1 42 VRA GMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Fall is certainly exquisitely beautiful, but it is a mere 

 frill of adornment to its nobler neighbor the Horseshoe. At 

 limes we took to the river, from the center of which the 

 Horseshoe Fall appeared especially magnificent. A streak 

 of cloud across the neck of Mont Blanc can double its ap- 

 parent height, so here the green summit of the cataract 

 shining above the smoke of spray appeared lifted to an ex- 

 traordinary elevation. Had Hennepin and La Houtan 

 seen the fall from this position, their estimates of the 

 height would have been perfectly excusable. 



From a point a little way below the American Fall, a 

 ferry crosses the river, in summer, to the Canadian side. 

 Below the ferry is a suspension bridge for carnages and 

 foot-passengers, and a mile or two lower down is the rail- 

 way suspension bridge. Between ferry and bridge the 

 river Niagara flows unruffled: but at the suspension bridge 

 the bed steepens and the river quickens its motion. Lower 

 down the gorge narrows, and the rapidity and turbulence 

 increase. At the place called the " Whirlpool Rapids" I 

 estimated the width of the river at 300 feet, an estimate 

 confirmed by the dwellers on the spot. When it is remem- 

 bered that the drainage of nearly half a continent is com- 

 pressed into this space, the impetuosity of the river's rush 

 may be imagined. Had it not been for Mr. Bierstadt, the 

 distinguished photographer of Niagara, I should have 

 quitted the place without seeing these rapids; for this, and 

 for his agreeable company to the spot, I have to thank him. 

 From the edge of the cliff above the rapids, we descended, 

 a little, I confess, to a climber's disgust, in an " elevator," 

 because the effects are best seen from the water level. 



Two kinds of motion are here obviously active, a motion 

 of translation and a motion of undulation the race of the 

 river through its gorge, and the great waves generated by 

 its collision with, and rebound from, the obstacles in its 

 way. In the middle of the river the rush and tossing are 

 most violent; at all events, the impetuous force of the 

 individual waves is here most strikingly displayed. Vast 

 pyramidal heaps leap incessantly from the river, some of 

 them with such energy as to jerk their summits into the 

 air, where they hang momentarily suspended in crowds of 

 liquid spherules. The sun shone for a few minutes. At 

 times the wind, coming up the river, searched and sifted 



