PANORAMA OF THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
Mn. BURFORD having finished his View of Niagara, which he had laid aside to paint that of Antwerp, is exhibiting it, together with the latter, in Leicester Square. In the lower circle the visitor may witness the effects of the roar of artillery, and in the upper the roar of waters. It is agreed on all bands, that a panoramic view is the only one that can convey an adequate representation of the stupendous Falls of the Niagara ; where a vast body of water, three quarters of a mile in breadth, rushes headlong over a projecting ledge of rocks to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet, at the rate of a hundred millions of tons per hour. The falls, forming an irregular semicircle, occupy one half of the canvass; and the river below them, and the table rock from which the view is taken, the other half. On entering, you are at first sight disappointed in the effect of vastness,—as is the case with the first view of the real scene; the immense expanse of water diminishes the- apparent depth of the fall, especially as compared with most other cataracts, in which, from the mountain force to the fall of a river, the proportions are opposite, their breadth being,, less than their height.. On comparing, however, the immense volume of foaming water with the scale of the objects around, particularly the human beings, the vastness and grandeur of the scene are apparent, and the imagination with very little effort brings the reality in a manner before the eye. The great Horse-shoe Fall is immediately in the foreground ; and you see the agitated surface of the river- below, from which rises the cloud of spray, intermingled with jets or aqueous rockets formed by the rebounding of the water from the rocks beneath. The artist, Mr. BURFORD, painted the picture from accurate sketches taken by himself on the spot ; and he has given a faithful portrait of the face of the Great Fall, with all the little varieties and freaks of the foaming water. These never vary, except when a fragment of rock becomes detached ; because the volume of water is so immense as to be scarcely affected by a swell of rain-floods ; and its ' weight and the force of its impulse effectually resist the operation of
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