2i 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



could not have been walked over with hare feet, hut the felt shoes 

 effectually prevented slipping. We reached the cave and entered it, 

 first by a wooden way carried over the bowlders, and then along a 

 narrow ledge to the point eaten deepest into the shale. When the 

 wind is from the south, the falling water, I am told, can be seen tran- 

 quilly from this spot ; but, when we were there, a blinding hurricane 

 of spray was whirled against us. On the evening of the same day, I 

 went behind the water on the Canada side, which, I confess, struck 

 me, after the experience of the morning, as an imposture. 



To complete my knowledge it was necessary to see the fall from 

 the river below it, and long negotiations were necessary to secure the 

 means of doing so. The only boat fit for the undertaking had been 

 laid up for the winter ; but this difficulty, through the kind interven- 

 tion of Mr. Townsend, was overcome. The main one was, to secure 

 oarsmen sufficiently strong and skilful to urge the boat where I wished 

 it to be taken. The son of the owner of the boat, a finely-built young 

 fellow, but only twenty, and therefore not sufficiently hardened, was 

 willing to go ; and up the river I was informed there lived another man 

 who could do any thing with the boat which strength and daring 

 could accomplish. He came. His figure and expression of face cer- 

 tainly indicated extraordinary firmness and power. On Tuesday, the 

 5th of November, we started, each of us being clad in oil-cloth. The 

 elder oarsman at once assumed a tone of authority over his companion, 

 and struck immediately in among the breakers below the American 

 Fall. He hugged the cross freshets instead of striking out into the 

 smoother w T ater. I asked him why he did so, and he replied that they 

 were directed outward not downward. At times, the struggle to pre- 

 vent the bow of the boat from being turned by them was very 

 severe. 



The spray was in general blinding, but at times it disappeared, and 

 yielded noble views of the fall. The edge of the cataract is crimped 

 by indentations which exalt its beauty. Here and there, a little below 

 the highest ledge, a secondary one jets out ; the water strikes it, and 

 bursts from it in huge, protuberant masses of foam and spray. We 

 passed Goat Island, came to the Horseshoe, and worked for a time 

 along the base of it, the bowlders over which Conroy and myself had 

 scrambled a few days previously lying between us and the base. A 

 rock was before us, concealed and revealed at intervals, as the waves 

 passed over it. Our leader tried to get above this rock, first on the 

 outside of it. The water, however, here was in violent motion. The 

 men struggled fiercely, the elder one ringing out an incessant peal of 

 command and exhortation to the younger. As we were just clearing 

 the rock, the bow came obliquely to the surge; the boat was turned 

 suddenly round, and shot with astonishing rapidity down the river. 

 The men returned to the charge, now trying to get up between the 



