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If the sun is out, there will be one or more rainbows somewhere by Niagara's falls.
The amount of mist rising into the sky determines the size of the bows and whether they will be accompanied by fainter bows. The best time to see them on the American side of the river is in the morning; the best time on the Canadian side is in the late afternoon and evening.
Years ago, before conditions around the falls were artificially changed, lunar bows often were seen when moonlight was bright. They were fainter, but more circular, than rainbows.
In 1787, two visitors witnessed a strange sight from the shore above the falls. According to their account, "when stopping just before the Fort (Schlosser) gate, we saw the most beautiful as well as strange appearance that can be well conceived. It was the moon, which was now just setting behind the spray of the Falls; it appeared to rise to a very uncommon height in likeness of a very dark column, but the thinner part of the spray, which admitted the light through it, gave all the edge of the column a luminous appearance, which looked more like a pillar of smoke fringed round with fire, than anything [we] can compare it to."
When nature lights up the falls at night, she can do it quietly with the light of the moon or excitingly during a storm. On July 23, 1845, a visitor witnessed the following scene. "... one of the grandest [things] I ever saw was a thunderstorm among the waters, as it ... lighted up the two cascades, as seen from our piazzas, with most magnificent effect. They had a spectral look, as they came out of the darkness and were again swallowed up in it, that defies all description and imagination."
Mirages often are seen over Lake Ontario, which is quite normal. Then there are the two seen in 1881 and 1918.
In May of 1881, the following article appeared in the Tonawanda News.
"A strange and a rare sight was seen yesterday afternoon about three o'clock by a number of persons in this village, it being no less than a beautiful mirage of Niagara Falls in the clouds just above the horizon. The reflection seemed to lie directly on a bank of fleecy clouds, and was almost perfect in its detail. The Suspension Bridge could be plainly seen as well as the Falls, Goat Island and some of the surrounding buildings. The wonderful spectacle, which appeared similar to a photograph or glass of an immense scale, lasted nearly if not quite half an hour, finally dissolving slowly until it had entirely disappeared."
In July of 1918, a man from Durhamville, east of Oneida Lake, wrote a letter describing his experience.
"With three other persons who will bear witness to the truth of my statement, I was privileged to enjoy, without the preliminary of a journey there, a perfect view of one of nature's wonders, Niagara Falls, and that from my lawn at this place some 170 miles distant from Niagara. Just before sunset on Saturday evening, while admiring a section of rainbow, my sight was arrested by a reflection upon the sky of as perfect a representation of Niagara Falls as I ever saw produced upon canvas or by photography.
"Both the American and Canadian falls were unmistakably distinct; clumps of trees above the falls and a large building on the Canadian side were clearly in evidence; the turbulent water below the falls with its attendant mist rising and falling like an ocean billow, and other details were so truthfully portrayed as to leave no doubt in the minds of those who saw it that they were witnessing that phenomenon known as a mirage.
"The perspective was about the same as that obtained from the foot of the inclined plane, where so many visitors to Niagara stand to be photographed with the falls for a background.
"As the sun sank toward the horizon, the picture gradually faded from view, leaving but a bank of misty clouds. It lasted, however, fully five minutes after it first attracted my notice."
Look into the sky above the falls and oftentimes, there is a large group of gulls soaring in circles, riding the strong updrafts of air. Listen to them as they eerily call out to each other.
Study the many shades of green in the falling water. One of them, "Niagara Green," so impressed organizers of the Pan-American Exposition that they used it in many parts of the grand development.
Visit the falls during all the seasons and at different times of the day. Sooner or later, nature will provide visual effects much better than any produced with human hands. That's why people come from all over the world to see the falls.