THE PALLS OF NIAGABA. 
Niagara is a large river of North America uniting Lake Erie with 
Lake Ontario. The distance between these lakes, through which the 
river has to descend is about thirty-three miles, and the difference in 
level is three hundred and thirty-four feet. For the first twelve or four- 
teen miles, the river flows with a gentle current. Its width is about a mile, 
until it arrives at Grand Island, where the stream is divided into two 
arms. About ten miles lower down these arms unite, and the width then 
becomes about two miles. After this it suddenly contracts to less than a 
mile, and the rapidity of the current increases from three to seven or 
eight miles an hour. The banks of the river soon rise from ten to fifty 
feet, and the waters proceed with great force and rapidity over a series 
of rapids until their course is changed by high rocky banks, and the wa- 
ters seem for a moment to regain their tranquillity. But again rushing 
on, the stream is divided by a small island into two unequal channels, 
and gaining a tremendous impetus by means of a steep inclined plane, 
the whole mighty mass of waters is suddenly projected over the edge of 
a rock, one hundred and sixty feet in perpendicular height, into a black 
and boiling gulf below. The principal mass falls on the Western or Ca- 
nada side, and is about seven hundred yards wide. The other portion 
falling on the American side, is subdivided into two portions by a small 
rock, and has a perpendicular fall one hundred and sixty-four feet, and a 
width of three hundred and twenty yards. The Canadian Fall is gene- 
rally known as the " Horse-shoe Fall," from the curved form of the 
ledge of rocks, over which it is precipitated. Both these great bodies of 
water unite before they are lost in the gulf below. From the projecting 
form of the rocks and from the tremendous force of the torrent, the wa- 
ters of the Horse-shoe Fall, are sent forward to the distance of fifty feet 
from the base of the rock, so that visitors may pass behind this watery 
wall into a cavern, whither at the expense of being drenched with spray, 
many have had the courage to repair. The vast body of water admits, 
as through a curtain, a greenish light into the interior. 
The united waters fall for the most part in one unbroken sheet of a 
dark green colour, until they meet a cloud of spray ascending from the 
rocks below. They then become lost to the eye, and the cloud of vapour 
rises one hundred feet above the precipice, and can be seen at 'the dis- 
tance of seventy miles. Prismatic colours are always present, and com- 
plete rainbows, sometimes three at a time, and of the most brilliant hues, 
delight the eye. Below the Falls the river flows rapidly for four miles 
between banks from two to three hundred feet high. It then forms a ter- 
rific whirlpool, and rushes out at a narrow passage between perpendicular 
cliffs, whence it soon descends into the level country about Lake Ontario. 
The thunder of the cataract has been heard at a distance of forty-six 
miles ; hence the name given to these stupendous Falls, which, in the In- 
dian language, signifies the voice of thunder. 
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No. 9.] 
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