National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-01-06
NIAGARA FAILS.
The Ice Bridge and Its surroundings

The Ice Bridge and Its Surroundings.
The Buffalo Courier furnishes the following
grapic description of the Niagara Falls ice
bridge and its surroundings as presented to
the view upon n recent occasion:
Tho first Wow of the falls brings the heart
mp into the mouth with shock tht is almost
painful in its suddenucss and force. Every
thing Is so changed, so transfgurcd. Ice every
whorel Ice upon the rocks, upon the trees,
oncroaching upon the cataract itself and dead
ening its roar even stealing away n large por-
tion of its power to all seeming. The story of
Samson and Dclilah comes into mind as ono
sees how the ice has shorn the waters of their
strength. As the spectator stands upon this
point the wind blows the spray into his face
and soon covers him all over with ice Jewels.
But what cares he for the spray in the cnthu-
siasm of the glorious view? In the park the
ice has been as destructive as IL is beautiful
and though IL has robed the trees and build
ngs in snowy beauty it has torn down hugo
limbs by its overpoweriug weight
Looking over TO the Canadian shore the OBJ
server can sec huge iccles of many tons weight
hanging like tho ropy locks on tho fOreheads
of giants in the story books. But these sights
arc rs nothing when compared to the broad
sheet of wrinkled snowicc which lies at his
feet. There it is-the comqueror of Niagara
sparkling in the sunlight as calmly and peace
fully as a patch of snow. There is something
majestic, sublime in its quiet indifference to
the influences of the water-powcr. All traces
of the battles of Sunday have departed, save
in the rough surface, which from the height of
the point is not noticeable to any great degree.
At its upper end the swift current may be seen
sweeping ilcrcely against it, then creeping be-
meath with defeated air, and coming up again
ut the lower end quite mcekly. Our reporter
stood aud watched this wondrous spectacle
until his eyes were well-nigh blinded by the
glare and his notebook leaves were quite stih'
with frozen spray, and then descended in the
inclined plane to got n nearer acquaintance
of the Frost Kings handiwork.
| Verify King Jack has turned his timo to
good account on this occasion, and proved that
he is rs good an artist on grand scale as OH
a minute one. Beside the rolundu which
stands vt the base of the American fall u
mountain Of snowy spray ice towers up eighty
feet high, and is each day climbing higher and
| higher toward the summit. The dome of the
rotunda bears an ice crown of exceeding beauty,
and along the roof Of the dressing shed arc
curious ice formations which nothing less that
| the Photographic camera can adequately pic.
| ture. Giant iciCles hang from the ellis, and
| every once in while n hugo fragment comes
tumbing down. Tho ice is perfectly white
and seemingly quite porous, but excessively
| hard frozen.
As it warns in the mouth il assumes gum
! Ike consistency which tempts one to chew it,
though he finds il q little too brittle for that
purpose. Its appearance is exactly that of
spun glass and could il he made indcstructible
and retain its present consistency it would
make very superior billiard balls. 1t is said
that the spray which formed this ice was per-
fcctly pure, and that if ton Of it were melted
it could produce no appreciable quantity OF
sediment. The ice mountain is still in its
comparative infancy, but if the wind and mer-
curry are favorable it will soon be in n condi.
tion to form coasting hill for the people, as il
did during the winter of 1875.