NIAGARA 189 



On Friday, November 1, 1872, just before reaching the 

 village of Niagara Falls, I caught, from the railway train, 

 my first glimpse of the smoke of the cataract. Immedi- 

 ately after my arrival I went with a friend to the northern 

 end of the American Fall. It may be that my mood at 

 the time toned down the impression produced by the first 

 aspect of this grand cascade; but I felt nothing like disap- 

 pointment, knowing, from old experience, that time and 

 close acquaintanceship, the gradual interweaving of mind 

 and nature, must powerfully influence my final estimate of 

 the scene. After dinner we crossed to Goat Island, and, 

 turning to the right, reached the southern end of the 

 American Fall. The river is here studded with small 

 islands. Crossing a wooden bridge to Luna Island, and 

 clasping a tree which grows near its edge, I looked long 

 at the cataract, which here shoots down the precipice like 

 an avalanche of foam. It grew in power and beauty. 

 The channel spanned by the wooden bridge was deep, 

 and the river there doubled over the edge of the preci- 

 pice, like the swell of a muscle unbroken. The ledge 

 here overhangs, the water being poured out far beyond 

 the base of the precipice. A space, called the Cave of 

 the Winds, is thus enclosed between the wall of rock and 

 the falling water. 



Goat Island ends in a sheer dry precipice, which con- 

 nects the American and Horseshoe Falls. Midway be- 

 tween both is a wooden hut, the residence of the guide 

 to the Cave of the Winds, and from the hut a winding 

 staircase, called Biddle's Stair, descends to the base of 

 the precipice. On the evening of my arrival I went down 

 this stair, and wandered along the bottom of the cliff. 

 One well-known factor in the formation and retreat of the 



