The Readiest Way Across To Canada Is By The Ferry; And On The
American Side This Is Very Pleasantly Done.
You go into a little
house, pay twenty cents, take a seat on a wooden car of wonderful
shape, and on the touch of a spring find yourself traveling down an
inclined plane of terrible declivity, and at a very fast rate.
You
catch a glance of the river below you, and recognize the fact that
if the rope by which you are held should break, you would go down
at a very fast rate indeed, and find your final resting-place in
the river. As I have gone down some dozen times, and have come to
no such grief, I will not presume that you will be less lucky.
Below there is a boat generally ready. If it be not there, the
place is not chosen amiss for a rest of ten minutes, for the lesser
fall is close at hand, and the larger one is in full view. Looking
at the rapidity of the river, you will think that the passage must
be dangerous and difficult. But no accidents ever happen, and the
lad who takes you over seems to do it with sufficient ease. The
walk up the hill on the other side is another thing. It is very
steep, and for those who have not good locomotive power of their
own, will be found to be disagreeable. In the full season,
however, carriages are generally waiting there. In so short a
distance I have always been ashamed to trust to other legs than my
own, but I have observed that Americans are always dragged up. I
have seen single young men of from eighteen to twenty-five, from
whose outward appearance no story of idle, luxurious life can be
read, carried about alone in carriages over distances which would
be counted as nothing by any healthy English lady of fifty. None
but the old invalids should require the assistance of carriages in
seeing Niagara, but the trade in carriages is to all appearance the
most brisk trade there.
Having mounted the hill on the Canada side, you will walk on toward
the falls. As I have said before, you will from this side look
directly into the full circle of the upper cataract, while you will
have before you, at your left hand, the whole expanse of the lesser
fall. For those who desire to see all at a glance, who wish to
comprise the whole with their eyes, and to leave nothing to be
guessed, nothing to be surmised, this no doubt is the best point of
view.
You will be covered with spray as you walk up to the ledge of
rocks, but I do not think that the spray will hurt you. If a man
gets wet through going to his daily work, cold, catarrh, cough, and
all their attendant evils, may be expected; but these maladies
usually spare the tourist. Change of air, plenty of air,
excellence of air, and increased exercise, make these things
powerless.
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