Yangtse Kian 3,300 Lena 2,470 Amour 2,360 Obi 2,260 Yenisei 2,150 Ganges 2,040 Burrampooter 2,040 Irrawaddy 2,040 Cambodia 2,000 Euphrates 1,820 Hoang Ho 2,900 Meinam 1,600 CHAPTER V.――CATARACTS AND CASCADES. THE Falls of Niagara have been very frequently and minutely described, though it must be acknowledged, as has been well said by the celebrated Audubon, that all the pictures you may see, all the descriptions you may read of these mighty falls, can only produce in your mind the faint glimmer of a glow-worm compared with the overpowering glory of the meridian sun. ‘What!’ said he, ‘have I come here to mimic nature in her grandest enterprise, and add _my_ caricature of one of the wonders of the world to those which I here see? No.――I give up the vain attempt. I will look on these mighty cataracts, and imprint them where they alone can be represented,――on my mind!’ The following very full and accurate description by Mr. Schoolcraft, is the best with which we are acquainted. ‘On the first of May, I visited the celebrated Falls of Niagara.[14] Keeping the American shore, the road lies over an alluvial country, elevated from ten to twenty feet above the water of the river, without a hill or a ledge of rocks, and with scarce an undulation of surface, to indicate the existence, or prepare the eye for the stupendous prospect which bursts, somewhat unexpectedly, into view. The day was clear and warm, with a light breeze blowing down the river. We stopped frequently on our approach to listen for the sound of the Fall, but at the distance of fifteen, ten, eight, and even five miles, could not distinguish any, even by laying the ear to the ground. It was not until within three miles of the precipice, where the road runs close to the edge of the river, and brings the rapids in full view, that we could distinctly hear the sound, which then, owing to a change in the wind, fell so heavily upon the ear, that in proceeding a short distance, it was difficult to maintain a conversation as we rode along. On reaching the Falls, nothing struck me with more surprise, than that the Baron La Hontan, who visited it in August, 1688, should have fallen into so egregious a mistake, as to the height of the perpendicular pitch, which he represents at seven or eight hundred feet. Nor does the narrator of the discoveries of the unfortunate La Salle, Monsieur Tonti, approach much nearer the truth, when he states it at six hundred feet. Charlevoix, whose work is characterized by more accuracy, learning,