position, light, and shade, and watching its everchanging hues at each successive hour of the day.

Many persons had expressed to us their disappointment at the first sight of the Falls, though they admitted that a longer stay near them had gradually developed all their grandeur and beauty. I know not to what cause, or to what kind of temperament, to attribute this; but certainly we needed no progressive developement, to give us the fullest impressions of their magnificence and sublimity. It appeared to us from the first as one of the grandest scenes of nature that we had ever visited, and it continued to leave the same impression on our minds to the last; nor was there any single moment between these two periods in which our admiration or our wonder abated in the slightest degree.

During our stay on both sides of the Falls, we had personal communication with many who had resided near them all their lives,-with others, who

had visited them almost every year-and with many who might be called the depositaries of all the traditional information that exists respecting them; and with the assistance of these authorities, and such published details as were accessible through other sources, the following history and description of them was prepared :

Niagara is not, strictly speaking, a river, though it is constantly so called, but rather a strait; being merely a channel of about thirty-five miles in length, and from one to five miles in breadth, by which the waters of the upper Lake Erie are discharged into the lower Lake Ontario, and, proceeding onward from thence, form the river St. Lawrence, which empties itself into the sea. Nearly midway between these two lakes, Erie and Ontario, or at the exact distance of about twenty miles below the former, and fifteen miles above the latter, occurs a sudden break in the continuity of the upper level, over which the waters flow; and this break, exhibiting itself in the form of a series of perpendicular cliffs, stretching right across the stream, with curvatures and irregular hollows or recesses, to the height of 164 feet, the sudden descent of the whole body of water over these perpendicular cliffs, in its passage from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, constitutes the Falls of Niagara. The name is Indian, and is pronounced thus, Nee-agg-arah, and not Nia-ga-rah, as is sometimes erroneously done. It is an Iroquois word, and sig. nifies the thunder of the waters ;" and certainly no name could be more significantly appropriate than this.

The Falls are broken into two separate masses by

BEAUTY OF THE FALLS.

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the intervention of an island, called Goat Island, lying nearly midway in the stream, and projecting its north-western extremity to the very edge of the perpendicular cliff. The body of water between this island and the American shore is called the American Fall; and the body of water between the same island and the Canada shore, is called the Canada Fall.

The American Fall is about 900 feet in breadth, and the water descends nearly perpendicularly over a cliff of 164 feet in height. The Canada Fall is about 1,800 feet in breadth, including a deep indentation or hollow, called the Horse-shoe Fall, and it descends with a greater projectile curve beyond the perpendicular line, over cliffs of 158 feet in depth.

The greatest mass of water rushes over the Canada Fall, and on this is seen to the greatest advantage the rich emerald green of the liquid and moving element. The bright sun-light upon the waters of this Fall produce tints of indescribable beauty, and the mingling of the foaming jets of snowy white with the clear and transparent aquamarine brilliance that dwells upon the crest of the Fall, produces a constant variety in the aspect of the whole. At the foot of both the Falls, the clouds of mist or spray occasioned by the boiling turbulence of the agitated mass, rise up like the smoke of incense before one of the grandest natural altars in the world, and ascend into the air in curling wreaths till it seems to mingle with the clouds of heaven.

The walk around Goat Island and over the slender and almost rocking bridges that are thrown across the rapids from it to the shore, and from it to

smaller islands near, is full of beauty; while the dark shadows of its forest-trees, the dizzy heights of its beetling cliffs, the beautiful green sward of its least frequented walks, the narrow bridge and isolated tower at the edge of the cataract, with the rushing fury of the torrents that pass between some of the narrow straits and the almost adjoining islets near its edge, furnish scenes of beauty and of interest which could never tire.

The descent to the stream below the Falls on the

American side, is by a series of wooden stairs, sufficiently safe though rude in their construction, and tedious from their number and their steepness, the whole height exceeding 200 feet. The ascent from the stream on the Canada side is by a good broad road, sufficiently steep, but practicable, in its zig-zag

angles, for horses, or even for a carriage, and cut chiefly out of the rocky cliff.

At either side is a set of slips, from which the ferry-boats are launched, when needed to convey passengers across. The boats are well built, and well adapted to the service, each capable of containing six or eight persons conveniently; they are rowed across by a single man with a pair of oars; and although the agitation of the water produces what is called a great ripple on the surface, yet there is no real danger in the passage; nor, as far as we could learn, had any boat ever been upset or lost in going across.

On the Canada side, a guard of British troops are stationed, to take the names of all persons going and coming, and the object of their visit; a copy of which is sent, each day, to the commanding officer of the station. On the American side, all is perfectly free. The British regiment stationed here at the period of our visit was the 43d foot, or "The Queen's Own;" and such had been the desertions from it to the United States, that the officers themselves admitted their loss of men to be extensive. They usually secrete themselves till night in some adjoining wood, then scramble down the cliff at some point previously explored, and either go across upon a rude raft, or supported by single logs of wood, or sometimes attempt to swim without either, in which case they very frequently get drowned.

The depth of water is much greater below the Falls than above. In the distance between Lake Erie and the Cataracts, which is 20 miles, the breadth of the Niagara strait is from 1 mile to 8 or 9 miles across from the American to the Canada shore;