rrible loveliness. I feel half crazy
whenever I think of it. I went three times under the sheet of
water; once I had a guide as far as the entrance, and twice I went
under entirely alone. If you fancy the sea pouring down from the
moon, you still have no idea of this glorious huge heap of tumbling
waters. It is worth crossing the Atlantic to see it.... As I stood
upon the brink of the abyss when I first saw it, the impulse to
jump down seemed all but an irresistible necessity, and but for the
strong arm that held mine fast I think I might very well have taken
the same direction as the huge green glassy mountain of water that
was pouring itself headlong into--what no eye can penetrate. It
literally seemed as if everything was going down there, and one
must go along with everything. The chasm into which the cataract
falls is hidden by dense masses of snowy foam and spray, rising in
an everlasting creation of cloud up into the sky, and vailing the
frantic fury of the caldron below, where the waves churn and tread
each other underfoot in the rocky abyss that receives them, in
darkness which the sun's rays cannot penetrate nor the strongest
wind for a moment disperse; a mystery, of which its thousand voices
reveal nothing. It is nonsense writing about it--seeing and hearing
are certainly, in this case, the only reasons for believing. I
think it would be delightful to pass one's life by this wonderful
creature's side, and quite pleasant to die and be buried in its
bosom....

We left that wonderful place a few days ago, steamed across Lake
Ontario, came down the rapids of the St. Lawrence in an open boat,
sang the Canadian boat song, and are now safe and sound, only half
roasted, in his Majesty's dominions. Of all that we have seen,
Niagara is, of course, the old object beyond all others, but we
were delighted with the softness and beauty of a great deal of the
scenery that we saw in traversing the State of New York--one of
twenty States, not the largest of the twenty, but large enough to
hold England in its lap.

The rapids of the St. Lawrence, though, I believe, really rather
dangerous to descend, have so little appearance of peril that I
derived none of the excitement I had expected, and which a little
danger always produces, from going through t