Down the River to the Sea Part 1

Down the River to the Sea.

by Agnes Maule Machar.

CHAPTER I

NIAGARA.

The brilliant suns.h.i.+ne of a July day lighted up the great cataract and the rich verdure of the surrounding landscape, bringing out all the wonderful variety of hue in the surging ma.s.s of falling water, the snowy clouds that perpetually veiled and unveiled it, the iridescence that floated elusively amid their ever-s.h.i.+fting billows, and the deep emerald of the islands that nestled so confidingly among the foaming, seething rapids that swept down the slope above, in order to take the fatal leap. The Clifton House veranda had its usual complement of lounging groups of guests, most of them so absorbed in gossip, flirting, or the last sensational novel, that they scarcely seemed to notice the grandeur of the scene they had come so far to enjoy. Of a very different cla.s.s of visitors was May Thorburn, who sat silently in a vacant corner of the wide veranda, gazing at the ceaseless rush of the Horse-shoe Fall, in a speechless ecstasy of delight. The brown-haired, brown-eyed, rather pale girl, who sat so absorbed in the wonderful grandeur of the scene before her, was not quite sure whether she was the same May Thorburn, who, only a few days before, had been all engrossed in the usual endless round of home duties, sweeping, dusting, or st.i.tching away at the family mending (and how much mending _that_ family needed!), and trying to squeeze in, between these homely avocations, a little of the poetry and music in which her soul delighted. And now, here she was, in the midst of Nature's grandest poetry and music, realizing what had been the day-dream of years! And all this wonderful happiness had come about through the thoughtful kindness of her cousin, Kate Severne, in inviting her to share the delights of a trip all the way from Niagara to the Saguenay--names that had so long stood in her mind as equivalents for the greatest enjoyment that any tourist could hope for--at least outside of Mont Blanc.

She had come by way of Hamilton, and as the train swept her rapidly through the region of peach orchards, her mind was full of vague antic.i.p.ations of the delights of the prospective journey, with occasional speculations as to Kate's two Scotch cousins, Hugh and Flora Macnab, whose visit to Canada was the immediate occasion of this present trip. Kate, who had repeatedly gone over the whole ground before, and knew it well, wished to act the part of _cicerone_ herself, while her kind, though somewhat peculiar aunt, Mrs. Sandford, was the _chaperone_ of the little party. It had been the thoughtful suggestion of this aunt that May, who so seldom had a holiday, should be invited to join them, a suggestion which Kate had gladly carried out, in the kind and welcome letter of invitation which had put May into such a little flurry of delightful excitement and preparation.

The rest of the party had arrived before May; and her cousin Kate had met her at the Clifton House station with an enthusiastic welcome and a torrent of information as to their future plans, scarcely half of which May could take in, being quite happy enough in the sense of being _really at the Falls_ at last, and of getting her first glimpse of them. She only vaguely heard, in an unreal sort of way, Kate's eager account of her cousins--how "nice" and amiable Flora was, and how well she could sketch; and how Hugh, though very quiet, was very clever, too,--had taken honors at college, had somewhat injured his health by over-study, so that he was obliged to take a rest, and had even written a little book of poems which was soon to be published,--indeed, was now in the press. "And I shouldn't wonder if he were to write another about his travels here, and put us all into it,"

she added.

May had no particular desire to "be put into a book," but, just then, the interest of the scene before her, with the thunder of "many waters" in her ears, was strong enough to exclude all other ideas. Her eager, watching eye just caught a glimpse of what seemed a giant's caldron of milky spray, and behind it a dazzling sheet of snow; but her cousin hurried her on into the hotel and up to her room, which, to her delight, commanded a splendid view of the Horse-shoe Fall, on which she could feast her eyes at leisure to her heart's content. And now, indeed, antic.i.p.ation and faith were swallowed up in sight! She had, of course, frequently seen photographs of the great cataract, so that the outlines of the view were familiar enough; but the exquisite coloring, the ceaseless motion, the sense of infinite power, no picture could possibly supply. As she Lay dreamily back in a lounging chair, on the veranda, scarcely conscious of anything but the grandeur of the scene, a line or two from Wordsworth's "Yarrow Visited" flitted across her mind:

----"this is the scene Of which my fancy cherished So faithfully a waking dream!"

"No!" she mentally decided, "no 'waking dream' could picture Niagara."

"Well, dreaming as usual?" May looked up with a start, as she felt Mrs. Sandford's plump hand on her shoulder. "Kate wants you to make haste and get ready for an expedition. Here are the Scotch cousins.

This is Flora, and this is her brother Hugh. You don't need any formal introduction. Kate will be down in a moment, and you are all going for a long stroll, she says, for which I don't feel quite equal yet after my journey, though it _is_ a charming afternoon; so I shall stay here and rest. Kate has promised me not to let you run into any sort of danger, and I am sure you'll find her a capital _cicerone_."

Kate, who appeared just then, renewed her promise to be most prudent, and especially to look after her cousin Hugh--her aunt's chief object of anxiety. "And, indeed, you _need_ taking care of," she said, in answer to his attempted disclaimer. "You know you're under orders not to overwalk yourself, or get heated or chilled, so mind, Kate, you _don't let him_. I don't want to have to stop on the way to nurse an invalid!"

"I don't think you need be at all afraid, Aunt Bella," the young man replied, with what May thought a pleasant touch of Scottish accent, though his pale face had flushed a little at the allusion to his semi-invalidism, which had been the immediate cause of his journey to Canada. His sister Flora, however, with her abundant fair hair, which, like her brother's, just missed being red, looked the picture of health and youthful energy.

May, with her straw hat beside her, needed no further preparation for the expedition, on which she was, indeed, impatient to set out at once, Kate, to her relief, leading the way with Mr. Hugh Macnab, who was not _her_ cousin, and it did not seem to her that she could find anything to say to any one so learned and clever as this quiet-looking young man must be. It seemed much easier to talk to the frank and merry Flora, who tripped on by her side, looking very fresh and trim and tourist-like, in her plain gray traveling hat and gray tweed dress, made as short as a sensible fas.h.i.+on would allow, and showing off to perfection a lithe, well-rounded figure and a pair of shapely and very capable feet. The party entered what is now called Victoria Park, and walked leisurely along the brink of the precipitous cliff that here formed the river bank, stopping at frequent intervals the better to take in some particular aspect of the wonderful scene before them.

"That's the advantage of not taking a carriage, _here_," explained Kate, who had relentlessly refused all the entreaties of the hackmen.

"It's ever so much nicer to go on your own feet, and stop just where you please, and as long as you please! We don't want to hurry _here_.

It's a charming walk, now that all the old photographic saloons and so-called museums have been cleared away! By and by, when we feel a little tired, we can take a carriage for the rest of the way."

May soon felt the dreamlike sensation come over her again, as they wandered slowly along the steep cliffs of shade, and came from time to time on some specially charming view of the white foaming sheet of the American Falls, so dazzlingly pure in its virgin beauty, as it vaults over the hollow cliff into the soft veil of mist that perpetually rises about its feet--always dispersing and ever rising anew. Then, as their eager gaze followed the line of the opposite bank, black, jagged and s.h.i.+ning with its perpetual shower-bath of spray, what a glorious revelation of almost infinite grandeur was that curving, quivering sheet of thundering surge, with its heart of purest green, and its mighty ma.s.ses of dazzling foam, and its ascending clouds of milky spray,--sometimes entirely obscuring the fall itself, as they float across the boiling caldron,--sometimes partially dispersed and spanned by the soft-hued arc, which here, as at the close of the thunder-storm, seems like the tender kiss of love, hus.h.i.+ng the wild tumult into peace. From many other points she could get better views of individual details, but no n.o.bler view of the mighty whole, than from this silent, never-to-be-forgotten ramble. No one said much; even the lively Kate lapsed from her office of _cicerone_, or, rather, best fulfilled it, by her silence; for, when the infinite in Nature speaks, the human voice may well be still. And how grand a voice was that which the cataract was speaking,--even to the outward ear! The "voice of many waters"--mighty as thunder, yet soft as a summer breeze--seemed to leave the whole being immersed and absorbed in the ceaseless rush and roar of the "Thunder of Waters"--the majesty of whose motion appeared to be, itself, repose.

This feeling deepened as they advanced nearer to the edge of the Horse-shoe Falls. They paused on Table Rock, so much less prominent than it used to be years ago. At every turn they paused, lost in the grandeur of the present impression. It was Kate who first roused them to a sense of the pa.s.sage of time, and gave the order to proceed, for the afternoon was swiftly gliding by.

"Well!" said Hugh, "I never felt as if I had got so near the state of self-annihilation, the '_Nirvana_' we read about. I don't wonder at suicides here, under the fascinating influence of these rus.h.i.+ng waters!"

"Really, Hugh," exclaimed his sister, "I should scarcely have expected to hear _you_ rhapsodizing at such a rate! We shall have to look after him, Kate." Hugh replied only by a half smile, but May noticed his heightened color and the absorbed expression of his dark blue eyes, and began to feel much less shy of him. She had much the same feeling herself, though too reserved to say it out.

Kate hurried them on, until they had reached the very edge of the great Horse-shoe Fall. Here they stopped and sat down on a long black beam of timber that lay on the side of the quivering torrent, there seeming almost stationary, as if pausing in awe of the mighty leap before it. Just inside the old beam lay a quiet pool, reflecting the sky, in which a child might bathe its feet without the slightest danger, while, on the outside, swept the great resistless flood of white-breasted rapids, moving down the steep incline with a majesty only less inspiring than that of the cataract itself.

"Well! don't you think Niagara deserves its name, which means 'Thunder of Waters'?" asked Kate, after a long silence.

"It scarcely could have one that better describes the impression it makes," said Hugh Macnab, in a low, meditative tone.

"Are _you_ tired yet, Hugh?" asked Kate; "shall we walk on--it's a good mile--or take a carriage?"

"Walk, by all means," said Hugh, "if the rest of you are not tired."

They walked leisurely on by the sh.o.r.e, washed by the swift hurrying water, while, above them, to their right, Kate pointed out the railway track along which they had come, and the point at which they had stopped, in order to get the celebrated "Fall view."

"I shall never forget it," said Flora. "I was a little disappointed at first about the _height_. I couldn't see _that_ from there, nor realize it at all! But the grandeur of the scale quite took my breath away. It was like seeing Mont Blanc for the first time. It takes a little while before you can feel yourself grow up to it!"

"That's it exactly!" exclaimed Kate. "That just expresses my own feelings when I saw them first. Well, May, you look sober enough over it all."

"Oh, Kate, it's too grand for words; I'm trying to 'grow up to it,'"

she added, smiling.

They reached the bridge leading to the lovely Sister or Cynthia Islands, nestling amid the tumult and foam as safely as in the embrace of a calmly winding river where the constant shower-bath of the spray keeps the foliage and the ferns at their greenest and freshest; and the contrast between the tranquil beauty of the woodland ways and the turmoil of the rapids beyond greatly heightened the charm of the scene.

"Now, we must take a carriage back," said Kate decidedly; and no one objected now, for all were tolerably tired, between the physical fatigue and the mental strain involved in the mere appreciation of so much beauty. They stopped for a few minutes at the Burning Spring, to look, as in duty bound, at that natural curiosity, and then settled themselves comfortably in the carriage they had hailed, while Kate gave the order to return by Prospect Drive, along the bluffs above, whence they could take in the whole sweep of the grand river from Navy Island, at the foot of Lake Erie, to the dark, narrow gorge below the Falls, where the waters fret and toss their crests, like angry coursers fretting at the curbing bit.

"Now," said Kate, "if it were not so late already, I should have had you driven to Lundy's Lane,--only about a mile and a half west of us; but it's too late, for to-day."

"What is remarkable about Lundy's Lane?" inquired Hugh Macnab. "I confess my ignorance."

"Oh, of course; one doesn't expect _you_ to be posted in Canadian history," Kate replied. "Lundy's Lane is where the British troops and Canadian volunteers beat the Americans eighty years ago, when they tried to take Canada."

"Oh! I see. Pardon my ignorance. I never happened to hear of such things as battle-grounds in connection with Niagara. I shall have to read up these historical a.s.sociations."

"May can tell you all about it," replied Kate. "She's great on Canadian history. And there is something about it in my guide book; so you can read up in the evenings all about Lundy's Lane and Queenston Heights, and then you can see them both, if you care enough about it."

The drive was charming, under the slanting rays of the August sun; the sky and water taking on such exquisite ethereal tints, the iris on the clouds of spray so delicately bright, that their gaze was constantly turning backwards as they glided rapidly over the smooth high-road back towards the "Clifton."

"Now for a rest, then dinner--and then, you know, we shall have the moon, and a lovely time for watching the Falls by moonlight."

Kate's programme was fully enjoyed--not least the latter portion of it.

They were all tempted forth for another stroll along the river bank, halting again at some of the points from whence they had so greatly enjoyed the afternoon views, to compare the difference of the moonlight effect--less distinct, but more romantic and suggestive. Kate and Flora preferred, on the whole, the play of color and cheerful light of day, while Hugh Macnab endorsed May's preference for the moonlight, which is as effective at Niagara as at Melrose Abbey. They sat long on the piazza that night, saying little, but silently enjoying the marvelous scene--the glory of the white, s.h.i.+mmering water, the solemn majesty of the ascending column of misty spray, and the strong contrast of light and shade--until the picture seemed to have become a part of their mental consciousness, never to be forgotten and a "joy forever."

Next morning the party met at breakfast in good time, as they had a long day before them, and meant to make the best possible use of it.

It was a charming morning, and they all set off in the best possible spirits, enjoying the Falls both in the present and the future. To begin with, however, there was a difficulty to be got over. The juniors were all eager to cross the river in the ferry-boat, so as to have the glorious view of the great cataract from a point of view which gives a different and grander impression than almost any other.

But Aunt Bella stoutly refused even to consider the suggestion of trusting herself to the tender mercies of a c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l of a boat tossed on that "boiling flood." The difficulty was finally settled by Kate, who put her aunt under the care of a hackman who promised to take her across the suspension bridge and meet them at Prospect Point.

The rest of the party, in high glee, followed the winding road that leads down to the ferry, and were soon packed into the large, heavy skiff. Here, indeed, they had the full view of both of the magnificent falls and of the boiling, white caldron below, and the dark, malachite-green rapids that seem to press like a solid body down the narrow river gorge, after leaving the turbulence of the boiling basin behind them. The cool spray dashed in the faces of the happy party as the boat danced lightly over the heaving waters, under the strong strokes of the st.u.r.dy rowers; and, when they reached the other side, after a short pa.s.sage, they all felt as if the exciting pleasure had been quite too brief. On landing they ascended in the elevator to the bank above, and at once took their way to Prospect Point, where they stood for some time lost in the fascination of the scene before them--the majestic American Fall rus.h.i.+ng down in snowy foam from the slope of furious white-crested rapids just above the headlong torrent.

The thundering sheet filled their ears with its mighty music, and as they could now see its outline curved inwards almost as much as that of the "Horse-shoe" itself, for, of course, the action of falling water is the same on both sides of the river. But the fact that the rapids are here compressed by scattered islands seems to add to the force and fury with which they dash themselves wildly over the stony ledges with a resistless strength which makes us realize the power of the one spiritual force which is described as stronger than "many waters." After they had stood silently watching the ceaseless progress of the waters, until all their senses had seemed to be filled with its mighty rush and roar, they joined Mrs. Sandford in the carriage, and were speedily driven across the bridge leading over the rapids to Goat Island, which seemed to May like a little tranquil paradise nestling amid the wild fury of the raging floods. Here, indeed, they could have all varieties of scenery. The whole party left the carriage, so that they might feel at liberty to enjoy all the charming nooks of the island at their own sweet will; Aunt Bella, however, preferring to make a leisurely circuit in the carriage, and take them up again at the end of it.

"Only see that Hugh doesn't tire himself out," she called out as they left her behind, and Kate, who noticed the young man's rising color and expression of repressed annoyance at the allusion to them, hurried into a lively talk about the natural history of the island, explaining that it was fast wearing away under the force of the torrent; that it had been gradually growing smaller during the last hundred years, and that probably, in the course of another century, it would have almost entirely disappeared.

"Now, come round this way," she said, "and soon you will almost forget that you are on the edge of the biggest waterfall in the world."

They followed her lead, taking the woodland path to the left, catching charming glimpses of the fleecy rapids between the overhanging boughs of the trees, on which birds sang sweetly and merry squirrels frisked and chattered, as if in a solitary wilderness far from the busy haunts of men. As they came out presently on the open ground at the head of the island, they found themselves beside "still waters," the shoal water rippling gently over the gravel, as if it were a quiet reach of woodland stream; while, above them, lay a smooth stretch of Lake Erie, with Grand Island in the distance, its apparent placidity concealing the fierce undercurrent which no power of man could stem.

"One might 'moralize the spectacle' to any extent," said Hugh Macnab, as Kate told some stories of the deadly strength of that hidden current--that delusively peaceful expanse of water.

"But we haven't time for moralizing," retorted Kate. "Now for a change of scene."