282

A SUBAQUEOUS VIEW.

Civilisation has devised many methods of making the falls attractive, and of facilitating the approach to their most interesting points of view. A bridge connects the American side with Goat Island. A car upon an inclined plane conveys the tourists from the upper portion of the American bank to the shore where ferryboats ply, to transport them to the opposite side. From Goat Island a staircase conducts people to the dark concave formed by the projection of the cataract over the monstrous barrier. There, standing upon a slippery rock, and enveloped in an india-rubber garment, the curious in such matters may see the cascade in all its volume from behind. Hear Deville's account of his experiment:

"Clothed completely in the caoutchouc which the guide threw over me, we slowly and cautiously descended the fragile and slippery steps cut in the granite beneath the liquid vault. I was obliged to hold my hand to my mouth, otherwise it would have been impossible to breathe in the midst of the clouds of watery vapour which rose around us. A mass of green crystal shaped itself into an arch before us, and afforded just light enough to show us dimly a path along the rocks, the summit of which hung over our heads. Nothing else could I see, nor nothing hear, but the terrible roar and clatter of the falling water. At last we reached a little recess in the rock, where the air, imprisoned and incessantly disturbed by the irresistible column of the cataract, is kept in such violent commotion, that the

BRIDGES OVER NIAGARA.

283

excavation has earned the title of the Grotto of the Winds. Ensconced in this narrow recess, we breathed freely, and spent some minutes in contemplating the liquid curtain, six or seven yards in thickness, which, alternately dark and sparkling, as the rays of the external light fell upon it, precipitated itself from above

us.

At a distance of a mile from the falls a beautiful suspension-bridge, adapted alike to the passage of carriages, foot-travellers, and the railway-cars of the Great Western, spans the river. It is one of those engineering triumphs which ranks with the bridge over the Menai Straits, and the immense Victoria Bridge connecting Montreal with the State of New York.

The Niagara Falls have been the scene of many accidents, and several rash acts of suicide. Canoes have sometimes been carried to the rapids of Erie, and cast by them over the boiling precipice, to be engulfed for ever. At the same time, they have witnessed some feats of daring and of strength; not the least interesting of which was the passage of a celebrated rope-dancer, named Blondin, who crossed over on a tight-rope, in the presence of thousands of spectators.

Geologists, who have attentively studied the cataract from time to time, affirm that it sensibly diminishes in altitude, and is gradually sloping towards Lake Erie. They even assert that in former times the situation of the line of lofty rocks over which it fell was at Lewiston, in sight of Lake Ontario. But the waters have

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NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

worn away the intermediate masses; and one of these days, from the same causes, the dike which separates the two lakes will disappear altogether, and the "Falls of Niagara" become a thing of the past.

In the history of the war between England and America, which began in 1812, the vicinity of the falls occupies a conspicuous place. It was at Niagara that the American force was concentrated for the purpose of invading the Canadas. Several attempts were made to cross the river: the first failed from the inclemency of the weather; the second, under General Van Rannsellaer, succeeded, but the Americans were afterwards forced to recross the stream. Two years later, when another war broke out, Niagara again became the scene of direful conflicts; and there now stands, at a short distance from the cataract, a monument to the memory of General Brock, who fell in a battle at Queenstown.

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Grottoes and Caverns.

THE MAMMOTH CAVE OF KENTUCKY.

In the centre of the State of Kentucky, in America, the Green River, one of those delicious watercourses which irrigate the richly cultivated fields of the state, meanders through umbrageous forests of beech, ash, walnut, oak, and elm, until it unites with the Ohio.

At the foot

of one of the calcareous hillocks which surround this smiling valley, there is-seventy miles south of Louisville, the capital of Kentucky-a fissure, half-concealed by the festoons contributed by the rich verdure spread over the upper part of the hill.

This fissure is the entrance to the Mammoth Cave -the widest and deepest natural excavation in the terrestrial globe as yet explored by man. In front of this peristyle, the dimensions and form of which are far from conveying any idea of the wonders within, there are usually to be found several negroes, furnished with miners' lamps. These are the recognised guides through the fifteen miles of subterranean passages as yet discovered in the dark labyrinth.

Deville gives an interesting account of his exploration of the cave, whence the following extract is translated:

"I was recommended to employ one of these poor blacks, named Mat,—a slave, and the father of a family, who looked to the fruits of his industry as the means of

286

THE GOTHIC CHURCH.

purchasing his own liberty, and that of his wife and children. Following this good man, torch in hand, for forty or fifty paces over damp earth, I found myself in a lofty gallery, twenty yards broad, baptised with the mighty name of Audubon the naturalist. Apart from this circumstance, its smooth soil, and the saltpetre manufacture of which it was the scene at the commencement of the present century, there is nothing remarkable about the gallery but its length-some 3000 yards. At its further extremity is a spacious apartment, called the Rotunda, whence radiate a considerable number of corridors. One of these, called the Grand Vestibule, leads down a rapid slope to another great hall 130 yards in circumference, and vaulted in the form of a cathedral nave. Its form, its size, and the extraordinary stalactites with which it is decorated, have earned for it the title of the Gothic Church. In fact, between the alabaster columns which the filtrations of the calcareous and siliceous waters have created, it is easy to distinguish sundry stalls, and even a pulpit; whence, they say, more than one Protestant minister has preached the gospel. The auditorium, lighted by flambeaux, recalled to my mind the description given of the assemblages of the early Christians in the Catacombs.

"Thanks to the effect of the light cast by the torches upon the stalactites, with the help of the imagination, all the ornament and paraphernalia of a temple were disclosed. An altar, fonts, candelabra—all the fantastic sculpture of the middle ages—were reproduced before