NIAGARA, a large river of North America, to which belong the most magnificent water-falls in the world. The river, forming part of the boundary line between New York and Upper Canada, runs from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, thus connecting the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario with the upper lakes. It is thirty-five miles in length, and is from half a mile to several miles in breadth. There are many islands in the Niagara, all the way to the falls, and close above them; but the principal island is about half-way between the ∙'>'lage of Black-Rock and the falls; it is called Grand Island, and contains about 17,000 acres. The river is about two miles and a half in width below Grand Island, and there the current increases; but it becomes more contracted on its way to the falls. The rapids succeed, which are swift currents, occasioned by great descents of the river, tumbling perpendicularly, in some places six, eight, and ten feet, over ledges of rock, the whole descent being about sixty feet. From Fort Erie on the Canada shore, at the outlet of Lake Erie, to Chippewa (eighteen miles), the bank is from four to ten feet high. From Chippewa to the Great Fall, two and a half miles along the Canada shore, there is a descent of ninety-two[7:16:199] feet, and the bank is from ten to one hundred feet in height. The river is here so rapid, that notwithstanding its great depth, it is always covered with a white foam. From the cataract to Lewiston is seven miles; and near this place the bank is 310 feet high, being composed of strata of soft mud and sand, clay, gypsum, slate, limestone, and a superstratum of earth. From Lewiston to Lake Ontario is seven miles, and in this distance the northern terrace or mountain ridge crosses the course of the river. The height of the bank then diminishes to twenty-five or thirty feet. The difference of level between Lakes Erie and Ontario, forming the whole descent of the river, is 334 feet. The Niagara affords a great variety of fish, such as sturgeon, bass, muscanunge or muscalunga; and salmon-trout are numerous below the falls. The white fish, weighing from two to six pounds, are taken in seines, from October to May.

The stupendous Falls or Cataracts of Niagara are situated about half way between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Although mere description can convey no adequate idea of the momentum of the Niagara, some notion of it may be formed when we reflect that the descent above the falls is about sixty feet in half a mile; that the column of water is three quarters of a mile in breadth and twenty-five feet in depth; and that it is propelled onward, not only by its own gravity, but by the weight of the whole surplus waters of the immense inland seas of North America. Two small islands, Bath Island and Goat Island, intervene on the American side, very near the falls, and separate the river into two branches, the great mass of water descending by the more direct and wider channel on the western or Canada side, by what is called the Horse-shoe Fall. A portion of the fall on the American side is cut off by a small island on the precipice; the rest descends in one vast body, almost perpendicularly, from a height of 164 feet, its breadth being about 220 yards. Both the falls on the American side are crossed by bridges. The Horse-shoe Fall is several feet less in height; but it far surpasses the other in grandeur. Its breadth is estimated at 600 yards, and seven eighths of the waters of the river are supposed to pass over it. This great body of water sweeps over the precipice with such tremendous force that it forms a curved sheet, which strikes the surface of the water beneath fifty feet from the base of the precipice, so that visitors may venture to pass behind this watery wall. The best points of view are from the Table Rock, which projects and looks over the falls; and here the cataracts on both sides may be seen at once, But the rapids are beheld to the greatest advantage from Goat Island, to which a very ingeniously constructed and strong rough bridge has been thrown on the American side, over great blocks of rock and rapids. The river is crossed by a small boat about two hundred or three hundred yards below the falls, where it is about 1200 yards in breadth. There is a steep wooden stair from the landingplace to the top of the bank on the American side; and from thence, by the bridge over the rapids, already mentioned, Goat island may be readily approached. “On the north side of that island,” says Mr Stuart, “the rocks, projected into the river, two hundred or three hundred feet immediately over the falls, are accessible by a rough wooden bridge, below which the water runs with fearful velocity. From these rocks, the view over the precipice and great fall is terrific, absolutely appalling, although the prodigious magnitude of the tumbling water is not so apparent at this spot as from the Table Rock and the boat.” A spiral stair-case conducts to the edge of the river below the Table Rock, and from a point a little way nearer the falls than the foot of the ladder there is an excellent view. “The overwhelming sensations,” continues the traveller above named, “with which a spectator can hardly fail to be affected, are produced by the immense flood, not less than one hundred millions of tons of water per hour, the stupendous mass, and overpowering force of the roaring and falling waters. It is, in truth, a great deep ocean thrown over a precipice nearly 160 feet high. Every thing, every surrounding object, is viewed with indifference, whilst the mind is wholly absorbed in the contemplation of a spectacle so sublime, surpassing in majesty, and grandeur, and power, all the works of nature which have ever arrested the attention, or presented themselves to the imagination. No just or adequate description can be conveyed by language. Such words as grandeur, majesty, and sublimity, fail altogether to express the feelings which so magnificent a sight, exceeding so immeasurably all of the same kind that we have ever seen or imagined, excites.” Mr Stuart gives just praise to the following description of Mr Morris, an American minister, which appears to be as simple, plain, and intelligible as a mere verbal picture of the spectacle can be. “To form,” says this individual, “a faint idea of the cataract, imagine to yourself the Frith of Forth rush wrathfully down a steep descent, leap foaming over a perpendicular rock 175 feet high, and then flow away in the semblance of milk from a vast basin of emerald.” The great volume of water, as we have said, inclines very much forward in its descent, and it falls, for the most part, in an unbroken sheet of a dark-green colour, until it meets a cloud of spray ascending from the rocks below, in which it is lost to the eye. This cloud of vapours, the “everlasting incense of the waters,” as it has been finely designated, rises a hundred feet above the precipice, and can be seen at the distance of seventy miles. Prismatic colours are always present, and complete rainbows, sometimes three at a time, of the most brilliant hues, are not unfrequently “set in the cloud.” The thunder of the cataract can be distinctly heard at ten miles from the falls, and in favourable states of the wind and atmosphere at even twice that distance. With regard to the height of the fall, there is a discrepancy amongst authorities, some calling it 150, others 160, and a third class of writers carrying it up as far as 176 feet. It appears to us that some calculate from the surface of the column of water, some from its medium depth, and some from its base, just as it bends over the incurvated precipice. This view of the matter reconciles them all, the largest number answering to the top of the column of water, and the lesser numbers to its average depth and the height of the precipice. The Niagara is usually frozen over during a part of the winter, except at the falls, and where the rapids are most violent. At this season of the year, myriads of wild ducks alight on the foaming stream above the falls, and, sailing on the bosom of the cataract until it reaches its extreme circular verge, at about half its descent, rise aloft into the air amidst the spray of the “phlegethon” below, wheel round to the place on the rapids whence they began their descent, and again perform with ease and for pastime what bids defiance to the utmost power and ingenuity of man. (r. r. r.)