FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



than to proceed. Instructed by the first misadventure, I 

 once more entered the stream. Had the alpenstock been 

 of iron it might have helped me; but, as it was, the ten- 

 dency of the water to sweep it out of my hands rendered 

 it worse than useless. I, however, clung to it by habit. 

 Again the torrent rose and again I wavered; but, by keep- 

 ing the left hip well against it, I remained upright, and at 

 length grasped the hand of my leader at the other side. 

 He laughed pleasantly. The first victory was gained, and 

 lie enjoyed it. " No traveler,'' he said, " was ever here 

 before." Soon afterward, by trusting to a piece of drift- 

 wood which seemed firm, I was again taken off my feet, 

 but was immediately caught by a protruding rock. 



We clambered over the boulders toward the thickest 

 spray, which soon became so weighty as to cause us to 

 stagger under its shock. For the most part nothing could 

 be seen; we were in the midst of bewildering tumult, lushed 

 by the water, which sounded at times like the cracking of 

 innumerable whips. Underneath this was the deep 

 resonant roar of the cataract. I tried to shield my eyes 

 with my hands, and look upward; but the defense was use- 

 less. 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 under the tower. A little 

 farther on the cataract, after its first plunge, hit a pro- 

 tuberance 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 commotion, along the arm of the 

 Horseshoe, until the boulders failed us, and the cataract 

 fell into the profound gorge of the Niagara river. 



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 



