FALLS OF NIAGARA. 91 



cave was comparatively serene. We penetrated 153 feet to 

 the Termination rock, where we conversed without difficulty, 

 in a peculiar greenish light, the sun being distinctly visible 

 through the falling sheet of water. The pathway is strewed 

 with loose stones the debris of the falling rock and unplea 

 santly narrow. The guide seemed impatient to regain the 

 outside, and I experienced no difficulty in breathing, or uneasi 

 ness of any kind. Next day I repeated my visit, when the 

 spray and wind were much more powerful. On this occasion, 



Mr C and I were preceded by three Yankee youths, two 



of whom lost courage on encountering the spray, and nearly 

 overturned us in their hurried retreat. There is little danger 

 in a pilgrimage to the Termination rock, and nothing to 

 affect the nerves of an ordinary person, or to reward him, be 

 yond the glory of having made it, and enjoying the finest of 

 shower-baths, formed by the spray of the falling water. 



The currents of air acting on the soft under stratum in the 

 cave, is the primary cause of the lime rock giving way, over 

 which the water pours, but how they should vary so much is 

 not easily accounted for. At both visits the external atmo 

 sphere was still, but I did not remark the direction of the 

 wind, or revolve the matter in my mind. Air mingled with 

 water will at all times pass over the cataract, and the current 

 in the cave may either proceed from the agitated water below 

 being incapable of containing the same quantity of air as that 

 above, or from wind passing through the falling sheet, as sun 

 beams do through glass. 



At my first visit to the cave I lifted an eel about the centre, 

 and restored it to the water. A toad was near the falling 

 sheet, in full vigour of life, and on my second visit there was 

 one near the same spot. In the channel of the river, and 

 amidst the thickest vapour, swallows were whirling at all 

 times, and occasionally seemed to pass within a few inches of 

 the surface of the most impetuous part of the Horse-shoe fall. 

 The suction and danger of the falls seem to have been exag 

 gerated, and the noise and terror said to be experienced on 

 viewing them, either do not exist, or my feelings were insen 

 sible to them. 



At twilight of the evening of 1st July, I walked up the 



