PART IV.

"To view Niagara Falls, one day,A Parson and a Tailor took their way.The Parson cried, while rapt in wonderAnd list'ning to the cataract's thunder:'Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes,And fill our hearts with vast surprise!'The Tailor merely made this note:'Lord! what a place to sponge a coat!'"

"To view Niagara Falls, one day,

A Parson and a Tailor took their way.

The Parson cried, while rapt in wonder

And list'ning to the cataract's thunder:

'Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes,

And fill our hearts with vast surprise!'

The Tailor merely made this note:

'Lord! what a place to sponge a coat!'"

"THOUGHTS ON VISITING NIAGARA."I wonder how long you've been a roarin'At this infernal rate:I wonder if all you've been a pourin'Could be ciphered on a slate."I wonder how such a thund'rin' soundedWhen all New York was woods;I suppose some Indians have been drowndedWhen rains have raised your floods."I wonder if wild stags and buffaloesHav'nt stood where now I stand;Well, 'spose—bein' scared at first—they stub'd their toes,I wonder where they'd land!"I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'Since sunrise at creation;And this waterfall been underminin'With constant spatteration!"That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.While other things describin';My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'dWhile the deluge was subsidin'!"My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deepWhile I look down on thee.Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheepNiagara would be!"And oh! what a tremendous water powerIs wasted o'er its edge!One man might furnish all the world with flourWith a single privilege."I wonder how many times the lakes have allBeen emptied over here?Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand CanalFrom hence, I think is queer."

"THOUGHTS ON VISITING NIAGARA.

"I wonder how long you've been a roarin'At this infernal rate:I wonder if all you've been a pourin'Could be ciphered on a slate.

"I wonder how long you've been a roarin'

At this infernal rate:

I wonder if all you've been a pourin'

Could be ciphered on a slate.

"I wonder how such a thund'rin' soundedWhen all New York was woods;I suppose some Indians have been drowndedWhen rains have raised your floods.

"I wonder how such a thund'rin' sounded

When all New York was woods;

I suppose some Indians have been drownded

When rains have raised your floods.

"I wonder if wild stags and buffaloesHav'nt stood where now I stand;Well, 'spose—bein' scared at first—they stub'd their toes,I wonder where they'd land!

"I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes

Hav'nt stood where now I stand;

Well, 'spose—bein' scared at first—they stub'd their toes,

I wonder where they'd land!

"I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'Since sunrise at creation;And this waterfall been underminin'With constant spatteration!

"I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'

Since sunrise at creation;

And this waterfall been underminin'

With constant spatteration!

"That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.While other things describin';My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'dWhile the deluge was subsidin'!

"That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.

While other things describin';

My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'd

While the deluge was subsidin'!

"My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deepWhile I look down on thee.Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheepNiagara would be!

"My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deep

While I look down on thee.

Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheep

Niagara would be!

"And oh! what a tremendous water powerIs wasted o'er its edge!One man might furnish all the world with flourWith a single privilege.

"And oh! what a tremendous water power

Is wasted o'er its edge!

One man might furnish all the world with flour

With a single privilege.

"I wonder how many times the lakes have allBeen emptied over here?Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand CanalFrom hence, I think is queer."

"I wonder how many times the lakes have all

Been emptied over here?

Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand Canal

From hence, I think is queer."

The most graceful verses on Niagara ever written by a resident are the following by the late Colonel Porter, who was an artist both with the pencil and the pen. They were written for a young relative in playful explanation of a sketch he had drawn at the top of a page in her album, representing the Falls in the distance, and an Indian chief and two Europeans in the foreground:

"An Artist, underneath his sign (a masterpiece, of course)Had written, to prevent mistakes, 'This represents a horse':So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err,I think it well my Pen should be my Art's interpreter."A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flowOf waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss—The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago."Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago."What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bowOf the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago."And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,And gaze from off the stone-built perch—hence called the Bridal Tower—And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago."Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;And on their verge our life sweeps on—alternate joy and woe;But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago."Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flowOf waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."

"An Artist, underneath his sign (a masterpiece, of course)

Had written, to prevent mistakes, 'This represents a horse':

So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err,

I think it well my Pen should be my Art's interpreter.

"A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flowOf waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,

Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.

He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flow

Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss—The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss—

The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.

One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;

What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;

What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bowOf the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;

What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;

What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bow

Of the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,

And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;

And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,And gaze from off the stone-built perch—hence called the Bridal Tower—And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,

And gaze from off the stone-built perch—hence called the Bridal Tower—

And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,

By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.

"And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,

To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:

And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;And on their verge our life sweeps on—alternate joy and woe;But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,

But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;

And on their verge our life sweeps on—alternate joy and woe;

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.

"Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flowOf waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."

"Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,

And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:

But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flow

Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."

On turning to the more serious poems that have been written on the theme, the reader naturally experiences a feeling of disappointment that a scene which has filled and charmed so many eyes should have found so fewinterpreters. Only those who see Niagara know how fast the tongue is bound when the thought struggles most for utterance. One who seems to have experienced this feeling thus expresses it:

"I came to see;I thought to write;I am but——dumb."

"I came to see;

I thought to write;

I am but——dumb."

The late Mr. Willis G. Clark thus expands the same sentiment:

"Here speaks the voice of God—let man be dumb,Nor with his vain aspiring hither come.That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,And like a Presence fills the distant woods.These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;For ages here his painted bow has smiled,Mocking the changes and the chance of time—Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!"

"Here speaks the voice of God—let man be dumb,

Nor with his vain aspiring hither come.

That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,

And like a Presence fills the distant woods.

These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;

For ages here his painted bow has smiled,

Mocking the changes and the chance of time—

Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!"

The following from the Table Rock Album was written by the late Lord Morpeth:

NIAGARA FALLS.—BY LORD MORPETH."There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,The stirring of the chambers of the deep;Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;The tread of armies thickening as they come.The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;The brow of beauty and the form of grace,The passion and the prowess of our race;The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,The unresisted sweep of human power;Britannia's trident on the azure sea,America's young shout of Liberty!Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deepTherespend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;And till the conflict of thy surges ceaseThe nations on thy banks repose in peace."

NIAGARA FALLS.—BY LORD MORPETH.

"There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,The stirring of the chambers of the deep;Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;The tread of armies thickening as they come.The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;The brow of beauty and the form of grace,The passion and the prowess of our race;The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,The unresisted sweep of human power;Britannia's trident on the azure sea,America's young shout of Liberty!Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deepTherespend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;And till the conflict of thy surges ceaseThe nations on thy banks repose in peace."

"There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!

Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.

The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,

The stirring of the chambers of the deep;

Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,

The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;

The tread of armies thickening as they come.

The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;

The brow of beauty and the form of grace,

The passion and the prowess of our race;

The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,

The unresisted sweep of human power;

Britannia's trident on the azure sea,

America's young shout of Liberty!

Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deep

Therespend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;

And till the conflict of thy surges cease

The nations on thy banks repose in peace."

The extracts below are from a poem written after a visit to the Falls by José Maria Heredia, and translated from the Spanish by William Cullen Bryant:

"NIAGARA."Tremendous torrent! for an instant hushThe terrors of thy voice, and cast asideThose wide involving shadows, that my eyesMay see the fearful beauty of thy face!* * * * * *"Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy wavesGrow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current thenShoots onward like the irresistible courseOf destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,—The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brainGrows wild, my senses wander, as I gazeUpon the hurrying waters; and my sightVainly would follow, as toward the vergeSweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerableMeet there and madden,—waves innumerableUrge on and overtake the waves before,And disappear in thunder and in foam."They reach, they leap the barrier,—the abyssSwallows insatiable the sinking waves.A thousand rainbows arch them, and woodsAre deafened with the roar. The violent shockShatters to vapor the descending sheets.A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heavesThe mighty pyramid of circling mistTo heaven. * * * *What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,—Ah, the delicious palms,—that on the plainsOf my own native Cuba spring and spreadTheir thickly foliaged summits to the sun,And, in the breathings of the ocean airWave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?"But no, Niagara,—thy forest pinesAre fitter coronal for thee. The palm,The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may growIn gardens and give out their fragrance there,Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it isTo do a nobler office. Generous mindsBehold thee, and are moved and learn to riseAbove earth's frivolous pleasures; they partakeThy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.* * * * * *"Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fearDost overwhelm the soul of him who looksUpon thee, and dost bear it from itself,—Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?What power hath ordered that, when all thy weightDescends into the deep, the swollen wavesRise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?"The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,Covered thy face with clouds and given his voiceTo thy down-rushing waters: he hath girtThy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.I see thy never-resting waters run,And I bethink me how the tide of timeSweeps to eternity."

"NIAGARA.

"Tremendous torrent! for an instant hushThe terrors of thy voice, and cast asideThose wide involving shadows, that my eyesMay see the fearful beauty of thy face!

"Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush

The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside

Those wide involving shadows, that my eyes

May see the fearful beauty of thy face!

* * * * * *

"Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy wavesGrow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current thenShoots onward like the irresistible courseOf destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,—The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brainGrows wild, my senses wander, as I gazeUpon the hurrying waters; and my sightVainly would follow, as toward the vergeSweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerableMeet there and madden,—waves innumerableUrge on and overtake the waves before,And disappear in thunder and in foam.

"Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves

Grow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current then

Shoots onward like the irresistible course

Of destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,—

The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brain

Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze

Upon the hurrying waters; and my sight

Vainly would follow, as toward the verge

Sweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerable

Meet there and madden,—waves innumerable

Urge on and overtake the waves before,

And disappear in thunder and in foam.

"They reach, they leap the barrier,—the abyssSwallows insatiable the sinking waves.A thousand rainbows arch them, and woodsAre deafened with the roar. The violent shockShatters to vapor the descending sheets.A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heavesThe mighty pyramid of circling mistTo heaven. * * * *What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,—Ah, the delicious palms,—that on the plainsOf my own native Cuba spring and spreadTheir thickly foliaged summits to the sun,And, in the breathings of the ocean airWave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?

"They reach, they leap the barrier,—the abyss

Swallows insatiable the sinking waves.

A thousand rainbows arch them, and woods

Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock

Shatters to vapor the descending sheets.

A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heaves

The mighty pyramid of circling mist

To heaven. * * * *

What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,

About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,—

Ah, the delicious palms,—that on the plains

Of my own native Cuba spring and spread

Their thickly foliaged summits to the sun,

And, in the breathings of the ocean air

Wave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?

"But no, Niagara,—thy forest pinesAre fitter coronal for thee. The palm,The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may growIn gardens and give out their fragrance there,Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it isTo do a nobler office. Generous mindsBehold thee, and are moved and learn to riseAbove earth's frivolous pleasures; they partakeThy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.

"But no, Niagara,—thy forest pines

Are fitter coronal for thee. The palm,

The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may grow

In gardens and give out their fragrance there,

Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it is

To do a nobler office. Generous minds

Behold thee, and are moved and learn to rise

Above earth's frivolous pleasures; they partake

Thy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.

* * * * * *

"Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fearDost overwhelm the soul of him who looksUpon thee, and dost bear it from itself,—Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?What power hath ordered that, when all thy weightDescends into the deep, the swollen wavesRise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?

"Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fear

Dost overwhelm the soul of him who looks

Upon thee, and dost bear it from itself,—

Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,

Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?

What power hath ordered that, when all thy weight

Descends into the deep, the swollen waves

Rise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?

"The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,Covered thy face with clouds and given his voiceTo thy down-rushing waters: he hath girtThy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.I see thy never-resting waters run,And I bethink me how the tide of timeSweeps to eternity."

"The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,

Covered thy face with clouds and given his voice

To thy down-rushing waters: he hath girt

Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.

I see thy never-resting waters run,

And I bethink me how the tide of time

Sweeps to eternity."

The lyric from which the following extracts are taken was written by Mr. A. S. Ridgely, of Baltimore, Md.:

"Man lays his scepter on the ocean waste,His footprints stiffen in the Alpine snows,But only God moves visibly in thee,O King of Floods! that with resistless fateDown plungest in thy mighty width and depth.* * * Amazement, terror, fill,Impress and overcome the gazer's soul.Man's schemes and dreams and petty littlenessLie open and revealed. Himself far less—Kneeling before thy great confessional—Than are the bubbles of the passing tides.Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paintThy might of waters, volumed vast and deep;Thy many-toned and all-pervading voice;Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchor'd on the brinkOf the dread precipice; thy double stream,Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired;Thy wat'ry caverns and thy crystal walls;Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade,Boiling and seething like a PhlegethonAmid the wind-swept and convolving spray,Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope.There, of beam and cloud the fair creation,The rainbow arches its ethereal hues.From flint and granite in compacture strong,Not with steel thrice harden'd—but with the waveSoft and translucent—did the new-born TimeChisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever pouredEarth's grand libation to Eternity;Thy misty incense rising unto God—The God that was and is and is to be."

"Man lays his scepter on the ocean waste,

His footprints stiffen in the Alpine snows,

But only God moves visibly in thee,

O King of Floods! that with resistless fate

Down plungest in thy mighty width and depth.

* * * Amazement, terror, fill,

Impress and overcome the gazer's soul.

Man's schemes and dreams and petty littleness

Lie open and revealed. Himself far less—

Kneeling before thy great confessional—

Than are the bubbles of the passing tides.

Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paint

Thy might of waters, volumed vast and deep;

Thy many-toned and all-pervading voice;

Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchor'd on the brink

Of the dread precipice; thy double stream,

Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired;

Thy wat'ry caverns and thy crystal walls;

Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade,

Boiling and seething like a Phlegethon

Amid the wind-swept and convolving spray,

Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope.

There, of beam and cloud the fair creation,

The rainbow arches its ethereal hues.

From flint and granite in compacture strong,

Not with steel thrice harden'd—but with the wave

Soft and translucent—did the new-born Time

Chisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever poured

Earth's grand libation to Eternity;

Thy misty incense rising unto God—

The God that was and is and is to be."

Mrs. Sigourney wrote the following poem, it is said, during a visit to Table Rock:

"APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA."Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robeOf terror and of beauty. God has setHis rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloudsMantled around thy feet. And He doth giveThy voice of thunder power to speak of HimEternally, bidding the lip of manKeep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pourIncense of awe-struck praise.And who can dareTo lift the insect trump of earthly hope,Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublimeOf thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinksBack from thy brotherhood, and his wild wavesRetire abashed; for he doth sometimes seemTo sleep like a spent laborer, and recallHis wearied billows from their vieing play,And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,With everlasting, undecaying tideDost rest not night nor day.The morning stars,When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking firesThat wait the archangel's signal, to dissolveThe solid earth, shall find Jehovah's nameGraven, as with a thousand spears,On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy boughThat lifts itself within thy proud domainDoth gather greenness from thy living spray,And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birdsDo venture boldly near, bathing their wingsAmid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for themTo touch thy garment here, or lightly stirThe snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,And listen to the echoing gate of heavenWithout reproof. But as for us, it seemsScarce lawful with our broken tones to speakFamiliarly of thee. Methinks, to tintThy glorious features with our pencil's point,Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,Were profanation.Thou dost make the soulA wondering witness of thy majesty;And while it rushes with delirious joyTo tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,And check its rapture, with the humbling viewOf its own nothingness, bidding it standIn the dread presence of the Invisible,As if to answer to its God through thee."

"APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA.

"Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robeOf terror and of beauty. God has setHis rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloudsMantled around thy feet. And He doth giveThy voice of thunder power to speak of HimEternally, bidding the lip of manKeep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pourIncense of awe-struck praise.And who can dareTo lift the insect trump of earthly hope,Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublimeOf thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinksBack from thy brotherhood, and his wild wavesRetire abashed; for he doth sometimes seemTo sleep like a spent laborer, and recallHis wearied billows from their vieing play,And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,With everlasting, undecaying tideDost rest not night nor day.The morning stars,When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking firesThat wait the archangel's signal, to dissolveThe solid earth, shall find Jehovah's nameGraven, as with a thousand spears,On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy boughThat lifts itself within thy proud domainDoth gather greenness from thy living spray,And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birdsDo venture boldly near, bathing their wingsAmid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for themTo touch thy garment here, or lightly stirThe snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,And listen to the echoing gate of heavenWithout reproof. But as for us, it seemsScarce lawful with our broken tones to speakFamiliarly of thee. Methinks, to tintThy glorious features with our pencil's point,Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,Were profanation.Thou dost make the soulA wondering witness of thy majesty;And while it rushes with delirious joyTo tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,And check its rapture, with the humbling viewOf its own nothingness, bidding it standIn the dread presence of the Invisible,As if to answer to its God through thee."

"Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robe

Of terror and of beauty. God has set

His rainbow on thy forehead, and the clouds

Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give

Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him

Eternally, bidding the lip of man

Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour

Incense of awe-struck praise.

And who can dare

To lift the insect trump of earthly hope,

Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime

Of thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinks

Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves

Retire abashed; for he doth sometimes seem

To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall

His wearied billows from their vieing play,

And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,

With everlasting, undecaying tide

Dost rest not night nor day.

The morning stars,

When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,

Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires

That wait the archangel's signal, to dissolve

The solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name

Graven, as with a thousand spears,

On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy bough

That lifts itself within thy proud domain

Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,

And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birds

Do venture boldly near, bathing their wings

Amid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for them

To touch thy garment here, or lightly stir

The snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,

Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,

And listen to the echoing gate of heaven

Without reproof. But as for us, it seems

Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak

Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint

Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,

Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,

Were profanation.

Thou dost make the soul

A wondering witness of thy majesty;

And while it rushes with delirious joy

To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,

And check its rapture, with the humbling view

Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand

In the dread presence of the Invisible,

As if to answer to its God through thee."

The following lines were written by the late John G. C. Brainard, who never saw the Falls. They were dashed off at a single short sitting, for the head of the literary column of theConnecticut Mirror, of Hartford, which he then edited:

"THE FALLS OF NIAGARA."The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brainWhile I look upward to thee. It would seemAs if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'And hung his bow upon thine awful front,And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to himWho dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,'The sound of many waters,' and had badeThy flood to chronicle the ages back,And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks."Deep calleth unto deep. And what are weThat hear the question of that voice sublime?Oh! what are all the notes that ever rungFrom War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!Yea, what is all the riot man can makeIn his short life to thy unceasing roar!And yet, bold babbler, what art thou toHimWho drown'd a world and heap'd the waters farAbove its loftiest mountains?—a light waveThat breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."

"THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

"The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brainWhile I look upward to thee. It would seemAs if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'And hung his bow upon thine awful front,And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to himWho dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,'The sound of many waters,' and had badeThy flood to chronicle the ages back,And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks.

"The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain

While I look upward to thee. It would seem

As if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'

And hung his bow upon thine awful front,

And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him

Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,

'The sound of many waters,' and had bade

Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,

And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks.

"Deep calleth unto deep. And what are weThat hear the question of that voice sublime?Oh! what are all the notes that ever rungFrom War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!Yea, what is all the riot man can makeIn his short life to thy unceasing roar!And yet, bold babbler, what art thou toHimWho drown'd a world and heap'd the waters farAbove its loftiest mountains?—a light waveThat breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."

"Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we

That hear the question of that voice sublime?

Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung

From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!

Yea, what is all the riot man can make

In his short life to thy unceasing roar!

And yet, bold babbler, what art thou toHim

Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far

Above its loftiest mountains?—a light wave

That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."

OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTSOF THE WORLD.

Yosemite—Vernal—Nevada—Yellowstone—Shoshone—St. Maurice—Montmorency.

For the purpose of comparison it may be interesting to note other cataracts in the United States, and in other parts of the world, and also some of the remarkable rapids, which may be successors to what were once perpendicular falls. For descriptions of those in foreign countries we are chiefly indebted to the geographical gazetteers and the journals of Humboldt, Livingstone, Bohle, and Stanley; for information regarding the cataracts of Norway we are indebted to Murray's "Norway, Denmark and Sweden."

Yosemite Falls

In the United States, after Niagara, the first to claim our attention are the Falls of the Yosemite, so graphically and scientifically made known to us in the second volume of Professor J. D. Whitney's Geological Report for California.

Before describing them it is necessary to note the physical features of the region in which they are placed. The valley of the Yosemite forms a portion of the bed of the Merced River, which flows through it and passes from it by a wild, deep cañon into the San Joaquin. It is about eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a sharp bend to the west, about two miles from its upper end. To this place the Merced and two tributaries, called the North and South Forks, have come through the most rugged cañons, falling nearly two thousand feet in the space of two miles.

Near the southerly end of the valley is the remarkable rock El Capitan, an almost vertical cliff 3,600 feet high, and one of the grandest objects in the valley. Just above this is the imposing pile called the Cathedral Rocks, and behind these, connected with them, two slender and beautiful granite columns called the Cathedral Spires.

Two miles above, on the opposite side, is the row of summits, rising like steps one above another, named the Three Brothers. On the other side, in the angle of the valley, stands Sentinel Rock, so called from its fancied resemblance to a watch-tower. Three-fourths of a mile in a southerly direction from this is the Sentinel Dome, more than four thousand feet high and affording from its summit a most magnificent view. Following up the North Fork, just at the entrance of the cañon, rises the Half Dome, the grandest and loftiest in the Yosemite Valley, an inaccessible crest of granite, having an elevation—according to Prof. Brewer—of 6,000 feet. On theopposite side of the same cañon stands the North Dome, another of those rounded masses of granite so characteristic of the sierras. Appearing as a buttress to this is Washington's Column, and below this the Royal Arches, an immense arched cavity, formed by the giving way and sliding down of portions of the rock, and presenting, in the upper part, a vaulted appearance.

In the angle formed by the Merced with the South Fork is the symmetrical and beautiful North Dome. This valley is the most remarkable basin thus far found in the world, and in view of its gigantic and impressive scenery we cannot but marvel at its size—a mere cup or trough in the midst of one of the sublimest of geological formations. This tiny strip of wonder-land is, as we have seen, only eight miles long and less than three-quarters of a mile average width.

Bridal Veil Fall

Beginning at the south-westerly end of the valley we first reach, in ascending it, the Bridal Veil, formed by one of the torrents that feed the Merced River. It is 1,000 feet in height, the body of water not being large, but sufficient to produce the most picturesque effect. As it is swayed backward and forward by the force of the wind, it seems to flutter like a white veil.

Near the head of the valley, where it turns sharply toward the west, we have before us the Yosemite Fall. "From the edge of the cliff to the bottom of the valley the perpendicular distance is, in round numbers, 2,550 feet. The fall is not one perpendicular sheet. There is first a vertical descent of 1,500 feet, when the water strikes onwhat seems to be a projecting ledge, but which is in reality a shelf or recess about a third of a mile back from the front of the lower portion of the cliff. Across this shelf the water rushes downward in a foaming torrent on a slope, equal to a perpendicular height of 626 feet, when it makes a final plunge of about 400 feet on to a low talus of rock at the foot of the precipice. As these various falls are in one vertical plane, the effect of the whole from the opposite side of the valley is nearly as grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the descent was made in one sheet from the top to the bottom. The mass of water in the 1,500 feet fall is too great to allow of its being entirely broken up into spray, but it widens very much as it descends, and as the sheet vibrates backward and forward with the varying pressure of the wind, which acts with immense force on this long column of water, the effect is indescribably grand."

The first fall in the cañon of the Merced is the Vernal, "a simple perpendicular sheet 475 feet high, the rock behind it being a perfectly square-cut mass of granite. Ascending to the summit of the Vernal Fall by a series of ladders, and passing a succession of rapids and cascades of great beauty, we come to the last great fall of the Merced—the Nevada, which has a descent of 639 feet, and near its summit has a peculiar twist caused by the mass of water falling on a projecting ledge which throws it off to one side, adding greatly to the picturesque effect. It must be ranked as one of the finest cataracts in the world, taking into consideration its height, thevolume and purity of the water, and the whole character of the scenery which surrounds it."

The fall from end to end of the valley proper is about fifty feet. "Its smooth and brilliant color, diversified as it is with groves of trees and carpeted with showy flowers, offers the most wonderful contrast to the towering masses of neutral and light purple-tinted rocks by which it is surrounded. Its elevation above the sea is estimated at 4,060 feet, and the cliffs and domes about it from 3,000 to 5,000 feet higher." It is a source of great satisfaction to the lover of nature that this famous and favored territory, so studded with grandeur and fretted with beauty, has wisely been set apart by Governmental authority to minister to the higher needs and better instincts of man.

Vernal Falls

The valley of the Yellowstone east of the Rocky Mountains in the north, like that of the Yosemite west of the sierras of the Pacific slope, is another wonder-land, presenting a bewildering variety of land and water formations which, in turn, awe, charm, fascinate, or amuse, but always astonish, the beholder.

Among the most interesting objects in the Yellowstone Valley are the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. "No language," says Professor Hayden, "can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty of these scenes, and it is only through the eye that the mind can gather anything like an adequate conception of them. The two falls are not more than a fourth of a mile apart. Above the upper fall the Yellowstone flows through a grassy, meadow-likevalley with a calm, steady current, giving no warning until very near the fall that it is about to rush over a precipice 140 feet high, and then, within a quarter of a mile, again leap down a distance of 350 feet. After the waters roll over the upper descent they flow with great rapidity along the upper flat, rocky bottom which spreads out to near double the width above the falls, and continues thus until near the fall, when the channel again contracts and the waters seem, as it were, to gather into a compact mass and plunge over the descent of 350 feet in detached drops of foam as white as snow."

On the Snake or Lewis River, the largest tributary of the Columbia River, are three falls, the greatest of which is the Shoshone in Idaho, where the river, with a width of six hundred yards, is said to be of so great a depth that it discharges nearly as much water as the Niagara, over a precipice about two hundred feet high. This grand fall is situated in the midst of magnificent scenery, and is surrounded by a fertile country.

Another lesser Niagara is found in the north-east, in the river St. Maurice, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, which falls into it from the north below Three Rivers and about twenty-two miles above its mouth. The fall—the Shawenegan—is the same height as Niagara, and while the width and depth of the river are not given, the volume of water pouring over the precipice is said to be forty thousand feet per second, a supply sufficient to produce a grand and impressive cataract.

Eight miles below Quebec the river Montmorencydischarges directly into the St. Lawrence, over a cliff two hundred and fifty feet high, with a width of one hundred and fifty feet. The falling foam-flecked sheet presents a beautiful and picturesque appearance. It is unique as being the only known instance in which a tributary falls perpendicularly into the main stream.

Tequendama—Kaiteeur—Paulo Affonso—Keel-fos—Riunkan-fos—Sarp-fos—Staubbach—Zambesi or Victoria—Murchison—Cavery—Schaffhausen.

In South America is the remarkable fall of Tequendama, on the river Bogota, which, at this point, is only one hundred and forty feet wide, and is divided into numerous narrow and deep channels which finally unite in two of nearly the same width, and make a perpendicular plunge of six hundred and fifty feet to the plain below. "The cataract," says Humboldt, "forms an assemblage of everything that is sublimely picturesque in beautiful scenery. It is not one of the highest falls, but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so lofty a height, precipitates so voluminous a mass of water. The body, when it first parts from its bed, forms a broad arch of glassy appearance; a little lower down it assumes a fleecy form, and ultimately, in its progress, it shoots forth in millions of smaller masses, which chase each other like sky-rockets. The attending noises are quite astounding, and dense clouds of vapor soar upward, presenting beautiful rainbows in their ascent. What gives a remarkable appearance to the scene is the great difference in the vegetation surrounding different parts of it." At the summit the traveler "finds himself surrounded, not only withbegonias and the yellow bark tree (Sandal), but with oaks, elms, and other plants, the growth of which recall to mind the vegetation of Europe, when suddenly he discovers, as from a terrace and at his feet, a country producing the palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. The cause of the difference is not ascertained, the difference of altitude—one hundred and seventy-five metres—not being sufficient to exert much influence on the atmosphere."

Nevada Falls

Another and grander South American fall, of comparatively recent discovery, is the Kaiteeur, so called, in the river Potaro, a large affluent of the Essequibo, the largest river in British Guiana. The volume of water is greater than that in the Bogota, and falls in a single column of dazzling whiteness seven hundred and forty feet into a vast basin below. The ascending cloud of spray, the solemn monotone of the descending flood, the extreme wildness of the primitive forest, and the luxuriant and abundant growth of tropical vines and shrubs, and their gorgeous colors, make the scene impressive.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

"There is in Brazil," says Elisée Reclus, "not far from Bahia, the wonderful cataract of San Francisco, known by the name of Paulo Affonso. At the foot of a long slope over which it glides in rapids, the river, one of the most considerable of the South American continent, whirls round and round as it enters a kind of funnel-shaped cavity, roughened with rocks, and suddenly contracting its width, dashes against three rocky masses reared up like towers at the edge of the abyss; then dividing into four vast columns of water, it plunges down into a gulf two hundred and forty-six feet in depth. The principal column,being confined in a perpendicular passage, is scarcely sixty-six feet in width, but it must be of an enormous thickness (depth), as it forms almost the whole body of the river. Half way up, the channel which contains it bends to the left, and the falling mass, changing its direction, passes under a vertical column of water, which penetrates through it from one side to the other, and breaking it up into a chaos of surges, converts it into a sea of foam. Sometimes the white, misty vapor may be seen, and the thunder of the water may be heard at a distance of more than fifteen miles." The spray and roar of Niagara are often seen and heard at Toronto, forty miles away, across Lake Ontario.

In Norway is found the highest perpendicular fall in the world that is constantly supplied with water. It is the Keel-fos, formed by a mountain stream that falls two thousand feet into the Navöens Fjord near Gudhaven, but the water becomes a mere billowy bank of mist before it reaches the bottom.

The Riunkan-fos is another Norwegian cataract in the outlet of Lake Mjösvard, which pours through a wild, rock-studded slope until it reaches a precipice, on the brink of which it is divided by a huge mass of rock into two channels. Thence it falls eight hundred and eighty feet into a dark basin at its foot, from which water-rockets and sharp jets of foam shoot up and out in all directions. The intense whiteness of the fleecy column is indescribable.

A still more famous Norwegian cataract is the Sarp-fos in the Stor-Elven, formed by the junction of theLougen and Glommen, the largest of the Norwegian rivers. Like the Riunkan-fos the stream is greatly contracted in a rocky gorge, and at the edge of the cliff is divided into two channels which, however, soon unite in a fall of one hundred feet upon huge masses of rock, through and over which it rushes tumultuously for a short distance, and then flows quietly into the sea. The volume of water is unusually large for a purely mountain river, being in the gorge at the top of the fall one hundred and fifty feet wide and forty feet deep. The massive and intensely white column contrasted with the dark green foliage of the solemn pines, and the darker rocks about it, and the deep blue water into which it falls, produce a vivid impression on the mind of the beholder. The Stor-Elven here presents the curious phenomenon of a stream changing, not from a perpendicular fall to a rapid, but the reverse, from a rapid to a perpendicular fall. A great portion of the right bank of the river at the fall, and for a considerable distance below, is chiefly composed of a stiff blue clay, and the river once flowed past Sarpsborg, a mile below, in a succession of magnificent rapids. At that time a superb mansion with numerous out-buildings stood at the termination of the rapids. On the 5th of February, 1702, the mansion, together with everything in and about it, sunk into an abyss six hundred feet deep, and was entirely buried beneath the water. The walls of the house were of unusual strength and thickness, with several high towers, but the whole was buried out of sight. Fourteen persons and two hundred head of cattle were also engulfed. The catastrophe was caused by the washingout of the blue clay, and the undermining of the bank, which then toppled over into the watery chasm.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone

In Switzerland is the Staubbach—dust-stream—a well known fall in the canton of Berne. It has a sheer descent of nearly nine hundred feet, in which the water is converted into spray that is easily moved by the wind, thus giving it a singularly beautiful resemblance to a white curtain floating in the air.

In South Africa, Livingstone has made the public acquainted with that extraordinary hiatus in the crust of the earth in which the great river Zambesi is swallowed up. A stream more than a thousand yards wide, dotted with islands, flowing between fertile banks clothed with the luxuriant and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, without the least preliminary break or rapid, suddenly drops into a dark chasm of unknown depth, which, repeatedly doubling on itself, pursues its tortuous course some forty miles through the hills before emerging again into the sunlight. "From Kalai," says Livingstone, "after some twenty minutes' sail we came in sight of the columns of vapor appropriately called smoke. * * * Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees. The tops of the columns at this distance (six miles) appeared to mingle with the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful." At the brink of the chasm he found the river divided into two channels of unequal width by a large island called the "Garden," on account of its rich vegetation. "Creeping with awe to the verge I peered down into a large rent which had been made frombank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. In looking down into this fissure on the right of the island one sees nothing but a dense, white cloud. From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred feet high; then, condensing, it changed its hue into that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower. This shower fell chiefly on the opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the top there stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet. From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf, but as they flow down the steep wall the column of vapor in its ascent licks them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are constantly running down, but never reach the bottom."

The Staubbach, Switzerland

In Northern Africa the Murchison Falls in the White Nile, between lakes Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi, were discovered by Sir Samuel Baker, and are described by him. "Upon rounding the corner a magnificent sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about three hundred feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage, and, rushing through a gap that cleft the river exactly before us, the river itself, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow gorge scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through the rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap ofabout one hundred and twenty feet perpendicularly into a dark abyss below. The fall of water was snow-white, which had a superb effect, as it contrasted with the dark cliffs that walled the river, while graceful palms of the tropics and wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view."

A writer in Hamilton's "East Indian Gazetteer" gives us an account of the cataract of Gungani Chuki in the northern branch of the river Cavery. "Much the larger stream is broken by projecting masses of rock into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller torrents. The first plunges into the river below from a height variously estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the others, impeded in their course by intervening rocks, work their way with many fantastic evolutions to a distance about two hundred feet from the base of the precipice, where they all unite to make a single final plunge, while the other branch of the river precipitates itself in two columns from a cliff of the same height, and standing nearly at right angles with the main fall. The surrounding scenery is wild in the extreme, and the whole presents a very imposing spectacle.

"A second cataract is formed by the southern arm of the Cavery about a mile below. The channel here spreads out into a magnificent expanse, which is divided into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall with infinite variety of configuration over a precipice of more than one hundred feet, but presenting no single body equal to the Gungani Chuki, but the whole forming an amphitheatreof cataracts, meeting the eye in every direction along a sweep of perhaps 90°, and combined with scenery of such sequestered wildness that for picturesque effect it is perhaps without parallel in the world." This branch of the stream is used to irrigate the province of Tanjore, and the coming of its floods is celebrated by the natives with special festivities, as they consider the river to be one of their most beneficent deities.

The beautiful and picturesque fall of the Rhine below Schaffhausen, where the water falls sixty-five feet in a single column, is the admiration of all travelers.

Victoria Falls, Zambesi

Famous Rapids and Cascades—Niagara—Amazon—Orinoco—Parana—Nile—Livingstone.

In all its features and characteristics the great water-course, including the great lakes, which feeds the Niagara, is peculiar and interesting. It is more than two thousand miles long; its utmost surface-sources are scarcely six hundred feet above tide-water; its bottom, at its greater depth, is more than four hundred feet below tide-water. In all its course it receives less than two score of affluents, and only two of these, the St. Maurice and the Saugeen, bring to it any considerable quantity of water, and no flood in any of them discolors its emerald surface from shore to shore. Only fierce gales of wind bring up from its own depths the sediment that can discolor its whole face. Far the greater portion of its water-supply is drawn from countless hidden springs, lying deep in the bosom of the earth. In all the elements of beautiful, picturesque, and enchanting scenery it is unrivaled.

The rapids of the Niagara just above the Falls, from the Leaping Rock down through the Witches' Caldron to the edge of the precipice, are nearly a mile in width, and discharge ten million cubic feet of water each minute. But for a combination of grandeur andbeauty, and for imparting a sense of almost infinite power, nothing can surpass the Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls, where the ten million cubic feet of water are compressed into a tortuous, tumultuous channel, less than four hundred feet wide.

There are many lesser rapids in the St. Lawrence, from the Thousand Islands to Montreal, the passage of which in the large lake steamers is an exciting voyage. The constant changes of scenery at every turn and in every rood of progress is almost bewildering. Then the alternation of rapids and broad expanses of river, the bird-like motion as the steamer sinks and sails down through the rapids, and the sense of relief when it seems to rise and glide over the smooth river, vary and increase the excitement. There is developed in one of those expanses a peculiar geological feature called the Split Rock. The name is strictly accurate. The descending steamer finds but one narrow channel, a little more than its own width, through which it can pass in a stream more than half a mile wide. It lies between the sharp corners of a broad, wedge-shaped cleavage in an immense rock which, by some convulsion of nature—not by any abrading process of the elements—has been literally split downward more than eighty feet. The last crooked and turbulent rapid passed just before reaching Montreal is the terror of the river pilots, and they never attempt its passage except by daylight. From Montreal to the Gulf of St. Lawrence the constantly deepening channel flows with an unbroken current.

It is a notable fact that the great river of rivers, which drains a larger territory than any other on the globe, the Amazon proper, has a fall of only two hundred and ten feet in a course of three thousand miles, and while it has a deep channel and a uniform current of three miles an hour for its whole length, it has no broken rapids. But in its many great affluents rapids are numerous, though not so famous as those found in other South American rivers.

The river Orinoco, more remarkable in some respects than the Amazon, receives the waters of four hundred and thirty-six rivers, besides two thousand smaller streams. It is one thousand five hundred miles long, is navigable for seven hundred and eighty miles, and at Bolivar, two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, it is four miles wide and three hundred and ninety feet deep. Its famous rapids of the Apure and Maypure were visited by Humboldt. At the latter, the river is two thousand eight hundred and forty yards wide, and plunges down an inclined plane about three miles long, making a fall equal to forty feet in vertical height. It is dotted with innumerable islands which furnish a striking contrast to the vast sheet of white water, presenting the singular appearance of an eruption of shrub-crowned rocks in a sea of foam. These islands, and its great width, constitute the peculiar characteristics of this chute.

In the grandest of the South American rapids, those of the river Parana, a vast volume of water from a channel nearly two and a half miles in width is compressed into a gorge only sixty-six yards wide, through whichthe flood dashes down a slope of sixty degrees inclination and fifty-six feet perpendicular fall. Its roar—a perpetual monotone—is heard thirty miles away.

Hardly less remarkable than the rapids of the South American rivers are those of the two great African rivers, the Nile and the Congo, or, as Mr. Stanley has re-christened the latter, the Livingstone. The Nile may be compared to a vast tree with its huge delta-roots in the Mediterranean, its boll extending up through a rainless desert nearly one thousand five hundred miles to meet its numerous branches which stretch up into the mountains of Abyssinia, and the vast basin south of the equator that contains the great lakes of Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi. From these branches in each year, at a fixed season, are poured down the sediment-charged waters which irrigate and fertilize an immense valley that would otherwise be only a parched and desert waste.

Without specifying the data for his calculations, Mr. Stanley, who saw them both, states that the volume of the Livingstone is ten times greater than that of the Nile. Its course is interrupted by two series of cataracts, or rather a combination of cascades and rapids. The first series, seven in number, occurs within four hundred miles of its source, and consists of the Stanley Falls, occupying different points in a channel sixty-two miles long. Its banks are of moderate elevation above its bed, and in the long, bright, equatorial days the leaping, sparkling, foaming waters present a scene of dazzling brilliancy. In the second series, named by Mr. Stanley the Livingstone Falls, there are thirty-two cascades, moreextensive and imposing than those of the first. The river, after a gentle descent of nearly one thousand miles, and after receiving many large affluents, reaches the first of these impetuous torrents where all its waters are compressed into a narrow gorge only four hundred and fifty feet wide, and at a single point near the right bank where a sounding was possible, Mr. Stanley found a depth of one hundred and thirty-eight feet.

The remaining thirty-one cascades are distributed along a channel one hundred and fifty-five miles in length, between banks from fifty to six hundred feet high, and having a fall of one thousand one hundred feet. The dimensions here given indicate that these rapids are second, in power and impressiveness, only to those above the Whirlpool of Niagara.

Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.

Back to Index Next