In spite of the fact that land in New York City is worth more than any other land in the World, there are two big parks where city people may have a little country. Central Park is fifty blocks long and several blocks wide, and Bronx Park has a wonderful Zoo where there are strange and curious animals which hunters have brought alive from the jungles, mountains, deserts, and wildernesses of far-off lands.

A man from across the ocean once landed in New York and spent the day seeing the sights. Just before dinner he said he would like to drive out and see Niagara Falls, which he had heard were the most wonderful falls in the World. When he was told that it would take all night on a fast train to get to Niagara, he couldn’t understand.

“But isn’t Niagara in New York?” he asked.

“Yes,” was the reply, “but not in New York City. Niagara is all the way across the State of New York.”

On the west edge of New York State are two great lakes with Indian names—Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Lake Erie on the map looks lower than Lake Ontario, but it really is much higher. So the water from Lake Erie falls over a high and broad cliff to reach Lake Ontario. This waterfall is called Niagara, and though there are other falls in the World higher and other falls broader, Niagara is the most beautiful and most famous, and people go from all over the World to see it. The oar of the water as it thunders over the edge can be heard for miles, and when the sun is shining there is always a rainbow in the spray that rises from the bottom of the falls. Thousands of people view the falls each day, and of each thousand—

358 say “Isn’t it wonderful !”

247 say “Isn’t it grand!”

136 say “Isn’t it beautiful!”

93 say “Isn’t it lovely!”

45 say “Isn’t it pretty !”

24 say “Ah!”

And the rest say “Oh!”

A part of Niagara is caught in a huge bucket as it falls. and the falling water turns giant wheels in the bottom of the bucket. The wheels make electricity, which is carried on wires to turn the wheels of mills, to run the trolley-cars, and to light the houses and streets in the city of Buffalo near-by, and other places farther away.