218

TAN-Y-BWLCH-WATERFALL.

Conway river cost 16s. while the ferry across the North river at New York, four times as wide, costs about one half of that sum.

July 26.-Before setting out this morning, we walked to a fall of water a few miles off the road. Although more than 200 feet high, yet, as the water falls over a naked rock, without any accompaniments, the heighth has no effect till you reach the foot of the hill, and measure it with yourself; when it is proved to you, rather than shewn. The same thing happens at Niagara. There are no near objects of dimensions sufficiently known to serve as a scale; you are obliged to have recourse to your imagination for some, and the surprise is only produced by reflection. Looking at the fall of Niagara, you may say, for instance, that if a first-rate ship of war was brought to the foot of it, its main-mast would not reach the summit, (160 feet); that there would be room for that same ship behind the fall,-behind the liquid vault which springs 40 or 50 feet beyond the edge of the rock, Next, it is necessary to bring to your assistance the recollection of some .well-known river to form an idea of the bulk of water before you. The Thames, for instance, at London bridge, which is 300 yards in breadth, or the Seine at Paris, probably 200 yards; while the Niagara river is full 900 yards, including the island which divides it in two unequal portions. With these facts in your mind, you come at last to admire, and be astonished; but it is an effort of reason. What you see is merely a great mill-dam; but what you measure and compare is one of the wonders of the world.

The approach to Niagara is more striking than the fall itself. Coming to it from behind, you may sail down the river 17 miles from Lake Erie; fur

BANGOR-FALLS OF NIAGARA.

219

ther, you would be carried down to inevitable destruction. You then travel along a level bank on the British side, at first very little above the water, deepening more and more as you advance, by the sinking of the bed of the river. The broad expanse of water slides along an inclined plane, with a rapidity constantly accelerated ;-strewed with insulated rocks, against which the dark waves dash with inconceivable fury;-they elevate their round masses, then whirl in frightful hollow curves, and, from amidst the spreading foam, send up in the air sudden jets of white vapour like smoke. Distinct bodies of water seem to dispute the passage with each other, they overleap, they delve under each other with the rapidity of lightning. About two miles below the landing, you perceive, at a distance, the vast plain of tumultuous waters ending abruptly, and, in its stead, a column of vapour rising slowly up into the atmosphere. Amidst the general hollow noise of the cataract, unequal blows are distinguishable, like subterraneous explosions. The scene becomes every step more terrific. You see clearly that the whole stream is swallowed up; it rounds smoothly over the brink of the abyss without struggle, and disappears. Trunks of trees mark sometimes the extreme rapidity of the current; they are seen shooting beyond the edge of the sinking river. Descending the bank 80 or 100 feet, you reach the Table-rock,-a horizontal stratum, level with the top of the cataract. There you may touch its very edge,-dip your hand in it,— and, with a plumb-line, measure the height; but the charm is in a great degree dissipated; and, however great and magnificent the object you see, its effect does not appear equal to what it ought to be, and what you know the reality is.

220

BANGOR-SNOWDON-FLIES.

I hope this digression may be excused in favour of the cataract par excellence; and the Welsh cannot take it amiss that one of their falls should have brought Niagara to my recollection. To finish the description, I have only to notice a remarkable appearance. The water seems to fall with a retarded motion, to stop, and, near the bottom, to ascend visibly. This is owing to the resistance of the air on the surface, which reduces it into foam, and at last into light vapour. The water, at the moment of rounding over the edge of the fall, is of the most lively green, or sometimes bright blue. A sort of silver gauze soon covers its surface in graceful folds, growing whiter and thicker as it descends lower; the real fall, and its accelerated motion, are ultimately hid by this kind of veil of vapour.

We passed to-day the foot of Snowdon, and intended another poney expedition; but it rained,the ponies were forestalled,—and the fatigue and bruises of Cader Idris were not altogether over; therefore we had only a sight of Snowdon,-and a good-looking mountain it is, with all its cluster of inferior mountains about it, all bare rocks. Snowdon is 3500 feet.

This moderate climate is certainly much fitter for bodily exercise than that of America. We think nothing of five or six miles a-day on foot. The flies, however, begin to be almost as numerous and inconvenient out of doors as there, but not in the house. Musketoes are by no means unknown. We see snakes, but the viper is the only one deemed dangerous. America is usually thought to be full of these reptiles, and that you are exposed every moment to tread upon a rattle-snake; the fact is, that the sight of a snake is not much more common there than here, and most of them