may perceive the propriety and beauty of the figure representing Him, who is the "Rock of Ages," as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," to those who fly to him for refuge.

"While viewing thee

I think how grand and beautiful is God,
When man has not intruded on his works,
But left his bright creation unimpaired.

Blessed scenes!

it is no mortal touch

That sharpened thy rough brow, or fringed thy skirts
With coarse luxuriance ;-'twas the lightning's force
Dashed its strong flash across thee, and did point
The crag; or, with his stormy thunderbolt,

The Almighty Architect himself disjoined

Yon rock; then flung it down where now it hangs,
And said-do thou lie there."

The ferryman, Mr. S. L. Ware, on the American, and Mr. J. Shultersburgh, on the Canada side, are both very civil and accommodating, well acquainted with their business, and able to give much information to visitors. Whenever required, they take parties out on pleasure or fishing excursions, and thus enable them to take a more extensive view of the gorgeous river-scenery. The construction of a carriage-road is contemplated, down these perpendicular banks, so as to have a ferry for teams and carriages; and when it is completed, must become a great and important thoroughfare for travellers.

Directly opposite the Falls on the Canada side, an enterprising Company, a few years since, purchased the grounds formerly owned by Mr. Forsyth, projected and laid out a city, which they called "The City of the Falls," and have made some improvements. They intended to have schools, churches, libraries, ball and promenade rooms, baths, public gardens, and indeed every thing considered necessary to an elegant and fashionable city. The lots and streets are laid out with much judgment and taste; but whether the anticipations of the enterprising projectors will ever be realized, other generations must tell.

CANADA VIEWS-CITY OF THE FALLS.

53

The table-land on the river's bank below the Falls, and opposite the ferry, owned by Captain Creighton, has also been surveyed into lots for a village, which is called "Clifton;" and here, directly at the top of the ferry-road, stands the Clifton House, erected by Mr. Chrysler, which contains upwards of sixty rooms, and will accommodate nearly one hundred guests. This is a very delightful site for a village, and is one of the most pleasant places of resort on that side of the river. The following stanza of Byron, is beautifully descriptive of this place:

"From thy shady brow,

Thou small, but favoured spot of holy ground!

Where'er we gaze, around, above, below,

What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found!

Rock, river, forest, mountain, all abound,

And bluest skies that harmonize the whole;

Beneath, the distant torrent's rushing sound

Tells where the volumed cataract doth roll

Between those hanging rocks, that shock yet please the soul."

In ascending the high bank the visitor is presented with some delightful views of the Falls and rapids, and of the surrounding country. The two principal hotels on the Canada side, are the Ontario House, on the high bank nearly opposite the great Fall, and the Clifton House, at the head of the carriage-road, both of which have ample accommodations. The Pavilion was totally destroyed by fire, in February,

1839.

Strangers who have never visited the Falls, have an idea that the surrounding country must be mountainous, like that in the vicinity of most other Falls; but the general aspect of the country here for a great extent on both sides of the river, above and below, is that of an almost perfect level, and nothing indicates the existence of the river or the Falls, except the constantly ascending and floating mist, and a subterraneous, thundering roar. Below the Falls, the earth and rocks appear as though they had been suddenly rent asunder and separated one-fourth of a mile apart, in order, by the

perpendicular chasm thus made, to form a channel for the river. The corresponding portions of rock are as regular in the succession of their strata, as would be the leaves and cover of a book, if they were bisected and placed opposite each other. The whole country in Canada, between the two lakes, except a narrow strip bordering upon Lake Ontario, is generally level, rich and productive, and is also becoming quite populous. In visiting the Canada side, you can cross the river at Black Rock, Lewiston, or at the Falls; and can always have carriages on that side, to transport you whither you choose. Stage-coaches run from the Hotels to Queenston and Niagara, daily; also to Chippewa and Buffalo. From Chippewa, the steamboat Red Jacket runs daily to Buffalo, leaving Chippewa in the afternoon. No one should fail of visiting the Canada side, as this grand and unparalleled scene of nature's wonders, the fame whereof is spread over the world, should be viewed and contemplated from every position.

NIAGARA.-BY WILLIS, IN 1835.

"He was born when the Crab was ascending,
And all his affairs go backward."—Love for Love.

It was in my senior vacation, and I was bound to Niagara for the first time. My companion was a specimen of the human race found rarely in Vermont, and never elsewhere. He was nearly seven feet high, walked as if every joint in his body was in a hopeless state of dislocation, and was hideously, ludicrously, and painfully ugly. This whimsical exterior contained the conscious spirit of Apollo, and the poetical susceptibility of Keats. He had left his plough age of twenty-five, and

in the green mountains at the entered as a poor student at the University, where, with the usual policy of a college government, he was allotted

to me as a compulsory chum, on the principle of breakingin a colt with a cart-horse. I began with laughing at him, and ended with loving him. He rejoiced in the common appellation of Job Smith-a synonymous soubriquet, as I have elsewhere remarked, which was substituted by his classmates for his baptismal name of Forbearance. Getting Job away with infinite difficulty from a young Indian girl who was selling moccasins in the streets of Buffalo, (a straight, slender creature of eighteen, stepping about like a young leopard, cold, stern, and beautiful,) we crossed the outlet of Lake Erie at the ferry, and took horses on the northern bank of Niagara river, to ride to the Falls. It was a noble stream, as broad as the Hellespont, and as blue as the sky, and I could not look at it, hurrying on headlong to its fearful leap, without a feeling almost of dread.

There was only one thing to which Job was more susceptible than to the beauties of nature, and that was the beauty of woman. His romance had been stirred by the lynx-eyed Siouse, who took her money for the moccasins with such haughty and thankless superbia, and full five miles of the river, with all the gorgeous flowers and rich shrubs upon its brim, might as well have been Lethe for his admiration. The roar of the Falls was soon audible, and Job's enthusiasm and my own, if the increased pace of our Naragansett ponies meant anything, were fully aroused. The river broke into rapids, foaming furiously on its course, and the subterranean thunder increased like a succession of earthquakes, each louder than the last. I had never heard a sound so broad and universal. It was impossible not to suspend the breath, and feel absorbed, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, in the great phenomenon with which the world seemed trembling to its centre. A tall misty cloud, changing its shape continually, as it felt the shocks of the air, rose up before us, and with our eyes fixed upon it, and our horses at a hard gallop, we found ourselves unexpectedly in front of a vast white-hotel! which suddenly interposed between the cloud and our vision. Job slapped his legs against the

sides of his panting beast, and urged him on, but a long fence on either side the immense building, cut him off from all approach; and having assured ourselves that there was no access to Niagara, except through the back-door of the gentleman's house, who stood with his hat off to receive us, we wished no good to his Majesty's province of Upper Canada, and dismounted,

"Will you visit the Falls before dinner, gentlemen ?" asked mine host.

"No, sir!" thundered Job, in a voice that, for a moment, stopped the roar of the cataract.

He was like an improvisatore, who had been checked by some rude birbone in the very crisis of his eloquence. He would not have gone to the Falls that night to have saved the world. We dined.

As it was the first meal we had ever eaten under a monarchy, I proposed the health of the king; but Job refused it.

There was an impertinent profanity, he said, in fencing up the entrance to Niagara, that was a greater encroachment on natural liberty than the stamp-act.

He would drink to no king or parliament under which such a thing could be conceived possible. I left the table, and walked to the window.

He flounced up like a snake touched by a torpedo, and sprang to the window. Job had never seen the lady whose name produced such a sensation, but he had heard more of her than of Niagara. So had every soul of the fifteen millions of inhabitants between us and the Gulf of Mexico. She was one of those miracles of nature that occur, perhaps, once in the rise and fall of an empire-a woman of the perfect beauty of an angel, with the most winning human sweetness of character and manner. She was kind, playful, unaffected, and radiantly, gloriously beautiful. I am sorry I may not mention her name, for in more chivalrous times she would have been a character of history. Everybody who has been in America, however, will know whom I am