LETTER X. Falls of Niagara-Description of them-British, or HorseShoe Fall-American Fall-Impossibility of doing them justice--their Height--Comparison with the Pyramids of Egypt--General Whitney's Hotel-Military Titles in America— Ferry Staircase—Goat Island — Biddle Staircase— Sam Patch's leap into the Gulf—View from the centre of the River--Whirlpool and Devil's Hole-Lewiston-Queenstown - Comments on Captain Hall's Work on the StatesForsyth's-Visit behind the Falls-Scene by Moonlight. MY DEAR friend, Falls of Niagara, 31st July, 1831. Ar length I stand in the presence of the stupendous and magnificent cataract of Niagara! Amid the thunder of its rushing and mighty waters—transfixed in mute astonishment at the unequalled sublimity of this matchless vision -do I now address you! But how shall I describe its unique and solitary grandeur? Where shall I how arrange my thoughts - how adjust my language—where first seize, amid a thousand features of majesty and wondrous beauty, the most striking objects to portray this enchanting and absorbing scene? I confess myself lost commence 236 FALLS OF NIAGARA. and bewildered in the contemplation of it, and filled with despair at the idea of presenting you with even the faintest outline of what I feel to be indescribable; as far, at least, as respects the rendering justice to the great original. To attempt the perilous task of description at all, argues no little of bold and presumptuous daring; and yet, I am fully aware, that to pass it over in silence, or in the mere expression of general terms-shielding myself from the certain hazard of failure under the apology of its overwhelming magnitudewould occasion a bitter disappointment to you, which I am quite willing and anxious to avoid. If Captain Basil Hall, who was understood to have gone to America with the intention of writing a book of travels, was unable, as he himself candidly confesses, to give any description whatever of these splendid Falls - and whose excited and enthusiastic imagination was, nevertheless, unable to embody the glorious landscape and transfer it to paper-I, who do not intend to write any book, may well be excused from essaying so overpowering a delineation, which would have set at defiance the vigorous and masterly powers of even Sir Walter Scott himself. Yet, notwithstanding the unanswerable reason that I have to express myself in general terms only, and keep myself clear of the danger of going into presumptuous detail, I am, at the same time, so convinced of FALLS OF NIAGARA. 237 the vexation you would feel unless I consented to expose myself a little, particularly as it is addressed to a private and not to a public ear, that I am induced to offer to your mind's eye a very rough sketch of that which, after all, your own vivid fancy must fill up; since from that, principally, and not from the point of my poor, puny pen, must be derived the beau-idéal of this the mightiest cataract in the world. Imagine, then, a beautiful and majestic river, about a mile in breadth, lovely in its smoothness and expansion till it reaches the Rapids, commencing about half a mile above the Falls, and reflecting on its soft and mirror-like bosom, previously to gaining this point, a thousand umbrageous trees and other interesting objects with which its banks are adorned. Imagine next, that, on this silvery stream touching the verge of these ruffled waters, you see it beginning to be fearfully disturbed, as if by an instinctive dread of the tremendous abyss into which it is, in a few moments, to be hurled; and, tracing onwards its course, that you perceive it continually increasing in agitation; till at length, lashed into supernatural fury, though every wind is hushed—gushing and boiling upwards — revolving in eddies and whirlpools-dashed into rageful billows, and rushing impetuously forwards-broken and obstructed in its descent by a thousand hidden rocks—you 238 FALLS OF NIAGARA. behold the stream, covered with foam and breakers, urging its course, with irresistible violence and a deluge-like current, to the perpendicular edges of these thundering cataracts, and then bounding with gigantic volume of waters into the yawning gulf below. Fancy, also, that on the very extreme brink of the curved precipice, down which the main body of the stream rushes, there lies a very lovely island, crowned with noble trees and the most verdant herbage, dividing the river into two unequal currents; the larger portion forming a magnificent crescent, and the lesser what is called the American Fall, that presents an enchanting contrast to the hollow shape of the former by the strictly straight line in which its splendid array of waters descends. Imagine, still further, that you look down into the boiling abyss from a fearfully constructed bridge, thrown from this island to the very verge of the Grand Fall, and that the extreme point, whence you cast your affrighted view below, hangs over the perpendicular descent itself of the roaring torrent. Imagine the entire length of this most fragilelooking erection to extend three or four hundred feet from the shore, and to rest alone on the slippery surface of huge rocks and stones projecting from the bed of the river, and which, though forming here a kind of back-current, and greatly subdued in force, yet flows with rapid strength FALLS OF NIAGARA. 239 between the supporting stones, threatening, to the startled eye of the adventurer, instantaneous destruction. Fancy yourself, I repeat, beholding from this bridge the tremendous gulf beneathraging with the most frightful agitation—whirling in horrible eddies-foaming, boiling, and steaming, as if the whole whirlpool were an unearthly cauldron heated by a hidden volcano. Imagine, if you can, that from this mass of furious waters, in a state of elemental discord, you hear an astounding roar that almost deafens you, and feel the very ground vibrating under your feet; and that you perceive enormous exhalations of mist and spray rising to the skies, and forming a thousand fantastic and ever-varying clouds. Imagine, as the last stretch of your excited fancy, that, amid the whole of this "jar of elements," you perceive a beautiful and luminous rainbow, vivid as the bow of heaven, gracefully hung in these clouds of spray-like the angel of Hope, amid the distractions of the moral world, holding forth the bright symbol of peace and forgiveness to the sinful sons and daughters of earth, agitated, as they are, by as ceaseless a strife of rebellious passions and feelings towards their all-gracious Maker, as are the untameable waters of Niagara by the unceasing rushings of its torrent. Fancy all this, and you will have the best sketch that |