which no language can convey. If towering mountains and craggy rocks surrounded Niagara, much of its first effect would be lost. As it is, it is an image whose whole contour is at once seen, and the view unbroken by extraneous objects. Even sound is subservient to the impression made upon the heart. None is heard except the eternal war of the cataract."

The current for more than a mile above the Falls is so swift, that accidents not unfrequently happen from the foolhardiness of persons attempting to cross the river in small boats, near that part of it where the rapids commence. Many sad recitals were given us; but we took more pleasure in turning to the account of the almost miraculons escape of Chateaubriand from being thrown over the precipice, above the Falls themselves,-an instance of good fortune not unworthy of being noticed. "On his arrival he had repaired to the Fall, having the bridle of his horse twisted round his arm. While he was stopping to look down, a rattlesnake stirred among the neighbouring bushes, the horse was startled, reared, and ran back towards the abyss. He could not disengage his arm from the bridle, and the horse, more and more frightened, dragged him after him. His fore-legs were all but off the ground, and squatting on the brink of the precipice, he was upheld merely by the bridle. He gave himself up for lost, when the animal astonished at this new danger, threw himself forward with a pirouette, and sprang to a distance of ten feet from the edge of the precipice." Those who have dreamed that they were on the point of being thrown over a perpendicular cliff, and who awaking, find themselves well, and comfortably in bed, will be able to form some idea of the sensation of this celebrated person at such a time. The great lakes of the St. Lawrence contain a mass more than one-half the fresh water on this planet-the solid contents being, according to Darby, 1,547,011,792,360,000, and the superficial area. in square miles being 72,930, a quantity, which would form a cubic column of nearly twenty-two miles on each side.

WELLAND CANAL.-BROCK'S MONUMENT.-BURNING SPRING.

EIGHT miles west from the Falls is the Welland Canal, connecting the waters of Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, and affording a passage for sloops and schooners of 125 tons burthen. This canal commences at Port Maitland, near the mouth of Grand River, on Lake Erie, 48 miles west of Buffalo. It runs in a straight line across Wainfleet Marsh, crosses the Chippewa river by means of an aqueduct, and enters Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Twelve-Mile Creek. It is 42 miles in length, 56 feet in width, and varies from 8 to 16 feet in depth. The whole descent from one lake to another, 334 feet, is accomplished by means of 37 locks. At the deep-cut, on what is called the mountain-ridge, the excavation is 45 feet in depth; and 1,477,700 cubic feet of earth, and 1,890,000 cubic feet of rock were removed. The locks here are 22 by 100 feet, and west of this ridge they are 45 by 125 feet. The canal was commenced in the year 1824, and completed in five years, and cost over 1,000,000 dollars. A part of the stock is owned by individuals in the State of New York. The company own all the land along the line of the canal, including the hydraulic privileges; and another tract, containing about 16,000 acres, has been granted to them by the British Government.

Six miles and a half north from the Falls, upon Queenston Heights, is General Brock's Monument, constructed of freestone, 126 feet high, and admitting an ascent to the top by a flight of 170 winding steps. From this eminence, the country around, including the picturesque lake - and - river scenery, may be seen for fifty miles. The following is the inscription on this Monument:

"The Legislature of Upper Canada has dedicated this Monument to the many civil and military services of the late Sir JAMES BROCK, Knight, Commander of the most Honorable Order of the Bath, Provincial Lieutenant

Governor and Major-General, commanding His Majesty's forces therein. He fell in action, on the 13th of October, 1812, honoured and beloved by those whom he governed, and deplored by his Sovereign, to whose services his life had been devoted. His remains are deposited in this vault, as also his Aid-de-Camp, Lieutenant-Colonel John McDonald, who died of his wounds the 14th of October, 1812, received the day before, in action."

One mile above the Falls, near the rapids, on the Canada side, is the Burning Spring. This is in a state of constant ebullition, and from it issues a stream of sulphurated hydrogen gas, which quickly ignites on the touch of a candle, and burns with a brilliant flame. The spring is enclosed in a barrel, which collects the gas, and lets it through a tube inserted at the top. This gas might, without doubt, be communicated by pipes to neighbouring buildings, and substituted for candles and lamps. The keeper of the spring, Mr. J. Conklin, expects a small fee from visitors, for his trouble. There are strong indications at this Spring of a bed of coal near, but no effort has yet been made to discover it.

NIAGARA IN WINTER.-BY MRS. JAMESON.

January 29, 1837.

WELL! I have seen these cataracts of Niagara, which have thundered in my mind's ear ever since I can rememberwhich have been my "childhood's thought, my youth's desire," since first my imagination was awakened to wonder and to wish. I have beheld them; and shall I whisper it to you ?-but, O tell it not among the Philistines !-I wish I had not! I wish they were still a thing to behold-a thing to be imagined, hoped, and anticipated-something to live for the reality has displaced from my mind an illusion far more magnificent than itself-I have no words for my utter

disappointment: yet I have not the presumption to suppose that all I have heard and read of Niagara is false or exaggerated that every expression of astonishment, enthusiasm, rapture, is affectation or hyperbole. No! it must be my own fault. Terni, and some of the Swiss cataracts leaping from their mountains, have affected me a thousand times more than all the immensity of Niagara. Oh, I could beat myself! and now there is no help!-the first moment, the first impression, is over-is lost; though I should live a thousand years, long as Niagara itself shall roll, I can never see it again for the first time. Something is gone that cannot be restored. What has come over my soul and senses? I am no longer Anna-I am metamorphosed-I am translated-I am an ass's head, a clod, a wooden spoon, a fat weed growing on Lethe's bank, a stock, a stone, a petrifaction,—for have I not seen Niagara, the wonder of wonders; and felt-no words can tell what disappointment! But to take things in their order: We set off for the Falls yesterday morning, with the intention of spending the day there, sleeping, and returning the next day to Niagara. The distance is fourteen miles, by a road winding along the banks of the Niagara river, and over the Queenston heights; and beautiful must this land be in summer, since even now it is beautiful. The flower-garden, the trim shrubbery, the lawn, the meadow with its hedgerows, when frozen" up and wrapt in snow, always give me the idea of something not only desolate, but dead. Nature is the ghost of herself, and trails a spectral pall; I always feel a kind of pity-a touch of melancholy-when at this season I have wandered among withered shrubs and buried flower-beds; but here in the wilderness, where nature is wholly independent of art, she does not die, nor yet mourn; she lies down to rest on the bosom of Winter, and the aged one folds her in his robe of ermine and jewels, and rocks her with his hurricanes, and hushes her to sleep. How still it was! how calm, how vast the glittering white waste and the dark purple forests! The sun shone out, and the sky was without a cloud; yet we saw

few people, and for many miles the hissing of our sleigh, as we flew along upon our dazzling path, and the tinkling of the sleigh-bells, were the only sounds we heard.

When we were within four or five miles of the Falls, I stopped the sleigh from time to time to listen for the roar of the cataracts, but the state of the atmosphere was not favourable for the transmission of sound, and the silence was unbroken.

Such was the deep, monotonous tranquillity which prevailed on every side-so exquisitely pure and vestal-like, the robe in which all nature lay slumbering about us, I could scarce believe that this whole frontier is not only remarkable for the prevalence of vice-but of dark and desperate crime.

Mr. A, who is a magistrate, pointed out to me a lonely house by the wayside, where, on a dark stormy night in the preceding winter, he had surprised and arrested a gang of forgers and coiners; it was a fearful description. For some time my patience had been thus beguiled-impatience and suspense much like those of a child at a theatre before the curtain rises. My imagination had been so impressed by the vast height of the Falls, that I was constantly looking in an upward direction, when, as we came to the brow of a hill, my companion suddenly checked the horses, and exclaimed, "The Falls!"

I was not, for an instant, aware of their presence; we were yet at a distance, looking down upon them; and I saw at one glance a flat extensive plain; the sun having withdrawn its beams for a moment, there was neither light, nor shade, nor colour. In the midst were seen the two great cataracts, but merely as a feature in the wide landscape. The sound was by no means overpowering, and the clouds of spray, which Fanny Butler called so beautifully the "everlasting incense of the waters," now condensed ere they rose by the excessive cold, fell round the base of the cataracts in fleecy folds, just concealing that furious embrace of the waters above, and the waters below. All the associa