THE HAMILTON RIVER 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. 
