American Watchman And Delaware Advertiser

THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

An accomplished traveller and scholar of the first attainments, while traversing the interior of the United States, and particularly the lake countries, has furnished some interesting sketches for Poulson's American Advertiser. From which we extract the following as a specimen of the author's style, and as a view of the scene which he describes, which will, no doubt, afford gratification to the reader:

Col. Star.

"There is not in the whole world a more august and magnificent spectacle, than the Cataract of Niagara. All the elements of beauty, sublimity, terror, awe and ecstasy, are here blended in one great and glorious communion, and the mind may banquet for ever upon new and surpassing revolutions. It is not a scene over which the vision may travel without pause, and the heart follow without interest. It must not be looked upon, but studied: and the eye must be disciplined, and the soul dilated, until they can embrace all its vastness. No one has ever yet visited the Falls, with an adequate idea of their appearance. It is impossible to convey to the stranger any vivid and distinct conception of their character. Language sinks beneath the burthen of their colossal grandeur, and the mute descriptions of the canvass exhibit but a suffand awkward burlesque of their living and moving terrors. To describe an object with force and beauty, we must draw our similitudes and illustrations from a higher class of objects; but with Niagara, that is impossible, for all illustrations but degrade it, standing as it does alone in the solitude of its own original majesty—without peer, and without rival.

"I approached the Falls upon the east, or American side, and crossed from the shore to Goat Island, by a bridge, which is in itself a curiosity. It spans the stream between the rapids and the Cataract, but a short distance above the latter. The current, after struggling with wild agony through these rapids, rushes headlong into the dreary gulf below. Scrambling to the point of this isle, which breaks the long line of falling waters, and projects a little beyond them, I obtained the first fine view of the Cataract. It appeared like an oblique, but partially indented line of falling foam, stretched from the point where I stood to the Canadian side on the west, and the American on the east. The noise was terrible; but my view being only of its profile, the greatest part of the sublimity was lost.

"I thence re-crossed the bridge, and passed along the banks to a flight of steps which are placed a short distance below the Falls. Descending these I soon found myself upon the margin of the river near the falling waters, and in an instant I was deluged with spray. I strove to attain a mass of rock just before me, and almost under the sheet, where I hoped to make some interesting observations; but the spray beat so powerfully against me, as to obstruct my sight, and compel me to erect a precipitate retreat. In consequence of the unfavourable wind which prevented an advantageous view of the Falls from this side, I resolved to embark for the opposite shore immediately. When arrived at the middle of the river, I had the most complete and entire view anywhere presented. Around me were the vexed waves yet writhing from their terrible fall, and the whole bosom of the waters was mantled with foam. Before me mountain rocks stretched from shore to shore, while over them the mighty flood came rushing like a deluge, sweeping from their dizzy height into the profound and fathomless abyss.

"I arrived on the other side, and pursued a perilous path which led along a strata of rocks, midway between the bank and the water, and after a toilsome and dangerous walk, I found myself beneath the "Table Rock," which hung as a horrible canopy above my head. None of the views I hitherto had, equalled my anticipations. They were vast, they were grand, but I had not yet found myself overwhelmed by their sublimity. But here I looked upward, and felt my spirit hurried away by an overpowering ecstasy! Above me, at an awful distance, the current of the Niagara rolled down its world of waters! The cataract, like a mountain of falling foam, stretched obliquely across the river, indented at its western side like a horse shoe, the inner part of which rolled down a volume of living emerald. A most splendid Iris spanned the terrific abyss—alarming upon the chafed waters below, and flinging its diamond sparkles upon the coming horrors. Wherever the bright sun glanced upon the basin, the waters glowed and kindled with a living blaze. Never was a more sublime spectacle presented to mortal eye—around me was arrayed every association of beauty and terror, and sublimity—beneath flowed the deep river, into which a few false steps might have buried me for ever! Above, towered the crumbling canopy of "Table Rock," which threatened every instant to fall, and crush all beneath in irrecoverable ruin—while before me the multitudinous waves of Erie and Niagara came thundering on—

"Like an Eternity,
As if to sweep down all things in their track."

"I was completely drenched by the falling waters; I stood amid perils impending from above, and threatening from below; but danger had no power on me—my soul was in my eyes.

"In the evening, I again visited the Falls: it was a still night, the moon was alone in the heavens, and there was scarcely a breath of air whispering among the woodlands. I laid me down upon the "Table Rock," which projects about sixty feet beyond the base of the bank, and looked over it, deep down into the gulf:—it was an awful sight. Far downward as the eye could reach, shot the lustrous waves, until they were at length swallowed up in darkness. The moonlight but partially illuminated this horrible profound; but where it did, it was reflected back with thousand fold radiance from the flood of foam, which shone as it fell, like liquid silver. In this dim and half revealed obscurity, the imagination was left at full liberty to body forth its creations. Almost could it conceive that, amid the elemental strife, the howling of imprisoned spirits was heard above the thunders of the cataract, and that sometimes the genius of the flood would mingle itself with the rising spray, and mount to the surface of this habitable world. As the moon beams fell more perpendicularly into the cavern, a beautiful halo of a milky hue sprang from its western extremity: it seemed like a bow of promise, presaging, amid this scene of darkness and horror, the dawning of a brighter and more enduring effulgence.