138 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
than to proceed. Instructed by the first misadventure, I 
once more entered the stream. Had the alpenstock been 
of iron it might have helped me; but, as it was, the ten- 
dency of the water to sweep it out of my hands rendered 
it worse than useless. I, however, clung to it by habit. 
Again the torrent rose and again I wavered; but, by keep- 
ing the left hip well against it, I remained upright, and at 
length grasped the hand of my leader at the other sfde. 
He laughed pleasantly. The first victory was gained, and 
he enjoyed it. " No traveler," he said, " was ever here 
before." Soon afterward, by trusting to a piece of drift- 
wood which seemed firm, I was again taken off my feet, 
but was immediately caught by a protruding rock. 
We clambered over the boulders toward the thickest 
spray, which soon became so weighty as to cause us to 
stagger under its shock. For the most part nothing could 
be seen; we were in the midst of bewildering tumult, lushed 
by the water, which sounded at times like the cracking of 
innumerable whips. Underneath this was the deep 
resonant roar of the cataract. I tried to shield my eyes 
with my hands, and look upward; but the defense was use- 
less. The guide continued to move 6n, but at a certain 
place he halted, desiring me to take shelter in his lee, and 
observe the cataract. The spray did not come so much 
from the upper ledge, as from the rebound of the shattered 
water when it struck the bottom. Hence the eyes could 
be protected from the blinding shock of the spray, while 
the line of vision to the upper ledges remained to some 
extent clear. On looking upward over the guide's shoulder 
I could see the water bending over the ledge, while the 
Terrapin Tower loomed fitfully through the intermittent 
spray-gusts. We w^ere right under the tower. A little 
farther on the cataract;-alter-its first plunge, hit a pro- 
tuberance some way down, and flew from it in a prodigious 
burst of spray; through this we staggered. We rounded 
the promontory on which the Terrapin Tower stands, and 
moved, amid the wildest commotion, along the arm of the 
Horseshoe, until the boulders failed us, and the cataract 
fell into the profound gorge of the Niagara river. 
Here the guide sheltered me again, and desired me to 
look up; I did so, and could see, as before, the green 
gleam of the mighty curve sweeping over the upper ledge, 
and the fitful plunge of the water, as the spray between us 
