The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-01 00:00:00

- A VISIT TO NIAGARA FALLS.

The Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise have
been on a visit for a few days to the Niagara Falls.
The visit was of a strictly private character. They
travelled as Lord and Lady Sundridge. The visit is
said to have been of a most gratifying character, the
Falls in winter being mach grander than at other
seasons, and this winter presenting an exceptionally
striking spectacle. The party were much gratified
and delighted with the excursion. —ln noticing the
visit, the Daily Telegraph, in a leader. remarks : •
"How delightful such a trip must have proved to the
illustrious lady and her husband only those who have visited
the famous cataract can fully understand. A spectacle of
Which the eye never tires, and which grows upon the
Observer the longer he gazes, Niagara, often described, but
still remaining indescribable, holds its own against all the
scenes in the Western or the Eastern Hemisphere;
and whether it be looked upon when summer clothes
Its banks with foliage, or in winter, when sur-
rounded by snow and ice it ever presents a picture
such as to be found in no other country. By
an accident of • the terrain the most marvellous aspects
of this wonderful phenomenon belong to the British
Crown', for it is by the Canadian shore that the Great
Horseshoe Fall is formed, and upon British soil that its
spray is blown. It was but tatural that the Queen's
daughter should hasten to visit so remarkable a spot.
Among the many who have gone thither to hear the roar
of the waters and View their descent, but one opinion has
been held, that together in all the lovliness of the place the
traveller should see it when icicles and snow have lent their
aid to cotnplete its magic beauty? It is as though in those
Northern climes winter had laid claim to the torrent as its
own, disdaining the green leaves and the grass of warmer
months and setting the great spectacle in its proper and silvery
casing of ice. As the wild waters meet aua take their head-
long plunge over the rocks, from the abyss below rises so
dense a spray that the frost, seizing upon the dripping
branches of the trees which overhang the current, con-
verts them inttibranching crystals, while the same power-
ful agent, petrifying the moisture which clings to the sides
of the precipice into all kinds of fantastic shapes, fills the
Channel of the stream with prisms of ice so splendid and so
fantastic that, as the sun's rays fall upon the scene, the eye
Is at once dazzled and delighted.
"This year the wintry cold has won a great triumph at
Nia7ara, for, while the sky has been bright and clear, so
Intense has been the frost that over the rapids just below
the Falls a bridge of ice has been formed, binding English
and American territory together, and allowing of free pas-
sage from one bank to the other. The huge frozen blbcks
which whirled over the torrent have gathered in the bed of
the stream, until, according to an American paper, they have
become one solid mass, nearly 60 feet thick, connecting the
two shores. As the water rushes from the Falls, it sweeps
fiercely against the upper end of this great floe, and then,
as though owning itself defeated, seeks for escape by
Passing beneath the yoke of its conqueror. Vast as is its
strength, it is proved unable to contend against the iron
Op of the frost; and, though at first the struggle was
terrific, rending, as we learn, great boulders from the shore
In its violence, the cataract has been fairly beaten, and is
now—the actual Falls alone excepted—enveloped in the
fetters of winter. Even where the water dashes over the
Precipice, an attack by the same power of frost is being
made, and already, when news was last heard from Niagara,
a berg of Ice, eighty feet high, had been formed on the rocks
beneath, and was daily climbing higher and higher towards
the summit. In fact, so fast was it increasing in size, that
all kinds of curious predictions were being hazarded as to the
extent to which it might eventually be demioped. Such,
then, is the spectacle upon which the Princess and the
Marquis of Lorne have been looking, and anything more
beautiful it is hardly possible to imagine. There may be no
Cascades; the waters, it is true, rush over the rocks almost
Perpendicularly, and fall well nigh direct into the seething
cauldron without any picturesque break in their descent:
but whether the attention be turned to the broad Horse-
shoe Cataract on the Canadian shore, with its whirl-
ing waters- above and its terrible basin • below, or
to the smaller and, indeed, comparatively instnificant
sheet on the American side, the strength which the forces
of Nature here exhibit cannot but inspire the beholder with
a feeling of awe. It is, however, at night, when the moon's
rays descend upon the waters, that the Falls should be
visited. Then the lunar rainbow formed by the spray takes
the place of the band of colours which the sun had erewhile
made; and the soft light reflected back by the ice gives to
the landscape to weird and novel an appearance that
the Mind is indelibly impressed by the majesty of the
Picture thus presented. At such a time, too, may best
be heard the voice of Niagara the deep, sullen
sweep and roar of the mighty torrent as it rushes
en its way—it is then that the tremor of the land can be
most sensibly felt, and the ceaseless whirl of the waters seen.
At such a moment the traveller will find naught in all his
experience which can compare with this wonderful mail.
festation of Nature, so transcendently sublime is it in its
energy and accompaniments. The imposing grandeur of the
eternal hills, even that of Mount Everest itself, seems but
tame compared with it; for, vast as are the mountains,
Mtn.- majesty exhibits no active force, while here there is
all the strength and beauty of motion and might which can
be comprehended, combined, and concentrated." . . .