The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 5, 1899, Page 18

IS the sight of a lifetime to see Niagara Falls in winter. During January or February of any year it is well worth a the continent, but rander than ever this yes n Indeed it is said to rival the display it made in 1883, which s d in gran- deur that of any previous winter on record Of course when agara is in its winter glory the weather is intensely cold. So cold that the fingersiand toes of visitors sometimes get frozen and nly the heaviest wraps can keep out the Arctic atmosphere. But the colder the weather the more beautiful the d 3 Fr play of This year intense cold weather began early nuary and kept up steadily for weeks. The result is that the spray from ‘the immense body of falling water has been frozen to every- thing with which it came in contact. The tress on Goat Isjand are like a @ream in fairy land. Every branch, GoAT \iISLAND 13N IS ¢ WINTER DRESS Fea.14,99- twig ana dead leaf is covered with a thin coating of glistening ice. There are myriads of branches so fine as to be scarcely visible, but all are coated 80 clearly and distinctly that they 160k lika the finest of filmy I It does not look like cotton lace, but lace-of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls. . Countl branches gently move and sparkle with dazzling bright- ness. When the sun comes out with its pale, weak rays scarcely able to cast a ghadow and passes through the ice- covered branches a prismatic effect. of color is produced that it is impossible to imagine. It is the rainbow frozen solid and then broken up into millions of pieces, each a glistening bit of float- ing, living light. No greater illustration of what can be done by the accumulation of small particles can be found, in all the world than the great f{ce mountain that formed this year at the foot of Ameri- can Falls. Molecules of water almost as fine as those in steam have been frozen one by one until they have piled up nearly 100 feet into a solid hill that millions of tons. This hill, or in, as the visitors call it, is as round and smooth as a hailstone. It is great sport to climb this hiil and then eit down. Instantly you are at the bot- tom, having slipped over the smooth ice though you were dropping gh space. This little feat that sends a thrill through you more “breath-taking’” than any toboggan slide is not without its dangers. Foolhardiness generally meets THE ICE MOUN- TAIN AT . NIAGARA FALLS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST NAT- URAL WONDERS ON THE AMERICAN CON- TINENT. IcE’ MOUNTA|N..- ELECTRIC LIGHT WIRES AND POLED BURDENED WITH FRozZEN SPRAY with 4isaster. Early in the season & boy, not content with the speed he could obtain by sitting down on the ice and letting himself go, concluded to improve things with the aid of a large tin pie plate. He put this under him for a seat and gave himself a shove. But so little resistance did the tin pan offer to the ice that he shot forward with the speed of a cannon ball, and when he IT IS FORMED BY MYRIADS OF THE SMALLEST MOLE- CULES OF WATER FALLING ONE BY ONE AND FREEZING INTO A SOL'D MASS. reached the bottom, instead of stopping comfortably in a snowdrift, kept on go- ing and flew through the air for a dis- tance of fifty feet, finally bumping against a block of ice and being knocked senseless. He sustained a slight fracture of the skull and was laid up for several weeks. Naturally, during the long spell of cold weather, the supply of water for the falls {s considerably diminished. In certain spots it only fell down in trick- ling streams that quickly froze and formed enormous ieicles. One formed near the stairway this year that was over ten feet thick and seventy feet long. Old visitors to the falls that it is the largest icicle they ever saw. For.a.short distance below the falls on both sides of the river the icy mantle has covered every standing object. Tel- egraph poles, bridges, wires, trees and fences all are given . .a coating of icy varnish. The bluffs on both sides of the river are simply walls of ice with stalactites hanging here and there in the most fantastic manner. Snow has fallen once or twice since the cold weather set in and in many places has filled up the crevices In the NIAGARA ICE PALACE. {oy walls and softened the face of na- ture. While Niagara has been in its most beautiful winter garb the crowds of visitors have been far greater than on the average day during the summer. Regular excursions have been run from Buffalo and other near-by towns. It is 8lso cystomary for parties to charter a private car and make a gald winter day picnic of the trip to the frozen waterfall. Parties have even come from as far away as New York. It is a strange sight to see the river, that in the summer is a whirling eddy of turbulent tyaters, as solid as a road- way, with thousands of people walking about on the surface. At night the boys build fires on the ice and light up the whiteness of the surroundings, giv- ing an entirely new aspect to tire beau- ties of the scene. Not content with what nature has done with ice the people of Niagara Falls have built an enormous ice palace that from a distance looks like a structure of the whitest marble. In- side is a skating rink, where visitors have the jolliest kind of times. Part of the skating rink programme consists of masquerade balls. Of course skates take the place of dancing slip- pers, but the general effect of the merry= *makers as they appear on the “floor” is not particularly different from any mardi gras ball. There are all kinds of costumes, and of all the colors of the rainbow, and over all is shed the bril- liancy of electric lights reflected from walls of fce. But it will all be over soon. A couple of days of spring sunshine and the iri- descent beauty will vanish into water whence it came