seldom produces a full impression, until leisure has been taken to compare the mighty mass of water with some standard; but, when once an adequate idea has been formed, when the eye has at length adopted a true scale, then, and ever after, something like a correct estimate is entertained of the sublimity and magnificence of the scene.

The following extract we make from the Northern Traveller, a work heretofore published in six editions by the editor of this Magazine.

THE FALLS OF NIAGARA,

From the American Side.-See Print.

On the American side a bridge crosses a frightful part of the rapids to Bath Island, and another thence to Goat Island. Part of a bridge remains, which extended to Terrapin Rocks, and beyond to the brow of the cataract. By it you may reach the Stone Tower, to the top of which a winding staircase leads, affording a most impressive view of the awful scene below.

The Biddle Staircase, erected at the expense of the late Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia, leads from Iris Island to the bottom of the precipice. You descend first by stone steps 40 feet, between stone walls, then by 88 steps under a wooden cover, which brings you to three pathways with some steps, which conduct to the water's edge, whence the view upward is most imposing.

Several picturesque and romantic avenues and rocky recesses are to be seen at different parts of the river's banks.

The height of the fall on this side is 160 feet perpendicular, but somewhat broken in several places by the projecting rocks. It extends 300 yards to a rock which interrupts it on the brow of the precipice. A narrow sheet appears beyond it, and then comes Goat Island, with a mural precipice. Between this and the other shore is the Grand Crescent, for which see a few pages beyond. The long bridge to the island, which commands many fine views of the falls, rests on wooden piers sunk with stones.

The staircase conducts safely to the bottom of the precipice; and boats may row up near to the cataract.

THE FALLS OF NIAGARA-
From the British Side.

There are large Inns and Hotels on the Canadian side of the river, situated as near the falls as could be desired. One stands on what ought strictly to be called the upper bank, for that elevation appears to have once formed the river's shore. This is the larger house; the galleries and windows in the rear command a fine view of the cataract, although not an entire one, and overlook the rapids and river for several miles above.

Following a footpath through the pasture behind this house, the stranger soon finds himself on the steep brow of the second bank, and the mighty cataract of Niagara suddely opens beneath him.

Table Rock is a projection a few yards from the cataract, which commands a fine view of this magnificent scene. Indeed it is usually considered the finest point of view. The height of the fall on this side is said to be 174 feet perpendicular; and this height the vast sheet of foam preserves unbroken, quite round the Grand Crescent, a distance, it is estimated, of 700 yards. The distance from Table Rock to Termination Rock is 153 feet. Goat Island divides the cataract, and just beyond it stands an isolated rock. The fall on the American side is in breadth 900 feet, the height 160, and about two thirds the distance to the bottom the sheet is broken by projecting rocks. A bridge built from the American side connects Goat Island and the main land, though invisible from this spot.

It may be recommended to the traveller to visit this place as often as he can, and to view it from every neighbouring point; as every change of light exhibits it under a different and interesting aspect. The rainbows are to be seen, from this side, only in the afternoon; but at that time the clouds of mist, which are continually rising from the gulf below, often present them in the utmost beauty.

Dr. Dwight gives the following estimates, in his Travels, of the quantity of water which passes the cataract of Niagara. The river at the ferry is 7 furlongs wide, and on an average 25 feet. The current probably runs six miles an hour; but supposing it to be only 5 miles, the quantity that passes the falls in an hour, is more than 85 millions of tons avoirdupois; if we suppose it to be 6, it will be more than 102 millions; and in a day would be 2400 millions of tons. The noise, it is said, is sometimes heard at Toronto, 50 miles. Table Rock is 66 feet below the level of Lake Erie.

The Rapids begin about half a mile above the cataract. The inhabitants of the neighborhood regard it as certain death to get once involved in them. Instances are on record of persons being carried down by the stream; but no one is known to have ever survived. Indeed, it is very rare that the bodies are found. Wild ducks, geese, &c. are frequently precipitated over the cataract, and generally reappear either dead or with their legs, or wings broken.

The most sublime scene is presented to the bserver when he views the cataract from below; and there he may have an oppor innity of going under the cataract. This scene is represented in the plate. To render the descent practicable, a spiral staircase has been formed a little way from Table Rock, supported by a tall mast; and the stranger descends without fear, because his view is confined. On reaching the bottom,

a rough path among the rocks winds along at the foot of the precipice, although the heaps of loose stones which have fallen down, keep it at a considerable height above the water. A large rock lies on the very brink of the river, about 15 feet long and 8 feet thick, which you may climb up by means of a ladder, and enjoy the best central view of the falls anywhere to be found. This rock was formerly a part of the projection above, and fell about 30 years ago, with a tremendous roar.

In proceeding nearer to the sheet of falling water, the path leads far under the excavated bank, which in one place forms a roof that overhangs about 40 feet. The vast column of water continually pouring over the precipice, produces violent whirls in the air; and the spray is driven out with such force, that no one can approach to the edge of the cataract, or even stand a few moments near it, without being drenched to the skin. It is also very difficult to breathe there, so that persons with weak lungs would act prudently to content themselves with a distant view, and by no means to attempt to go under the cataract. The celebrated navigator Captain Basil Hall, on a visit here in 1827, found that the air under the cataract is not compressed; but he considered the gusts of wind more violent than any gale he had ever witnessed. Those who are desirous of exploring this tremendous cavern, should attend very carefully to their steps.

In the summer of 1827, an old schooner called the Michigan, was towed by a rowboat to the margin of the rapids, where she was abandoned to her fate. Thousands of persons had assembled to witness the descent. A number of wild animals had been inhumanly placed on her deck, confined, to pass the cataract with her. She passed the first fall of the rapids in safety, but struck a rock at the second and lost her masts. There she remained an instant, until the current turned her round and bore her away. A bear here leaped overboard and swam to the shore. The vessel soon filled and sank, so that only her upper works were afterwards visible. She went over the cataract almost without being seen, and in a few moments the basin was perceived all scattered with her fragments, which were very small. A cat and a goose were the only animals found alive below.

The Burning Spring. About half a mile above the falls, and within a few feet of the rapids in Niagara River, is a remarkable Spring. The water, which is warm, turbid, and surcharged with sulphurated hydrogen gas, rises in a barrel which has been placed in the ground, and is constantly in a state of ebullition. The barrel is covered, and the gas escapes only through a copper tube. On bringing a candle within a little distance of it, the gas takes fire, and continues to burn with a bright flame until blown out.

While on the Canada side of the falls, the visiter may vary his time very agreeably, by visiting the village of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, in this vicinity; which, during the late war with Great Britain, were the scenes of two sharp contests.

LIVELY SKETCHES OF ITALY. Neapolitan Invective.

NO. I.

(Selected from an unpublished Journal of Tracts, for the Am. Penny Magazine.)

While in quarantine at Naples, I accepted an invitation to visit the Lazaretto, a curious little island, with subterranean passages and store houses, under the guidance of a native of the country. The following specimen of his manners and language will give a pretty correct idea of many of his countrymen.

The old man, though evidently vexed at the interruption made by some of the guard boats, did not allow a word to escape him until the whole party were landed at a little platform on the yellow volcanic rock, round which the water raved like madness in chains, from time to time, as the swell came in, at intervals of a minute or two. One might have supposed it was the uproar and apparent danger which kept him from his usual volubility on trying occasions. At last, as we stood on the rock, at a place where a dark cavern opened, and one of no very inviting appearance, and saw the dashing of the waves, which almost reached his feet, we felt as if the danger was by no means over. Not so with the old man. He tookTM only time enough to pry into the condition of things around him; and, having peeped round one projecting corner of the rocks, then another, afterwards felt his way into the excavation, and finally penetrated into it, leading us through to a little garden above. He then drew his pipe from his pocket, and lighted it with his steel, flint and touchwood; then laid his hand over the bowl, so that the wind could not affect it, and seemed deliberately to set himself about the work of faultfinding and unburthening heart.

In many men, and in most countries, it is believed, passions like those he felt are uttered in an instant; and, if repressed for a little time, only to subside and become more managable. In Naples it is different. To postpone the gratification of them appears in no wise to diminish their force, or to cool their ardor. Still, to let them pass off without a volley of abuse or complaint, is a thing out of the question. It is considered one of those things which can in no way be dispensed with. He began, therefore, between the puffs which he gave his pipe, to growl out a few symptoms of discontent, which grew louder, longer, and more passionate, until he lashed himself sufficiently into a rage to spring upon his feet, and ejaculate and gesticulate with all his might. The pro

fligate boatmen who were appointed to row round the vessels and watch the communication with the shore, first fell under his ban, and he picked their characters in pieces, as if he had been a vulture, or a competitor at an election for hog-herd or Senator of the Union.

They were always selected, he said, because they had been already proved good for nothing honest; they never could get preferment to that station, until they had gone through a regular course of iniquity, and fallen where good men would stand "Oh, to come among wretches like these! the worst of all Naples, the off-casters of her gaminghouses and wine-shops!

"There is one of those fellows whose family I knew when they lived in rags, begged of the strangers I used to conduct to see the ruins near Bauli, and now talks their barbarous dialect. He got to be a billiard boy, and then by cheating more honest people, and myself among the rest, got to keeping a shop, till he became disgraced, and now here he is in the employment of the police. The other, whom I used to know for a blackguard in Pozzuoli, dug a whole day for me with his hands, to find something he hoped to get a Grano for in the ruins of the Tempio d'Iside, and ran bare-headed, bare-footed and almost naked after me, to get the money for nothing, to the Villa de Cicerone. For this great distinction I suppose, for this education, he set up as a Cicerone himself, and has beguiled many an English traveller in his time. Ile is not so bad, however, as a cousin of his who is now in the same business; for he did not know enough ever to be sure that what he told for a lie, might not, by some accident, prove true.

"Oh, my friends!" exclaimed the old man, "To be insulted and overborne by such vile trash of this world, is the hardest part of my lot. Look at me! an old man, respected and bowed to in my time; once with money to spend and money to lend, money to lose and money to abuse,-bowed to, compli mented, petitioned, supplicated for assis tance by the ancestors of these rabble-tags, now obliged to turn this way or that for fear of them, while they go skulking about these waters, landing at the mole, snoring in the watch-house, insulting strangers on board the vessels they have to guard; eating, drinking, and sleeping like all the other villains they herd with!"

Here followed a list of appellatives; simple, compound and mixed, which it would have been in vain for the readiest writer to attempt to record, as they fell from the lips of the old man, or the most accomplished lexicographer to explain, if once written down. The torrent flowed on as if never to stop; and the readiness with which the hard epithets came out in uninterrupted succession, seemed to choke the ear of the

listener. Wit, keen and broad, direct and ironical by turns, oaths, indecent, impious and tremendous, followed each other as if the tongue had prepared the whole beforehand. A sudden pause and a single puff at his pipe, would now and then change the whole course of his thoughts; and what was more shocking would instantly give way to a light and humorous kind of raillery, that was irresistibly ludicrous, but no less severe.

"They are very jolly, these rogues at our expense; well may they be content in a boat; it is a better, and a cleaner, and a more respectable bed than that they were born or bred in. It is better than their fathers or brothers have got this moment. Bauli is degraded, and Pozzuoli has got poor folks; but there can be no wretches, and certainly no rogues worthy of the names, while this boat's crew keeps the water. You may ask the beggars what they like better than money, and they will tell the scarcity of fleas. You may ask them, when they ever knew such a phenomenon, and they will say when Antonio and Luigi take leave of their friends.

"O my American!" suddenly exclaimed the old man, interrupting himself in the middle of his discourse, "You have come to Naples so see its autiquities, its famous sites, and to trace out scenes rendered illustrious by the great. Is it not gratifying to find those places occupied by such worthy successors? The greatest navigators of ancient times, have sailed in this beautiful bay. I doubt whether the crew of the largest galley could have been as numerous as the party that accompanies these modern heroes; and I am sure they could not have been more active or bloody. The desire of glory that impelled the greatest warrior, never kept him in such a state of restlessness, as the fleas keep these low-bred scoundrels. If there were any hope of escape, if there were any medicine provided to cure such a fever, a man might travel, my dear friend, to America itself, and risk his life among the Spaniards, to get the privilege of a little respite from these felonious insects.

"Sink such wretches in Vesuvius; drowning is too good for them. Brimstone, brimstone, is the stuff to exterminate such scoundrels and such tribes of vermin."

Here the old man burst out once more into a most violent fit, which, if I had been a better judge I should have looked upon as a pretty certain sign of the breaking up of the storm The truth was, he had nearly wearied himself; and, having no opponent to stimulate him, he began to stop his invective when, under more favorable, and more common circumstances, he would have looked upon himself as at the exordium of his discourse. So rare a place is Naples for wordy brawls, for the abuse of time, language and one another; so naturally does the drawling dialect of the vicinity flow into scurrility and curses; so unnumbered, unrecorded, and for

gotten, pass daily by the jests and jibes, which the passionate but bloodless outcasts of the city daily exhaust upon each other.

"When I get back to my hermitage," said the old man, "these scoundrels will come to me on a hot, lazy day, to beg a cup of wine, or a bit of bread. I have given better men than they ever were or will be, of the products of my garden. And they know it. They, who in spite of their imprudence, if they were to see the white walls of my Casino a league off on the side of Vesuvius, among the vineyards that surround it, if they thought there was the least chance of getting anything from me, would row one half the way against the Levante, and walk the rest with their bare legs, to come and bend their backs like an old rope, and call me Padrone, and ask an poco de vino-caremba! And they would know I could not refuse it. They know I would not; they know they would get it, and that they would abuse me again whenever I wanted next to go to see a friend, if they had wine and I none. O the vile Baulian and Pozzuolite!

"American! you have no idea; you have none, what they are. One is a thief, the other is an assassin. If you meet a man in Naples, in a dark corner, with a head that never had a hat on, a foot never acquainted with a shoe, trousers shorter than anybody's else-there, there, so far do Antonio's comesix inches above his knee. O the galleyslave! Not a grano in his pocket, and never was and never shall be; nay, no pocket, Caremba! not such a waste would the fool be guilty of, who made his clothes and got nothing for his labor,-not a pocket has he to catch the dust in; mind and keep away from him; he carries an old rusty poniard, and he would kill a man, a stranger, to brighten it, sooner than pay the expense of grinding, at half a carlino a day.

"And then there is his companion, him you may see about the Piazza del Castello. He lies in the smallest shade, most distant from the one hundred and fifty beggars who usually live there, where a chamelion would die for want of air, and a salamander from excess of heat; there he lies day by day, and week by week, shunned by the others, as they by us. Avoid him as you would a pesulence. If the plague is on one side of the street and he on the other, pass to the former, and die if you must. Gentlemen and honest people have died of the plague-nobody but Antonio is born to be killed by fleas. Oh the starved lizard! He never was seen with a mouthful of food, nor an ounce of flesh on his bones. He is a lean, sour, hateful, despicable, creeping wretch-the sun bakes him, the rain soaks him, the thunder sours him like milk, and then the fleas, oh, the fleas! But pazienza! they take vengeance on him for me."

Overlooking One's Neighbors.

BY AN OFFICER'S WIDOW.

"Here lies my Aunt Charity, who died of a Frenchman."-WASHINGTON IRVING.

Overlooking one's neighbors is a very bad habit; it is unjustifiable as well as unprofitable and I therefore wish every one to understand, that this specimen is a solitary exception to my general rule of conduct, and that the peculiar circumstances of the case rendered this offence against good neighbourhood almost unavoidable. My room was a back one in the second story, and my windows commanded a view of our own yard and several others adjacent. An alley, of less than four feet in width, divided us from our neighbors on the right side, and led to a building of two stories, which was directly in the rear of the front one. Their yard was quite large for a city, and, wonderful to relate, and hard to be believed, there was a sufficient space beyond it, enclosed by a dilapidated fence, to entitle it to the name of a garden; though the only crop its surface bore, was a plentiful one of rags, old shoes, brimless hats, bones, and stray pieces of Anthracite coal.

On the morning of that eventful day, the 1st of May, as I sat reading, I was somewhat annoyed, by a grand "turn out," in view from my window. Scarcely had the occupants of the rear building commenced emptying the old straw out of their "bed sacks," as they would be called in the army, and set out three-legged tables, and backless chairs, preparatory to carrying them through the narrow alley to some other abode, when an invasion of new tenants took place through the confined passage-way. The "inward bound," it could be seen at one glance, were not like the "outward bound," Hibernians; but, judging from the little dogs, and bird and squirrel cages, were unquestionably "from the vine-covered hills, and gay regions of France."

A scene of confusion ensued, which can happen in no part of the United States but New York, where, in strict conformity with the usages of Holland, all leases are dated from the 1st of May. Of course, all who wish to change their residence must move out of their houses while other families are moving in, and take possession of their new ones while the late occupants are moving out. How each contrives to secure all his own goods and chattels, without adding to his stock from his neighbor's, and vice versa, is inconceivable to one uninitiated in the mysteries of May-day.

After many colloquies in diverse languages, in which the national oaths of La Belle France, and the Emerald Isle predominated, after two or three little Paddies had got pretty soundly cuffed, and roared; " Och, murder! you kilt me entirely" after the dogs were tired of barking, and kept qui t except an occasional yelp, when some heavy-heeled

Irish woman trod on their tails; after the parrots had screeched "Down with the Lillies!" to their heart's content, the tumult began to subside; the channel of communication became sufficiently cleared to admit of the exit of the "ould residenters," as the Irish called themselves, and their movables; the last basket of potatoes had been carried out, and the last bunch of onions brought in, and the yard echoed exclusively, the language of "La Grande Nation." "Mon Dieu," and

Sacre!" succeeded to "Och Botheration!" and "Come out of that you little tormint !" long noses usurped the place of hanging under lips; and, before night, the French colony had settled themselves, somewhat after the manner of bees that have swarmed; though, from the incessant chattering which accompa nied all their movements, they might be more aptly compared to a convention of monkies.

There were two families in the front house. One consisted of a coarse-looking man of nearly fifty; with a very handsome wife of nineteen or twenty; The other was a bachelor's establishment of several young men, with an aged West India negress as a servant of all work. On the lower floor of the wing nestled a man, his wife and several small children; and above them were stowed away, a paralytic man of middle age, his mother of seventy, or upwards, a little daughter of ten, and a mahogany-faced female domestic.

Fatigued with the labors of the day, they all retired early to rest; the noise as of many magpies ceased, and nothing was heard from them until early the next morning. The first object that struck my attention on rising, was the palsied man, at the almost hopeless task of clearing his portion of the enclosed piece of ground; while the rest of his family were laughing and singing as merrily as birds in a spring morning. Before I went down to my breakfast, he had taken his frugal one with his family, at their open windows, so that I could not avoid seeing them. A slice of bread and a cup of coffee for each, a small raw onion for the three older ones, and the stalks for the little girl, was their simple fare. After it was over, the poor cripple resumed his labors in the garden; and so industriously did he employ his feeble energies, that, to my astonishment, by sun-set, not only had he removed all the rubbish from its surface, but it was laid out neatly in beds, and they were green with the tops of transplanted onions, giving a promise, which was afterwards fulfilled, of a fine supply of his favorite vegetable.

They were a very merry set in that part of the house, full of gesticulation and excitability. The four families generally met in the evening, in the lame man's room, or sat on the steps of the front house, which were broad, and amused themselves by looking at the passers-by. One Sunday evening, however, a new member of the fraternity made his appearance. That he was not of their

nation, though among them, was very apparent. He was seated on the lower step, and continued, in spite of the numbers which constantly passed him, to sing, in a loud voice, one New England psalm-tune after another, beating time most indefatigably with his right hand, in the most approved singingschool style. Some of the young gentlemen, who were our fellow-boarders, amused by his appearance, commenced a conversation with him, by which they ascertained that he was a Connecticut orphan, had been “ bound out" to a hard master, and, not liking his situation, had run away. He had made for New York, and been picked up, nearly starving, by the Frenchmen, and employed in their shop; but he said he should not stay, for "they danced Sundays, and smelt too strong of onions for him." He accordingly disappeared a day or two after.

Occasionally, the little girl, with her hair completely hid by a huge turban of very thick yellow calico, would come into our kitchen, with a little shovel in her hand, saying "feu, feu," to beg some coals to light their fire. The mistress of our house, who had a great taste for fun, dubbed her "Sancho Maria," (Santa Maria,) and used to astonish the child, by running over a long list of words which she pretended were French, but which were equally unintelligible to her and to us, and which bore about the same resemblance to the language of France, that Bog Latin does to that of the ancient Romans. The ef fect of her speeches was uniformly the same. After staring until her large black eyes became double their usual size, Sancho Maria made as speedy an exit as possible, and ran through the alley, and up the stairs, to her father's room, for safety. I used often to wish I could know what account she gave her grandmother of these addresses.

One night, our whole neighbourhood, French and American, was thrown into consternation by the breaking out of a fire, in a three-story house directly back of us, in the next street. Such a variety of night dresses was never before seen as our foreign neighbors exhibited; and though the fire was too near for safety, it was impossible to keep from laughing at the group there gathered.There was a pile of wood about four feet high, and on it several had mounted, apparently for the sake of obtaining a better view of the conBagration, though why they supposed that would aid them, when there was no obstruction between them and the flames, I could not imagine. But there they were, old grandmother and all, her arms thrown aloft, and her grey hairs literally streaming to the wind," as she joined her shrill voice in the general chorus of "Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu! Feu, feu" &c., and finally in the extremity of her fear, threw her arms around Joseph, the youngest, and handsomest of the young men. He too seemed a good deal alarmed, but whether by the fire, or by the old lady,