THE RIVER ABOVE THE FALLS.               323
country, and fenced in on three sides by walls of perpendicular rock. The noise vibrates from side to side of this sunless cavity, and only a small portion escapes into the upper air, through the dense canopy of spray and vapour by which it is overhung. As an experiment, I employed a man to fire a musket below, while I stood on the Table rock. The report was certainly audible, but scarcely louder than that of a popgun.
Having devoted three days to the Horse-shoe, I rode up the river to survey its course above the Falls. Shortly after issuing from Lake Erie, the Niagara is divided by a huge island about seven miles in length. Lower is another island, of smaller dimensions, and having passed these, the river is about two miles in breadth, and tranquil as a lake. At Chippewa, about three miles above the Falls, navigation terminates. At a short distance below, the stream evidently begins to accelerate its motion. There are no waves, howler, nor is there any violent agitation of the current; nothing, in short, which seems to presage the scene of terrific agitation so soon to ensue. Further down 18 Goat  Island, which divides the river into two