24 NIAGABA. 



We were fortunate in making the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Churcli, tlie Turner of America, wliose great picture of Niagara 

 was not long ago exhibited in London. He was still here, 

 studying and sketching this ever-changing scene. With him 

 as our guide we soon discovered cause for wonder and admira- 

 tion. Descending hy a steep path to the bed of the river, we 

 cross in a ferry-boat below the Falls, and are drawn up an in- 

 clined plane in a tunnel nearly 200 feet to the top, on the 

 American side. Here, from the bent branch of -a cedar Eter- 

 ally hanging over the precipice, we obtained a view along the 

 entire face both of the American and Horse Shoe Falls. We 

 next crossed a little neck of land which brought us to the edge 

 of the river above the Fall, and within a few feet of the brink, — 

 the water here running so clear and shallow that a child might 

 wade in it with safety. Some hundred yards further up we 

 pass by a bridge to Goat Island, a picturesque spot, covered 

 with natural wood some seventy acres in extent, which divides 

 the Falls. Crossing this island we find ourselves in presence 

 of the grand arm of the river, where the rushing waters, surg- 

 ing six to ten feet high, are pouring towards the Horse Shoe 

 Fall.. We pass by a frail wooden bridge to a tower built in the 

 water, and close to the edge of the precipice. This we ascend, 

 and there, close below and before us, rushing on now as it has 

 done every day and night for 6000 years, was this tumultuous 

 sea. Its chief grandeur is the central mass of green solid water, 

 which glides unbroken over the Fall, ten thousand tons a min- 

 ute, into the horrible abyss, 160 feet below. Noise there is 

 enough, but it does not seem to come from that smooth tongue 

 of water which in a moment would suck into destruction the 

 Great Ship herself. A magnificent rainbow spanned a great 

 part of the gorge below the Fall, and, for some hundred yards, 

 the surface, clear of the spray which rises in front, is like one 

 mass of churning cream. Eecrossing Goat Island we had a 



