During the War of 1812, in which these actions occurred, the dense forest which lay outside of the old belt of French occupation was first extensively and persistently attacked, the sunlight being let in upon comfortable log-cabins and fruitful fields. The Indian trail and corduroy "shake" were superseded by more civilized and comfortable highways. Post routes were opened and public conveyances established. For many years, however, the two principal ways of access to Niagara were by the Ridge road, from the Genessee Falls--now Rochester--and the river road on the Canadian side from Buffalo to Drummondville. Some forty years ago, and for many years thereafter, Niagara was, emphatically, a pleasant and attractive watering-place; the town was quiet; the accommodations were comfortable; the people were kind, considerate, and attentive; guides were civil, intelligent, and truthful; conveyances were good, and were in charge of careful and respectable attendants; commissions were unknown; "scalping" was left to the Indians; nobody was annoyed or importuned; the flowers bloomed, the birds caroled, the full-leaved trees furnished refreshing shade, and the air was balmy. Then the lowing of cows in the street, the guttural note of the swine, and the voice of the solicitor were not heard. Elderly people came to stay for pleasant recreation and quiet enjoyment; younger people to "bill and coo" and dance. Now all that is changed. A contemporary orator once described the moral status of a famous stock-jobbing locality by saying that "ten thousand a year is the Sermon on the Mount for Wall street." The same gospel is popular at Niagara. Whoso has seen Niagara only in summer has but half seen it. In winter its beauties are not diminished, while the accessories due to the season are numerous and varied. After two or three weeks of intensely cold weather many beautiful and fantastic scenes are presented around the Falls. The different varieties of stalactites and stalagmites hanging from or apparently supporting the projecting rocks along the side walls of the deep chasm, the ice islands which grow on the bars and around the rocks in the river, the white caps and hoods which are formed on the rocks below, the fanciful statuary and statuesque forms which gather on and around the trees and bushes, are all curious and interesting. Exceedingly beautiful are the white vestments of frozen spray with which everything in the immediate vicinity is robed and shielded; and beautiful, too, are the clusters of ice apples which tip the extremities of the branches of the evergreen trees.