Niagara Falls Dry For A Day

l'Toin Holley's Niágara. Tho winter of 1818 bad been iuti-usoly cold, and the icu i'ormod on lako Erie was vi.iy thiuk. This was loosened aroundtLo shoro by t'ic warm days of early spring. During tlie day a stift' easterly wind moved the whole field up tho lako. About ■va the wind clioppod suddeiily around aud blow a galu trom tho west. Tliis brought tha vast tract of ico down with such tremendoua force that it filled kof the lake, and tho outlot, so rerflow of the waterwas vcry greatly impodcd. Of course it only ncodud a veryshort spacc of time for the falls to drain oit' tho water bclow Black Koek. The consequenco was that whon wo aroso 'vui Lftwi" vy ■■ ej'iBSt+x1 ' ■ American cliannol had dwindlcd. to a rospoctab'.e creek. Tho British channol I as though it had been uitten witli tho quick consumption and waa fast passing away. Par up from the at Ibland, und out iuto tho Canadian rapids, the water was gono, as it was also from the lowor oud of Ooat Island, out boyond tho tower. Tho rocka wore baro, black and forbidding. Tho roar of i iagara had subsided alinost to a moan. Tho scène was desolate, and but for its novelty und tho certainty that it would ohange before many hours, would have been gloomy and saddeniug. Evory l who lias visituil Niágara will rcmeniber a be:iutit'ul jet of water which shoota up out of the water about 40 rods touth of thu outur Sister in thegreat rapids, called, with a singular contradiction of terms, tho "Leoping Rock." Tho writsr drove a buggy from near the head of Qoat Islancl out to apointabovcandiiLar to tlut jet. With a log cart and four . Ke had drawn from the outside of the outor islaud a stick of pine timber, hewt'd 12 inches square and 40 feet long. From tho top of tho iniddlo island wua drawn a still largor stick, howed on one bide, und 00 foet long. There are few places on tho globo where a persou would be less lrkely to go a rumbering tlian in i idaot' Niágara just above the brink of Horso-Shoe f all. All tho people of ihint'ighbovhood were cxploring recsseí aud oavitiea that had ncvor before exposed to mortal uye'S. The writer sume distanco up tho shoro of the t aelds at the ttiuddy bottom lay bi Tho ungular syncope of the waters i all tho day, and night closed over tttrange soono. But in the nioniing our rivor was restorud to all its Btrej beauty, und majesty, and wo wen como its Bwelliag tido once more.