AT NIAGARA FALLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1170, 17 November 1871, Page 3

AT NIAGARA FALLS.

STRONG CURRENT BATHS. {From Macmillan's Magazine.) "You were mentioning 'strong current baths ' just now," I said to the elder Englishman ; " what are they ? I haven't come across them/ "Indeed ! you should certainly go and try tbem then — at least, if you don't mind testing the sensation of being pulled to pieces. You'll find them over there on the American side, jus*t above their Falls." Thinking I conld not do better than follow his advice, I strolled down the cliff, crossed in the ferry boat, was hauled up the incline on the opposite side, and about a hundred yards above the American Falls found the strong current baths, to which I obtained admission on payment of 25 cents. Each bath is a two-storied wooden box, about 12 feet by eight. You undress in the upper compartment, and descend a short flight of steps to the lower, into one end of which the furious stream is bursting through a sluice-door, only to hurry out at the other end by a grating. A stout rope fastened into the wall above the sluice dangles invitingly upon the foamiug surface of the water, which is about breast deep; and, avoiding the hopelessly strong current of the centre, you buffet foot by foot against the comparatively quiet water along the side -walk of the bath, till you can reach out a hand to the dangling rope end, and swing ofi' into the full rush of the stream. In a moment I was stretched out at full length, bobbing on the surface like a perchfloat in a mill race, and positively felt the arm by which I hung to the rope on the point of deserting its socket under the strain, before I could drag the other through the water to the rescue. But this little difficulty once conquered, came a feeling of boisterous indefinable exhilaration. The current shook, and jerked, ami tossed me, with a mad vio-, lence that seemed determined to wrench me, whole or piecemeal, from my hold; and when, at last I had had enough, and voluntarily retired from the struggle, with every muscle quivering, and every fibre glowing with the sweet, half-fierce pleasure of successful resistance, I felt that a strong current bath was an enjoyment well worth coming to Niagara for.