Niagara — Historical and Reminiscent 



of ice. It was a grand scene and we sat there nearly half an 1899 

 hour. By this time many of the others had returned to shore and lsncr 

 we found we were left alone. I felt perfectly safe, but Miss 

 Hall remarked she could hear a singing noise under her feet. 

 I assured her it was only her fancy. 



Feeling we had seen all that could be seen we started back 

 toward the American shore. We had not gone far when we 

 were told by gestures that a landing at the boat dock was impos- 

 sible, as the ice had broken away, leaving a crevice which was 

 too large to cross. We were told to go down further toward the 

 arch bridge, where we could land in safety. I was not a bit 

 afraid yet, but felt that when I was safe on land I would be 

 thankful. I said nothing to Miss Hall, as she was naturally 

 already a little alarmed. The traveling was very difficult as the 

 ice was very rough. There were a good many people along the 

 banks and on the bridge watching us, as we seemed, and were, 

 in rather a dangerous position. By this time I began to be pretty 

 well alarmed myself. Every minute or two we could hear a 

 noise as if something were falling. We were now perhaps 

 seventy-five yards from the steel arch bridge and about fifty feet 

 from the American shore. Ranging along close to the American 

 shore was a huge boulder of ice upon which were about seven or 

 eight men. 



So it was when the terrible crash came. We were hurrying 

 as fast as possible and had just come to a large crevice in the ice 

 about three feet across, which I tried to bridge over with pieces 

 of ice so as to be able to help Miss Hall across. By looking into 

 this crevice you could see the black water a hundred feet below. 

 One false step meant sure death. It was now about 4.10 P. M. 

 There had been probably 200 people watching our progress and 

 in less than three minutes afterwards there were 2,000. 



I was just getting ready to jump across this crevice when there 

 was a loud report, a grinding sound and we realized that the 

 ice bridge had begun to move. The falling of huge masses of 

 ice, the grinding, gurgling sound that reached our ears nearly 



403 



