On the Brink of Niagara.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 78, 29 November 1884, Page 5

On the Brink of Niagara.

" Did you cvov hoar of a man's standing on the top of Niagara Falls a\ ithout loosing his life ?" asked Mr C. I. Shorman, yostcrday. " Woll, I did. You have heard of the magnificent ice bridge below the Falls. Having business at Buffalo, I ran up to look at the ice gorgo. Tho ice, which had poured down from tho upper lakes, piled up at the Horseshoe, and fro/o under tho spray. I clambored over tho biidge, and going up on the Canadian side, went down under the Horseshoe Falls into the Cave of the Winds. What superb btalignrilos and stalactities of ice there were then.', reaching from loof to floor, with the thundering curtain of the fall between us and tho light. After I had recrossed tho river by the Suspension Bridge f crossed tho bridge above tho American Fall to Coat Island, which was covered with snow and descited. The shrubbery and trees near the Falls were coated with ice — in places, on somo of the trunks, several inches in thickness — looking a& if they had been out out ot marble or were the ghottb of dead trees. Wandciing across the island, 1 ciossed over the Three Sisters, and, by means of a jam of great blocks of ice, out of the old canal boat, past which tho waiter was lushing swiitly. " Uoing back to Coat Island, I went down to the tootbridge to Teuapin Rock, where the old tower used to .stand, and out on the rock. When 1 got there 1 observed that a quantity of ice covered w ith snowhad by tome means become lixed upon the projecting locks O7i the edge of the JToiectihoe Fall beyond the rock wheic I Btoo i, forming a budge on the exticme edge of the fall about "j 00 feet long by 10 or Jo feet wide. Instantly the decile to go upon this bridge and look over tho tall seized me, 1 dug out a .stone from the snow, as heavy as 1 could lift, and stepping out as far as I dare, threw it with all my force upon the bridge, which stood iirm, the stone sticking fast on the snow. Then 1 1 an back to the island and broke off a good stout .staff, and coming back to Tampan Rock, commenced the rather trying journey. The snow which covered theicowa.s itself covered with a thin coating of ice, which broke beneath my feet, thus giving me a good foothold ; and as to my head, I was sure of that, as I had thoroughly tested its an ti -dizziness the preceding summer on shipboard and among the Swiss glaciers and precipices. Prodding my stall" or alpenstock heavily into the snow before me to try the way, I walked out until I had reached about the middle of my ice bridge, and then I stopped to look. The sight was the grandest and the most awe inspiring I have ever beheld. As I looked up the river the curve of tho oncoming water seemed almost as high as my head, and, steadying my eye upon some floating particle, the whole mass seemed coming down upon me with an irresistible power that must inevitably carry me over the brink and into eternity ; but with a swift, hiding rush, it swept under me, leaped out, and, with a horrible roar, plunged into the awful chasm, whence huge clouds of spray, like the smoke of its torment, ascending, swept back and over me. '"Steadying myself by my staff, I sank quietly upon my knees, then stretched myself flat upon my stomach, and looked down over the fall. You can imagine what I saw . When the spray would clear away, the water, rushing so swiftly as to appear to be drawn into lines and furrows, and springing out under my very face, could be seen to fall, at first a solid, greenish mass, then broken into fo m into a chaos which the eyes could not penetrate. 1 could feel my biidge trembling with the rush of water, and, realising that any moment might see it and me following the descending flood, I arose, took one look up and down — a look to last for a life-time— and retraced my steps. As I passed the rock 1 had thrown on the bridge, I could not resist the temp tation of dislodging it and seeing it whirl away over the liquid precipice." — "Philadelphia Press."