, while I enthusiastically contemplated the indescribable scene.

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Any person, who has nerve enough (as I had) may plunge his hand into the water of the Great Fall after it is projected over the precipice, merely by lying down flat, with his face beyond the edge of the Table Rock, and stretching out his arm to its utmost extent. The experiment is truly a horrible one, and such as I would not wish to repeat; for, even to this day, I feel a shuddering and recoiling sensation when I recollect having been in the posture above described.

"The body of water which composes the middle part of the Great Fall is so immense, that it descends nearly two-thirds of the space without being ruffled or broken, and the solemn calmness with which it rolls over the edge of the precipice is finely contrasted with the perturbed appearance it assumes after having reached the gulf below. But the water towards each side of the Fall is shattered the moment it drops over the rock, and

loses as it descends, in a great measure, the character of a fluid, being divided into pyramidal-shaped fragments, the bases of which are turned upwards. The surface of the gulf below the cataract presents a very singular aspect; seeming, as it were, filled with an immense quantity of hoar frost, which is agitated by small and rapid undulations. The particles of water are dazzlingly white, and do not apparently unite together, as might be supposed, but seem to continue for a time in a state of distinct comminution, and to repel each other with a thrilling and shivering motion which cannot easily be described.

"The noise made by the Horseshoe Fall, though very great, is infinitely less than might be expected, and varies in loudness according to the state of the atmosphere. When the weather is clear and frosty, it may be distinctly heard at the distance of ten or twelve miles; but much further when there is a steady breeze: however, I have frequently stood upon the declivity of the high bank that overlooks the Table Rock, and distinguished a low thundering only, which at times was altogether drowned amidst the roaring of the Rapids above the cataract. In my opinion, the concave shape of the Great Fall explains this circumstance. The noise vibrates from one side of the rocky recess to the other, and a little only escapes from its confinement; and even this is less distinctly heard than it would otherwise be, as the profusion of spray renders the air near the cataract a very indifferent conductor of sound.

"The road to the bottom of the Fall presents many more difficulties than that which leads to the Table Rock. After leaving the Table Rock, the traveller must proceed down the river nearly half a mile, where he will come to a small chasm in the bank, in which there is a spiral staircase enclosed in a wooden building. By descending the stair, which is seventy or eighty feet

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