Niagara Falls 



1899 paralyzed us with fear. I was undecided at first as to the best 

 course to take, but on finding ourselves entirely cut off from the 

 American shore, our only escape was to head toward the 

 Canadian side. Taking Miss Hall by the hand I started to 

 make for a place of safety. We had perhaps gone a yard or so 

 when the ice parted at our very feet and but for my having hold 

 of Miss Hall's hand she would have gone to the bottom or have 

 been ground to death by the ice before reaching the water. She 

 fell her full length between these two boulders, but by putting 

 forth every bit of strength I could I managed to pull her out, 

 but none too soon, for the ice came together with an awful crash. 



We were now about seventy-five or one hundred yards below 

 the steel arch bridge, having been carried about one hundred and 

 fifty or two hundred yards on the ice. Close to the steel bridge 

 on the American side is the tunnel through which the watej* used 

 in the power station above the Falls emerges at the rate of eighty- 

 five miles an hour. Here was the point where death seemed so 

 certain. Old settlers of Niagara Falls little expected us to get 

 by this point, as the undercurrent here usually sucks under any- 

 thing that passes. But we passed this in safety and when a few 

 yards below we heard a shout and found that the ice bridge had 

 come to a standstill ! It was the first time in the memory of man 

 that the bridge was ever known to stop after once starting down 

 the river! 



Now we realized we had to act and act quickly. Every 

 second meant life or death. Shouts went up from the thousands 

 on shore for us to hurry. The bridge was liable to start again at 

 any moment. We headed straight for the Canadian bank. Men 

 shouted to keep down the river farther. Taking Miss Hall by 

 the arm we made haste to reach land. Falling down but quickly 

 jumping up we would again push onward. Once Miss Hall 

 gave up entirely, but I succeeded in urging her onward. It was 

 very difficult for us to run over this expanse of ice (about 200 or 

 300 yards across) and mostly huge boulders thirty feet high. 

 Again it would be necessary for us to jump five and ten feet into 



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