Anthology and Bibliography of Niagara Falls, Volume 1 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abyss American Fall American side appeared awful bank beautiful Blondin boat bottom bridge brink Buffalo Canada Canadian side cascade cataract Charlevoix Chautauqua County cliff cross deep descended distance early edge Falls of Niagara feeling foam foot formed Fort Niagara Fort Schlosser gazed Goat Island grandeur green heard height Hennepin Horseshoe Fall ice bridge ice-bridge immense impression Indians journal Kalm ladder Lake Erie Lake Ontario land leagues leap Lewiston Lond look majesty mass mighty miles mist nature never Niagara Falls Niagara River noise observed passed precipice Queenstown rainbow rapids rise roar rope rushing scene scenery seemed seen shore sight sketch stream sublime summer Table Rock thunder tion torrent trees tumbling Upper Canada visited the Falls visitors walk whirlpool whole wild wind winter wonder woods yards York
Popular passages
Page 231 - ... daily life receded from my view, and lessened in the distance, during the ten memorable days we passed on that Enchanted Ground ! What voices spoke from out the thundering water; what faces, faded from the earth, looked out upon me from its gleaming depths ; what Heavenly promise glistened in those angels...
Page 349 - ... them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or seem to crumble away like the front of a great chalk cliff, or roll down the rock like dense white smoke. But always does the mighty stream appear to die as it comes down, and always from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid : which has haunted this place with the same dread solemnity since Darkness brooded on the deep, and that first flood...
Page 262 - Appear like mice; and yon' tall anchoring bark, Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight: The murmuring surge, That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard so high: — I'll look no more; Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight Topple down headlong.
Page 230 - Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Peace of Mind, tranquillity, calm recollections of the Dead, great thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness : nothing of gloom or terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart, an Image of Beauty : to remain there, changeless and indelible, until its pulses cease to beat, for ever.
Page 230 - It was not until I came on Table Rock, and looked — Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright-green water ! — that it came upon me in its full might and majesty. Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Peace of Mind : Tranquillity: Calm recollections of the Dead: Great Thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness: nothing of Gloom or Terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart...
Page 191 - ... distinguish a mass of water far above the falls, to follow it to their verge, and go down with it, in fancy, to the abyss of clouds and storm. Casting my eyes across the river, and every side, I took in the whole scene at a glance, and tried to comprehend it in one vast idea. After an hour thus spent, I left the bridge, and, by a staircase, winding almost interminably round a post, descended to the base of the precipice. From that point my path lay over slippery stones, and among great fragments...
Page 153 - The body of water which composes the middle part of the Great Fall is so immense, that it descends nearly two-thirds of the space without being ruffled or broken, and the solemn calmness with which it rolls over the edge of the precipice is finely contrasted with the perturbed appearance it assumes after having reached the gulf below. But the water towards each side of the Fall is shattered the moment it drops over the...
Page 507 - Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn That He who made it and revealed its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age.
Page 298 - Looking at it even here, in the expanse which forms itself over the greater fall, one feels sure that no strongest swimmer could have a chance of saving himself, if fate had cast him in even among those petty whirlpools. The waters, though so broken in their descent, are deliciously green. This...
Page 235 - I knew where to look for everything, and everything looked as I thought it would. Long ago, I was looking from a hillside with a friend at one of the finest sunsets that ever enriched this world. A little cowboy, trudging along, wondered what we could be gazing at. After spying about some time, he found it could only be the sunset, and looking, too, a moment, he said approvingly "that sun looks well enough...