Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-03-30
ICE AT NIAGARA.
Wonderful Display, Unique in its
Character and Extent.

Rarely indeed is nature in a mood Of
lavish display like that to which this
winter she has abandoned herself at
Niagara. The scene about the great
cataract is sublime, and it is unique,
says the Buffalo Courier of March 1.
Other aspects of nature in other quart
ers of our wonderful earth may present
pictures of beauty and grandeur. But
their very permanence, whether in,
mountain or forest or sea, robs them of
a certain fascination which we feel in
looking upon this fleeting splendor
with which winter has clothed Niagara.
If every recurrence Of the season of
frost brought the same conditions we
might not be so moved BY them. But
not once in a decade is there vouchsaf-
ed to us SO grand a spectacle Il glim-
pSe so suggestive of the age of ice.
The American fall is 164 feet high,
and piled up before it, so that the sound
of its thunder is mufled, is a huge
barrier OF ice. Between the inclined
railway and the edge of the fall
round hill of ice rises quite 100 feet in
height, white and glossy. Farther a
long and nearly opposite Luna island
rises another mound of solid ice and
snow, quite 125 feet in height, and
of immense thickness. Between these
are other hills and hummocks only
less majestic. Near the foot of the
Horseshoe, on the Goat island side,
is a dome of ice. some 200 feet long
and wide, hundreds of icicles hanging
from it's under side.
These are but the prominent features
of the ice formations AS one enters
Prospect park, or walks through Goat
island toward the brink of the fall, the
trees present the appearance Of trees
anywhere in winter But once get to
Prospect point and look back, or to the
walk that leads over the Horseshoe
rocks from the Goat island and look
I'D. and every tree stands out pure
white The ice takes on the texture OF
the special tree to which it clingS. Ii
it is an elm or chestnut the ice shows
the creases Of the elm's or chestnuts
bark: if it be q maple, or beech, or ASH
the ice is smooth and polished every
thing stands out glistening and where
nine it has gradually taken the shape
of the evergreen feathery fronds and
the tree looks like a strange exotic,
the production of botaniSt delightlng
in fantastic growths.
Perhaps the most complete view OF
all that combines to make Niagara
splendid in winter may be had from the
stars leading from Goat island to Luna
island. Looking over the railing one
can catch a glimpse of the great rs
sures or wells of ice into which the river
pours it's divided torrents, with the
wind and spray beating against the
SCARED inner walls of the barrier, Wllle
lets and clouds of mist shoot upward
and are borne away by the wind TO
rain down and freeze again on the crust
of the ice mountains beyond. Al
distance. beyond the American fall,
is Prospect point, with no black NOV
ng specks of humanity. Behind these
rises the white-robed wood. shading O
TO brown in the distance. Back OF the
glistening trees is the sky, as purely
blue as ever it bent over Venice or
Florence. while between, rising from
the misty cavern at the falls foot
and arching upward across the river,
across the distant clump of ice-clad
tree, against the deep blue of the sky
and fading away just under the gibbons
moon, is a bow of the richest primsatic
hues. now deepening, now becoming
faint, as the spray is blown this way
and that Such is the scene not al
ways with the moon feature or 1t,
at Niagara in the clear afternoons,
when the atmosphere sOftens and sub
dues all the hues.