Science, Geology and Physics 



therefore went into the water some rods below the margin of the 1834 

 snow-field, intending to swim down to the Canada ferry house, ,e cr 

 but I met with two difficulties which interrupted my progress. 

 The waves of the river, short, high, and troublesome, without any 

 real swell, — like ihe waves between breakers, — had, besides, 

 the peculiarity that they did not throw over their foamy crest 

 with the current, and, therefore, from the swimmer, — as the 

 waves of the sea always throw over the crest with the wind, — 

 but against the swimmer, owing to the extreme velocity of the 

 current. The motion was at the same time violent ; and it became 

 as difficult to keep my breath as to struggle against these retro- 

 grade motions. The eddies in different directions were besides 

 very numerous, and irresistible by human force: sometimes I 

 would find myself on a spot at which the water boiled up from 

 below, while at the surface it glided off in all directions, which 

 made it difficult for me to work my body. I do not know 

 whether it was alone the difficulty of swimming that gave me the 

 feeling, or whether the water, not having discharged all the air, 

 was sensibly less buoyant; certain it is that it seemed to me so. 

 I have often swam in the sea and the surf, even near rocks and 

 breakers, and having besides once proved by an uninterrupted 

 swimming of three hours and a quarter, that I can stand great 

 fatigue in that way, you will believe me when I say that the 

 difficulties were not slight. 



I have often watched the different forms which the single parts 

 composing this great phenomenon, adopt in falling. I succeeded 

 nowhere better in doing this than at the south-western part of the 

 Crescent, where I approached the foot of the Cataract as nearly 

 as I could, without having my sight obstructed by the heavy 

 spray. I was looking up nearly perpendicularly, and saw the 

 water rolling over and descending a considerable distance in a 

 green, transparent arch, the outside of which was rippled by the 

 friction of the air. These ripples increased as the body of water 

 fell, while the water itself began to divide. Soon it assumed the 

 form to which all liquid strives, if left to itself — the globular, 



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