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 12 banteifn Slides 
 
 WILLIAM H, PvAU 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 >890 
 

A 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE READING 
 
 ON 
 
 Niagara Falls 
 
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 ILLUSTRATED BY TWELVE LANTERN 
 SLIDES 
 
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 WILLIAM H. RAU 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 1890 
 
Copyright, 1890, by William H. Ran. 
 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Rapids above the Falls. 
 
 2. American Falls from Below — Winter. 
 
 3. American Falls from Luna Island. 
 
 4. Snow and Ice, Luna Island. 
 
 5. Canada Falls. 
 
 6. American Fall from Canada Side. 
 
 7. Frost Work at Niagara. 
 
 8. Canada Shore from Luna Island. 
 
 9. Panorama of Horseshoe Falls. 
 
 10. Maid of the Mist. 
 
 11. Cantilever Bridge. 
 
 12. Whirlpool Rapids. 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 To ATTEMPT a description of Niagara Falls were 
 but to essay a hopeless task. Writers whose pens 
 were guided by genius, painters whose brushes have 
 been illumined with that " light which was never on 
 land or sea, " have struggled courageously with the 
 great question, only to find in the end that the 
 English language was toopoor and the scope of human 
 skill too narrow to do justice to so sublime a theme. 
 Suffice it to say that Niagara is the boldest freak of 
 all nature. In all the wide range of creation there is 
 nothing which approaches it in magnificence or gran- 
 deur, nor any otlier object which inspires the behold- 
 er with such awe and wonder, and reveals so 
 grandly the immensity of the work of the hands of 
 the Creator of the universe. One must see and study 
 the great cataract in order to form any conception of 
 its vastness or secure a proper appreciation of its 
 majesty. The essential quality of Niagara is its 
 sublimity. Other falls are dashed from more stupen- 
 dous heights, and lost amid chasms of rocks of wilder 
 and more savage formation. Ikit none of them even 
 approach this cataract in that first essential of magni- 
 ficence. Nor can we be surprised at this when we 
 consider that over the ledge of limestone at this point 
 the accumulated waters of four vast inland seas hurl 
 themselves madly on their way to the ocean, and that 
 during the last half mile before the wild descent, there 
 
 (839) 
 
840 NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 is a decline so great as to produce the most superb 
 rapids. The territory that these great lakes drain is 
 equal to that of the entire continent of Europe, many 
 of the streams that feed Lake Superior being fully 
 two thousand miles away. 
 
 1. Kapids above the Falls, — For a half mile 
 above the verge of the Falls the bed of the river is so 
 steep as to produce most magnificent rapids. The 
 appearance of them is exactly that of the sea, whose 
 billows are heaved and tossed in every direction and 
 yet at the same time are forced forward by an irresist- 
 ible current ; and so furious is the rapidity of the 
 current that the centre is heaped up in ridge-like form, 
 and the waves on every side suddenly leap up in the 
 air, and fall down with a sullen sough. The wind 
 comes sweeping over them and drives their crests 
 along the surface in showers of spray. Great logs 
 and trees burdened with all the glory of their branches, 
 with their greenery still untorn, come swooping down, 
 taking leaps like greyhounds, and seeming possessed 
 of independent life and motion. Now comes a great 
 hemlock, bearded with age, and with an abundant 
 spread of branches. How he darts along, showing- 
 only portions of his length, like a great brown and 
 green serpent, in an instant he shoots with tremen- 
 dous speed over the brow of the Falls. How the 
 rapids call aloud to each other in glee, and chase one 
 another in the mad race as to which shall be the first 
 to make the mighty leap. With startled eyes we 
 glance at this shouting, leaping, laughing, maddening, 
 scornful tempest, and as we gaze a sense of power and 
 mystery overcomes the mind ; the tossing white 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 841 
 
 gleams, and the cruel haste to the fatal plunge beget 
 a sort of terror. It seems a power implacable, venge- 
 ful, not to be measured. 
 
 2. American Fulls troin Kelow, Wiiitor. — De- 
 scending on the American side on a clear winter's 
 day a sight meets our eyes which is unparalleled in the 
 world. Above us is the American Fall, bold and 
 straight, and chafed to snowy whiteness by the rocks 
 which meet it. The height and width and uproar 
 impress us strangely. We realize for the first time 
 the immense might of the downpour of the American 
 Fall, and note the pale green tone, with here and 
 there a \iolet tint, and the white cloud mass spurting 
 out from the solid color. The whole scene assumes 
 a wild and wonderful magnificence ; down come the 
 dark waters hurrying with them over the edge of the 
 precipice enormous blocks of ice brought down from 
 Lake Erie. On each side of the Fall from the ledges 
 and overhanging cliffs, are suspended huge icicles, 
 some twenty, some thirty feet in length, thicker than 
 the body of a man, and in color a pale green ; and 
 all the crags below, which project from the boiling, 
 eddying waters, are encrusted and in a manner built 
 round with ice, which forms into immense crystals, 
 like basaltic columns; and every tree and leaf and 
 branch, fringing the rocks and ravines, are wrought 
 in ice. On them and on the buildings erected near, 
 the spray from the cataract accumulates, and forms 
 into the most beautiful crystals and tracery work ; 
 they look like houses of glass, welded and moulded 
 into regular and ornamental shapes, and hung round 
 with a rich fringe of icy points. 
 
842 NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 3. Aiuerican Falls from Liuua Island. — From 
 the American side we may cross by a fragile bridge 
 to Goat Island, that magic isle that has withstood for 
 centuries the rush of the ceaseless torrent. From 
 Goat Island, a bridge leads to Luna Island, a small 
 grain of dry land in the very curve of the fall. At 
 night, when there is a moon, a fine lunar bow is vis- 
 ible from the bridge that connects it with Goat Island, 
 hence its name. Standing on this mere spot of land 
 we realize the dominating presence of a gigant'ic, 
 pitiless force, a blind passion of nature, uncontrolled 
 and uncontrollable. Nothing is so surprising as the 
 extraordinary deliberation with which the waters 
 take their tremendous plunge. All hurry and foam 
 and fret until they reach the smooth limit of the 
 curve — and then the laws of gravitation seem suspend- 
 ed, the waters seem to pause for a moment and then 
 drop 154 feet into the abyss. The sun shines down 
 upon the seething waters, and its slanting arrows of 
 light are seized upon by the mist and broken into 
 myriad scintillations of prismatic hues, into fragmen- 
 tary rainbows and globes and bubbles of crimsom and 
 green. How glorious it is ! Columns of spray are 
 drifting an'd sweeping madly in every direction. 
 
 Below the falls the earth and rocks appear as though 
 they had been suddenly rent asunder, and separated 
 a quarter of a mile apart, in order to form a channel 
 for the river by the perpendicular chasm thus made. 
 And we can seethe river stretching away, smooth and 
 deep and treacherous, 
 
 4. Snow and Ice, Luna Island. — Luna Island is 
 pleasant in summer, for it has evergreens, trees and 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 843 
 
 bushes, grasses and wild flowers in abundance, the 
 atmosphere of spray by which it is surrounded being 
 apparently favorable to vegetation. liut the great 
 glory of Luna Island is in the winter, when all the 
 vegetation is encrusted with frozen spray. The 
 grasses are no longer massed in tufts, but each par- 
 ticular blade is sheathed in a scabbard of diamonds, 
 and flashes radiantly at every motion of the wind. 
 Every tree according to its foliage receives the 
 frozen masses differently. In the evergreens each 
 separate needle is covered with a fine coating of daz- 
 zling white. In some the spray, being rejected by 
 the oleaginous particles, forms in apple-like balls at 
 the extremities of the twigs, and nooks of the 
 branches. In others, where the boughs and branches 
 are bare, the spray lodges upon the twigs, and forms 
 masses of ice that greatly resemble the uncouth 
 joints of the cactus. Those close to the verge of the 
 fall are sometimes loaded so completely with daz- 
 zling heaps of collected spray, that the branches give 
 way, and the whole glittering heap comes crashing 
 down, a gleaming ruin. On the ground the spray 
 falls in granulated circular drops of opaque white, 
 but wherever there is a stone or a bowlder, ice is 
 massed about it in a thousand varying shapes. Many 
 of the formations look like coils of enormous serpents 
 that have been changed by the rod of an enchanter 
 into sparkling ice. 
 
 6. Caiuulti Fall.s. — We step on Goat Island amid 
 the smiling glories of a garden, and inhale with de- 
 light the perfume of the flowers. Surely it is an is- 
 land of magic, unsubstantial, liable to go ailrift and 
 
844 NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 plunge into the abyss. Even in the forest path, 
 where the great tree trunks assure one of stabiHty 
 and long immunity this feeling cannot be shaken off, 
 for Goat Island is doomed. Sooner or later it will 
 all be carried away by the remorseless water which 
 bears away year after year yards upon yards of its 
 circumscribed bounds. From this smiling green is- 
 land we have a most sublime view of the Canada 
 Falls. We discern the full fury of the torrent and 
 catch the utmost glory of the rainbow. The clouds 
 of spray come wreathing up like exhalations from an 
 enchanter's den, twisting themselves into fantastic 
 shapes. For the first time we comprehend the 
 breadth, the great sweep of the water. We mark the 
 hurried flood gathering strength as it approaches the 
 verge, yet seeming too, to pause ere it shoots into 
 the gulf below. At the centre the force of the 
 mighty torrent converges, and as the heavy mass 
 pours in, twisted, wreathed and curled together, we 
 receive an idea of irresistible force such as no other 
 object ever conveys. Its fall is direct and unbroken 
 save by its own rebound. The color of the water be- 
 fore this rebound hides it in foam and mist is of the 
 brightest green ; the violence of the impulse sends it 
 far over the precipice before it falls, and the effect of 
 the ever-varying light through its transparency is 
 more lovely than can be imagined. 
 
 " Hail, Sovereign of the World of Floods, whose majesty and 
 might. 
 
 First dazzles, — then enraptures — then o'erawes the aching- 
 sight. 
 
 The pomp of kings and emperors, in every clime and zone 
 
 Grows dim before the splendor of thy glorious watery throne." 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 845 
 
 (». AiiK'rirau Fall IVosn ('aiia<la Side. — Tlie vis- 
 itor to Niagara quickly perceives that what was 
 known as Table Rock on the Canada side is the best 
 point of view for the ordinary spectator, though 
 other spots bring into prominence interesting features. 
 Immediately before us is the Horse-Shoe Fall ; next 
 to it comes shelving down the shores of Goat Island ; 
 beyond stretches the American Fall. If there were 
 no Horseshoe Fall the American would be the won- 
 der of the world. The whole body of water, meas- 
 uring eleven hundred feet across, is at once shattered 
 into foam, and comes down in a thousand feathery 
 and fantastic shapes, resplendently beautiful. The 
 awful floods of eternity sweep down with an over- 
 whelming force that seem to set all calculation at de- 
 fiance. Plunging into the abyss below with a fear- 
 ful crash, they send up an enormous volume of foam 
 and mist. Arising like curling smoke, it separates 
 into masses of fantastic clouds, sparkling like dia- 
 monds and illumined with the most brilliant colors. 
 And there are voices in the uproar, heard but faintl}' 
 — voices that are not articulate to human ears, but 
 such as pa.'ans may have been sung in, or Orpheus 
 may have charmed the brutes with. We cannot dis- 
 tinguish any words, and yet the voices are full of 
 meaning ; the)' seem to wail and to invite, to murmur 
 and to threaten. 
 
 " Oil ! full of glory niul of majesty, 
 With all thy terrible apjiarel oil, 
 }Ii|^h-|)riest of Nature, who within the veil, 
 Mysterious, unappaoachahle dost dwell, 
 With smoke of incense ever streaming up. 
 And round thy breast the folded how of heaven." 
 
846 NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 7. Frost Work at Niagara. — In winter Niagara 
 is inimitably and indescribably beautiful. The trees 
 and shrubbery, covered with transparent sleet, pre- 
 sent an appearance of icy brilliants, and we seem in the 
 midst of a sea of diamonds sparkling in the sun ; if 
 ever a dream of fairyland were realized, its realization 
 is before us now. 
 
 " A silvery web among thy trees, 
 Unruffled by the passing breeze, 
 The vanquished Ice-King for thee weaves, 
 And gives them gems for winter leaves, 
 And rears the columns bright and vast. 
 Their radiance through thy halls to cast." 
 
 Buildings are transfigured so that they resemble 
 those in the fantastic stories of the East, where ala- 
 baster and marble and porphyry are carried to the 
 skies in the marvellous palaces of the kings. All 
 things are covered with a delicate tracery, and gaz- 
 ing upon some of the largest trees we are transported 
 tor a moment to tropic seas and seem to be gazing at 
 colossal coral formations. 
 
 It must be remembered that if winter gives much, 
 it also takes much away. If it covers the trees and 
 the grass with diamonds, and heaps up ice serpents, 
 and builds colonades and spires and obelisks, it takes 
 away a great part of the volume of the water, for the 
 thousand rills that feed the great lakes have been 
 rent from the hills by the fierce hand of the Frost- 
 Giant. Those who love color, and light, and majesty 
 of sound, will do well to come in the summer ; those 
 who love the strange, the fantastic, the fearful, must 
 come in the winter. But the true lover of Nature 
 will come at both times. Each has its special charm; 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 847 
 
 each has some things which the other lacks ; and 
 in both arc features of transcendent beaut}\ 
 
 8. Canada Shore From Luna Island. — From 
 Luna Island we obtain an extended view of the Can- 
 ada Shore. It is not without interesting features, 
 with the ceaseless rush of waters below, and the 
 great Suspension Bridge seeming to hang in air. 
 Niagara has nothing of striking character in its 
 surroundings. All that it boasts of the sublime and 
 the beautiful is contained within the rock walls of its 
 stupendous chasm. All its approaches are plain, 
 dull and tedious. The country around is almost ab- 
 solutely flat, divided into fields that wave pleasantly 
 with bearded grain, and dotted with white painted 
 wooden houses, ugly churches, and homely factories 
 and mills. There are no forests and but few fine 
 trees, and these are confined to the verge of the 
 chasm. 
 
 The villages that now crowd the vicinity have no 
 recommendation on the score of fine taste ; and 
 though the numbers that resort hither from every 
 land have made fine hotels necessary, it has never 
 been thought worth while to surround them with 
 gardens, or to do aught that should remove the util- 
 itarian look of the place. The staring, painted hotel 
 rises on the bank, and obtrudes its pale face over the 
 edge of the boiling river. But there is that in and 
 about Niagara which is not to be marred by busy 
 man and all his petty schemes for convenience and 
 aggrandizement. While within sound of its waters 
 one is under the influence of a spell, and finds it dif- 
 ficult to think, speak or dream of anj'thing else. 
 
848 NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 9. Panorama of Horseshoe Falls. — Once more 
 we look at the overwhelming mass which flings 
 itself over the precipice. We gaze with delight on 
 the exquisite coloring of the water, the dazzling 
 white, the vivid green, the pellucid blue. How the 
 sun seems to catch every drop of that vast volume 
 and shine through it. The mystery and thick gloom 
 which hide the foot of the Falls add to their apparent 
 height. The floating clouds of vapor, now hurried 
 over the face of the landscape, and then slowly as- 
 cending and hovering like a cloud in the blue sky ; 
 the wide liquid surface of the river, the beauty of the 
 forested defile, with its precipices and slope, all com- 
 bine to form a scene in which sublimity and pictur- 
 esque beauty are enchantingly blended. 
 
 "And still the thunder of the eternal anthem, 
 
 And still the column of ascending incense, 
 Shall draw remotest pilgrims to thy worship, 
 
 Shall hold them breathless in thy sovereign presence, 
 Oh, peerless paragon of earthly wonders ! 
 
 Embodying, in their most intense expression. 
 Beauty, sublimity, might, music, motion, 
 
 To fix and fill at once eye, ear, thought, feeling; 
 And kindling, into unknown exaltation. 
 
 Dread and delight, astonishment and rapture." 
 
 10. Maid of the Mist. — It well repays the visitor 
 to Niagara to make the excursion on the Maid of 
 the Mist. Passing up under the great Suspension 
 Bridge, the little steamer comes up riding the waves, 
 dashed here and there by conflicting currents, but 
 resolutely steaming on — such is the audacity of man, 
 • — and poking her venturesome nose into the boiling 
 foam under the Horseshoe. On the deck are passen- 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 849 
 
 gcrs in oilskin suits, clumsy figures, like Arctic ex- 
 plorers. The boat tosses about like a chip, it hesi- 
 tates and quivers, and then slowly swinging, darts 
 away down the current, fleeing from the wrath of the 
 waters and pursued by the angry roar. So swiftly 
 does our boat glide over the turbulent flood, that 
 when she rounds up to the landing-place, and two 
 strokes of the bull gives the signal to stop we cannot 
 realize that our trip is at an end ; but what an exper- 
 ience has been crowded into that short hour, and we 
 step ashore with an ineffaceable and holy impression 
 of power divine. 
 
 11. Cantilever Briclfje. — Three hundred feet 
 above the old Suspension Bridge, and in full view of 
 the falls, is located the great Cantilever Bridge, built 
 by the Michigan Central Railroad, and completed in 
 November, 1883, forming the connecting link between 
 the New York Central and Michigan Central Rail- 
 roads. 
 
 The principle of the Cantilever Bridge is that of a 
 trussed beam, supported at or near its centre, with 
 arms extending each way, and one end anchored or 
 counterweighted, to provide for unequal loading. 
 Each end is made up of a section entirely of steel, 
 extending from the shore nearly half way over the 
 chasm. Kach section is supported near its centre by 
 a strong steel tower, from which extend two lever 
 arms, one reaching the rocky bluffs, the other pro- 
 jecting over the river 175 feet beyond the towers. 
 The outer arm having no support and being subject 
 like the other to the weight of trains, a counter 
 advantage is given by the shore arm being firmly 
 
^5° NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 anchored to the rocks on the shore. The towers on 
 either side rise from the water's edge ; between them 
 IS a clear span of 495 feet over the river. The ends 
 of the cantilevers reaching on each side 395 feet from 
 the abutments, leave a gap of 120 feet filled by an 
 ordinary truss bridge hung from the ends of the can- 
 tilevers. Provision is made for expansion and con- 
 traction by an ingenious arrangement between the 
 ends of the truss bridge and the cantilevers, allowing 
 the ends to move freely as the temperature changes 
 but at the same time preserving perfect rigidity against 
 side pressure from the wind. From the tower foun- 
 dations up the whole bridge is of steel, every inch of 
 which was subjected to the most rigid tests from the 
 time it left the ore until the time it entered the struct- 
 ure. The total length of the bridge is 9 10 feet. 
 
 At the time this remarkable structure was built it 
 was recognized as the greatest triumph of modern 
 engineering, and attracted in a greater degree, perhaps 
 than almost any work of the century, the attention of 
 the scientific world, and brought interested visitors 
 to the spot from all quarters of the globe. The 
 principle was an entirely new one and was looked 
 upon with great doubt by some of theablestengineers 
 in the world. It has proven an unparalleled success 
 and has since been applied to the great Forth Brid^re 
 in Scotland, which now stands as the greatest monu- 
 ment of engineering skill in existence 
 
 12. Whirlpool Rapid.s.— Below the cataract the 
 Niagara has a beauty and grandeur no less imposin- 
 than the falls themselves. Not content with its 
 mighty plunge the river goes surging and tossino- 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 851 
 
 downward another 104 feet in its rocky bed over the 
 obliterated falls of a preglacial stream, the remains 
 of a third cataract being still perceptible in the 
 Whirlpool Rapids. The width of the chasm at the 
 rapids is only 800 feet, this contraction being caused 
 by the compact, hard nature of the sandstone rocks 
 through which the river here had to cut its way. 
 The depth of the Niagara here must be very great, 
 and the rapidity of the current, combining with the 
 volume of the stream, actually heaps the centre in a 
 broken ridge, from which waves are perpetually 
 forced into the air. The water fairly hisses as it 
 undulates, seethes, and boils. The scene is fairly 
 terrific; the waters battle, and rage and foam. 
 Current opposes current, wave fights wave with 
 hideous uproar. Sometimes a wave is forced into the 
 air by fierce collision with another from an opposing 
 side, and is broken into masses of boiling foam, which 
 the wind as" it comes bellowing down the gorge, 
 dri\'es in sheets of spray along the surface of the 
 struggling, raging waves and upon the ceders on the 
 brink. We viewed the rapids above the Falls with 
 fear and trembling, but here we stand spellbound 
 amid the chaos of waters. All frot and foam, leap- 
 ing over those invisible rocks, it plunges onward, and 
 making one dark, deep, treacherous swirl it pours 
 itself, an emerald green wave, into a channel at right 
 angles with its former course, and henceforth tiends 
 northeast with many a gentle curve. 
 
im 
 
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