Fraser 



Niagara Falls 



There were no guide-books in those early days to instruct the 1890 

 visitor 



How to Do the Falls, 



as it is vulgarly termed. We were entirely guided by our former 

 limited reading, and by our open eyes; and we did them — the 

 Falls — to our entire satisfaction, and, perhaps, better than the 

 thousands who annually visit them. We often smile when we 

 hear people ask: Which is the best season to visit the Falls? 

 We have often heard the expression of disappointment: — 

 ' That few people were there — nobody of note." What did 

 they go for? Was it to see and to meet with 



Congregated Shoddy 



or was it to view one of the grandest sights to be seen on this 

 continent ? 



The Falls of Niagara are the same at all seasons — spring- 

 time, summer or winter. We have since visited them at all 

 seasons, and were we asked the best time to do so, we would, 

 without hesitation, say winter. We, at one time, visited them 

 during the month of March, when the whole mass of ice from 

 Lake Erie came rushing over the Falls in such quantities, that 

 the river from the town of Niagara upwards got jammed, form- 

 ing a bridge of ice for miles. Few visitors have seen this grand 

 sight. At another time we saw, on an early spring morning, 

 the whole of the surrounding trees covered with icicles, caused 

 by the spray from the Falls, hanging and swinging from the 

 branches, and glistening and disappearing under the rays of the 

 sun, affording a sight which no pen can describe nor pencil paint. 



The whole neighbourhood has many attractions besides the 

 Falls. It was springtime on our first visit. The surrounding 

 country is famed for its old Canadian homesteads and its fruit 

 orchards and flower gardens, being the earliest settled parts of 

 Western Canada by the U. E. Loyalists. The whole country 

 was then in bloom. The apple, the pear, and the peach orchards, 

 with plum gardens in the old Niagara district, the then garden 

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