NIAGARA UP TO DATE.

Lake County Press, Issue 2118, 17 May 1906, Page 2

NIAGARA UP TO DATE.

GOD'S WORK, MAN'S SLAVE. By Mrs. Alec Tweedie. The Philistine is doing his best to ruin one of God's greatest, works, but luckily he cannot succeed. He has written his name in letters of shame on seats in the public parks on cither side of Niagara's stupendous Falls ; he has scrawled his hideous hieroglyphics on rocks at every point of view ; he has even put up advertisments hard by, exploiting pills and powders, soaps and shams ; he has erected large chimneys and hideous factories below the Falls ; but, in spite of all, he cannot spoil Niagara. He has tried hard, this up-to-date advertiser, but he. has failed as yet to ruin Niagara. We crossed by boat from Toronto on the Canadian side to Lewiston. Leaving the. lake at "Niagara on ; the. Lake," we had a. pleasant seven j miles of river to Lewiston, where the electric tram awaited us. It is a wonderful tramcar journey— '. that gorge line, some seven miles lone—from Lewiston to Niagara, built so close to the edge that often the rails arc barely two feet from Hie siik' or a cliff sheer down some 120 to -1.0 feet, with a cataract or whirlpool swirling away below. On our other side the clilf rose perpendicularly some 200 or 000 feet. As we neared Niagara, the road became more find more beautiful ; a huge rock here, a cave there, added grandeur to the scene. As we flew along—for in America electric trams do seem to fly—we sat and wondered at the skill of the driver, who could turn and twist his car to suit the eccentricities of the road. At Hie whirlpool we drew up for a. moment. ; it seemed almost like a small lake, so completely was it shut in, but. the waters were comparatively calm as they swirled round and round in endless rotation. Here was the very impersonation of "still waters run deep" ; many hundreds of feet deep is this whirlpool, yet a barrel will continue turning round and round for days upon its surface. The whirlpool rapids are wonderful —far more turbulent than the whirlpool itself. They are naturally at the narrowest part of the river, which is there spanned by two splendid railway bridges. In the course of one mile the rapids make a. drop of over 300 feel, as the waves froth and foam and whirl over one another. It. was almost six o'clock when we left the hotel at Niagara town, and. wandered forth to get our first peep at the Falls before dinner. We passed through Prospect Park on the American side, heard the swirl of the upper rapids, and realised that evening was drawing in with the strange rapidity it does in these climes, and then all in a moment we seemed to stand on the very brink of the Ameri- | can Fall itself. j It was a wonderful sensation to find oneself near enough to the edge of the flow to be able to touch the water with an umbrella as it took its dive of 3 50 feet info the seething cauldron of froth and spray below. ' Next morning, however, all was | changed ; the watery moon had given j birth to gorgeous sun, the. grey j clouds had ascended, and blue, cobalt j blue, covered the heavens. When we ■ reached Prospect Point, a little after ! breakfast, it seemed impossible that the weird, ethereal, Brocken-like effect could have been followed by such a glorious Indian summer day. We saw more than on the previous evening ; we saw everything clear and sharp and distinct ; we loved the rainbows chasing each other in the spray, bul the charm and poetry had ! gone. i Niagara in the glare of the day 'was disappointing, and we longed for the evening again. I But «e hail not time to dally—for (n day and a half is little enough at. ] ] Niagara—so into the wonderful elec- j i trie railway shoot we went, and in a I few seconds were whirled down below I 'the cliffs and into the little steamer j j known as the "Maid of the Mist," I t which '••(,,.s riu'hi up under the very Falls themselves. ' I We took off our hats, and put ling j | on mackintosh coals and head cover- j I ings. sat boldly on deck. The spray j I from the Falls is more wetting than j ! a really good downpour of rain, for ! '. il comes not merely from above and i | the sides, but rises up from below ; ; lit comes from everywhere, in fact, j land the drops of water simply pour- j ted down our noses ! But it was worth j j going through such an experience, j j although, when we really turned '• j round under the Horseshoe Falls on ! | the Canadian side, the feeling of bob- j ' bing about in a cockle shell on a i '.whirlpool was rather ghastly, and we ! j all hud to hold tight to keep our j ; seats on the deck at all, so tremen- J

rlous is the force of Ihe water across which the little craft ventures. The spot known as Bock of Ages forms a perfect picture. The rugged brown grandeur of the stones, the white, frothy spray, and the green and blue hues of the water, with the sun shining through, made a. pit:turn such as no artist's brush could ever catch in feeling, colour or force. The sublimest works of nature can never really be reproduced by art, for at its best art cannot depict fleeting sentiment, ever-changing beauty. Fvery cloud, every sunl>eam, alters the scene on which it falls, as every thought changes the expression of a face. Pictures—much as we love them —caii only express one phase ; they cannot represent all. It was a short trip, though an extremely interesting one, and \vc got off our boat on the Canadian side to drive along the park and go under the Horseshoe Fall, so as to get an idea of the water from below. The Canadian side is certainly the. best from which to see Niagara Falls; the views are better, the park is better ; nature is left more to herself, and is not disfigured by enormous •■ hotels with rows and rows of straight ugly windows. To Canada in every way we give, the palm. Having driven along the top of the cliff, we arrange -to go belo.w the Fall. "Will the lady step into that room?" asked an attendant, which the lady accordingly did. "You must take oil' nearly all your things and put on these mackintosh trousers, coat and helmet," was the next mandate We mildly remonstrated, but remonstrance was of no use ; she assured us we would be wet to the skin unless we did as she bid us, and subsequent experience proved that she was right. The black trousers was large and baggy, °f the peg-top order, and about as thick as a coachman's driving apron. The attendant tied them in at. the knees with white tape, to keep them off. the ground, for they seemed to have been made for a woman at least 6 feet 6 inches high ! Goloshes—so loved by the Private Secretary and by all Americans, who call them "rubbers"—were next adjusted from a row which contained some hundreds of pairs, reminding us of Ibsen's hall in Cbristiania, where we saw goloshes standing in rows one snowy winter ; then the coat was fixed, and the headgear, after putting a towel round the throat, was strapped on. What a sight ! What sights, indeed, we all we all went, men and women seeming exactly alike, each more hideous looked ! Then out into the sunshine than the other. We laughed and chatted, got into the lift, and were whirled below, to walk along a small wooden pathway with occasional staircases, all very slippery, and, to I our thinking, not over substantial. It got wetter and wetter under foot and more drenching from above as we proceeded, and we soon realised the good lady was right ; no ordinary clothing could have withstood a millionth part of the spray of Niagara. We paused almost in front of a branch of the Fall and tried to look up ; but so blinding was the spray that wo could hardly see. The spray filled our eyes, hung upon our lashes, ran down our noses, until we. tried to gasp out that we had seen enough, and gladly turned away. The sound . was deafening ; we could not hear one another speak. The spray was too great to allow us to see anything, and yet this was only a small branch of the Falls themselves. It gave a wonderful idea of what the hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly overflow of those Falls which Goat Island divides must be. So great is the fall that the wafer flows outwards many feet from the rocks themselves, and enables people to actually stand under the arch of water in comparative comfort. On looking up there seems' a roof of water through which the sun shines ; on our right the grey rock over which the water rushed, while on our left poised a wall of water, fallinginto the seething pool far away below. :—The Mutual Monthly. AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA. The President of the United States of America is a. broad-minded man. who takes a keen interest in the affairs of other nations besides his own and is ready to use his influence for good whenever he has the opportunity. To him, indeed, is largely due the' peace that concluded the RussoJapanese war. When, therefore, he turns his attention to Australia, and offers advice as to ths Government of the Commonwealth, his views ought to command respect, especially wlien he professes to be so much interested .in our welfare. "Next to my own nation," he says, "I am interested in the progress, success and safety of your great democratic island* continent." And this is his counsel : "Beware of keeping the far north empty. Encourage, the immigration of southern Europeans. They will cultivate your rich country, and become good Australians." But who among our ..political lenders is strong enough to tackle this problem ? He should prove the man of the hour to lift us out of our present stagnation. One of the. oddities of our system of reckoning time is'exemplified in the. question as to what lime the North Pole keeps. Tn theory all places on one meridian of longitude keep lite same time, therefore, the I North Pole, being the, central pointy jof all meridians, must necessarily.. I have all limes. Should the pole ever j become habitable the resident would I be able to have day or night at any j hour (in theory) by electing to fake I his lime from a meridian to corresI pond. Should such an unexpected j event ever occur, there would have to j be made some adjustment of our prej sent, system of reckoning time to suit I the Arctic regions. | Fifteen thousand to twenty thoujsaiul sailors are shown by a return j just issued to have valid claims ] against the British Admiralty for ! prize money which they have so far j neglected to lake advantage of. i The ordinary weight of the human | heart is nine and one-third ounces. 1 The record weight is 40 ounces 12 i drams. I In the head office of the Suez canal, ! at Port. Said, is a model of the canal i showing the exact position of every r i ship moving through if. It is thus 1 quite easy to arrange by telegraph | for vessels to pass one another. (995.) A