The View From It Is
Magnificent; To The Left The Furious River, Confined In A Narrow Space,
Rushes In Rapids To The Whirlpool; And To The Right The Horse-Shoe Fall
Pours Its Torrent Of Waters Into The Dark And Ever Invisible Abyss.
When
we reached the American side we had to declare to a custom-house officer
that we were no
Smugglers; and then by an awful road, partly covered
with stumps, and partly full of holes, over the one, and through the
other, our half-tipsy driver jolted us, till we wished ourselves a
thousand miles from Niagara Falls. "There now, faith, and wasn't I nearly
done for myself?" he exclaimed, as a jolt threw him from his seat, nearly
over the dash-board.
We passed through the town bearing the names of Niagara Falls and
Manchester, an agglomeration of tea-gardens, curiosity-shops, and monster
hotels, with domes of shining tin. We drove down a steep hill, and crossed
a very insecure-looking wooden bridge to a small wooded island, where a
man with a strong nasal twang demanded a toll of twenty-five cents, and
anon we crossed a long bridge over the lesser rapids.
The cloudy morning had given place to a glorious day, abounding in
varieties of light and shade; a slight shower had fallen, and the
sparkling rain-drops hung from every leaf and twig; a rainbow spanned the
Niagara river, and the leaves wore the glorious scarlet and crimson tints
of the American autumn. Sun and sky were propitious; it was the season and
the day in which to see Niagara. Quarrelsome drosky drivers, incongruous
mills, and the thousand trumperies of the place, were all forgotten in the
perfect beauty of the scene - in the full, the joyous realisation of my
ideas of Niagara. Beauty and terror here formed a perfect combination.
Around islets covered with fair foliage of trees and vines, and carpeted
with moss untrodden by the foot of man, the waters, in wild turmoil, rage
and foam: rushing on recklessly beneath the trembling bridge on which we
stood to their doomed fall. This place is called "The Hell of Waters," and
has been the scene of more than one terrible tragedy.
This bridge took us to Iris Island, so named from the rainbows which
perpetually hover round its base. Everything of terrestrial beauty may be
found in Iris Island. It stands amid the eternal din of the waters, a
barrier between the Canadian and American Falls. It is not more than
sixty-two acres in extent, yet it has groves of huge forest trees, and
secluded roads underneath them in the deepest shade, far apparently from
the busy world, yet thousands from every part of the globe yearly tread
its walks of beauty. We stopped at the top of a dizzy pathway, and,
leaving the Walrences to purchase some curiosities, I descended it,
crossed a trembling foot-bridge, and stood alone on Luna Island, between
the Crescent and American Falls. This beauteous and richly-embowered
little spot, which is said to tremble, and looks as if any wave might
sweep it away, has a view of matchless magnificence. From it can be seen
the whole expanse of the American rapids, rolling and struggling down,
chafing the sunny islets, as if jealous of their beauty. The Canadian Fall
was on my left; away in front stretched the scarlet woods; the
incongruities of the place were out of sight; and at my feet the broad
sheet of the American Fall tumbled down in terrible majesty. The violence
of the rapids cannot be imagined by one who has not seen their resistless
force. The turbulent waters are flung upwards, as if infuriated against
the sky. The rocks, whose jagged points are seen among them, fling off the
hurried and foamy waves, as if with supernatural strength. Nearer and
nearer they come to the Fall, becoming every instant more agitated; they
seem to recoil as they approach its verge; a momentary calm follows, and
then, like all their predecessors, they go down the abyss together. There
is something very exciting in this view; one cannot help investing Niagara
with feelings of human agony and apprehension; one feels a new sensation,
something neither terror, wonder, nor admiration, as one looks at the
phenomena which it displays. I have been surprised to see how a visit to
the Falls galvanises the most matter-of-fact person into a brief exercise
of the imaginative powers.
As the sound of the muffled drum too often accompanies the trumpet, so the
beauty of Luna Island must ever remain associated in my mind with a
terrible catastrophe which recently occurred there. Niagara was at its
gayest, and the summer at its hottest, when a joyous party went to spend
the day on Luna Island. It consisted of a Mr. and Mrs. De Forest, their
beautiful child "Nettie," a young man of great talent and promise, Mr.
Addington, and a few other persons. It was a fair evening in June, when
moonlight was struggling for ascendancy with the declining beams of the
setting sun. The elders of the party, being tired, repaired to the seats
on Iris Island to rest, Mr. De Forest calling to Nettie, "Come here, my
child; don't go near the water." "Never mind - let her alone - I'll watch
her," said Mr. Addington, for the child was very beautiful and a great
favourite, and the youthful members of the party started for Luna Island.
Nettie pulled Addington's coat in her glee. "Ah! you rogue, you're
caught," said he, catching hold of her; "shall I throw you in?" She sprang
forward from his arms, one step too far, and fell into the roaring rapid.
"Oh, mercy! save - she's gone!" the young man cried, and sprang into the
water. He caught hold of Nettie, and, by one or two vigorous strokes,
aided by an eddy, was brought close to the Island; one instant more, and
his terrified companions would have been able to lay hold of him; but no -
the hour of both was come; the waves of the rapid hurried them past; one
piercing cry came from Mr. Addington's lips, "For Jesus' sake, O save our
souls!" and, locked in each other's arms, both were carried over the fatal
Falls.
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