The best view of the great cataract is from the Canadian shore just
below it, where, from an elevation, the upper rapids can be seen
flowing to the brink of the fall. A bright day is an advantage, when
the green water tints are most marked. The Canadian shore above,
curves around from the westward, and in front are the dark and
precipitous cliffs of Goat Island, surmounted by foliage. The Canadian
rapids come to the brink an almost unbroken sheet of foaming waters,
but the narrower rapids on the American side are closer, and have a
background of little islands, with torrents foaming between. The
current passing over the American fall seems shallow, compared with
the solid masses of bright green water pouring down the Canadian
horseshoe. There, on either hand, is an edge of foaming streams,
looking like clusters of constantly descending frosted columns, with a
broad and deeply recessed, bright-green central cataract, giving the
impressive idea of millions of tons of water pouring into an abyss,
the bottom of which is obscured by seething and fleecy clouds of
spray. On either side, dark-brown, water-worn rocks lie at the base,
while the spray bursts out into mammoth explosions, like puffs of
white smoke suddenly darting from parks of artillery. The water comes
over the brink comparatively slowly, then falls with constantly
accelerated speed, the colors changing as the velocity increases and
air gets into the torrent, until the original bright green becomes a
foaming white, which is quickly lost behind the clouds of spray
beneath. These clouds slowly rise in a thin, transparent veil far
above the cataract. From under the spray the river flows towards us,
its eddying currents streaked with white. A little steamboat moves
among the eddies, and goes almost under the mass of falling water, yet
finds a practically smooth passage. Closer, on the left hand, the
American fall appears a rough and broken cataract, almost all foam,
with green tints showing through, and at intervals along its face
great masses of water spurting forward through the torrent as a rocky
obstruction may be met part way down. The eye fascinatingly follows
the steadily increasing course of the waters as they descend from top
to bottom upon the piles of boulders dimly seen through the spray
clouds. Adjoining the American cataract is the water-worn wall of the
chasm, built of dark red stratified rocks, looking as if cut down
perpendicularly by a knife, and whitened towards the top, where the
protruding limestone formation surmounts the lower shales. Upon the
faces of the cliffs can be traced the manner in which the water in
past ages gradually carved out the gorge, while at their bases the
sloping talus of fallen fragments is at the river's edge. Through the
deep and narrow canyon the greenish waters move away towards the
rapids below. It all eternally falls, and foams and roars, and the
ever-changing views displayed by the world's great wonder make an
impression unlike anything else in nature.