Year: 1878




Can you see small, fiat speck Of rock
not so many yards off its shores2 No? ]
know it, as you'll hear. Our American
fall beyond knuckles under a little to this
nearer to US. But it's mighty respect
able watershed, TOO. Twelve hundred
feet in the breadth, hundred and fifty
fee. high. Your knowalls guess thai
every passage minute some seven hun
dred thousand tons OF good fresh rive1
roll over that rock into sprays and foam
in the dim gulf below.


GAS boy, used to see beauty as well
as wonder in all this. Where it's not hid
white with foam see what a clear sea.
green the flood is as it shoots over You
can measure the force of the rush Of wa
ters, for the curve of the shining sheet is
fifty feet from the wall of rock it slips
down.


Chow does it strike you? You:


dare say, as saw it two score years ago.
To you it is terrible, but not all terror,
It's lovely too. And to me2 well, TO m :
it is horror only has been go since that
day when l hung on its very brink for
hours, and thought cf it as one might
think in nightmare dream of some
hideous thing, iDconceivable, unutterable
that held one in its awful grasp. But
mine was no vision CT the. night to laugh
at when awakened. Those hours grizzled
the then brown of my Young head into
the iron gray you sec it now. Their iron
entered into my soul, as they say. 1t has
lived there ever since, night and day,
season and season. There it will STAY till
the death rattle kills the memory of all
this side of my coffin.


81 hunted and fished then. That's how
lived. Visitors then came pretty plen-
tiful to see this wonder. l could get a
ready sale for what | caught, whether it
was fur or fin. had canoed it from
when | could recollect any thing, and
was pretty spry, | tell you, with the pad
dies, and pretty venturesome, too, I be-
came, till | thought was strong enough
and skilled enough to run risks here
abouts that others would have shuddered
from.


II thought knew Niagara too well to
be in any danger from it, | was 80 famil-
lar with it, thought of it with rome of
the scare newcomers found in it. used
to laugh at their genuine fears at the very
sight and sound oft, know it by night,
when the calm moon light poured down
light through the silvered spray clouds
that hung over it; by day, when the glad
sun danced rainbows above It's flashing
floods. Then it was too old friend OF
nine to be dreaded by me.


''One day changed all this, and | knew
it for the hungry monster that it is
pitlless, craving for its human prey.


SIT was one Wednesday IN August. The
hotels were full. Fish was il request, as
much as could pring. Price didn't
matter. Pleasure seekers bleed freely. I
was paid we'll for what could be charged
for as they liked. / had found that the
nearer the rapids got the finer seemed
what I caught, and the more freely the
bait was taken. | had so often gone
where most were too timid to venture
that had come TO believe I could skim
any where.


Even now I think, had my paddle
been sound, I should have come off safe


"Well, that morning was out at sun
rise, End pretty successful I was. |
steadied my course, letting the canoe
drift little by little toward the rapids that
frothed and raved some miles below. l
felt at any moment could shoot it out
OF the strength Of the current into the
smoother waters hy the shore.


II got fully employed with my lines
for, as glided down stream, my take
was rapid, and that of the finest. So
eager was I that I failed to paw that at
tention to the drift Of my canoe which
was so needful.


''It was with start at last felt was
far too much in the full deep current of
the river, and that its strength would
need my utmost efforts to escape from
its grasp. For the first time felt real
dread, for the boiling and hiss Of the
seething waters could almost be heard
below me. piled the paddles strongly
and for while had hopes of safety
though I had never known the need OF
the exertions I was now using to draw
myself out of the mighty force of the
flood that sped onward to its fearful fall


Inch by inch fought my way up
stream and towards the shore where
was to sell my mornings takings. Every
inch was won by strain that made the
perspiration start from every pore. 1t
was for life I fought, for dear life. II
was death that l pulled against-and
such deathl for it was as if curtain
was suddenly withdrawn to show me
all the danger had so long been run
ming unconsciously. 1t flashed into nv
thoughts how I had played in the very
jaws of destruction chat now seemed to
hunger for me.


''As I toiled frantically against the
rushing waters, they were living things
whose clutch sought to drag me with
them to share their awful doom. I had
grown 80 used to the roar of the cataract
(as now recollected, 80 nearD that nv
thoughts had ceased tc be cognizant OF
it; now it almost stunned me.


II talk stagily, don't II l tell you,
stranger, if you want to wake up your
fancy really we'll, just try an hours pull
against Niagara, with the feeling that
perhaps fate is against you. You'll be
far from cool and commonplace in
thought or speech, if you think or ut
ter any thing


''Minutes that had seemed hours had
passed, and still I was struggling franti.
cally, steaming with my frenzied exer.
tions. I had won some way. had
edged some distance from the central
rush of the river, and safety would be