142 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
Fall is certainly exquisitely beautiful, but it is a mere 
frill of adornment to its nobler neighbor the Horseshoe. At 
times we took to the river, from the center of wbich the 
Horseshoe Fall appeared especially magnificent. A streak 
of cloud across the neck of Mont Blanc can double its ap- 
parent height, so here the green summit of the cataract 
shining above the smoke of spray appeared lifted to an ex- 
traordinary elevation. Had Hennepin and La Hontan 
seen the fall from this position, their estimates of the 
height would have been perfectly excusable. 
From a point a little way below the American Fall, a 
ferry crosses the river, in summer, to the Canadian side. 
Below the ferry is a suspension bridge for carriages and 
foot-passengers, and a mile or two lower down is the rail- 
way suspension bridge. Between ferry and bridge the 
river Niagara flows unruffled: but at the suspension bridge 
the bed steepens and the river quickens its motion. Lower 
down the gorge narrows, and the rapidity and turbulence 
increase. At the place called the " Whirlpool Rapids" I 
estimated the width of the river at 300 feet, an estimate 
confirmed by the dwellers on the spot. When it is remem- 
bered that the drainage of nearly half a continent is com- 
pressed into this space, the impetuosity of the river's rush 
may be imagined. Had it not been for Mr. Bierstadt, the 
distinguished photographer of Niagara, I should have 
quitted the place without seeing these rapids; for this, and 
for his agreeable company to the spot, I have to thank him. 
From the edge of the cliff above the rapids, we descended, 
a little, I confess, to a climber's disgust, in an " elevator," 
because the effects are best seen from the water level. 
Two kinds of motion are here obviously active, a motion 
of translation and a motion of undulation the race of the 
river through its gorge, and the great waves generated by 
its collision with, and rebound from, the obstacles in its 
way. In the middle of the river the rush and tossing are 
most violent; at all events, the impetuous force of the 
individual waves is here most strikingly displayed. Vast 
pyramidal heaps leap incessantly from the river, some of 
them with such energy as to jerk their summits into the 
air, where they hang momentarily suspended in crowds of 
liquid spherules. The sun shone for a few minutes. At 
times the wind, coming up the river, searched and sifted 
