Niagara Falls 

 1827-28 asserted that it rose from the quantity being too great. The truth, 



Hall • • 



however, obviously is, that we have too much water; not too 

 much air. For I may ask, with what comfort could any man 

 breathe with half a dozen fire-engines playing full in his face? 

 and positively the effect of the blast behind the Falls is just what 

 that awkward ceremony might be supposed to produce. The 

 direction of the wind is first one way and then another, crossing 

 and thwarting, in a very confused style, and flinging the water 

 sometimes up, sometimes down, and often whirling it round 

 and round like smoke, in curls or spirals, up to the very top of 

 the cave, a hundred feet above our heads, to the very edge of 

 the precipice, over which we could distinctly see the river pro- 

 jected forwards, and just beginning to curve downwards. By 

 the way, I took notice that, exactly in proportion to the apparent 

 thickness of the mass of water, so it continued united after pass- 

 ing the brink. But I do not think at any part of Niagara the 

 sheet of falling water remains unbroken for more than twenty 

 feet, and that only at one place, well known by the name of 

 the Green Water — the most sublime and impressive part of the 

 whole Fall. At every other, the cascade assumes a snowy white- 

 ness very shortly after it begins to descend. This appearance is 

 aided, no doubt, by the blast of wind which rises from the pool 

 on the outside of the sheet; for I observed that the external sur- 

 face of the cataract was roughened, or turned upwards in a series 

 of frothy ripples, caused either by its friction against the air 

 through which it was passing, or more probably by the blast rising 

 upwards from the pool. 



I remarked another singular phenomenon, which I have not 

 happened to hear mentioned before, but which is evidently con- 

 nected with this branch of the subject. A number of small, 

 sharp-pointed cones of water are projected upwards from the 

 pool, on the outside of the Fall, sometimes to the height of a 

 hundred and twenty feet. They resemble in form some comets 

 of which I have seen drawings. Their point, or apex, which is 

 always turned upwards, is quite sharp, and not larger, I should 



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