198 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



wild and disordered was my imagination that when I had 

 reached half way I could bear it no longer. ' ' ' 



To complete my knowledge I desired to see the fall 

 from the river below it, and long negotiations were neces- 

 sary to secure the means of doing so. The only boat fit 

 for the undertaking had been laid up for the winter; but 

 this difficulty, through the kind intervention of Mr. Town- 

 send, was overcome. The main one was to secure oarsmen 

 sufiiciently strong and skilful to urge the boat where I 

 wished it to be taken. The son of the owner of the boat, 

 a finely-built young fellow, but only twenty, and therefore 

 not sufficiently hardened, was willing to go; and up the 

 river, it was stated, there lived another man who could do 

 anything with the boat which strength and daring could 

 accomplish. He came. His figure and expression of face 

 certainly indicated extraordinary firmness and power. On 

 Tuesday, November 5, we started, each of us being clad 

 in oilcloth. The elder oarsman at once assumed a tone of 

 authority over his companion, and struck immediately in 

 amid the breakers below the American Fall. He hugged 

 the cross freshets instead of striking out into the smoother 

 water. I asked him why he did so, and he replied that 

 they were directed outward, not downward. The struggle, 

 however, to prevent the bow of the boat from being turned 

 by them was often very severe. 



The spray was in general blinding, but at times it dis- 

 appeared and yielded noble views of the fall. The edge 

 of the cataract is crimped by indentations which exalt its 

 beauty. Here and there, a little below the highest ledge, 

 a secondary one juts out; the water strikes it and bursts 



1 <' 



Mag. of Nat. Hist.," 1830, pp. 121, 122. 



