網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

is sold by weight. I thought the arrangements for weighing and measuring the grain much better than at Marseilles, but not so complete and perfect as the new mode in use at Liverpool. Trade is so good in the city, that mechanics in sufficient number cannot be obtained, although the wages offered are 7 dollars or 20 shillings sterling a day. Buffalo has a frontage of 5 miles to the lake. Erie is shallow; and has the unenviable distinction of possessing a long line of "lee shore" all round. Its waters are sooner lashed into fury by the winds, and its navigation is on this account more dangerous than Huron, Superior or Michigan. I found out my friend in his The large drawing

pleasant home in Clinton Square. room in which we sat was full of curiosities which he had gathered during a year of European travel. Photographs from Rome and the Holy Land; a musical box from Geneva; flowers from the Pool of Siloam, and gay colored prints of the Paris Exhibition were among these trophies. Mr. P. had written a journal of his tour, and he told me that already he had had several offers made for it, with a view to acquiring a right to publish it. His return home had been greeted by quite a "flourish of trumpets" in the local newspapers. The young traveller was sadly altered since we parted in England. After reaching his United States home, he immediately took a long trip to the West, during the terribly hot weather, and since then has been sinking in health. His mother had a kindly hospitality for the English stranger and yet she seemed to have very dim ideas of "our people," and had a notion that the English are all slaves under some despotic rule. She can't imagine why my countrymen come over to the United States on pleasure, as it is such a rough unsettled country, and she also thinks it high time for the United States Government to put a stop to

emigration from Europe of all poor and helpless people. This bustling Western port "boasts a poet," who is "thought all the world of" by the inhabitants. There was a good gathering of young folks at his house that evening, to which the Clinton Square household contributed its quota of guests. Afterwards P. and I sat up chatting about old times, while his little sister played for us on the piano. Very warm ones were his memories of England. The flood-gates of English hospitality seemed to have been opened to him, and he had tales to tell of a descent into Newcastle coal mines; of visits to Sheffield factories; of rambles on Calton Hill; and glances of the grim castle of the Scottish metropolis. I felt very sorry to leave him, as it seemed possible we might never meet again.

This supposition has proved correct, for my poor friend is since dead.

THUNDER OF WATERS.

YMMEDIATELY

after entering my name in the visitors' book in the Hotel at Niagara, a gentleman came up to me and said, "Are you an Englishman?" "I saw you in the cars this morning." "You and I were born under the old flag." It was now ten o'clock in the evening and quite dark, and going up to our rooms together he proposed a walk out to see the Falls. He then took a pistol out of his bag, showed it to me, and put it into his pocket, saying, “It is not safe to go out here into the lonely places after dark without this." "Last year I went out on to Goat Island, and was tracked for a long time by two thieves; I was unarmed, but had managed to pick up a thick cudgel in the woods, and was determined to sell my life dearly: fortunately a carriage, with visitors who had been out to see the Falls by moonlight, passed me: I stepped up and asked to ride, and this I was at once allowed to do. Two years ago a man was robbed and thrown over the Falls." Half an hour later, in the moonlight, we stood on the spot of the murder.

Thus prepared and in company, we walked out, passed on to Goat Island, and through the woods away to the Terrapin Tower, from which we had a good view of the Canadian or Horse Shoe Falls, in the dim weird light of a clouded and partly obscured moon. Anything more awful and lonely could not be. As far as we knew not a human being was near us. Alone we stood amid this

mighty power of nature. A wooden gallery leads to the tower, which is built on a ledge of rock, in the midst of the rapids. A few yards to southward, the waters of Superior, Huron, Erie and Michigan take that terrible plunge which has made this spot a wonder of the world. Day and night, summer and winter, for long ages, for aught we know since the beginning of time, this carnival of waters has continued. With furious, angry haste, but still with chain or link unbroken, these waters join Ontario. You would think this reckless leap to be unto destruction and annihilation, but no! Deep down in the boiling caldron there is a bottom, there is a rallying point, whence in a while the floods emerge, their transformation dress of misty spray to be again transformed— toned down to waters capped with snow-white foam. Anon they struggle, they grapple with the pent-up gorge, and fight with a perfect "Trossachs" of unyielding, hardy rock, and then with anger over, and in gentler mood, they pass the flood-gates of Ontario and lose their individuality for ever.

The Indian's nomenclature is often more poetical, and yet more pithy than our own. His "Texas" means "a land of plenty"; his "Alabama," signifies "here we rest." So with Niagara; he called this spot of sounds so mighty, "Thunder of Waters." Though his race fade away, and fail upon the earth, "Niagara" will record his tongue and literature for ever. To him the huge rocks seemed an altar for his Manitou. To him the neverceasing spray seemed like the smoke of incense ever mounting heavenward. To us a voice of thunder speaks of the Invisible One in every storm, to the red man Niagara's" thunder spoke of the "Great Spirit." What wonder that fear should come upon him, when he listened to this mighty tone? What wonder that his

[ocr errors]

human heart should counsel an offering of peace? And so on that great day of festival the tribes sent forth a precious offering, the rarest tithings of their husbandry, the richest trophies of the chase, laid ready in a white canoe. Forth came their human offering to seal with blood and life the grim sacrifice. A maiden of the nation takes the charge, and drifting over the Falls is supposed to meet acceptable entrance in the heathen Elysium.

To us it preaches a wonderful sermon of the power of Him whose hand "setteth fast the mountains and holdeth the waters in the hollow of His hand." It requires little superstition to imagine a Spirit in the seething flood. This was in Scott's mind when he pictured the Spirit of the Flood, answering the Spirit of the Fell. As we stand here in the weird moonlight, and look intently upon the concentration of watery rage and strife below, there is a strange fascination in the scene; invisible cords and seeming voices are on us and around us: to the melancholy and despondent one would come the fancied call of piteous lamentation, a soft entreaty to join with fellow spirits in this Saturnalia of Waters.

And yet putting all superstition aside, what have we to fear? Naught. We are as safe here as anywhere in the wide world, for the eye of Him who made this natural wonder, is equally mindful of His human family. * all places that the eye of heaven visits,

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.

Through the open window of my bedroom, all night long, with moments of wakefulness, came the sound of the Eternal Cataract. In 1868 two Chinese Princes visited Niagara. Great was their desire for complete understanding. They entered into minutiae of wear and retrogression with all the interest of our greatest savans.

« 上一頁繼續 »