to convey even a vague conception of the majesty of power with which the mighty waters rush on to their final plunge into the abysm. It is here, you might well suppose, where the appalling force of the current is made so tangible, that man would place the fetters of his harness, making the madcap current subject to his will. You will perhaps more than half expect to see gigantic mechanisms of man's construction built out over the rapids or across the face of the cataract--so much has been said of æstheticism versus commercialism in connection with the attempt to utilize Niagara's power. But whatever your fears in this regard, they will not be realized. Inspect the rapids and the falls as you may, you will see no evidence that man has tampered with their pristine freedom. Subtler means have been employed to tame the wild steed. The mad waves that go dashing down the rapids are as free and untrammeled to-day as they were when the wild Indian was the only witness of their tempestuous activity. Such portions of the current as reach the rapids have full license to pass on untrammeled, paying no toll to man. The water which is made to pay tribute is drawn from the stream up there above the rapids, where it lies placid and as yet unstirred by the beckoning incline. To see Niagara in harness, then, you must leave the cataract and the rapids and pass a full mile up the stream where the great river looks as calm as the Hudson or the Mississippi, and where, under ordinary conditions, not even the sound of the falls comes to your ear. Prosaic enough it seems to observe here nothing more startling than a broad _cul de sac_ of stagnant water, like the beginning of a broad canal, extending in for a few hundred yards only from the main stream; its waters silent, currentless, seemingly impotent. This stagnant pool, then, not the whirling current below, is to furnish the water whose reserve force of energy of position is drawn upon to serve man's greedy purpose. Coming from the rapids and cataract to this stagnant canal, you seem to step from the realm of poetic beauty to the sordid realities of the work-a-day world. Of a truth it would seem that "harnessing Niagara" is but a far-fetched metaphor. WITHIN THE POWER-HOUSE And yet if you will turn aside from the canal and enter one of the long, low buildings that flank it on either side, you will soon be made to feel that the metaphor was amply justified. Little as there was exteriorly to suggest it, you are entering a fairyland of applied science, and within these plain walls you shall witness evidences of the ingenuity of man that should appeal scarcely less to your imagination than the sight of the cataract itself in all its sublimity of power.