which he is said to have played much and well, with a drawing or two,
are all that remain of the recluse, although the man who attended upon
him says he sketched and wrote much.

Certainly no anchorite ever selected a pleasanter summer solitude: how
he got through the severity of a five or six months' winter in a place
so exposed can only be imagined, since the hermit died and "made no
sign."

I visited the other lions of the place, but took little heed of them.
The sulphur springs were exhibited, and the gas ignited, by a
remarkably fine old man, who was full of anecdote of the late war: one
or two of his stories I took good note of, and purpose availing myself
of them at some future time.

On one afternoon I forced myself away to visit the Devil's Hole and the
Whirlpool, situated about five miles below the falls; and a wilder scene
it is impossible for imagination to conceive than the deep rocky basin
into which the river is precipitated, and from which it issues at right
angles from its previous course, bearing with it portions of the wrack
accumulated within the black vortex of this fearful pool, into whose
gulf it is impossible to look without a shudder. The drive through the
forest was delightful; and, if any sight could have repaid me for
leaving the neighbourhood of the falls, this fitting _pendant_ would be
that sight.

The bad weather which occurred so late in the month of June, and,
indeed, continued through the first days of July, had retarded the
advance of visitors. At the period of our stay there were but two or
three strangers here besides ourselves; and, not dining at the public
table, these I never saw except at a distance. The weather during the
day was warm without being oppressive, the evenings and nights
deliciously cool.

I had brought my companion, Mr. H----e, thus far on a promise of
returning with him in a few days, and never did I feel more urged to
break faith: but knowing that he was compelled to return in a certain
time, and had accompanied me out of sheer good-nature, I could not
reconcile it to myself to let him journey back alone; for our companions
were bound on a wide tour through the Canadas.

After a halt here of only three short days then, I finally crossed the
Niagara for the American shore, and immediately took a coach for
Tonnewanta, to intercept the boat on its way from Buffalo by the Erie
canal, intending to journey by this route as far as Rochester.

At Tonnewanta,