[Gutenberg 49043] • American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2) / or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature

Niagara, America, History, Lake, river, waterfalls, Monument

PREFACE.

Either Nature has wrought with a bolder hand in America, or the effect of long continued cultivation on scenery, as exemplified in Europe, is greater than is usually supposed. Certain it is that the rivers, the forests, the unshorn mountain-sides and unbridged chasms of that vast country, are of a character peculiar to America alone—a lavish and large-featured sublimity, (if we may so express it,) quite dissimilar to the picturesque of all other countries.

To compare the sublime of the Western Continent with the sublime of Switzerland—the vales and rivers, lakes and waterfalls, of the New World with those of the Old—to note their differences, and admire or appreciate each by contrast with the other, was a privilege hitherto confined to the far-wandering traveller. In the class of works, of which this is a specimen, however, that enviable enjoyment is brought to the fire-side of the home-keeping and secluded as well; and, sitting by the social hearth, those whose lot is domestic and retired, can, with small cost, lay side by side upon the evening table the wild scenery of America, and the bold passes of the Alps—the leafy Susquehanna with its rude raft, and the palace-gemmed Bosphorus with its slender caïque. So great a gratification is seldom enjoyed at so little cost and pains.

In the Letter-press, it has been the Writer’s aim to assemble as much as possible of that part of American story which history has not yet found leisure to put into form, and which romance and poetry have not yet appropriated—the legendary traditions and anecdotes, events of the trying times of the Revolution, Indian history, and that, in the value of the intellectual portion, as well as in the beauty and finish of the embellishments, the Work will be thought worthy of the patronage of the public.

CONTENTS VOL II.

Portrait of Mr. Bartlett. (Autographed)

Map of the North-Eastern Parts of the United States

Niagara Falls, from the Ferry

View from West Point

Trenton Falls, View down the Ravine

View from Mount Holyoke

The Outlet of Niagara River

The Palisades, Hudson River

The Rapids above the Falls of Niagara

Saratoga Lake

The Colonnade of Congress Hall, Saratoga Springs

Albany

Crow’s Nest, from Bull Hill, West Point

View below Table Rock

Lake Winipiseogee

Kosciusko’s Monument

The Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, with the Tower

The Narrows, at Staten Island

View of the Capitol at Washington

View of the Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga

View from Fort Putnam

View of State Street, Boston

Niagara Falls, from Clifton House

View from Hyde Park

Village of Sing-Sing

View from Ruggle’s House, Newburgh

Descent into the Valley of Wyoming

Boston, from Dorchester Heights

View of Faneuil Hall, Boston

New York Bay, from the Telegraph Station

Peekskill Landing

Lighthouse near Caldwell Landing

Harper’s Ferry, from the Potomac side

Caldwell, Lake George

Centre Harbour, Lake Winipiseogee

Yale College, at New Haven

Willey House—White Mountains

Battle Monument, Baltimore

Forest Scene on Lake Ontario

Viaduct on the Baltimore and Washington Rail-road

The Indian Falls near Coldspring

Columbia Bridge, over the Susquehanna

The Genessee Falls, Rochester

The Ferry at Brooklyn, New York

Rail-road to Utica, Little Falls

Utica