tainly never before saw such a road. We were tossed about like tennis-balls in the coach; and obliged to get out I know not how often, to avoid the danger of being overturned. We then went literally through thick and thin, in the road and out of the road, through standing or trodden-down grass; till sprinkled and spattered with all kinds of soil, exhausted and dripping with perspiration, we took our places again in the thumping, jolting, ricketty vehicle. No one would risk travelling at night under such circumstances; we lodged therefore in Juliet, and on the evening of the 12th reached Chicago. This town is situated on Lake Michigan, in a country even more level than that around Berlin. Like all the towns in the West, it has grown out of nothing in a short space of time.

We had no lack on board the Raritan of political discussions and disputes among the Americans, the contents of which were constantly the same. The manner was more remarkable than the matter-by this time known to me beforehand; for here also the disputants never passed the bounds of moderation, or lost their good humor, or became severe or bitter. One zealous

individual took the votes of the passengers for Clay or Polk; in order to form from the result a conclusion as to the comparative strength of the two parties. When the question was put to me, I replied that I went for both or neither: one set of papers having declared both to be the first and best of men, and the other set having denounced both as unfit for office and unworthy in every respect.

On Saturday, the 13th, we took passage from Chicago, in the steamboat Great Western; and on Wednesday, the 17th, reached Buffalo on Lake Erie. The passage through Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, is reckoned at over a thousand miles; for which we paid, including board for four days and a half, fourteen dollars apiece. How much can be seen in Europe by travelling such a distance; but then how much time it consumes, and how much money one has to pay! We saw little; but made rapid progress, and advanced so much nearer home. These fresh-water lakes, the largest in the world, are beautifully clear, of a greenish hue, and abounding in fish. For the purposes of business and trade they are of incalculable value and importance; but their shores have no picturesque beauty whatever, and appear flat and in general sandy. From the land some fine points of view may be obtained, but they are hidden to the passenger in a steamboat; and even the famous Mackinaw, between Lakes Michigan and Huron, though it affords a prospect of immense bodies of water from some low hills, has no form, outline, or physiognomy in the highest sense of the term. Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, Detroit near Lake St. Clair, and Buffalo on Lake Erie, display

however such astonishing activity and such wondrous progress, that complaints of the want of scenic beauty sound ill in the mouth of a traveller, who is not roving the world as a mere landscape painter. Since my report of the country turns out so unsatisfactory, I will add a few words respecting our life on board the boat. The Great Western has a high reputation as a steamer, and can accommodate several hundred passengers. The cabins are elegantly decorated, the floors carpeted, the berths hung with silk curtains; and all is, as they say here, "splendid!" But there are things to counterbalance this sumptuous exterior. To begin with the table: there is no want of excellent materials, but a decided ignorance of the art of cooking. I therefore had to study moderation most immoderately, and, far from living to eat, I only ate to live. This indeed seems commonly the case on board stearnboats, particularly when the passengers are fed at two tables. The second table being usually worse than the first, those who are eager to fare well seat themselves around the walls half an hour or an hour before the meal is ready, in order to push forward to the table at the given signal. This gives the whole affair an appearance of repulsive greediness or suffering from hunger.

My sleeping-place was unfortunately close to the piano; and on the other side a squalling child performed a solo, to which the mother beat time. The next evening they played dance-music in the principal cabin; but that did not disturb the singers and squallers. What harmony! But at length I too fell asleep. Then a bug (there were plenty of them) fell from the berth above right into my ear, and kept up a buzzing that drowned every other sound, till I succeeded in dislodging the creature. This boat had not merely two, but three berths one above the other; which brought them so close together, that but a narrow space remained between, and one had to roll in and out,— to sit upright was out of the question. After the musical joys and sorrows were at an end, the third occupant of our bedchamber appeared, scrambled into the uppermost berth, and began to cough. I thought of Göthe and Radziwill; and words and tune seemed to sound in my ears, Will he spit; will he spit? Heaven be praised, he did not spit! All these disagreeablenesses may appear so great to stayers at home, as to make them feel no desire to follow our example; but the traveller gets inured to them by degrees, till at last they seem a necessary seasoning. I passed the many leisure hours in reading the speeches of the proposed president, Mr. Clay; they are in the highest degree interesting and instructive. The traveller in the eastern part of Europe does not find the means of travelling, the swiftness of progress, and the hotels, which are met with in young western

America; and still less frequently the masterly speeches of a native statesman. Let this serve as a set-off to the over harsh judgment into which I may have been led by the remembrance of the bugs and mosquitoes. But these latter are also not wanting in Europe; and the Venetian zanzare have plagued me much more than these American insects.

Buffalo rises, like Venice, out of the water, in a situation unusually favorable for trade; and by the aid of this magic lamp of our time, has grown within a few years to be a large city. There are shops on shops in the broad principal street, a busy traffic never found in our inland towns, and more large steamboats on Lake Erie (which was scarcely known fifty years ago) than little boats on the Spree. We enjoyed here, as every where, the most prompt and courteous attention. Mr. M., a member of Congress, drove with us about the city and environs; and Mr. T. took us to visit the last Indian village to be found in this part of the country. The Indians have sold their land to private individuals, and are going west of the Mississippi. It is sufficient to see these men, women, and children, to be convinced of the superiority of the white race. God has ordained it thus; and it would avail nothing to deny or refine away the distinction. When we see that the most intellectual and bravest of nations, the Greeks and the Romans, have perished, and that the Arabs have sunk again to their ancient level, we are forced to acknowledge the truth, that the onward rushing tide of human events has so ordered and produced it. How insignificant in comparison seem all these Indian tribes!

On the 18th we visited Mr.'s country seat, which, standing on an elevated spot, commands a charming prospect of land and water. It showed that there were many picturesque spots on terra firma, which are neither seen nor dreamed of by the traveller on board the steamboats below and at a distance from the shore. Yet with these just admissions, neither Lake Michigan nor Huron is a Lake of Como or Geneva. Suum cuique!

NIAGARA, July 20th.

When the excellent Jefferson, before visiting Europe, said it was worth coming to America merely to see Harper's Ferry, he might have been told that there are many places as beautiful or more so in our Germany alone. Is it perhaps the same with Niagara? Do all the representations of it show any thing else but a monotonous mass of water tumbling between tiresome cliffs? Was I not told by many Americans who are apt not to underrate what belongs to their country-that I should be much disappoint

ed, and that I must stay at least a week (which was impossible) in order to discover and comprehend its varied beauties. “You will feel," said another, "quite depressed and annihilated." "The oppressed heart," sighed a lady, "must be relieved by tears." Of this, as the saying is, I could make neither head nor tail. I therefore established beforehand, in true German fashion, the following fundamental propositions: Among all categories, that of quantity prevails universally in America (witness the size of the country, its lakes, and its rivers, the universal right of suffrage, the majorities of the whole, &c.). So it is with the cataract of Niagara. Its fame rests on quantity, while its quality is very imperfect. By virtue of this last category, a much less quantity may produce a greater impression; and if this want of quality be obscurely felt, or clearly perceived, one feels disappointed; and prefers much smaller waterfalls such as those of Tivoli, Terni, Reichenbach, or Handek-to the great, broad, tasteless, and characterless Niagara.

So much for American remarks, and German philosophic speculations. Both amount to nothing; they are all fudge! On casting the first look at only one of the falls, all this wisdom fell like a thick fog to the ground. When after a hot day I walked out into the open air of a cold night in Chamouni, and saw before me the glaciers of Mount Blanc and its neighbors stiffened in eternal snow, the thought seized me, What would become of this benumbed nature, if God should but for a moment withdraw his hand from it and from feeble man! When, standing on Etna, I beheld around me nothing but destruction and death, I collected myself, and compared this lawless, savage strength with the Heaven-imparted gift of the human soul, whose noble thoughts, in spite of all apparent weakness, have more of life and a longer duration, than grey lava and shapeless ashes! It was quite otherwise with Niagara. I could have shouted with exultation; and my excited spirit soared aloft, like the tones of an Eolian harp harmoniously blending with the thunders of this miracle of nature. Immersion in this sea of beauty seemed to renew the vigor and vivacity of early years; it was a fountain of rejuvenescence such as the pressure of dry categories could never set flowing. There was nothing frightful, horrible, oppressive, annihilating, or repulsive, but the beauty of nature in her noblest manifestation and the most amazing variety. No painter could represent this world of moving wonders in full truth and beauty; nor can any description be successful. For if I dwell on the wondrous unity and harmony of all these phenomena, their multiplicity is lost sight of; if this last is made prominent, the former disappears in the fragile mosaic of a dry enumeration.

From the top of Niagara one sees in the distance the broad, smooth, mirror-like expanse of Lake Erie. By degrees its surface begins to be ruffled; projecting fragments of rock and trunks of trees lodged against them increase the agitation; until the entire mass of water is transformed into rapids of great extent and singular beauty. Through several islands the impetuous torrent forces an easy path; it then dashes against a rocky islet (Iris island) adorned with the most magnificent trees, and separates into two great arms;-but not for ever; for the same fate awaits them both, and below the falls they are again united into one stream, which flows majestically onward, decked in every shade of green, fantastically intermingled with streaks of silver. The rapids and this river-without any cataract-would form a scene justly entitled to the praise of rarest beauty. And then what accessories!-stupendous walls of perpendicular or projecting rocks, or receding cliffs covered and garlanded with trees, shrubs, and flowers! From this region of verdure and rocks the floods rush onwards, now of the brightest emerald hue, now crimson as the sunset sky, and again dissolved in snowy foam, and whirling upwards from the abyss in volumes of mist borne far over stream and land. It is not one, nor two water-falls; it is a whole series of wonders, renewing and changing at every step, and presenting a world of incomparable beauties. To him who is not caught up and enraptured in the first moment, time will prove of little avail. Nevertheless, three hours (how many, governed by the railroad, try it!) are not enough to satisfy one; and one day-in spite of our very limited time-is being lengthened into three; for I know of no place in the wide world, so fitted for the soul's initiation into all the mysteries and revelations of nature.

NIAGARA, July 21st.

We have seen the falls from every side-from above and below, from the level of the ground, and from hills and towers; and today, the third of our stay, we are going to enjoy the sight once more. From my window, in the Cataract Hotel on the American side, I see the rapids, and many mills and other establishments scattered up and down, which make use of the water-power. Near the hotel two bridges lead over several small islands, and cross the rapids to Iris island. Turning to the right, you come upon the American falls, the very smallest of which has more than twice as much water as Tivoli. To the left, the path leads to the still greater falls, that divide the Canadian from the American shore. A flight of steps and a rough path brings you down to the bed of the river, and affords a near view of the raging