waterfall, motion and noise. The same defect must necessarily occur in every picture of a battle.

I think myself that to form an idea of any grand natural object which one has never seen, one must be able to compare it to something that one has seen of approximating magnitude. For could a citizen of London, who has never visited any rising ground higher than Highgate Hill; or any greater rush of water than that from the sluice at the end of the Serpentine, form any idea of Mount Blane, or the falls of the Rhine? For my own part although I have seen the most celebrated falls in Switzerland and Italy, yet I think that compared to Niagara, they are merely as the spout from a church gutter, to the fall of Terni.

How can I give an adequate idea of what I now beheld? Look at the map of America, and ob serve the immense country drained by the Niagara river. The four great Lakes, or as they might with propriety be called fresh water seas, with all the numerous and large rivers that flow into them, have only this one outlet for their superfluous waters. Lake Superior, the largest collection of fresh water on the face of the Globe, is 381 miles in length, 161 in breadth, and in circumference little less than 1152* It is remarkable for its extraordinary depth, the estimated average of which

This statement of the size of the Lakes is from Mr. Bouchette's work on the Canadas.

is 900 feet. Lake Huron in point of extent yields but little to Lake Superior. Its greatest length is 218 miles, its greatest breadth 180; and its circumference, measured through all its curvatures, is not less than 812. Lake Michigan, which, though distinguished by a separate name, can only be considered as part of Lake Huron, is 262 miles in length, 65 in breadth, and 731 in circumference. Lake Erie is 231 miles in length, 63 in width in its broadest part, and 658 in circumference. Now the superfluous waters of these four vast Lakes, and of all their tributaries, rushing down the broad and deep channel of the river, and when within half a mile of the cataract, forming most magnificent rapids, come foaming down the slope with frightful velocity, and when at last arrived at the edge, take one tremendous plunge of 162 feet perpendicular.

After having gazed at this wonderful sight for nearly a whole day, I retired to rest, thinking I had formed a most accurate conception of what I had seen; but on rising the next morning I was astonished to find how inadequate even the recollection of it was, and how impossible it seemed for the mind to contain the image of so grand an object.

It would be worth a long journey to see only the rapids above, which, descending fifty-one feet down a slope of half a mile, bear a strong resemblance to the breakers on a rocky coast after a violent gale. The river above the rapids is about two miles wide, but

is soon very much contracted by Goat Island, which separates the two falls. That on the American side is somewhat the highest, and would probably exceed any other in the world, if it were not for the horseshoe fall on the Canadian side. Down the centre of this the greater part of the stream is precipitated. The water is here of a beautiful sea-green colour, resembling one enormous wave, while on the American side it pours down like a sheet of molten silver. When the sun shines on the thick cloud of spray, that constantly rises and prevents any one from seeing the bottom of the great fall, a most beautiful and perfect rainbow is formed, with its two ends resting on the abyss. This reminded me part of the description which Lord Byron in the 4th canto of Childe Harold has given of the Fall of Terni. Indeed all the following beautiful lines, except the fifth and sixth of the third stanza, apply so well to Niagara, that they convey a better idea of it than any description I have read:

of

"The roar of waters !-from the headlong height Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice;

The fall of waters! rapid as the light

The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss;
The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss
And boil in endless torture; while the sweat

Of their great agony, rung out from this
Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet
That gird the gulph around, in pitiless horror set,

"And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again Returns in an unceasing shower, which round With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain

Is an eternal April to the ground

Making it all one emerald:-how profound
The gulf! and how the giant element

From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound

Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent
With his fierce footsteps yield in chasms a fearful rent.

"To the broad column which rolls on, and shows
More like the fountain of an infant sea

Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes
Of a new world, [than only thus to be
Parent of rivers which flow gushingly,

With many windings through the vale:] Look back!
Lo where it comes like an eternity,

As if to sweep down all things in its track

Charming the eye with dread—a matchless cataract,

"Horribly beautiful! but on the verge,

From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,
An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and unworn
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn

By the distracted waters, bears serene

Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn,
Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene

Love watching madness with unalterable mien."

After having seen Niagara, I cannot but think this an exaggerated description of Terni, though when I visited that beautiful cascade, I recollect reading with the greatest delight these verses of the first of all living poets. But if Terni could inspire such verses what might we not expect if his Lordship should visit Niagara.

1

It was once an expedition of great trouble and fatigue to arrive at this place, but there are now most excellent inns on both sides of the river. Those on the Canadian side are much to be preferred, as the other does not command a view of the falls. In Mr. Forsyth's excellent house, I could look upon them from the window of the billiardroom; and from some of the higher rooms I could see to the very centre of the horseshoe fall. Every thing has been done to render access to different parts of the scene easy, even to ladies. The Americans have thrown a wooden bridge from the New York side to Goat Island. Several bridges were swept away before one could be fixed; but the present one is now quite safe, and the piers standing in the centre of the terrible rapids, show what the perseverance and enterprise of man can effect. Goat Island could not previously be approached by any animals except birds. There are convenient wooden stairs attached to both of the perpendicular precipices below the falls, so that any one can easily descend and approach as near as he chooses to the foot of the cataracts.

Much has been said about the possibility of going a short distance under the sheet of falling water on the Canadian side. Now the rock below is indeed so much hollowed out, that the water pitches about ten feet beyond it, and at a short distance it appears very possible to go under. Moreover some persons in the neighbourhood told me, that they had advanced