is so dreadful that it makes all the neighboring islands tremble; the fishermen and navigators fly from it in the utmost terror. The next day, or the second day after every new or full moon, the time when the tides are highest, the river also seems to redouble its power and energy; its waters and those of the ocean rush against each other like the onset of two armies. The banks are inundated with their foaming waves; the rocks drawn along like light vessels, dash against each other, almost upon the surface of the water which bears them on. Loud roarings echo from island to island. It has been said that the Genius of the River and the God of the Ocean contended in battle for the empire of the waves. The Indians call this phenomenon Pororoca.
| COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE RIVERS OF THE WORLD. | |
| NORTH AMERICA. | |
|---|---|
| Names. | Length. |
| Missouri | 4,400 |
| Mississippi | 3,000 |
| Arkansas | 2,100 |
| St. Lawrence | 2,000 |
| Mackenzie | 2,000 |
| Del Norte | 2,000 |
| Nelson | 1,500 |
| Columbia | 1,500 |
| Red River | 1,500 |
| Platte | 1,500 |
| Ohio | 1,350 |
| Kansas | 1,200 |
| White River | 1,200 |
| Tennessee | 1,100 |
| Alabama | 650 |
| Savannah | 600 |
| Potomac | 550 |
| Connecticut | 410 |
| Hudson | 324 |
| Delaware | 300 |
| SOUTH AMERICA. | |
| Maranon | 4,500 |
| La Plata | 3,000 |
| Madeira | 2,500 |
| Orinoco | 1,800 |
| Tocantins | 1,800 |
| Ucayale | 1,600 |
| St. Francisco | 1,500 |
| Paraguay | 1,400 |
| Xingu | 1,400 |
| Topajos | 1,300 |
| EUROPE. | |
| Volga | 2,040 |
| Danube | 1,710 |
| Don | 1,050 |
| Dnieper | 1,080 |
| Kemi | 780 |
| Rhine | 670 |
| Elbe | 570 |
| Loire | 540 |
| Vistula | 500 |
| Dniester | 480 |
| Tagus | 580 |
| Dwina | 480 |
| AFRICA. | |
| Nile | 2,687 |
| Senegal | 950 |
| Orange | 900 |
| Gambia | 700 |
| ASIA. | |
| 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,
