Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1856-08-29

- ~AA WIN u Ii )uiiSulBE an
populous city attractive for its busines
atmosphere, and the beauty Of its suburba
n streets and dwellings. The tide of trav,
# through this point, in the summer season
q Is enormous. 1t seems as if everybod
r was on the wing, and nobody left at home
9 The "Northern Indiana" a first elias
4 Steamer, plying between Buffalo and De
trolt, along the northern shore of the lax
was IN port, preparing for the regular tri
, that evening. Her imposing dimensions
and sumptuous appointments, revived IN,
original desire to visit Mackinac; and th
temptation to select quarters on board o
her was very strong. But the Falls wer,
close at hand, and after no little hesitanc,
we concluded to take them on our wa,
first, and Mackinac at some other time
The startling news received here an hour
ago,ot the Northern Indiana's destruction
by hire on that very trip, made the heart
beat quicker, with a subduei feeling OF
: gratitude for the sober second thought that
|ok US here, and not there The musty
, OLD ,roverb of ''two heads better than one, :"
G Is worh something, after all and ought
e 10 be b.und up in the same volume with
the resolutions of '9S."
SO up town we went for stroll and a
dinner; but the sun got too torrid and
scOrchlng for comfort, and we became some.
what lazy in consequence The public
schools were closed, aud the city Superin-
tendent out of town. An outside glance
at some fine school houses, was evidence
enough however that the inside appoint
ments were all right at the right season.
Saw Fillmore portraits in profusion, in the
shop windows of this, the city of his resi-
dence; but did not encountre the newly
fedged 'nulifier" himsef,th sagacity and
patriotism of whose unguarded ALBANY
speech was such woful come-down from
his previous dignifed reputation.
In the afternoon embarked with "gool-
lie companie' on the "one horse" steamer
"Swallow," for the Falls,2 miles distant;
expecting, without inquiry on the subject,
to be landed on the American side. Clan.
cling at the site of old Fort Erie, on the
point opposite Buffalo-suddenly blown
up one night IN the iasU "a,, ",tn an ca
plosin so loud that an old soldier in Perry
county who witnessed it, told me some
years ago, that he thought the great globe
itself had burst asunder, and resolved IT.
self into volcano of tire-and passing IN
succession Black Rock, Grand and Navy
Islands, Schlosser, all memorable points
$ history, for various reasons we sudden
pulled up in the mouth of Chippewa
'ek, on the Canada side, near the battle
, f', where we caught an eager glimpse Of
thtossing rapids, and the spray Of the
catsct two miles below. The descent Of
the lids, from the general level of the .
river the brink of the falls, is about
; sixty It.
; The hippewa and Ontario cars soon
brought : "fernenst the Horse Shoe
, fall, on thigh ground above, and some
distance b',, from the level plateau on
!, the margin , the stream, and slackening
their speed ttfford hurried glance d.
rectly down ilo the gorge, my first i'm
!, preston was on of disappointment and
the single idea ", that that crooked, thir
ty or forty foot lnldam, was no great af
fair after all
But passing on tthe station, and ma
king speedy transi.down the slope to
) the Clifton House-ol the edge of the
deep, precipitous chas, which confines
the lower riyer-half mile below the
Horse Shoe, and nearly opposite the Amer
lean fall, with both in ful. view, the op,i
cal illusion resulting frourhe colossal Iii
: mensions of the principal features of the
landscape, was apparent, an, the scene be.
gan to grow upon the spectator, and grad
ually expand to its true proortions and
sublimity.
!, The river contracts from teo miles to
!. less than an air line width of ,alf mile
at the Horse Shoe, and at the SINE point
} turns square off to the east at ight an
gle, while lesser branch passes behind
Goat Island, and tumbling over the side
of the chasm, forms the American fall,
which seems to be separate cataract,
coming from an independent source,
Goat Island, instead of mere knoll,
turns out to be seventy acre tract of
woodland, with perpendicular front OF
four hundred yards in length, between
the two falls; although most of the pic
lures we see represent them as near to-
gether. The loose rocks piled up about
the foot of the falls, seem at first like the
three and four foot specimens in a noun.
tain brook, but in reality are as big as
house," and weigh hundreds OF tons. 1t
is difficult to realize at first that it is over
$50 feet down to the surface Of the deep