NIAGARA 195 



fence was useless. The guide continued to move on, 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 were right un- 

 der the tower. A little further on the cataract, after its 

 first plunge, hit a protuberance 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 com- 

 motion, along the arm of the Horseshoe, until the bowl- 

 ders failed us, and the cataract fell into the profound 

 gorge of the Niagara Eiver. 



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 and it alternately gathered and disappeared. An emi- 

 nent friend of mine often speaks of the mistake of those 

 physicians who regard man's ailments as purely chemical, 

 to be met by chemical remedies only. He contends for 

 the psychological element of cure. By agreeable emo- 

 tions, he says, nervous currents are liberated which stimu- 

 late blood, brain, and viscera. The influence rained from 

 ladies' eyes enables my friend to thrive on dishes which 

 would kill him if eaten alone. A sanative effect of the 



