204 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



diction. All that can be said is, that if the causes 

 now in action continue to act, it will prove itself liter- 

 ally true. 



POSTSCETPT. 







A year or BO after I had quitted the United States, 

 a man sixty years of age, while engaged in painting one 

 of the bridges which connect Groat Island with the Three 

 Sisters, slipped through the rails of the bridge into the 

 rapids, and was carried impetuously towards the Horse- 

 shoe Fall. He was urged against a rock which rose 

 above the water, and with the grasp of desperation he 

 clung to it. The population of the village of Niagara 

 Falls was soon upon the island, and ropes were brought, 

 but there was none to use them. In the midst of the 

 excitement, a tall powerful young fellow was observed 

 making his way silently through the crowd. He reached 

 a rope ; selected from the bystanders a number of men, 

 and placed one end of the rope in their hands. The 

 other end he fastened round himself, and choosing a 

 point considerably above that to which the man clung, 

 he plunged into the rapids. He was carried violently 

 downwards, but he caught the rock, secured the old 

 painter and saved him. Newspapers from all parts of 

 the Union poured in upon me, describing this gallant 

 act of my guide Conroy. 



