NIAGARA 199 



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 bowlders over which 

 Conroy and myself had scrambled a few days previously 

 lying between 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 vio- 

 lent motion. The men struggled fiercely, the older one 

 ringing out an incessant 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 returned to the charge, now trying to 

 get up between the half -concealed rock and the bowlders 

 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 princi- 

 pal oarsman made a desperate attempt to get upon one of 

 the bowlders, 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 

 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 centre of which the 

 Horseshoe Fall appeared especially magnificent. A streak 

 of cloud across the neck of Mont Blanc can double its 

 apparent height, so here the green summit of the cataract 



