It is not easy to say whether the working men of this country had better emigrate to Canada or not, for circumstances, and consequently prices, vary there very much. Many boys from reformatories, and those belonging to the Shoe Brigade, have been sent there, and have got on better, probably, than they would here. A Miss Rye has taken out one or two ships full of women and girls, who quickly obtained places, and she has now taken charge of a number of gutter children, as she calls them -those who have no friends and no homes, and are always playing in the gutters of streets. She finds that many families in Canada would be glad to adopt them, and bring them up as their own.

I think you will like to read this account of the falls of Niagara, written by a gentleman who went there in 1860, at the time that Blondin was crossing them on a tightrope, the same Blondin who performed a similar feat in the Crystal Palace in England soon afterwards. This gentleman says:

"We took an excursion-ticket from Toronto to Niagara, but left the train on the Canada side, and found ourselves on the cliffs, above a broad quick river that was hurrying on below, and heard a constant kind of roar, something between the noise of a lion and of a steam thrashing-machine. There was a great crowd of excursionists like myself, the road lined with liquor-stores and card-sharpers, much like the road to Epsom on a Derby day. About half a mile from the station there was a slight bend in the road, and coming round the corner, the meaning of the roar became clear, for we saw Lake Erie rushing violently down a steep place into the Nia

gara river, thus forming the falls of Niagara. About a mile short of the falls we came on Blondin's rope, for in fact he never did go across the falls, as was reported, but across the river below them, which was, however, equally dangerous. One end of the rope was wound round a stout tree, and the other, after crossing the river, we could not see, but it must have been fastened in the same way. There were plenty of small ropes to steady the one on which he walked, which made it look less dangerous, but except for steadiness, they did not add to his safety. Looking through a glass I saw that he was chained, apparently with very heavy chains from head to foot. On reaching the middle he stopped, and began to perform in various ways, lying on his back on the rope, hanging by one foot head downwards, with various other antics. I agreed with a man who had lent me his glass, who said, 'I came to see whether it was true that he could cross the rope, but I would not give a cent.* to see it again.' After this, Blondin appeared again on the rope with a cooking-apparatus; he sat down, lit a fire, cooked an omelet, and lowered it by a string to a steamer underneath.

"But satisfied with all this, my real visit to Niagara was paid after leaving Toronto. The falls divide Canada from the State of New York, and the falls themselves are divided by a small island, which splits them into the Horse Shoe Fall on the Canada side, and the American Fall on the other. It is such a wonderful place that I felt disposed to do as a young man from New York had done, who went there fifty years ago to see the place, and stayed on for the rest of his life. He was called the Hermit of

* A cent. is a half-penny.

Niagara, and ended his life by tumbling down the falls one morning when at an advanced age. If you get on the bridge which stretches to the island in the middle, you can see the rapids, as they are called, close underneath. They are not as big as big sea-waves, but come tumbling and tossing downhill, like a parcel of schoolboys let loose, enough to make the head giddy. As they get to the fall they become steady, and shoot over the edge quick and smooth with a kind of hiss, scarcely heard for the roar they make at the bottom, whence they bound up again three-quarters of the way in mist. The savage Indians used to call this place the Home of the Great Spirit, and if old tales be true, they used to shoot the falls in a canoe, sitting bolt upright, singing their death song, and so going majestically home.

"One of the best views of the falls is to be seen from the water below, where a small steamer, called the Maid of the Mist, plies for passengers. She steams straight on to the falls, the roar deafens us, the spray splashes us, and as we get nearer, the spray thickens to a cloud, so that we cannot see a thing, and we are wet through, but still go on, and on, till just as we feel we surely must be going under, and are frightened out of our wits, they put about, we feel happy, and as we look behind, we see the mist going back, and the great falls growing out of it like a dissolving view. However, I really did go under the falls on the Canada side, which is quite worth doing, as it gives one an entirely new sensation, like being half hung, half drowned, and then living in a cave under the sea. There are many new sensations, such as going down into a coal-pit, up in a balloon, or down in a diving-bell, and judging from

what I have tried, going behind the Horse Shoe Fall of Niagara is one of them.

"On arriving and expressing my wish to go, I was delivered over to the care of a negro, who bound me hand and foot in water-proof clothes, and took me to a precipice, down which we went, the water roaring louder and louder, till we came to a ledge where rocks as large as mountains seemed to touch our heads, and cataracts poured over us, at least so it seemed to me, for it is fair to say that I had taken leave of my senses, and followed the negro in blind obedience. And so we went along the ledge till we were close to the fall, where the water shooting down in a curve cleared our pathway by a few feet. In obedience to my negro's commands, I went in behind him, but the wind drove the spray so hard in our faces, that as I before remarked, it was as good as being hung and drowned.

"We stopped to get breath for a moment, and I said to the negro, 'Please, sir, do let me go back,' but he would not let me, and we came in due time to a niche, where the wind was less strong, and my breath and my senses came back, both of which were then worth having, particularly my senses, for surely there is no place in the whole world equal to that niche, hemmed in by the water, like a cave at the bottom of the sea, the sun glimmering through the wall of water, lighting up the rock with a queer green light, and making my negro guide look awful. Taking it altogether, Niagara must be seen to be believed in, and never can be forgotten."

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS

IN NEW ENGLAND.

"Look now abroad! Another race has filled

Those populous borders; wide the wood recedes,
And towns shoot up and fertile realms are tilled,
The land is full of harvests and green meads."

THE breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed.

And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,

BRYANT.

When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted came,

Not with the roll of the stirring drums
And the trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear;

They shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,

And the stars heard and the sea,

1

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthem of the free!