Rec? 5-Nov? 1841. DESCRIPTION OF A VIEW OF THE FALLS OF NIAGARA, NOW EXHIBITING AT THE PANORAMA, CHARLES STREET, BOSTON. PAINTED BY ROBERT BURFORD, FROM DRAWINGS TAKEN BY HIM IN THE AUTUMN OF 1832. THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. "The roar of waters !-from the headlong height "And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again Making it all one emerald-how profound The gulf! and how the giant element From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent "To the broad column which rolls on, and shows More like the fountain of an infant sea Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes Of a new world, than only thus to be Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly, With many windings, through the vale:-Look back! As if to sweep down all things in its track, Charming the eye with dread-a matchless cataract, " Horribly beautiful! but on the verge, From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge, Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn Its steady dyes, while all around is torn By the distracted waters, bears serene Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn; Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene, Love watching Madness with unalterable mien." BYRON. THE FALLS OF NIAGARA are justly considered one of the greatest natural curiosities in the known world; they are without parallel, and exceed immeasurably all of the same kind that have ever been seen or imagined; travellers speak of them in terms of admiration and delight, and acknowledge that they surpass in sublimity every description which the power of language can afford; a Panorama* * An intelligent traveller says, "All parts of the Niagara are on a scale which baffles every attempt of the imagination, and it were ridiculous therefore to think of describing it; the ordinary means of description-I mean analogy, and direct comparison with things which are more accessible -fail entirely in the case of that amazing cataract, which is altogether unique; yet a great deal, I am certain, might be done by a well-executed Panorama: an artist well versed in this peculiar sort alone offers a scale of sufficient magnitude to exhibit at one view (which is indispensable) the various parts of this wonderful scene, and to convey any adequate idea of the matchless extent, prodigious power, and awful appearance, of this stupendous phenomenon of nature; but the scene itself must be visited, to comprehend the feeling it produces, and to appreciate the petrifying influence of the tremendous rush of water, the boiling of the mighty flood, and the deep and unceasing roar of the tumultuous abyss; "it strikes upon the soul a sense of majestic grandeur, which loss of life or intellect can alone obliterate." The drawings for the present Panorama were taken near the Table Rock-a commanding situation, affording the most comprehensive, and, at the same time, one of the finest views of this imposing scene. Immediately in front of the spectator, are the Falls, in simple and sublime dignity, an ocean of waters three quarters of a mile in width, precipitated with astonishing grandeur, in three distinct and collateral streams, down a stupendous precipice upwards of 150 feet in height, on the rocks below, from which they rebound, converted, by the violence of the concussion, into a broad sheet of foam as white as snow; pyramidical clouds of vapor or spray rise majestically in misty grandeur from the abyss, sparkling here and there with prismatic colors, and a rainbow of extraordinary beauty, and peculiar brilliancy, heightens the scene, by spanning the Great Fall. Above are seen the agitated billows, and white-crested breakers of the Rapids, tumultuously hurrying towards the precipice, bounded on the one side by the luxuriant foliage of Goat Island, and on the other by the fertile and thickly-wooded shores of Upper Canada. Below, the river winds in a stream, bright, clear, and remarkably green, between bold and rugged banks, richly colored by both wood and rock. The surrounding scenery, although it must be viewed with comparative indifference, whilst the mind is absorbed in contemplating the grandeur and extent of the cataract, is also in excellent keeping; stupendous and lofty banks, immense fragments of rock in fantastic forms, impenetrable woods approaching their very edge, the oak, ash, cedar, maple, and other forest trees of extraordinary growth and singular shape, the pine, and various evergreens, brushwood peeping from the fissures, and beautiful creeping plants clinging to the perpendicular sides of the rocks, presenting a vast variety of foliage and diversity of hue, rendered still more pleasing by the first frosts of autumn having changed the leaves of some of the more tender to every shade of color, from the brightest yellow to the deepest crimson, thus combining every thing that is essential to constitute the sublime, the terrific, and the picturesque. The Niagara strait-which forms the boundary line between the British possessions and the United States-is a grand natural canal, by which the superabundant waters of Lake Erie are poured into Lake Ontario. It is a continuation of the River St. Lawrence. Its length from lake to lake is 37 miles, following the windings of the stream, its general course being northerly, and it varies in breadth from 30 rods to 7 or 8 miles.* In this distance the water sustains a fall of 334 feet, thus calculated:-between Lake Erie and the Rapids, 16 feet; in the Rapids, 58 feet; in the Crescent Fall, 154 feet; and the remainder before it reaches Lake Ontario. In the early part of its course, the river is broad and tranquil, and presents a scene of the most profound repose, its waters being nearly level with its shores, and the large and beautiful island, Owanungah, dividing it into two streams for a considerable distance. At Chippewa and of painting, might produce a picture which would probably distance every thing else of the kind." The task must be done by a person who shall go to the spot for the express purpose, making the actual drawings, which he himself is afterwards to convert into a Panorama, which, if well executed, could not fail to impart some portion of the pleasure communicated by the reality." The same traveller, having seen the painting in progress, has expressed the following opinion— "The Panorama of Niagara, though not completed, is sufficiently advanced to enable any one who has seen it to judge of the effect; and I have no hesitation in saying, you have accomplished a task which I hardly hoped to see executed; I think your painting gives not only an exceedingly accurate, but a most animated view of the Falls." *Its greatest width is across the centre of Owanungah, or Grand Island, which is about 6 miles across, and divides the river into two parts for about 10 miles, the branch on each side of it being from 1 to 1 mile in width. The broadest expanse of water is below Grand Island, where it resembles a beautiful bay, about 2 miles broad.-Ingraham's Manual. Schlosser, about two miles above the Falls, where the navigation ends, a considerable current is perceptible, and the glassy smoothness is disturbed by slight ripples; the shores now contract considerably, and the bed of the river begins to slope; the water shortly after becomes much agitated, and the magnificent Rapids commence; rock after rock chafes the stream, which becomes perfectly white, and rushes with frightful velocity to the edge of the precipice, over which it plunges in an unexampled volume, with terrific impetuosity, being unquestionably the greatest mass of water that is poured down any fall, either in the new or old world. The quantity of water thus projected is computed to be not less than one hundred millions of tons per hour. However great this quantity may seem, yet it is probably not overrated; for it must be remembered, that the four great lakes, which, from their size, might be more properly termed inland seas, with all the numerous and large rivers which flow into them, covering a surface of 150,000 square miles, and containing nearly one half of the fresh water on the face of the globe, have only this one outlet for their superfluous waters. The tremendous roar of this great body of water dashing into the abyss below, is of a most extraordinary description, difficult to explain, not altogether deafening, and, although monotonous, it does not produce disagreeable sensations. Immediately after the fall, the river subsides from this state of sublime agitation, and then again rolls with impetuous velocity, in a narrow channel, through a deep dell, bordered by rugged and perpendicular banks, as far as Queenston and Lewiston. From Lake Erie to Lewiston and Queenston, the face of the country presents the appearance of a vast level plain, with the exception of the space between Chippewa and the Falls, where, in about two miles, the ground rises about 125 feet, and the river, as before mentioned, descends about 58; just above Queenston and Lewiston, this table land abruptly terminates, and sinks to a plain about 100 feet above the level of Lake Ontario. Over this precipice, it is by some supposed that the river, in remote ages, poured its waters; and that its continued and violent action has gradually worn away the rocks, and carried back the Falls to their present situation. But a different opinion has been held by others, and much been written to prove that the river flows through a natural ravine. Through the whole length of the ravine, the horizontal strata present the same appearance on both its sides; the upper rock (beneath the common diluvium or superficial soil of the country) being brown fetid limestone, (the "geodiferous limerock" of Eaton,) 70 or 80 feet thick, lying upon an argillo-calcareous slate, ("calciferous slate " of Eaton,) or shale, which is about 80 feet in thickness. Under this reposes a series of arenaceous rocks, highly ferruginous in their superior portions, and very argillaceous in the inferior. By the violent blasts of wind, which arise from the abyss, and the continual action of, the water, the shale is rapidly worn away, and the mass of limestone, being left without a foundation, falls, from time to time, in enormous masses, particularly after severe frosts. A person who had resided at the Falls for 36 years, declared that they had receded within his memory 40 or 50 yards, which was corroborated by another, who had been in the neighborhood for 40 years. An immense portion broke from the Horse-shoe Fall on the 28th of December, 1828, and tumbled into the abyss with a shock like an earthquake. It would be difficult to form a reasonable calculation as to the period which has elapsed since the waters first began to open the gorge, admitting that they have thus cut their way back. Professor Lyell computes that, if the ratio of retrocession has never been exceeded, it must have required nearly 10,000 years for the * Dr. Dwight calculates the river at the ferry, seven furlongs wide, and 25 feet deep, running never less than six miles per hour: the quantity of water that passes in that time is consequently above 102,000,000 of tons avoirdupois. + Lake Superior, the largest fresh-water lake in the world, is 1750 miles in circumference; its mean depth is 900 feet, its greatest depth 1200 feet; and its surface is 641 feet above the level of the sea. Lake Huron is 1000 miles in circumference; has about the same depth as Lake Superior, and is 596 feet above the level of the sea: Lake Michigan has the same level and depth as Lake Huron, and is 731 miles in circumference: Lake Erie is 658 miles in circumference, 565 feet above the sea, and has only a mean depth of 120 feet. These recessions, however, were in the angle or curve of the Crescent or Horse-shoe Fall; - but there is no evidence that there has been any recession at the sides of the Falls, within the memory of man. N 2 |