At The Mercy Of A Cataract

"I was riretty near heaven forbalf an honr," saió H. C. Prentice, the acrobat. Acrobat Prentice 'sremark justquoted was the prelude to the story he told the Búrlalo Express reporter of his adventures whilo viewing Niágara falls for the first time. Mr. Prentice and Thomas Adamson went to the falls, and they tried to keep together as they went f rom point to point viewing all the f amous spots about the cataract. They spent an hour or so in viewing the falls frorn above, and then they put on rubber suits and startd below. They went down the elevator and then down the stairway to the rocks. After a time they concluded that they had seen all that was to be seen below, and were upon the point of returning when Prentice told Adamson to go and ask one of the guides if there were anything else to be seen down there. Mr. Adamson turned about and went to hunt for the guide. Ho was gone about five minutes, and when he ■carne back his friend Prentice was missing. Adamsou was puzzled at the disappearance of Prentice. Adamson liad spent about half an hour looking i for Prentice, when the news reached ilim that his conipanion had been found down between the rocks up to his neok in water. In a few minutes after this j news reached Adumson he was joined by Ppentice, who told of his exporienceg after Adamson had left bina to look for the guide. Mr. Preniice said that after Adamson tnrned back he thought he would walk down into a gully between the rocks. He uoticed that it was comparatively dry there. He was therefore considerably surprised soon after he got down into the gully to havo a stream of water two feet deep and moving with. great violenco strike him in the back of the legs. The stream was so strong that it staggered him, and to avoid be ing swept from his feet and carried on into the river he crouched down in an angle of oue of the rocks, with his back to the torrent and braced himself to resist the power of the stream that had ut off his line of retreat. He had hold of the edge of the rock with his hands and he did not dare to let go for fear the current would sweep him out from behind the angle. He yelled for help, but the uoise of the water drowned his cries. At one time he looked over the edge of the rock and saw the Maid of the Mist 100 feet away in the river. He shook his head, hoping that the passeugers on the little boat would notice the motion, but no one saw bim. After he crouched down behind the rock the water washed over his body up to his neck. He was on the point of giving np when a stranger who had also come down to the rocks saw him and ïiotifled theguides. Prentice was hauled out with a pole. The stream of water that surprised him carne from a millrace that is closed part of the time.