Below the falls the river narrows to eight hundred feet, between precipitous walls, which add swiftness to the current, and three miles from Horseshoe Falls the impetuous stream strikes a point of projecting land in such a manner that a terrible whirlpool is created, capable of sucking down a large steamboat. By means of a car, which is controlled by a cable, visitors may ride down the very steep incline to the edge of Whirlpool Rapids and view in safety the awful, mad-lashing waters, swirling with extraordinary rapidity and throwing high the tousled heads of ravening waves, which appear to be lusting for victims and bellowing for vengeance. It is gratifying to know that the almost incomputable power of Niagara is soon to be transmitted, through the generation of electricity, to mills and machinery, and thus utilized to the honor of human genius as well as to the glory of God.
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NIAGARA FROZEN.—Niagara is grand at any and all times, but if you would appreciate the sublimity of its grandeur in the fullest degree, you should visit it in winter, when it is covered with icy fringes and stalactites, and you can approach close to the roaring fountain on the mound of ice formed by the spray which rises from the foot of the precipice. It is only on rare occasions, during very severe winters, that such opportunities are afforded; but when they do occur they attract thousands of visitors from many sections, who come in crowds to witness a scene that has no equal among all the wonders of the world. On such occasions the Falls themselves seem to be a mass of liquid ice, while the shores, the trees and the cliffs are clothed in sheets of white, and made ornate with columns that rival alabaster in their transparent beauty. ]
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[Illustration: BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, NIAGARA.]
Great changes occurring in Niagara Falls, which though slow and remittent, are no less certain to destroy the grandeur of that incomparable waterfall some time in the very remote future. It is a well-demonstrated fact that Niagara River has excavated the gorge through which it runs, and within recent years such immense masses of the ledge-stone have been detached by the gnawing waters as to cause an appreciable recession of the cataract, and a corresponding lengthening of the gorge. It is recorded that in 1818 very large fragments of limestone were wrenched from the surface-bed and cast over Horseshoe Falls, and another similar result occurred in 1855. But each year, and constantly, the erosion is marked, so that Table Rock, formerly a striking feature of the river, has been worn away so completely that no present sign of it now remains. It has been computed by Sir Charles Lyell that the average rate of recession is about one foot annually, counting for the past thousand years; but as before stated, the erosive results are spasmodic. There is now eighty feet of hard limestone composing the surface-rock, and it will probably require ten thousand years for the rushing waters to eat this away; after that, however, the wear will be rapid, and in course of centuries the falls will have disappeared, and only a tremendous gorge will remain in their stead. Many wonderful spectacles have taken place at the falls, the most interesting of which was the sending adrift of a condemned lake vessel, drawing eighteen feet of water, in 1829, which passed over the brink without touching bottom, and was dashed in pieces on the rocks below. This experiment was made to test the depth of water on the brink of the precipice.