The Henson Journals

[135]

Thursday, July 22nd, 1909.

The day was dull & threatening at the start, wet in most of its course, and reluctantly fine at its close, i.e. the setting sun showed a few gleams across the lake.

We caught the 9 a.m. steamer from Toronto, and reached Lewiston, seven miles up the Niagara river on the American side, at 11.55: then we were carried by the electric railway to the Niagara Falls. The train runs along the river–side, almost at the level of the water, enabling us to view the Rapids to advantage.

These are, indeed wonderful. I was not prepared for the beauty, or the volume, or the violence of the River.

On arriving at Niagara we went to look at the American Fall, which is extremely beautiful, but, by comparison with the Horse–shoe Falls on the Canadian side almost pretty. Then we crossed the bridge, and lunched in the Clifton Hotel, of which the dining room commanded a noble prospect of the Falls. After lunch we charted a carriage, and were driven to the Horse Shoe Fall. We looked at it from above, & from below. We were clothed in oil–skins, and sent through a tunnel cut in the rock, until we were able to stand under the mighty cataract, & feel its water splashing in our faces. We looked at the wide expanse of foaming waters, tumbling over great ridges of rock, before [136] taking the great leap into the abyss. The scene above the Falls, looking away from the hideous power–houses on the American side, is extraordinarily impressive. I was not prepared for so great a width of the river, or for the long series of foam–crashed ridges. We went on to the island which separates the Falls, and as we returned, we encountered a drunken man, supported with difficulty by a lady, presumably his wife, and going down to see with his drink blurred vision the same amazing spectacle as we had gazed upon. What a theme for a moralist! The physical force of Nature & the moral weakness of man united in a single picture. We returned by the Canadian bank, where the line runs on the top of the river–bank. I observed numerous vine yards & fruit orchards. This district is renowned for its production of peaches.

A numerous excursion returning to Toronto crowded the steamer, filling everything with their chatter & laughter. Humanity in the gross is strangely repulsive. American varieties, perhaps , more repulsive than the rest. There is a strident vulgarity in the voices, and aggressive self–assertiveness in the gestures of Americans which, I hope & believe, have no terrestrial parallels. Mr Donaldson met us at the station, and we were all safely under cover again by 9.15 p.m.

N.B. The paper reports Dr Huntingdon to be dying.

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