The Encyclopaedia Britannica, or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature Volume 16, No. 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 Excerpt: ... 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, myr...