The relief from the dread of Niagara felt at this point of peace was only temporary.  The dread returned when the party approached again the turmoil of the American Fall, and fell again under the influence of the merciless haste of the flood.  And there every islet, every rock, every point, has its legend of terror; here a boat lodged with a man in it, and after a day and night of vain attempts to rescue him, thousands of people saw him take the frightful leap, throwing up his arms as he went over; here a young woman slipped, and was instantly whirled away out of life; and from that point more than one dazed or frantic visitor had taken the suicidal leap.  Death was so near here and so easy!

One seems in less personal peril on the Canadian side, and has more the feeling of a spectator and less that of a participant in the wild uproar.  Perhaps there is more sense of force, but the majesty of the scene is relieved by a hundred shifting effects of light and color.  In the afternoon, under a broken sky, the rapids above the Horseshoe reminded one of the seashore on a very stormy day.  Impeded by the rocks, the flood hesitated and even ran back, as if reluctant to take the final plunge!  The sienna color of the water on the table contrasted sharply with the emerald at the break of the fall.  A rainbow springing out of the centre of the caldron arched clear over the American cataract, and was one moment bright and the next dimly seen through the mist, which boiled up out of the foam of waters and swayed in the wind.  Through this veil darted adventurous birds, flashing their wings in the prismatic colors, and circling about as if fascinated by the awful rush and thunder.  With the shifting wind and the passing clouds the scene was in perpetual change; now the American Fall was creamy white, and the mist below dark, and again the heavy mass was gray and sullen, and the mist like silver spray.  Perhaps nowhere else in the world is the force of nature so overpowering to the mind, and as the eye wanders from the chaos of the fall to the far horizon, where the vast rivers of rapids are poured out of the sky, one feels that this force is inexhaustible and eternal.

If our travelers expected to escape the impression they were under by driving down to the rapids and whirlpool below, they were mistaken.  Nowhere is the river so terrible as where it rushes, as if maddened by its narrow bondage, through the canon.  Flung down the precipice and forced into this contracted space, it fumes and tosses and rages with vindictive fury, driving on in a passion that has almost a human quality in it.  Restrained by the walls of stone from being destructive, it seems to rave at its own impotence, and when it reaches the whirlpool it is like a hungry animal, returning and licking the shore for the prey it has missed.  But it has not always wanted a prey.  Now and again it has a wreck or a dead body to toss and fling about.  Although it does not need the human element of disaster to