lateral streets are rather obscure, and, not being regularly built upon,
give the city an unfinished look. These are, however, dotted here and
there with chateaux, having good gardens well arranged. The Niagara
Railway station is situated to the left of Maine-street, about half-way
up that premier thoroughfare.

At night the distant moan of the Niagara falls was audible, and this,
together with what I had heard and read, made me very anxious to visit
the spot. Accordingly, one splendid morning I started by train for the
purpose. For some miles before we reached Niagara, we constantly heard
the roar of the rushing waters, and were thus prepared for the
stupendous scene that burst upon the view, as we alighted at the doors
of that _ne plus ultra_ of modern hostelries, the Pavilion Hotel.

My powers of description will fall short of conveying to the mind of
the reader the awful grandeur of this cataract, so often commented upon
by travellers. The first impression felt by me was, that the whole
substratum on which I stood, which seemed to tremble, was about to be
swept away by the vast inundation. It was not the height of the falls,
but the immense body of water, which comprehends, with constant
accumulations from the tributaries on the way, the overflowings of Lakes
Erie, Superior, Michigan, and Huron. The astonishing effect of such a
body of water, dashed abruptly over a precipice of 150 perpendicular
feet, may be conceived; such is the momentum of this immense volume of
fluid, that, when it strikes the rocky bed at the base of the cataract,
it rebounds in a thick cloud of vapour--and when the sun's rays
intercept it, as was the case when I arrived there, a beautiful rainbow
of vivid colours encircles the area of the chasm, and, together with the
natural curiosities and situation of the entire scene, presents to the
amazed beholder, the effect of a highly-executed picture in a frame of