s bound
for the towns on the banks of the upper Niagara are not numerous, as
its navigation is dangerous. Not one was in sight. Not even a
fishing-boat crossed the path of the "Terror." Even the two
destroyers would soon be obliged to pause in their pursuit, if we
continued our mad rush through these dangerous waters.

I have said that the Niagara River flows between New York and Canada.
Its width, of about three quarters of a mile, narrows as it
approaches the falls. Its length, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is
about fifteen leagues. It flows in a northerly direction, until it
empties the waters of Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie into
Ontario, the last lake of this mighty chain. The celebrated falls,
which occur in the midst of this great river have a height of over a
hundred and fifty feet. They are called sometimes the Horse-shoe
Falls, because they curve inward like the iron shoe. The Indians have
given them the name of "Thunder of Waters," and in truth a mighty
thunder roars from them without cessation, and with a tumult which is
heard for several miles away.

Between Lake Erie, and the little city of Niagara Falls, two islands
divide the current of the river, Navy Island, a league above the
cataract, and Goat Island, which separates the American and the
Canadian Falls. Indeed, on the lower point of this latter isle stood
once that "Terrapin Tower" so daringly built in the midst of the
plunging waters on the very edge of the abyss. It has been destroyed;
for the constant wearing away of the stone beneath the cataract makes
the ledge move with the ages slowly up the river, and the tower has
been drawn into the gulf.

The town of Fort Erie stands on the Canadian shore at the entrance of
the river. Two other towns are set along the banks above the falls,
Schlosser on the right bank, and Chippewa on the left, located on
either side of Navy Island. It is at this point that the current,
bound within a narrower channel, begins to move at tremendous speed,
to become two miles further on, the celebrated cataract.

The "Terror" had already passed Fort Erie. The sun in the west
touched the edge of the Canadian horizon, and the moon, faintly seen,
rose above the mists of the south. Darkness would not envelop us for
another hour.

The destroyers, with huge clouds of smoke streaming from their
funnels, followed us a mile behind. They sped between banks green
with shade trees and dotted with cottages which lay a