Niagara — Historical and Reminiscent 



tion has been reached, the ice coming downstream is passing 1900 

 through a channel in the center of the stream. It may flow on "" ap 

 for hours in this way, the ice in the eddies still, and gradually 

 being added to from the moving mass in the center. The size 

 of the floe increases; the channel in midstream is not large enough 

 to carry the ice downstream. There comes a jam, the ice stops 

 in its headway. A grinding, pushing, crowding noise comes up 

 from the gorge. An ice-bridge is forming. It is fast. There it is 

 breaking away at the lower end, while some of the ice at the 

 upper end is being swept beneath the quiet portion. It is moving. 

 The ice in the center is again going downstream. This may con- 

 tinue for hours longer until another great mass of ice comes over 

 the falls. It fills the channel and piles up so that it is evident 

 that it is firmly wedged. The ice already in the upper river and 

 that at the lower section of the lake continue to pour down over 

 the falls for days. The wind changes. The' water, which has 

 been quite high, lowers; the icy mass in the gorge settles and 

 wedges itself more firmly between the shores. Great cracks open 

 here and there on the surface of the jam. The experienced eye 

 says, " It is safe," and out from either shore plunge venturesome 

 people anxious to be the first to cross. 



This first crossing of a Niagara ice-bridge is desperately 

 dangerous business. The ground, if so it may be termed, is 

 uncertain. Before starting out from the shore the adventurers 

 take a survey of the surface of the bridge, deciding to avoid this 

 or that fissure or crevasse, to accomplish which they frequently 

 have to take a roundabout course. The longer they are on the 

 ice, the longer they are in danger. They all aim to be fleet of 

 foot, but the surface is most uneven. Smoothness is unknown in 

 a Niagara ice-bridge. The trip across is simply uphill and down- 

 hill. The icy hillocks form an uncertain footing. There is 

 many a tumble in the early trips, and when one falls at such 

 times he wonders where he is going. At times the route selected 

 leads high up on an icy mound, and then down between the walls 

 of a crevasse from which even the high banks are not to be 



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