evening. We leaned on the railings, and grew pensive as
we looked at the scenery and the abyss under us.

My impresario sighed.

"What are you thinking about?" I said to him.

[Illustration: AS JONATHAN.]

"Last year," he replied, "a girl tried to commit suicide and jumped over
this bridge; but the wind got under her skirt, made a parachute of it,
and she descended to the bottom of the valley perfectly unhurt."

[Illustration: THE WOULD-BE SUICIDE.]

And he sighed again.

"Well," said I, "why do you sigh?"

"Ah! my dear fellow, if you could do the same this afternoon, there
would be 'standing room only' in the Victoria Hall to-night."

I left that bridge in no time.

CHAPTER X.

BUFFALO--THE NIAGARA FALLS--A FROST--ROCHESTER TO THE RESCUE OF
BUFFALO--CLEVELAND--I MEET JONATHAN--PHANTASMAGORIA.

_Buffalo, January 14._

This town is situated twenty-seven miles from Niagara Falls. The
Americans say that the Buffalo people can hear the noise of the
water-fall quite distinctly. I am quite prepared to believe it. However,
an hour's journey by rail and then a quarter of an hour's sleigh ride
will take you from Buffalo within sight of this, perhaps the grandest
piece of scenery in the world. Words cannot describe it. You spend a
couple of hours visiting every point of view. You are nailed, as it
were, to the ground, feeling like a pigmy, awestruck in the presence of
nature at her grandest. The snow was falling thickly, and though it made
the view less clear, it added to the grandeur of the scene.

I went down by the cable car to a level with the rapids and the place
where poor Captain Webb was last seen alive; a presumptuous pigmy, he,
to dare such waters as these. His widow keeps a little bazaar near the
falls and sells souvenirs to the visitors.

It was most thrilling to stand within touching distance of that great
torrent of water, called the Niagara Falls, in distinction to the
Horseshoe Falls, to hear the roar of it as it fell. The idea of force it
gives one is tremendous. You stand and wonder how many ages it has been
roaring on, what eyes besides your own have gazed awestruck at its
mighty rushing, and wonder if the pigmies will ever do what they say
they will; one day make those columns of water their servants to turn
wheels at their bidding.

[Illustration: SHOOTING THE RAPIDS.]

We crossed the bridge over to the Canadian side, and there we had the
whole grand panorama before our