THE HAMILTON EIVEE AND THE GRAND FALLS 153 



feet, where it breaks into a silvery mass and plunges into 

 a circular basin two hundred feet below. The momentum 

 acquired during the descent of the slope is sufficient to 

 carry the mass of water far out from the perpendicular 

 rocky wall, leaving at the bottom an almost free passage 

 between the foot of the cliff and the falling water. Owing 

 to the dense column of spray which rises continuously 

 from the basin to a height of nearly a thousand feet, 

 it is impossible to obtain a clear photograph of the 

 cascade. 



The trees on the slopes about the falls are largely white 

 spruce upwards of seventy feet in height, while the icicles 

 fringing the foot of the ice-covered walls (on the first 

 of May) were more than fifty feet in length. Owing to 

 the refraction of the ice which flashed the sunlight into 

 all the colours of the spectrum, the spectacle was most gor- 

 geous. The total height of the falls, from the crest of the 

 incline to the basin, is three hundred and two feet ; in 

 shape it resembles on a gigantic scale a stream flowing 

 through a V-shaped trough and issuing freely from its 

 lower end. The basin at the bottom is nearly circular, 

 with a diameter of two hundred yards. The rocky walls 

 surrounding it rise perpendicularly five hundred feet, except 

 at a narrow cut at right angles to the falls where the waters 

 pass out into Bowdoin Canyon. The surface of the basin 

 is continuously agitated by the rush of waters and huge, 

 lumpy waves leap high upon its rocky walls. The stunning 

 noise of the fall and the wonderful display Of energy are 

 so awe-inspiring that there is a feeling of dread in ap- 

 proaching the brink, and the Indians cannot be induced 

 to visit the neighbourhood. 



