Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-03-31
ICE AT NIAGARA.
A Wonderful Display, Unique In It's Char
nctor and Extent.

a Wonderful Display, Unique In It's Char
nctor and Extent.
Rarely indeed Is nature in u mood OF Law
ish display like that TO which she has aban-
doned herself at Niagara. The scene about
the great cataract IL sublime, and It is
unique. Other aspects Of nature in other
quarters OF our wonderful earth may pre-
sent pictures Of beauty and grandeur. But
their very permanence, whether in noun
tain or forest or sen, robs them Of certain
fascination which we feel in looking upon
this 1eeting splendor with which winter
has clothed Niagara. II every recurrence
OF the season Of frost brought the snme con-
diJions, we ight not be 80 moved by them
But not once in n decade Is there voucl
safcd 60 us 50 grand a spectacle--a glimpse
50 suggestive Of the age Of ice.
The American fall Is i6l feet high, and
piled up before II, so that the sound OF It's
thunder is mulled, Is huge barrier Of ice.
Between tho inclined railway and the edge
Of the fall q round hill OF ice rises quite 100
feet in height, white and CLASSY. Farther
along and nearly opposite Luna island rises
another mound OF solid ice and snow quite
l25 feet in height and Of immense thick
ness Between these arc other hills and
hummocks only less majestic Near the
foot of the Horseshoe ON tho Goat island
side is n dome Of ice some 200 feet long and
wide, hundreds OF icloles hanging from its
under side
These are but the prominent features OF
the ice formations. As one eners Prospect
park or walks through Goat island toward
the brink OF the fall the trees present the
appearances Of trees anywhere in winter,
but once get 20 Prospect point and look
back, or TO the walk that leads over the
Horseshoe rocks from Goat island and
look up, and every tree stands out pure
white. Tho ice takes on the texture OF
the special tree TO which it clings. II IL
IL an elm or chestnut, the ice shows the
creases Of the elm's or chestnut's bark; II
IL be a maple or beech OF ash, the ice
is smooth and polished. Everything stands
out glistening, and where tho spray has
formed on spruce and pine it has grad-
ually taken the shape OF the evergreen
feathery fronds, and the tree looks Ike a
strange exotic, the production OF a botanist
delighting in fantastic growths.
Perhaps the most complete view OF all
that combines to make Niagara splendid In
winter may DO had from the stairs leading
from Goat island 70 Luna island, Looking
over the railing one can catch glimpse OF
the great assures or wells Of ice into which
the river pours its divided torrents, with
the wind and spray beating ngaiust the
SCARED inner walls Of the barrier, while
jets 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, At distance beyond
the American fall Is Prospect point, with
no black moving speoks Of humanity. Be
hind these rises the white robed wood
shading of to brown in the distance
Back Of the gliSteninG trees is the sky, as
purely blue as ever IL bent over Venice or
Florence, while between, rising from the
misty cavern at the fall's foot and arching
upward neross the river, across the distant
clump Of ice clad trees, against the deep
blue Of the sky and fading away Just under
the gibbous moon, Is bow of the richest
prismatie hues, now deepening, now be-
coming faint as the spray is blown this
way and that, Such Is the scene, not al
ways with the moon a feature Of 1t, at nj.
agara in the clear afterpoons, when the at
mosphere sottens and subdues all the hues.
Buffalo Courier