NIAGARA. Ul 
river, it was stated, there lived another man who could do 
anything with the boat which strength and daring could 
accomplish. He came. His figure and expression of face 
certainly indicated extraordinary firmness and power. On 
Tuesday, November 5th, we started, each of us being clad 
in oilcloth. The elder oarsman at once assumed a tone of 
authority over his companion, and struck immediately in 
amid the breakers below the American Fall. He hugged 
the cross freshets instead of striking out into the smoother 
water. I asked him why he did so, and he replied that 
they were directed outward, not downward. The struggle, 
however, to prevent the bow of the boat from being turned 
by them, was often very severe. 
The spray was in general blinding, but at times it dis- 
appeared 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 juts 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 its base, the boulders over which Conroy 
and myself had scrambled a few days previously lying be- 
tween us and the cataract. 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, was here in violent motion. The 
men struggled fiercely, the older one ringing out an inces- ' 
sant 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 re- 
turned to the charge, now trying to get up between the 
half-concealed rock and the boulders to the left. But the 
torrent set in strongly through this channel. The tugging 
was quick and violent, but we made little way. At length, 
seizing a rope, the principal oarsman made a desperate 
attempt to get upon one of the boulders, hoping to be able 
to drag the boat through the channel; but it bumped so 
violently against the rock, that the man flung himself back 
and relinquished the attempt. 
We returned along the base of the American Fall, run- 
ning in and out among the currents which rushed from it 
laterally into the river, Seen from below the American 
