[Footnote 4: Congressman Peter A. Porter's Guide Book may be recommended highly; its use to the present writer, taken in addition to its author's personal assistance and advice, must be acknowledged in the most unreserved way. Numerous references to Mr. Porter's various monographs, especially his _Old Fort Niagara_ and _Goat Island_, in addition to his Guide, will be met with frequently in this volume. To one really interested in Niagara history _Old Fort Niagara_ will be found most attractive and comprehensive; its numerous references to authorities put it quite in a class by itself among local histories.] [Footnote 5: Frederick Almy in _The Niagara Book_, p. 51. This volume has been of perennial interest to the author because of the contributions of the venerable William Dean Howells and E. S. Martin. No one who in early life has essayed the life of journalist and correspondent can read Mr. Howells's article in this little book without immense relish: its humour is contagious, and its descriptions of Niagara in 1860, fascinating.] [Footnote 6: _Goat Island_, p. 28. This most interesting pamphlet by Mr. Porter will be found quite a complete guide to a study of Niagara Falls, and is most worthy the perusal of those who care to examine more than the mere surface of things at Niagara.] Chapter II From the Falls to Lake Ontario These American rivers of ours have their messages, historical, economic, and social, to both reader and loiterer. And, too, are not these streams so very much alive that through the years their personalities remain practically unchanged, while generations of loiterers come and go on forever? Are not the eccentricities of these great living forces forever recurrent, however whimsical they may seem, to us as we stop for our brief instant at the shore?