Читать книгу The Niagara River - Archer Butler Hulbert - Страница 11

The accessibility of the Niagara Rapids, because of the fortunate location of the Goat Island group is, in itself, one of the great charms of the region, and this may explain in part the insuppressible desire of early visitors to reach these glorious points of vantage. The view of the rapids from the Goat Island bridge to-day is said to be the source of chief pleasure "to half the visitors to Niagara."[5]

George Houghton's beautiful lines on "The Upper Rapids" express with fine feeling the effect of these racing cascades on the sensitive mind:

Still with the wonder of boyhood, I follow the race of the Rapids,

Sirens that dance, and allure to destruction,—now lurking in shadows,

Skirting the level stillness of pools and the treacherous shallows,

Smiling and dimple-mouthed, coquetting,—now modest, now forward;

Tenderly chanting, and such the thrall of the weird incantation,

Thirst it awakes in each listener's soul, a feverish longing.

Thoughts all absorbent, a torment that stings and ever increases,

Burning ambition to push bare-breast to thy perilous bosom.

Thus, in some midnight obscure, bent down by the storm of temptation (So hath the wind, in the beechen wood, confided the story). Pine-trees, thrusting their way and trampling down one another, Curious, lean and listen, replying in sobs and in whispers; Till of the secret possessed, which brings sure blight to the hearer, (So hath the wind, in the beechen wood, confided the story), Faltering, they stagger brinkward,—clutch at the roots of the grasses, Cry,—a pitiful cry of remorse,—and plunge down in the darkness. Art thou all-merciless then,—a fiend, ever fierce for new victims? Was then the red-man right (as yet it liveth in legend), That, ere each twelvemonth circles, still to thy shrine is allotted Blood of one human heart, as sacrifice due and demanded? Butterflies have I followed, that leaving the red-top and clover, Thinking a wind-harp thy voice, thy froth the fresh whiteness of daisies, Ventured too close, grew giddy, and catching cold drops on their pinions, Balanced—but vainly,—and falling, their scarlet was blotted forever.

When, about 1880, William M. Hunt was commissioned to decorate the immense panels of the Assembly Chamber of the Capitol at Albany, N. Y., he chose, with true artistic feeling, the view of the rapids above Goat Island bridge as the choice picture to represent the great marvel and chief wonder of the Empire State—Niagara. It is generally conceded that Church's Horseshoe Falls takes rank over all other paintings of Niagara, but Colin Hunter's Rapids of Niagara excel any other view of either the Falls, Gorge, or Rapids on canvas to-day.