ing the idea that public sentiment in ple who make a living by preying on America has been duly aroused to a sense the casual visitor. Every opportunity is of the importance of the danger, and that seized for charging a toll, the cab-drivers recent legislative action has provided and shopkeepers are in league to procure against it. The Falls of Niagara cannot the sale of useless knick-knacks and sobe regarded as specially belonging to called "Indian goods," touts and "runAmerica, but must be considered as exist- ners accost you at every turn, and every ing for the advantage of mankind; no trick short of actual swindling is employed traveller crosses the ocean without visit- to squeeze money from the unfortunate ing them, and England has already taken traveller. The extent to which this is an important part in the efforts for their practised has led to the saying that every preservation, indeed, we may almost sane adult American citizen knows two say that it was an Englishman with whom things about Niagara, — first, that there these efforts originated. It is much to be is a great waterfall there; second, that a desired, therefore, that the English public man's pocket will be emptied there quicker should understand what is involved in than anywhere else in the Union. The the question, how great is the necessity fees to the various points of interest for preservative measures, and what form around the Falls-counting those only it is proposed that these measures shall which it is necessary to see take. If once these points were clearly twenty-four shillings for each person. understood and widely known, there would And without paying, there is nothing to certainly be such a distinct expression of be seen. It is a positive fact that there opinion in England as would render easier is no spot on the American side from the task to be accomplished in America, which the Falls can be seen without payfor in spite of the frequent and half-jok- ing a fee. And when the visitor has paid ing assumption of careless independence, for admission to the principal point of every one who is really familiar with American life knows that by the vast majority of our "kin beyond sea any genuine word from England is received with kindly respect.

amount to

view he finds himself in a so-called "park," where crowds of excursionists hold picnics, with a "pavilion," where they dance, an illuminated spray fountain, and elaborate arrangements for throwing colored In the first place, then, in what way is electric lights upon the Falls. There is Niagara being destroyed, what is the only one place on the American side danger from which it is to be preserved? where the visitor is left in undisturbed There is a story of a man who desired enjoyment of the scene, viz., Goat Island, to approach Niagara under perfect con- the large island which divides the Rapids ditions, and who, therefore, left the train into the American and Horseshoe Falls. at some distance from the village of Niag. Owing to the good taste of its owners, the ara Falls, and made his way on foot, Porter family, and to certain peculiar tesendeavoring during his walk to bring him- tamentary conditions under which they self into a proper state of mind to be acted acquired it, this lovely island has been upon by the beneficent influences of the saved from the "improvements" which vast spectacle. At the moment, however, are ruining Niagara; but these conditions when he stepped into full view of the are valid only during the minority of one cataract, he was accosted by a brisk in- member of the family, and he will shortly dividual, who offered him for a small sum come of age. From every other point the a piece of colored glass, illustrating its visitor is invited, and frequently comuse by turning his back to the Falls, put-pelled, to see Niagara under some more ting his head between his legs, and thus contemplating the scene upside down and through his colored medium. "That, sir," said he, when he had resumed his normal attitude, "is the way to obtain the most impressive and gorgeous view of the Falls. Ten cents!" This story illustrates the first of the two processes by which Niagara is being destroyed. For years there has been a constant stream of visitors to the little village, and in the absence of any restrictive legislation, the result is just what we should expect. Nearly the whole of the population consists of peo

or less distorted form, if not, like the man in the story, actually upside down, and every healthful influence is excluded by the irritation produced by the constant demand for money to maintain these evils.

The second method of the destruction

of Niagara is worse. Hawthorne congratulates the Assabeth, the sluggish river of Concord, upon "the incurable indolence by which it is saved from becoming the slave of human ingenuity;" and it is the swiftness and incalculable power of the Niagara River which are likely to prove its ruin. For they offer an irresistible

of the St. Lawrence; and to all these it adds a resistless might that brings the spectator into closest communion with the eternal powers of the universe, and inspires a feeling of sublimity which becomes almost overwhelming. It is a spectacle peculiarly adapted to exert a healthful and lasting influence upon the human mind:

temptation to what Mr. Ruskin calls "the | the Rhone at its greenest; its cliffs are pontifical rigidities of the engineering those of the Rhine; its rapids are those mind," and already along the bank and on the islands there are saw mills and chainmills and paper-mills, the rapids are blocked up by wing-dams and ice-barriers, the gas-works discharge their tar down the cliff, and in place of the luxurious foliage with which the cliffs were once crowned, the whole length of them is disfigured by these various erections, and by heaps of lumber and refuse. Every day new mills are planned, new obstructions put out into the rapids, and trees cut down. Now that the storage of electricity is an accomplished fact, the land which gives access to water-power is increasing There is little left exrapidly in value. cept Goat Island, and when that is bought by some manufacturer of pulp or spoons or spittoons, denuded of its forest growth, pierced by canals, and crowned with a tall chimney, the last blow of the destroyer will have been struck, and the beauty of Niagara will be gone forever.

The description of Niagara has well been called the Ulyssean bow of travellers, and we shall not indulge in any superlative adjectives or soaring metaphors concerning it. Its discoverer, the Jesuit father Hennepin, told all that is necessary when he said, "The universe does not afford its parallel," and this is the point we would impress upon our readers. Niagara is unique, not merely because it is the second waterfall in the world, for that alone would render it of little value, but also because it possesses most of the qualities which men are accustomed to seek in widely separated parts of the earth. A common error is to suppose that the Falls themselves constitute the chief in

If thou art worn and hard beset
With sorrows that thou would'st forget,
If thou would'st read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from
sleep,

go

to Niagara; there is

The cataract, whose angry roar shall smite
Thy heart with courage.
The writer well remembers spending the
greater part of a brilliant summer night
on Goat Island, at the brink of the Horse-
shoe Fall. In the moonlight the rapids
were like silver; each jet of spray sparkled
as it rose, and the whole ocean seemed to
be hurrying to pour itself into the misty
gulf; most beautiful of all, the famous
lunar bow stretched in a perfect arch from
side to side. All the weird beauty of the
moonlight seemed concentrated in that
one circle. In the stillness of the night
the "slumberous sound" of the waters
was more impressive than during the
noises of the day. Overhead the stars,
the awful cataract underneath. No man
can live long in such a scene, and remain
an unchanged man. In Matthew Arnold's
verse, the sentiment of the place is per-
fectly expressed: -

"Ah! once more," I cried, "ye stars, ye waters,
On my
heart your mighty charm renew;
Feel my soul becoining vast like you!"
Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you,

terest of Niagara. Nothing could be more mistaken; the Falls are merely one of the constituent parts of the whole spectacle. The rapids, the islands, the What, now, is it proposed to do, to cataract, the chasm below the cataract, make Niagara all that it should and may the whirlpool rapids, the basin of the be? The answer will occur to every one whirlpool, all these are included in the who knows the place, and may be given word " Niagara." If one part be more in a sentence. The proper treatment of impressive than the rest, we should agree | Niagara cannot be better expressed than with Mr. Howells, when he says, in that in the phrase, "Plus on lui ôte, plus il est delightful book "Their Wedding Jour- grand." Niagara must be delivered from ney," that the whirlpool rapids, "seen from any point, are the most impressive feature of the whole prodigious spectacle of Niagara." But Niagara must not be thus split up; it is a unique whole. One part of it is a characteristic bit of the English Lake scenery; another is one of the features of Norway; another is the Maelstrom its color surpasses that of

its worst enemy, the sensational; it must
cease to be treated as a show, and must
be restored to its original condition as a
simple piece of nature.
This is a case in
which the words of the old hymn are pe-
culiarly applicable, "only man is vile."
Everything that man has done to Niagara
must be undone; then only will its sim-
plicity be restored, and with its simplicity

་

its sublimity. The directors of a State | been made. An act to carry out its sugSurvey made a few years ago proposed gestions has twice been presented to the that the land adjoining the rapids, falls, Legislature, and allowed to perish in negand chasm should be condemned by the lect. At last, a short time ago, a Board State, and, with the erections on it, ap- of Commissioners was appointed to repraised and purchased. This land would port upon the desirability of the purchase be a strip a mile long, and varying in of the land by the State. It is this nonwidth from a hundred feet at the head of committal bill which some of our conthe rapids to eight hundred feet at the temporaries have mistaken for the setFalls. The buildings would all be re- tlement of the question. Three weeks moved, the unsightly constructions along ago, the Commission adopted a resolution the banks would be swept away, appropri- providing for the taking of land as deate trees planted, and the village thus shut scribed above. The matter is thus very out from view. This could be done for much where it was two years ago, except the sum of one million dollars. On the that the restoration has become more diffiCanadian side, the cliffs have been left cult day by day. The Legislature will in their native picturesqueness; there are soon be called upon to decide upon the fewer buildings to be removed, and, best report of the Commission. We cannot of all, there is a military reservation of believe that a measure which would be so sixty-six feet from the edge of the cliff. welcome to the world at large, which The difficulty and expense of restoration would confer both material and moral would consequently be very much less. benefit upon the country, which is deIt is needless to point out the material ad- manded by every sentiment of considervantages to the immediate neighborhood, ation for those who are to come after us, and the moral advantage to the world at a measure in which future generations large, which would result from the estab- will find a proof of the civilization of lishment of this free international park. our age, will be rejected because It is important, however, to remember America, with its embarrassing public that the employment of the water-power wealth and its gigantic private fortunes, of Niagara would be in no way interfered cannot find the sum of two hundred thouwith; it would be secured by a hydraulic sand pounds for such a purpose. We canal, supplying, if necessary, twenty do not hesitate to say that English opinion miles of factories, providing an unlimited will be unanimous upon the result, which amount of power, and free from all objec- ever way it may be, and we trust that the unanimity may be in the form of grateful recognition of an act of enlightened legis. lation.

tions.

The first suggestion for the preservation of Niagara Falls came from Mr. Church, an American artist. He drew the attention of Lord Dufferin, then governor-general of Canada, to the matter, and from the latter came the first definite proposition about the International Park. This was embodied in a message by Governor Robinson. Then came a memorial addressed jointly to Governor Cornell and the governor-general of Canada, praying "that the State of New York and the Dominion of Canada should secure and hold for the world's good the lands adjacent to the Falls of Niagara.' This memorial was signed by seven hundred persons, almost all of distinction. Among the English names are Lord Houghton, Lord Reay, Sir John Lubbock, W. R. Greg, Carlyle, Ruskin, Max Müller, Jowett, Leslie Stephen, and Frederic Harrison. Among the Americans are Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Palfrey, Parkman, Holmes, Gray, Agassiz, How ells, Norton, Child, and President Eliot. Previous to this, the New York State Survey, to which we have alluded, had

From Nature.

THE STORY OF A BOULDER.

The Warwickshire papers report a curious open-air service held on Sunday week at Stockton, near Rugby, to "consecrate" a large granite boulder which has been inscribed and railed in at the expense of the villagers. It lies on a bed of concrete in the centre of the little place, protected by a handsome iron railing; a few square inches are polished to show the grain; an inscription records that it was brought from Mount Sorrel, a distance of sixty miles, by an iceberg or a glacier in the great ice age; and the ground around it is to be enclosed, turfed, planted, and set with rustic seats. A fine day, and the novel proceeding, drew a large and attentive crowd; a short, bright service was conducted with the aid of an unusually good village choir; and the big stone set

up by Joshua at Shechem formed the text their neighbors; the subscription point for a sermon intended to stamp the boul-was reached, and money found to move der as a religious no less than a scientific and rail in the treasure; the surrounding monument. This charming little idyll is villages finally emptied themselves to atthe closing chapter in a story which might tend the consecration service, and Stockclaim to share the title made historic by a ton is at this moment, like douce Davie great geologist. Five years ago the pres- Deans, "as uplifted as a midden-cock on ent rector, coming to Stockton, found the pattens." The moral of the story is twoboulder lying in a ditch, into which it had fold. First: what has been done in Stockbeen rolled from its inconvenient position | ton ought to be done in scores of other by the roadside. A hazy clerical belief villages. This boulder was the first link that it was "Druidic" had saved it from in a chain of evidence, lengthening ever complete destruction; but it was the since, in favor of a new and pregnant cockshy of all the children, bonfires were probability, the current of an ice-sheet lighted on it occasionally, and it lay at from the Charnwood Forest heights across the mercy of every field club which might the table-land of south Warwickshire. come hammering that way. Large, gla- In countless corners more lie similar ciated, and of granite, it was clearly worth monuments, unknown and doomed, which, preserving. The new rector told its prob- if thus preserved and studied, would af able history from the pulpit, and the vil- ford the keys to like problems in geology. lage mind was roused. Reports came in And secondly: the clergy ought to do it. of other big stones far and near, some of Our country parsons are, if they could be which were also of glacial origin; the educated to see it, the natural discoverers quarrymen in the adjoining limeworks, and conservators of local relics; with the digging down to a smaller piece of granite opportunities they have and the attain. and some beautifully striated blocks of ments they ought to possess, they might sandstone, protected instead of breaking in their mere leisure write such a scientific them; and by following up the hint thus history of England as no country has yet given, a fine bed of boulder clay was possessed. Let them read the delightful uncovered, shown to Dr. Crosskey, and chapter in "Le Maudit," which paints the inserted in the Boulder Committee Re- Curé Julio in his Pyrenean parish, and in port of the British Association. The order that they may be qualified to imitate fame of the great stone spread; visitors him, let the bishops be wise in their gencame to see it; the Stocktonians, who eration, and exact a knowledge of some had through frequent lectures learnt its branch of natural history from every canscientific value, became proud of their didate for orders. "pibble" and of their ability to instruct

CUTLETS IN CURL-PAPERS. — History tells the story of the famous côtelette de mouton en papillotes which reconciled Louis XIV. to the Duke of Burgundy when the latter returned from the campaign in Flanders in 1708, preceded by the news of defeat on defeat. The duke was expected at court, and on his arrival he hastened to the apartment of Madame de Maintenon, where the king was in the midst of his supper. Madame de Maintenon had eaten her cabbage soup, picked a few crayfish from the Bievre, and was drinking her favorite Hermitage wine. The king got up, and to the great surprise of every one, kissed the duke most affectionately, pressed him warmly by the hand, and seconded by the hostess, bade him sit down and share their supper. "Chamarande," said the king, addressing his valet de chambre, "has not the mayor of Rheims sent me some of the best vintage of Champagne and some of the famous Rousselet pears?" These good things were placed on the table, and Chamarande read the letter from the burgesses, saying that they sent their king their wine, their pears, and their hearts -in fact, the best of everything they had in

their city. "Sire," exclaimed Madame de Maintenon, "this truffled snipe will not be enough for our guests and for us, so that you will please let me offer you a dish invented by my father, Baron de Surineau d'Aubigné, who was reputed a gourmand." The favorite explained that the plat in question was a mutton, lamb, or veal cutlet strewn with parsley and savory herbs, placed in a sheet of thin, wellbuttered paper, and then grilled. "Why," said the king, "that is wrapping a chop in curl-papers! "Precisely," replied the lady. The king seemed to enjoy the joke immensely, and declared he would have one of these cutlets on the following evening for supper, inviting the gentlemen and courtiers present to partake of the meal. At the same time a messenger was sent to the governor of Rambouillet ordering him to send up one of the best sheep he could find on the royal farm. On the following day the mutton cutlets en papillotes were eaten by the guests, who drank the choicest of Rhine wines, and declared that they had never sat down to such an excellent dish before.

Temple Bar,

VI. THE NORTH FARM: Now. By J. E. Panton, Tinsley's Magazine,
VII. SEA ISLAND COTTON,

Chambers' Journal,

Fortnightly Review,
Leisure Hour,

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