Back:We are on the American side of the river, looking S.W. up the river and across to Canada. This snow-coated bluff on which we are standing goes almost straight down 160 feet before it reaches the river-level. The river waters have come down through the rapids just above, at our left; now Goat Island, that high tree-crowned cliff over the heads of these sight-seers, divides the flood into two parts, just as it makes ready to leap into the gulf far below. These are the American Falls on this side of Goat Island; over there at the right, where the clouds of spray rise and float like smoke before our eyes, are the Horse-Shoe Falls, pouring over the enormous, curing precipice that reaches across to Canada. The trees in the distance there at the right, dimmed by the must and spray, are on the Canadian shore, three quarters of a mile away. Between those and the point where we are standing the enormous outlet of the Great Lakes comes steadily sweeping on and on and on, to fall into this gigantic chasm and send up these millions of spray sparkles into the winter air. The depth of the heaving waters, away down below the falls, is said to be some 180 feet; the bed of the river is not less than 350 feet below these snow banks. The ceaseless sweep of the Horse-shoe; that great curve is moving back up the river toward Lake Erie at an average rate of 2 4/10th feet in a year. Within the memory of men now living the falls have receded almost 200 feet. The vast processes of the world’s creation are still going on before our eyes. And yet, with all its awful grandeur, the chief impression of Niagara is that of vast serenity.
See Niagara through the Stereoscope, published by Underwood & Underwood, with special “keyed” maps showing the exact location of a series of admirable standpoints and identifying all the landmarks
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