At Geneva I remained until the 28th of April, when I again took my seat in the mail-stage, passing, in the course of the day, the lower margin of Canandaigua Lake, and through the attractive and tastefully laid-out village of the same name, and, after continuing the route through a most fertile country, with a constantly expanding vegetation, reached Avon, on the banks of the Genesee River. Here we slept. The next morning (the 29th), we crossed this noble stream, and, after a long and fatiguing day's staging, reached Buffalo in the evening. I was now at an estimated distance of two hundred and ten miles west of Utica, and three hundred and twenty-two from Albany. We had found the peach and apple-tree in blossom, and the vegetation generally in an advanced state, until reaching within eight or ten miles of Lake Erie, where the force of the winds, and the bodies of floating ice, evidently had the effect to retard vegetation. No vessel had yet ventured from the harbor, and although the steamer Walk-in-the-Water was advertised for the 1st of May, it was determined to delay her sailing until the 6th. This gave me time to visit Niagara[8] Falls, and some other places of historical interest in the neighborhood. This object I executed immediately, taking a horse and buggy, and keeping down the American shore. The distance is twenty-two miles, in which the Tonewanda River is crossed by a bridge. The day was clear and warm, with a light breeze blowing down the river. I stopped several times to listen for the sound of the Falls, but at the distance of fifteen, ten, eight, and even five miles, could not distinguish any; the course of the wind being, indeed, adverse to the transmission of sound, in that direction, until reaching within some two or three miles. There is nothing in the character of the country, in the approach from Buffalo, to apprise the visitor of the difference in its level and geological stratification, and thus prepare the mind to expect a cataract. It is different, I afterwards learned, in the approach from Lewiston, in which quite a mountain must first be ascended, when views are often had of the most striking parts of the gulf, which has been excavated by the passage of the Niagara River. It was not easy for me to erect standards of comparison for the eye to estimate heights. The ear is at first stunned by the incessant roar, and the eye bewildered by the general view. I spent two days at the place, and thus became familiarized with individual traits of the landscape. I found the abyss at the foot of the Falls to be the best spot for accomplishing that object. By far the greatest disproportion in the Falls exists between the height and great width of the falling sheet. The water is most thick and massy at the Horseshoe Fall, which gives one the most striking and vivid idea of creative power. In fitting positions in the gulf, with good incidences of light, the Falls look like a mighty torrent pouring down from the clouds.