LETTER XXIII. Niagara-View from Point House - Goat's Island— MY DEAR S Cataract Hotel, Niagara, Sunday, September 13, 1840. The poet tells us "to look through Nature up to Nature's God." I have been doing so through the entire day, and the Niagara page of the Book of Creation is, I will venture to assert, the most awful, sublime, and beautiful, in the whole volume. I first proceeded to Point House, as it is called, just above the spiral staircase by which you descend to the ferry, and there remained at least two hours, with my eyes riveted on this surpassing scene of surpassing grandeur. The view from this spot embraces the American Fall and the end of Isis, or, as it is more commonly called, Goat's Island. The commencement of the Horse-shoe Fall is also visible, and the summit of the tower erected in the middle of the roaring surge. I then crossed over to Goat's Island, where there is a reading and refreshment room, and where a small toll is exacted, I presume to keep in repair the beautiful bridge thrown across the Rapids, and by which you reach it. I also, by means of another similarly constructed bridge, visited Lover's Island in the middle of the Rapids, and on which there is a summerhouse. I then returned to the Cataract Hotel to an excellent dinner, at the barbarous hour of one! The table, which was well covered with the produc SUNDAY VISITORS. 273 tions, erudite and elegant, of a professed French artiste, was surrounded by all the beauty of the neighbouring country; for a fine Sunday collects visitors from all parts, who flock hither to shew their devotion to French cookery as well as to the sublimities of Nature. Dinner concluded, in the usual flash-oflightning style, off flew the fair worshippers, who were to be seen in groups wandering about till dusk; and off flew I, setting at nought all rules and regulations for digestion, and, again crossing the Rapids, which, by the way, I think more wonderful even than the Falls, I took a path to the right, which brought me to a most magnificent view of the American Fall, which I hung over in rapture, whilst I held on by the branch of an adjoining tree. The bow, produced by the rays of the sun on the spray thrown up from the surge, was perfect and brilliantly coloured. 274 THE GREAT HORSE-SHOE FALL. I then turned my steps in another direction, and, continuing along the outer bank of the island, descended a long, deep, dark, spiral staircase, until I found myself on the margin of the mighty waters with the frowning and projecting rocks high above me. I scrambled on until I was close to the great Horse-shoe Fall, on which, as well as on the rocks I was climbing over, the sun was shining so fiercely, that I really think I should have been burnt to a cinder, had not the spray from the contiguous cataract come to my relief. My broken arm was sadly against me, and I was soon constrained to retrace my steps; and, indeed, I would recommend all sober-minded people not to make this descent, for it does not pay! Ascending into day, I visited the tower, and stood lost in wonder on its top, in the very midst of the mighty rage and roar of the waters. The scene around you is as fearful as it is beautiful. I next made a tour round the upper part of Goat's Island, from whence you can survey the entire breadth of this stupendous river; which is, I should say, about three miles just above the point where it begins to thunder, foam, and rush down the declivity of the Rapids, as if gathering strength to leap the frightful precipice. All who wish fully to enjoy this wondrous sight should continue their walk entirely round this the northern side of the island, between which and the American shore is the principal Rapid. The moon, when it arose in all its splendour, found me still unsatiated with the wonders of the scene; and whether this Sunday has been well or ill spent, I must leave to Him to determine, who reads all hearts; "Accept, then, O Supremely Great! O Infinite! O God! From this primeval altar-the green and virgin sod |