Hadley's Falls (No. 5 of The Hudson River Portfolio)

When the artist William Guy Wall and writer John Agg visited this site, north of Glens Falls on the Hudson, it not easy to access. The text accompanying the image tells us that, "a moment's view of these Falls...as they suddenly burst upon the sight of the traveller...is sufficient compensation for all the difficulties he may have encountered. Instead of one unbroken sheet of water, falling perpendicularly...the whole body of the river seems to have forced a passage through the intercepting barrier of cliffs which obstructed its course; with ungovernable fury and deafening clamour, over a gradual but rugged declivity, composed of the massive and tenacious fragments which its impetuosity has thrown down."