SOME OBSERVATIONS ON NIAGARA. 211 



has been always the form of the cataract from its origin to its present 

 site. 



As regards the noise of the cataract, Charlevoix declares the ac- 

 counts of his predecessors, which, I may say, are repeated to the pres- 

 ent hour, to he altogether extravagant. He is perfectly right. The 

 thunders of Niagara are formidable enough to those who really seek 

 them at the base of the Horseshoe Fall ; but on the banks of the river, 

 and particularly above the fall, its silence, rather than its noise, is 

 surprising. This arises, in part, from the lack of resonance, the sur- 

 rounding country being flat, and therefore furnishing no echoing sur- 

 faces to reenforce the shock of the water. The resonance from the sur- 

 rounding rocks causes the Swiss Rouss at the Devil's Bridge, when 

 full, to thunder more loudly than the Niagara. 



On Friday, the 1st of November, 1872, just before reaching the 

 village of Niagara Falls, I caught, from the railway-train, my first 

 glimpse of the smoke of the cataract. Immediately after my arrival, 

 I went with a friend to the northern end of the American Fall. It 

 may be that my mood at the time toned down the impression pro- 

 duced by the first aspect of this grand cascade ; but I felt nothing like 

 disappointment, knowing, from old experience, that time and close 

 acquaintanceship, the gradual interweaving of mind and Nature, must 

 powerfully influence my final estimate of the scene. After dinner we 

 crossed to Goat Island, and, turning to the right, reached the southern 

 end of the American Fall. The river is here studded with small 

 islands. Crossing a wooden bridge to Luna Island, and clasping a 

 tree which grows near its edge, I looked long at the cataract, which 

 here shoots down the precipice like an avalanche of foam. It grew 

 in power and beauty as I gazed upon it. The channel, spanned by 

 the wooden bridge, was deep, and the river there doubled over the 

 edge of the precipice like the swell of a muscle, unbroken. The ledge 

 here overhangs, the water being poured out far beyond the base of the 

 precipice. A space, called the Cave of the Winds, is thus enclosed 

 between the wall of rock and the cataract. 



Goat Island terminates in a sheer dry precipice, which connects 

 the American and the Horseshoe Falls. Midway between both is a 

 wooden hut, the residence of the guide to the Cave of the Winds, and 

 from the hut a winding staircase, called Biddle's Stair, descends to 

 the base of the precipice. On the evening of my arrival I went down 

 this stair, and wandered along the bottom of the cliff. One well- 

 known factor in the formation and retreat of the cataract was imme- 

 diately observed. A thick layer of limestone formed the upper portion 

 of the cliff. This rested upon a bed of soft shale, which extended 

 round the base of the cataract. The violent recoil of the water against 

 this yielding substance crumbles it away, undermining the ledge above, 

 which, unsupported, eventually breaks off, aud produces the observed 

 recession. 



