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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous Cataracts
+
+Author: George W. Holley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35669]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALLS OF NIAGARA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NIAGARA.
+
+[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS FROM THE CANADIAN SIDE - FRONTISPIECE.]
+
+
+THE FALLS OF NIAGARA
+
+AND _OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS_.
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE W. HOLLEY.
+
+With Thirty Illustrations.
+
+London:
+HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
+27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+MDCCCLXXXII.
+
+
+Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+PREFACE                                                          xiii
+
+
+PART I.--HISTORY.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+First French expedition--Jacques Cartier--He first hears of the great
+Cataract--Champlain--Route to China--La Salle--Father Hennepin's
+first and second visits to the Falls                                1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls--M. Charlevoix's letter to
+Madame Maintenon--Number of the Falls--Geological indications--Great
+projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's time--Cave of the
+Winds--Rainbows                                                     9
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The name Niagara--The musical dialect of the Hurons--Niagara one
+of the oldest of Indian names--Description of the River, the Falls,
+and the surrounding country                                        15
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Niagara a tribal name--Other names given to the tribe--The Niagaras
+a superior race--The true pronunciation of Indian words            19
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The lower Niagara--Fort Niagara--Fort Mississauga--Niagara village--
+Lewiston--Portage around the Falls--The first railroad in the
+United States--Fort Schlosser--The ambuscade at Devil's Hole--La
+Salle's vessel, the _Griffin_--The Niagara frontier                25
+
+
+PART II.--GEOLOGY.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+America the old world--Geologically recent origin of the Falls--
+Evidence thereof--Captain Williams's surveys for a ship-canal--Former
+extent of Lake Michigan--Its outlet into the Illinois River--The
+Niagara Barrier--How broken through--The birth of Niagara          32
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Composition of the terrace cut through--Why retrocession is
+possible--Three sections from Lewiston to the Falls--Devil's Hole--
+The Medina group--Recession long checked--The Whirlpool--The
+narrowest part of the river--The mirror--Depth of the water in the
+Chasm--Former grand Fall                                           42
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Recession above the present position of the Falls--The Falls will be
+higher as they recede--Reason Why--Professor Tyndall's prediction--
+Present and former accumulations of rock--Terrific power of
+the elements--Ice and ice bridges--Remarkable geognosy of the lake
+region                                                             50
+
+
+PART III.
+
+LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Forty years since--Niagara in winter--Frozen spray--Ice foliage and
+ice apples--Ice moss--Frozen fog--Ice islands--Ice statues--
+Sleigh-riding on the American Rapids--Boys coasting on them--Ice
+gorges                                                             62
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Judge Porter--General Porter--Goat Island--Origin of its name--Early
+dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the rock--Professor
+Kalm's wonderful story--Bridges to the Island--Method of
+construction--Red Jacket--Anecdotes--Grand Island--Major Noah and the
+New Jerusalem--The Stone Tower--The Biddle stairs--Sam Patch--Depth
+of water on the Horseshoe--Ships sent over the Falls               71
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the Rapids--Rescue
+of Chapin--Rescue of Allen--He takes the _Maid of the Mist_ through
+the Whirlpool--His companions--Effect upon Robinson--Biographical
+notice--His grave unmarked                                         85
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A fisherman and a bear in a canoe--Frightful experience with floating
+ice--Early farming on the Niagara--Fruit-growing--The original
+forest--Testimony of the trees--The first hotel--General Whitney--
+Cataract House--Distinguished visitors--Carriage road down the
+Canadian bank--Ontario House--Clifton House--The Museum--Table and
+Termination Rocks--Burning Spring--Lundy's Lane--Battle Anecdotes  96
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Incidents--Fall of Table Rock--Remarkable phenomenon in the river--
+Driving and lumbering on the Rapids--Points of the compass at
+the Falls--A first view of the Falls commonly disappointing--Lunar
+bow--Golden spray--Gull Island and the gulls--The highest water
+ever known at the Falls--The Hermit of the Falls                  108
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Avery's descent of the Falls--The fatal practical joke--Death of Miss
+Rugg--Swans--Eagles--Crows--Ducks over the Falls--Why dogs have
+survived the descent                                              118
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Wedding tourists at the Falls--Bridges to the Moss Islands--Railway
+at the Ferry--List of persons who have been carried over the Falls--
+Other accidents                                                   125
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The first Suspension Bridge--The Railway Suspension Bridge--
+Extraordinary vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the fall of
+a mass of rock--De Veaux College--The Lewiston Suspension Bridge--
+The Suspension Bridge at the Falls                                137
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Blondin and his "ascensions"--Visit of the Prince of Wales--Grand
+illumination of the Falls--The steamer _Caroline_--The Water-power
+of Niagara--Lord Dufferin and the plan of an international park   144
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Poetry in the Table Rock albums--Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.
+Clark, Lord Morpeth, José Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs.
+Sigourney, and J. G. C. Brainard                                  153
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Yosemite--Vernal--Nevada--Yellowstone--Shoshone--St. Maurice--
+Montmorency                                                       164
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Tequendama--Kaiteeur--Paulo Affonso--Keel-fos--Riunkan-fos--
+Sarp-fos--Staubbach--Zambesi or Victoria--Murchison--Cavery--
+Schaffhausen                                                      171
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Famous rapids and cascades--Niagara--Amazon--Orinoco--Parana--
+Nile--Livingstone                                                 179
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+NIAGARA FALLS FROM THE CANADIAN SIDE           FRONTISPIECE.
+
+THE HORSESHOE FALL FROM GOAT ISLAND     Opposite page      6
+
+LUNA FALL AND ISLAND IN WINTER              "    "        11
+
+THE RAPIDS ABOVE THE FALLS                  "    "        17
+
+THE YOUNGEST INHABITANT                     "    "        22
+
+MOUTH OF THE CHASM AND BROCK'S MONUMENT     "    "        29
+
+NIAGARA FALLS FROM BELOW                    "    "        54
+
+GREAT ICICLES UNDER THE AMERICAN FALL       "    "        60
+
+WINTER FOLIAGE                              "    "        66
+
+ICE BRIDGE AND FROST FREAKS                 "    "        69
+
+COASTING BELOW THE AMERICAN FALL            "    "        70
+
+SECOND MOSS ISLAND BRIDGE                   "    "        76
+
+JOEL R. ROBINSON                            "    "        86
+
+THE _Maid of the Mist_ IN THE WHIRLPOOL     "    "        91
+
+FISHER AND THE BEAR                         "    "        97
+
+FALL OF TABLE ROCK                          "    "       109
+
+ROCK OF AGES AND WHIRLWIND BRIDGE           "    "       114
+
+THE THREE SISTERS OR MOSS ISLANDS           "    "       125
+
+HOW THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE WAS BEGUN         "    "       137
+
+BLONDIN CROSSING THE NIAGARA                "    "       145
+
+INDIAN WOMEN SELLING BEAD-WORK              "    "       148
+
+YOSEMITE FALLS                              "    "       164
+
+BRIDAL VEIL FALL                            "    "       166
+
+VERNAL FALLS                                "    "       168
+
+NEVADA FALLS                                "    "       171
+
+LOWER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE              "    "       172
+
+UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE              "    "       174
+
+THE STAUBBACH, SWITZERLAND                  "    "       176
+
+VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI                     "    "       178
+
+
+MAP OF THE NIAGARA REGION                   "    "         1
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The writer, having resided in the village of Niagara Falls for more than
+a third of a century, has had opportunity to become thoroughly
+acquainted with the locality, and to study it with constantly increasing
+interest and admiration. Long observation enables him to offer some new
+suggestions in regard to the geological age of the Falls, their
+retrocession, and the causes which have been potent in producing it; and
+also to demonstrate the existence of a barrier or dam that was once the
+shore of an immense fresh-water sea, which reached from Niagara to Lake
+Michigan, and emptied its waters into the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+Whoever undertakes to write comprehensively on this subject will soon
+become aware of the weakness of exclamation points and adjectives, and
+the almost irresistible temptation to indulge in a style of composition
+which he cannot maintain, and should not if he could. So far as the
+writer, yielding to the inspiration of his theme, and in opposition to
+all resolutions to the contrary, may have trespassed in this direction,
+he bares and bows his head to the severest treatment that the critic may
+adopt. His labor has been one of love, and in giving its results to the
+public he regrets that it is not more worthy of the subject.
+
+As it is hoped that the work may be useful to future visitors to the
+Falls, and also possess some interest for those who have visited them,
+it seemed desirable to avoid the introduction of notes and the citation
+of authorities. For this reason several paragraphs are placed in the
+text which would otherwise have been introduced in notes. This is
+especially true of the chapters of local history.
+
+The writer is especially indebted to the Hon. Orsamus H. Marshall, of
+Buffalo, for a copy of his admirable "Historical Sketches," and for
+access to his library of American history. The Documentary History and
+Colonial Documents of the State of New York, "The Relations of the
+Jesuits," the works of other early French missionaries, travelers, and
+adventurers, made familiar to the public by the indefatigable labors of
+Shea and Parkman, have all helped to make the writer's task
+comparatively an easy one.
+
+Several years ago, the body of this work, which has since been revised
+and considerably enlarged, was published in a small volume, that has
+long been out of print. Believing that the interest of the volume would
+be enhanced for the reader if he were able to contrast Niagara Falls
+with other famous falls, cataracts, and rapids, the writer has added
+chapters, describing the most noted of these in all parts of the world.
+
+G. W. H.
+
+NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y.
+
+September, 1882.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE NIAGARA REGION]
+
+
+
+
+PART I.--HISTORY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     First French expedition--Jacques Cartier--He first hears of the
+     great Cataract--Champlain--Route to China--La Salle--Father
+     Hennepin's first and second visits to the Falls.
+
+
+In 1534, Jacques Cartier, a shrewd, enterprising, and adventurous
+sailor, made his first voyage across the Atlantic, touching at
+Newfoundland, and exploring the coast to the west and south of it. The
+two vessels of Cartier, called ships by the historians of the period,
+were each of only forty tons burden.
+
+On the return of Cartier to France, so favorable was his report of the
+results of the expedition, that Francis I. commissioned him, the year
+following, for another voyage, and in May, 1535, after impressive
+religious ceremonies, he sailed with three vessels thoroughly equipped.
+The record of this second voyage of Cartier, by Lescarbot, contains the
+first historical notice of the cataract of Niagara. The navigator, in
+answer to his inquiries concerning the source of the St. Lawrence, "was
+told that, after ascending many leagues among rapids and water-falls,
+he would reach a lake one hundred and forty or fifty leagues broad, at
+the western extremity of which the waters were wholesome and the winters
+mild; that a river emptied into it from the south, which had its source
+in the country of the Iroquois; that beyond the lake he would find a
+cataract and portage, then another lake about equal to the former, which
+they had never explored."
+
+In 1603, a company of merchants in Rouen obtained the necessary
+authority for a new expedition to the St. Lawrence, which they placed
+under the direction of Samuel Champlain, an able, discreet, and resolute
+commander. On a map published in 1613 he indicated the position of the
+cataract, calling it merely a water-fall (_saut d'eau_), and describing
+it as being "so very high that many kinds of fish are stunned in its
+descent." It does not appear by the record that he ever saw the Falls.
+
+During the sixty years that elapsed between the establishment of the
+French settlements by Champlain and the expedition of La Salle and
+Hennepin, there can be little doubt that the great cataract was
+repeatedly visited by French traders and adventurers. Many of the
+earlier travelers to the region of the St. Lawrence believed that China
+could be reached by an overland journey across the northern part of the
+continent. Father Vimont informs us ("Relations of the Jesuits," 1642-3)
+that the Jesuit Raymbault "designed to go to China across the American
+wilderness, but God sent him on the road to heaven." As he died at the
+Saut Ste. Marie in 1641, he must have passed to the north of the Falls
+without seeing them. In 1648, the Jesuit father Ragueneau, in a letter
+to the Superior of the Mission, at Paris, says: "North of the Eries is a
+great lake, about two hundred leagues in circumference, called Erie,
+formed by the discharge of the _mer-douce_ or Lake Huron, and which
+falls into a third lake, called Ontario, over a cataract of frightful
+height."
+
+In some important manuscripts relating to the earliest expeditions of
+the French into Canada,--discovered a few years ago, and now in the
+possession of M. Pierre Margry, of Paris,--occurs a description of the
+Falls communicated by the Indians to Father Gallinée, one of the two
+Sulpician priests who accompanied La Salle in his first visit to the
+Senecas, in 1669. He seems to have been more indifferent to the charms
+of Nature than Father Raymbault, since he crossed the Niagara River near
+its mouth, and within hearing of its falling waters, yet did not turn
+aside to see the cataract. In his journal he says: "We found a river
+one-eighth of a league broad and extremely rapid, forming the outlet of
+Lake Erie and emptying into Lake Ontario. The depth of the river is, at
+this place, extraordinary, for, on sounding close by the shore, we found
+fifteen or sixteen fathoms of water. This outlet (the Niagara River) is
+forty leagues long, and has, from ten to twelve leagues above Lake
+Ontario, one of the finest cataracts in the world; for all the Indians
+of whom I have inquired about it say that the river falls at that place
+from a rock higher than the tallest pines--that is, about two hundred
+feet. In fact, we heard it from the place where we were, although from
+ten to twelve leagues distant, but the fall gives such a momentum to the
+water that its velocity prevented our ascending the current by rowing,
+except with great difficulty. At a quarter of a league from the outlet,
+where we were, it grows narrower, and its channel is confined between
+two very high, steep, rocky banks, inducing the belief that the
+navigation would be very difficult quite up to the cataract. As to the
+river above the Falls, the current very often sucks into this gulf, from
+a great distance above, deer and stags, elk and roebucks, which, in
+attempting to swim the river, suffer themselves to be drawn so far
+down-stream that they are compelled to descend the Falls, and are
+overwhelmed in its frightful abyss.
+
+"Our desire to reach the little village called Ganastoque Sonontona
+(between the west end of Lake Ontario and Grand River) prevented our
+going to view that wonder. * * * I will leave you to judge if that must
+not be a fine cataract, in which all the water of the large river (St.
+Lawrence) * * * falls from a height of two hundred feet, with a noise
+that is heard not only at the place where we were,--ten or twelve
+leagues distant,--but also from the other side of Lake Ontario, opposite
+its mouth" (Toronto, forty miles distant).
+
+Of the rattlesnakes on the mountain ridges he says: "There are many in
+this place as large as your arm, and six or seven feet long, and
+entirely black."
+
+From Ganastoque Sonontona the party separated, the two priests, with
+their guides and attendants, designing to move to the west, along the
+north shore of Lake Erie, and La Salle apparently to return to Montreal,
+but in reality, as is supposed, to prosecute by a more southerly route
+the grand ambition of his life--the discovery of the Mississippi
+River--a purpose which he executed with even more than the "bigot's
+zeal," and literally, as it proved in the end, with the "martyr's
+constancy," for he was assassinated on the plains of Texas, some few
+years after, while endeavoring to secure to France the benefits of his
+great discovery.
+
+After separating from his companions at the Indian village, he probably
+returned to Lake Ontario and the Niagara River, which he crossed, no
+doubt, on his way to some of the Iroquois villages, in search of a guide
+and attendants to assist him in his explorations. It may be assumed that
+he visited the Falls at this time, but his journal of this expedition
+has never been found.
+
+The first description of the Falls by an eye-witness is that of Father
+Hennepin, so well known to those conversant with our early history. He
+saw it for the first time in the winter of 1678-9, and his exaggerated
+account of it is accompanied by a sketch which in its principal features
+is undoubtedly correct, though its perspective and proportions are quite
+otherwise. He says: "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Erie there is a vast
+and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down in a surprising and
+astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its
+parallel. 'Tis true that Italy and Switzerland boast of some such
+things, but we may well say they are sorry patterns when compared with
+this of which we now speak. * * * it [the river] is so rapid above the
+descent, that it violently hurries down the wild beasts while
+endeavoring to pass it, * * * they not being able to withstand the force
+of its current, which inevitably casts them headlong above six hundred
+feet high. This wonderful downfall is composed of two great streams of
+water and two falls, with an isle sloping along the middle of it. The
+waters which fall from this horrible precipice do foam and boil after
+the most hideous manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more
+terrible than that of thunder; for, when the wind blows out of the
+south, their dismal roaring may be heard more than fifteen leagues off."
+
+[Illustration: THE HORSESHOE FALL FROM GOAT ISLAND]
+
+"The river Niagara having thrown itself down this incredible precipice,
+continues its impetuous course for two leagues together to the great
+rock, above mentioned [in another chapter as lying at the foot of the
+mountain at Lewiston], with inexpressible rapidity. * * * From the great
+Fall unto this rock, which is to the west of the river, the two brinks
+of it are so prodigiously high, that it would make one tremble to look
+steadily upon the water rolling along with a rapidity not to be
+imagined."
+
+On his return from the West, in the summer of 1681, the Father informs
+us that he "spent half a day in considering the wonders of that
+prodigious cascade." Referring to the spray, he says: "The rebounding of
+these waters is so great that a sort of cloud arises from the foam of
+it, which is seen hanging over this abyss even at noon-day." Of the
+river, he says: "From the mouth of Lake Erie to the Falls are reckoned
+six leagues. * * * The lands which lie on both sides of it to the east
+and west are all level from Lake Erie to the great Fall." At the end of
+the six leagues "it meets with a small sloping island, about half a
+quarter of a league long and near three hundred feet broad, as well as
+one can guess by the eye. From the end, then, of this island it is that
+these two great falls of water, as also the third, throw themselves,
+after a most surprising manner, down into the dreadful gulph, six
+hundred feet and more in depth." On the Canadian side, he says: "One may
+go down as far as the bottom of this terrible gulph. The author of this
+discovery was down there, the more narrowly to observe the fall of these
+prodigious cascades. From there we could discover a spot of ground which
+lay under the fall of water which is to the east [American Fall] big
+enough for four coaches to drive abreast without being wet; but because
+the ground * * * where the first fall empties itself into the gulph is
+very steep and almost perpendicular, it is impossible for a man to get
+down on that side, into the place where the four coaches may go abreast,
+or to make his way through such a quantity of water as falls toward the
+gulph, so that it is very probable that to this dry place it is that the
+rattlesnakes retire, by certain passages which they find under-ground."
+
+Finding no Indians living at the Falls, he suggests a probable reason
+therefor: "I have often heard talk of the Cataracts of the Nile, which
+make people deaf that live near them. I know not if the Iroquois who
+formerly lived near this fall * * * withdrew themselves from its
+neighborhood lest they should likewise become deaf, or out of the
+continual fear they were in of the rattlesnakes, which are very common
+in this place. * * * Be it as it will, these dangerous creatures are to
+be met with as far as the Lake Frontenac [Ontario], on the south side;
+and it is reasonable to presume that the horrid noise of the Fall and
+the fear of these poisonous serpents might oblige the savages to seek
+out a more commodious habitation." In the view of the Falls accompanying
+his description, a large rock is represented as standing on the edge of
+the Table Rock. This rock is mentioned by Kalm, a Swedish naturalist,
+who visited the Falls in 1750, as having disappeared a few years before
+that date. Father Hennepin's reference to the animals drawn into the
+current and going over the Falls, and to the rattlesnakes, indicates
+unmistakably his previous acquaintance with Father Gallinées's
+narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls--M. Charlevoix's letter
+     to Madame Maintenon--Number of the Falls--Geological
+     indications--Great projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's
+     time--Cave of the Winds--Rainbows.
+
+
+Even more exaggerated than Father Hennepin's is the next account of the
+Falls which has come down to us, and which was written by Baron La
+Hontan, in the autumn of 1687. Fear of an attack from the Iroquois, the
+relentless enemies of the French, made his visit short and
+unsatisfactory. He says: "As for the water-fall of Niagara, 'tis seven
+or eight hundred feet high, and half a league wide. Toward the middle of
+it we descry an island, that leans toward the precipice, as if it were
+ready to fall." Concerning the beasts and fish drawn over the precipice,
+he says they "serve for food" for the Iroquois, who "take 'em out of the
+water with their canoes"; and also that "between the surface of the
+water, that shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of the precipice,
+three men may cross in abreast, without further damage than a sprinkling
+of some few drops of water." Father Hennepin, it will be remembered,
+makes this space broad enough for four coaches, instead of three men.
+
+From the Baron's declaration as to the manner in which the Indians
+captured the game which went over the Falls, it would seem that the
+bark canoe of the Indian was the precursor of the white man's skiff and
+yawl, that serve as a ferry below the Falls. And the timid traveler of
+the present day, who hesitates about crossing in this latter craft, will
+probably pronounce the Indian foolhardy for venturing on those turbulent
+waters in his light canoe, whereas, in skillful hands, it is peculiarly
+fitted for such navigation.
+
+A more correct estimate of the cataract than either of the preceding is
+that of M. Charlevoix, sent to Madame Maintenon, in 1721. After
+referring to the inaccurate accounts of Hennepin and La Hontan, he says:
+"For my own part, after having examined it on all sides, where it could
+be viewed to the greatest advantage, I am inclined to think we cannot
+allow it [the height] less than one hundred and forty or fifty feet." As
+to its figure, "it is in the shape of a horseshoe, and it is about four
+hundred paces in circumference. It is divided in two exactly in the
+center by a very narrow island, half a quarter of a league long." In
+relation to the noise of the falling water, he says: "You can scarce
+hear it at M. de Joncaire's [Fort Schlosser], and what you hear in this
+place [Lewiston] may possibly be the whirlpools, caused by the rocks
+which fill up the bed of the river as far as this."
+
+Neither Baron La Hontan nor M. Charlevoix speaks of the number of
+water-falls. But Father Hennepin, it will be remembered, mentions three,
+two of which were to the south and west of Goat Island. And the Rev.
+Abbé Picquet, who visited the place in 1751, seventy years after Father
+Hennepin, says (Documentary History, I., p. 283): "This cascade is as
+prodigious by reason of its height and the quantity of water which falls
+there, as on account of the variety of its falls, which are to the
+number of six principal ones divided by a small island, leaving three to
+the north and three to the south. They produce of themselves a singular
+symmetry and wonderful effect."
+
+[Illustration: LUNA FALL AND ISLAND IN WINTER]
+
+The geological indications are that Goat Island once embraced all the
+small islands lying near it, and also that it covered the whole of the
+rocky bar which stretches up stream some hundred and fifty rods above
+the head of the present island. At that period, from the depressions now
+visible in the rocky bed of the river, it would seem probable that the
+water cut channels through the modern drift corresponding with these
+depressions. In that case there would then have been a third fall in the
+American channel, north of Goat Island, lying between Luna Island and a
+small island then lying just north of the Little Horseshoe, and
+stretching up toward Chapin's Island. On the south side of Goat Island,
+there would have been a fall between its southern shore and an island
+then situated about two hundred feet farther south.
+
+The highest point in the American Fall, the salient and beautiful
+projection near the shore at Prospect Park, is upheld by a more
+substantial foundation than is revealed at any other accessible portion
+of the face of the precipice. This is made manifest on entering the
+"Shadow-of-the-Rock," where the spectator sees a massive wall of
+thoroughly indurated limestone, disposed in regular layers more than two
+feet in thickness, with faces as smooth as if dressed with the chisel.
+Passing in front of this, across the American Fall, under the Horseshoe
+and Table Rock, there must have been formerly a broad cleft of soft,
+friable limestone, to the disintegration and removal of which was due
+the great overhanging of the upper strata noticed by Father Hennepin and
+Baron La Hontan.
+
+For three miles above the Falls, the course of the river is almost due
+west. But after leaving the precipice it makes an acute angle with its
+former direction, and thence runs north-east to the railway suspension
+bridge. The formation of the rapids--one of the most beautiful features
+of the scene--is due to this change of direction. At no point below its
+present position could there have been such a prelude--musical as well
+as motional--to the great cataract. And when these rapids shall have
+disappeared in the receding flood it is not probable that there will be
+other rapids that can equal them in length, breadth, beauty, and power.
+
+The declivity in the lower channel through the gorge is ninety feet; but
+on the surface of the upper banks there is a rise of more than one
+hundred feet in the same direction--that is, down the river. Hence, when
+the Falls were at Lewiston they were more than two hundred and fifty
+feet high. Now the greatest descent is one hundred and sixty-eight feet,
+the diminution being the result of retrocession in the line of the
+dip--from north-east to south-west--in the bed-rock. It is owing to
+this dip that the surface of the water on the American side is ten feet
+higher than it is on the Canadian. The continuous column of water,
+however, is longest in the center of the Horseshoe, because of the
+fallen rock and _débris_ lying at the foot of the other portions of the
+Fall. At this time the upward slope of the bed-rock is such that--if it
+shall prove to be sufficiently hard--the Falls, after receding four
+miles farther, will be two hundred and twenty feet high.
+
+It is evident from the descriptions of Father Hennepin and of Baron La
+Hontan, that the upper stratum of rock over which the water falls must
+have projected beyond the face of the rock below much farther than it
+now does. The large masses of fallen rock lying at the foot of the
+American and Horse-shoe Falls are evidence of this fact. Travelers still
+go behind the sheet on the Canadian side, and into and through the Cave
+of the Winds, on the American side. But they do not expect to keep dry
+in so doing, nor to sun themselves on the rocks below, like the
+"rattlesnakes" of former days. Nevertheless, there is no more exciting
+nor exhilarating excursion to be made at the Falls than that through the
+Cave of the Winds.
+
+Nowhere else are the prismatic hues exhibited in such wonderful variety,
+nor in such surpassing brilliancy and beauty. And although a rainbow is
+not a spraybow, it may be admitted that a spraybow is a rainbow, formed
+of drops of water, large or small. So here rainbow dust and shattered
+rainbows are scattered around; rainbow bars and arches, horizontal and
+perpendicular, are flashing and forming, breaking and reforming, around
+and above the visitor in the most fantastic and delightful confusion of
+form and effect. And if his fancy prompts him, he may arrange himself as
+a portrait, at half or full length, in an annular bow. The enamored
+Strephon may literally place his charming Delia in a living, sparkling
+rainbow-frame, flecked all over with diamonds and pearls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     The name Niagara--The musical dialect of the Hurons--Niagara one of
+     the oldest of Indian names--Description of the river, the Falls,
+     and the surrounding country.
+
+
+There is in some words a mystic power which it is not easy to analyze or
+define; they fascinate the ear even of those who do not understand their
+meaning. The very sound of them as they are enunciated by the human
+voice touches a chord to which the heart instinctively responds. So it
+is with the name of the great cataract. No one can hear it correctly
+pronounced without being charmed with its rhythmical beauty, or without
+feeling confident of its poetical aptness and significance in the
+dialect from which it was derived.
+
+And although we have no means of determining the correctness of any of
+the fanciful or poetical interpretations which have been given of the
+word, still we cannot doubt that it must have had a peculiar force and
+justness with those who first applied it. Baron La Hontan, who spent
+several years among the Indians, noticed the remarkable fact concerning
+their language that it had no labials. "Nevertheless," he says, "the
+language of the Hurons appears very beautiful, and the sound of it
+perfectly charming, although, in speaking it, they never close their
+lips."
+
+The most voluminous and among the earliest existing records connected
+with the River St. Lawrence, and the great lakes which it drains, are
+the well-known "Relations of the Jesuits," so called, comprising a
+yearly account of the labors of the Missionary Fathers sent out by the
+College at Paris to Christianize the Indians. In 1615, they established
+their mission at Quebec, and from thence extended their operations
+westward. In 1626, they reached the large and powerful tribe of Indians
+which occupied the splendid domain which may be described with proximate
+accuracy as bounded by a line commencing at a point on the southerly
+shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles west of the mouth of the
+Genesee River, and running thence parallel to that river to a point due
+west from Avon; thence nearly due west to Buffalo; thence along the
+north shore of Lake Erie to the Detroit River; thence up that river to a
+point directly west from the west end of Lake Ontario; thence east to
+that lake, and finally along the southern shore of it to the place of
+beginning.
+
+The oldest and most notable name in all this territory is NIAGARA, as
+would naturally be inferred, when we consider the varied and wonderful
+features of the mighty river which flows across this country. Taking
+leave of Lake Erie, its clear waters gradually spread themselves out in
+a broad, bright channel, over a plain, open country, having a slight
+declivity, just sufficient to make a gentle current, thereby adding the
+living beauty and force of motion to the broad expanse of a lake-like
+surface, that surface itself diversified and relieved by the pleasant
+islands, large and small, which are scattered over it. Eddying into
+every quiet bay, coquetting with every salient angle, moving to the
+melody of its own murmurs, it flows on serenely and musically.
+
+But after a time this holiday journey is interrupted. A fearful change
+takes place. The careless waters are hurried down a long and sharp
+descent, over the rough, denuded, bowlder-studded bed-rock of the
+stream. Breaking and bounding, surging and resurging, flashing and
+foaming, rushing fiercely upon some huge bowlder, recoiling an instant,
+then madly leaping entirely over it, rushing on to others huger still,
+then breaking wildly around them, the troubled waters hurry on until,
+culminating in their sublimest aspect, they plunge sheer downward in the
+grandest of cataracts.
+
+And now the scene and the effect it produces on the beholder both
+change. The rapids are beautiful; the falls are grand; those are
+exhilarating, these are inspiring; those are noisy, turbulent, fickle;
+these are calm, resistless, inexorable.
+
+After the water has made the final plunge over the precipice the
+cataract acquires its most impressive characteristics; the majestic
+monotone, the bow, the cloud, which is its veil by night, its crowning
+glory and beauty by day. The combinations of grandeur and beauty have
+reached their climax in the fall, the foam, the voice, the spray, the
+bow.
+
+[Illustration: THE RAPIDS ABOVE THE FALLS]
+
+The chasm of the river from the Falls to Lewiston will be sufficiently
+described in treating of the geology of the district. From Lewiston to
+Lake Ontario, seven miles, the waters of the river flow on through an
+elevated and fertile plain, in a strong, calm, majestic current, smiling
+with dimples and reversed in occasional eddies, but neither broken by
+rapids nor impeded by islands. Finally it is lost in the lake, after
+passing an immense bar formed by the enormous mass of sedimentary matter
+carried down by its own current. The landscape, as seen from the top of
+the terrace above Lewiston, is one of the finest and most extensive of
+its peculiar character which can be found on the continent, all its
+features being such as appertain to a broad, open country.
+
+The visitor at Niagara, as he looks at the Falls, will have a profounder
+appreciation of their magnitude by considering that it requires the
+water drainage of a quarter of a continent to sustain them, and that the
+remoter springs, which send to them their constant tribute, are more
+than twelve hundred miles distant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Niagara a tribal name--Other names given to the tribe--The Niagaras
+     a superior race--The true pronunciation of Indian words.
+
+
+The name Niagara has been so thoroughly identified with the river and
+the Falls that the question whether it was also the name of an Indian
+nation or tribe has been quite neglected. It is proposed now to give the
+question some consideration, assuming, at once, its affirmative to be
+true. This, it is believed, we shall be justified in doing by every
+principle of analogy. We know that it was a general practice of the
+Indians who occupied this region of country, so abounding in lakes and
+rivers, to give the name of the nation or tribe to, or to name them
+after, the most prominent bodies and courses of water found in their
+territory. Such was the fact with the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas,
+Onondagas, and Hurons, the tribal name of each being perpetuated both in
+a lake and a river. The Mohawks, the warrior tribe of the Six Nations,
+having no noted lake within their boundaries, left a perpetual memorial
+of themselves in the name of a beautiful river. The unwarlike Eries,
+too, though finally exterminated by their more powerful and aggressive
+neighbors, the Iroquois, are still remembered in the lake which bears
+their name.
+
+With the Niagaras the river and the cataract were the most notable and
+impressive features of their territory. Their principal village bore the
+same name; and when we recall the proverbial vanity of the race, we can
+hardly doubt that this must also have been their tribal name. That it
+should have been perpetuated in reference to the village, the river, and
+the falls, and that the use of it, in reference to the tribe, should
+have lapsed, can be readily understood when we recollect that they had
+two substitutes for the tribal name. One of these substitutes is
+explained at page 70 of the "Relations" of 1641, in a passage which we
+translate as follows: "Our Hurons call the Neuter Nation
+_Attouanderonks_, as though they would say a people of a little
+different language: for as to those nations that speak a language of
+which they understand nothing, they call them _Attouankes_, whatever
+nation they may be, or as though they spoke of strangers. They of the
+Neuter Nation in turn, and for the same reason, call our Hurons
+_Attouanderonks_."
+
+Thus it would seem that this was a mere title of convenience used to
+indicate a certain fact, namely, a difference of language. The other
+substitute by which the nation was best known among their white brethren
+will be understood by an extract from a letter contained in the same
+"Relations," and written from St. Mary's Mission on the river Severn, by
+Father Lalement. In it he gives an account of a journey made by the
+Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumont to the country of the
+_Neuter Nation_, as the Niagaras were called by the Hurons on the north
+and the Iroquois on the south of them, learning it, as they did, from
+the French. The letter says: "Our French, who first discovered this
+people, named them the _Neuter Nation_, and not without reason, for
+their country being the ordinary passage by land, between some of the
+Iroquois nations and the Hurons, who are sworn enemies, they remained at
+peace with both; so that in times past the Hurons and the Iroquois,
+meeting in the same wigwam or village of that nation, were both in
+safety while they remained. There are some things in which they differ
+from our Hurons. They are larger, stronger, and better formed. They also
+entertain a great affection for the dead. * * * The Sonontonheronons
+[Senecas], one of the Iroquois nations the nearest to and most dreaded
+by the Hurons, are not more than a day's journey distant from the
+easternmost village of the Neuter Nation, named Onguiaahra [Niagara], of
+the same name as the river."
+
+It would seem, then, that this name, Neuter Nation, as applied to this
+tribe, was an appellation used merely to indicate a peculiarity of its
+location, or of the relation in which it stood to the hostile tribes
+living to the north and south of it. The Indians, it is needless to say,
+were not philologists, and seem not to have objected to the names
+applied to them, nor to have criticised the erroneous pronunciation of
+words of their own dialects.
+
+In the extract given above, the name of our river first appears in type.
+Its orthography will be noted as peculiar. It is one of forty different
+ways of spelling the name, thirty-nine of which are given in the index
+volume of the Colonial History of New York, and the fortieth, the most
+pertinent to our present purpose, in Drake's "Book of the Indians,"
+seventh edition. Prefixed to "Book First" is a "Table of the Principal
+Tribes," in which we find the following:
+
+"Nicariagas, once about Michilimakinak; joined the Iroquois in 1723."
+
+M. Charlevoix, apparently using the facts stated in one of Lalement's
+letters and quoting also a portion of its language, says: "A people
+larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages, and who
+lived south of the Huron country, were visited by the Jesuits, who
+preached to them the Kingdom of God. They were called the Neuter Nation,
+because they took no part in the wars which desolated the country. But
+in the end they could not themselves escape entire destruction. To avoid
+the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined them against the Hurons,
+but gained nothing by the union." Later, he says they were destroyed
+about the year 1643. But we have before observed that Father Raugeneau
+states that their destruction occurred in 1651. The tribe mentioned by
+Drake was probably a remnant that escaped in the final overthrow of
+their nation in this last-named year, and sought refuge at Mackinaw,
+among the Hurons, who had previously retreated to this almost
+inaccessible locality, in order, also, to escape from the all-conquering
+Iroquois. After the lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, when
+the hostility of the latter had subsided, and they had themselves been
+weakened and subdued by the whites, the wretched remnant of the
+Niagaras, with that strong love of home so characteristic of the Indian,
+returned to their native hunting-grounds, where they remained for a few
+years, and then joined their conquerors in that mournful procession of
+their race toward the setting sun. If there were a Nemesis for nations
+as well as for individuals, it would be fearful to contemplate the time
+when the Anglo-Saxon should be called on to pay the "long arrears" of
+the Indians' "bloody debt."
+
+[Illustration: THE YOUNGEST INHABITANT]
+
+Returning to the orthography of our name, we find on Sanson's map of
+Canada, published in Paris in 1657, that it is shortened into "Oniagra,"
+and on Coronelli's map of the same region, published in Paris in 1688,
+it crystallizes into _Niagara_. There is also on this map a village
+located on or near the site of Buffalo, designated as follows:
+"_Kah-kou-a-go-gah, a destroyed nation_." This name bears a closer
+resemblance to the true one than several of the forty to which we have
+just referred, and if it be reduced to Kahkwa it would still be only a
+corrupt abbreviation of Niagara.
+
+More than fifty years ago, while leisurely traveling through western New
+York, the writer well remembers how his youthful ears were charmed with
+the flowing cadences of the better class of Indians, as they intoned
+rather than spoke the beautiful names which their ancestors had given to
+different localities. Every vowel was fully sounded.
+
+O-N-E-I-D-A was then Oh-ne-i-dah; C-A-Y-U-G-A was Kah-yu-gah;
+G-E-N-E-S-E-E was Gen-e-se-e; C-A-N-A-N-D-A-I-G-U-A was
+Kan-nan-dar-quah, and N-I-A-G-A-R-A was Ni-ah-gah-rah.
+
+In regard to the name, the pronunciation nearest to the original which
+it may be possible to perpetuate is Ni-ag-a-rah; the accent on the
+second syllable, the vowel in the first pronounced as in the word
+_nigh_; the _a_ in the third and fourth syllables but slightly
+abbreviated from the long _a_ in _far_, and that in the second syllable
+but slightly aspirated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     The lower Niagara--Fort Niagara--Fort Mississauga--Niagara
+     Village--Lewiston--Portage around the Falls--The first railroad in
+     the United States--Fort Schlosser--The ambuscade at Devil's
+     Hole--La Salle's vessel, the _Griffin_--The Niagara frontier.
+
+
+From the earliest visit of the French missionaries and _voyageurs_ to
+the lake region, the banks of the lower Niagara were to them a favorite
+locality. Very early they were cleared of the grand forest which covered
+them, and the genial, fertile, and easily worked soil, enriched by the
+deep vegetable mold that had been accumulating upon it for centuries,
+produced in lavish abundance wheat, maize, garden vegetables, and
+fruits, large and small. "On the 6th day of December, 1678," says
+Marshall, "La Salle, in his brigantine of ten tons, doubled the point
+where Fort Niagara now stands, and anchored in the sheltered waters of
+the river. The prosecution of his bold enterprise at that inclement
+season, involving the exploration of a vast and unknown country, in
+vessels built on the way, indicates the indomitable energy and
+self-reliance of the intrepid discoverer. His crew consisted of sixteen
+persons, under the immediate command of the Sieur de la Motte. The
+grateful Franciscans chanted '_Te Deum laudamus_' as they entered the
+noble river. The strains of that ancient hymn of the Church, as they
+rose from the deck of the adventurous bark, and echoed from shore and
+forest, must have startled the watchful Senecas with the unusual sound,
+as they gazed upon their strange visitors. Never before had white men,
+so far as history tells us, ascended the river."
+
+La Salle rested here for a time, but no defensive work was constructed
+until 1687, when the Marquis De Nonville, returning from his famous
+expedition against the Senecas, fortified it, after the fashion of the
+time, with palisades and ditches. The small garrison of one hundred men
+which he left were obliged to abandon it the following season, after
+partially destroying it. By consent of the Iroquois it was reconstructed
+in stone in 1725-6.
+
+Opposite to Fort Niagara, which is on the American side at the mouth of
+the river, are Fort Mississauga and the village of Niagara, formerly
+Newark, on the Canadian side. The village was captured by the English in
+1759, and occupied for a time by Sir William Johnson, who completed here
+his treaty with the Indians by which they released to him the land on
+both sides of the river. The first Provincial Parliament was held here
+in 1792, under the authority of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe. In the same
+year the place was visited by the father of Queen Victoria. The pioneer
+newspaper of the Province was published here in 1795, and although it
+ceased soon after to be the seat of government, which was removed to
+York (now Toronto), still it was a thriving village of about five
+thousand inhabitants until the completion of the Welland canal, which
+entirely diverted its trade and commerce, and left it to the
+uninterrupted quiet of a rural town. Several Americans have purchased
+dwellings in the place for summer occupation. A mile above was Fort
+George, now a ruin.
+
+Seven miles above the mouth of the river, at the head of navigation,
+nestling at the foot of the so-called mountain, is Lewiston, named in
+1805 in honor of Governor Lewis, of New York. Here, in 1678, La Salle
+"constructed a cabin of palisades to serve as a magazine or storehouse."
+And this was the commencement of the portage to the river above the
+Falls, which passed over nearly the same route as the present road from
+Lewiston, which is still called the Portage Road. Here, too, the first
+railway in the United States was constructed. True, it was built of
+wood, and was called a tram-way. But a car was run upon it to transport
+goods up and down the mountain The motion of the car was regulated by a
+windlass, and it was supported on runners instead of wheels. This was a
+very good arrangement for getting freight down the hill, but not so good
+for getting it up. But the wages of labor were low in every sense, since
+many of the Indians, demoralized by the use of those two most pestilent
+drugs, rum and tobacco, would do a day's work for a pint of the former
+and a plug of the latter.
+
+The upper terminus of this portage was for many years merely an open
+landing-place for canoes and boats. In 1750, the French constructed a
+strong stockade-work on the bank of the river, above their barracks and
+storehouses. This they called Fort du Portage. It was burnt, in 1759, by
+Chabert Joncaire, who was in command of it when the British commenced
+the formidable and fatal campaign of that year against the French. After
+Fort Niagara was surrendered to Sir William Johnson, Joncaire retired
+with his small garrison to the station on Chippewa Creek.
+
+In less than two years the work was rebuilt in a much more substantial
+manner by Captain Joseph Schlosser, a German who served in the British
+army in that campaign. It had the outline of a tolerably regular
+fortification, with rude bastions and connecting curtains, surrounded by
+a somewhat formidable ditch. The interior plateau was a little elevated
+and surrounded by an earth embankment piled against the inner side of
+the palisades, over which its defenders could fire with great effect.
+
+When the writer first saw its remains, the outlines and ditches of the
+work were distinct. Only some slight inequalities in the surface now
+indicate its site. Captain Schlosser was afterward promoted to the rank
+of colonel, and died in the fort. An oak slab, on which his name was
+cut, was standing at his grave just above the fort as late as the year
+1808.
+
+Some sixty rods below is still standing what is believed to be the first
+civilized chimney built in this part of the country. It is a large and
+most substantial stone structure, around which the French built their
+barracks. These were burnt by Joncaire on his retreat. A large
+dwelling-house was built to it by the English, which afforded shelter
+for many different occupants until it was burnt in 1813. Its last
+occupant, before it was destroyed, kept it as a tavern, which became a
+favorite place for festive and holiday gatherings. What hath been may be
+again. When the Falls shall have receded two miles, the brides and
+grooms of that age will find their Cataract House near the site of old
+Fort Schlosser.
+
+To the west of this old stone chimney stand the few surviving trees of
+the first apple orchard set out in this region. As early as 1796, it is
+described as being a "well-fenced orchard, containing 1200 trees." Not
+fifty are now standing.
+
+Across the river from Lewiston is Queenston, so named in honor of Queen
+Charlotte. The battle which bears its name was fought on the 13th of
+October, 1813, between the American and British armies. The former
+crossed the river, made the attack, and carried the heights. The
+commander of the British forces, General Brock, and one of his aids,
+Colonel McDonald, were killed. The British were reënforced, and the
+American militia refusing to cross over to aid the Americans, the latter
+were obliged to return across the river, leaving a number of prisoners
+in the hands of the enemy. Some years afterward, the Colonial Parliament
+caused a fine monument to be erected on the heights to the memory of
+General Brock. It presents a conspicuous and imposing appearance from
+the terrace below.
+
+[Illustration: MOUTH OF THE CHASM AND BROCK'S MONUMENT]
+
+Two miles and a quarter above Lewiston is the Devil's Hole, famous as
+the scene of a short supplementary campaign, made against the English,
+by the Seneca Indians, in 1763. Though doubtless instigated by French
+traders, it was a purely Indian enterprise, gotten up among themselves,
+and commanded by Farmer's Brother, one of the Seneca chiefs, who was a
+fighter as well as an orator. It was one of the best planned and most
+successfully executed military stratagems ever recorded. It was
+calculated upon the nicest balancing of facts and probabilities, and
+executed with unrivaled thoroughness and celerity.
+
+It was known to the Indians that the English were in the habit, almost
+daily, of sending supply trains, under escort, from Fort Niagara to Fort
+Schlosser. After unloading at the latter post, they returned to the
+former. They knew also that there was a smaller supporting force of one
+or two companies at Lewiston, which could join the escort from Fort
+Niagara, in case of an extra valuable train, and that the whole force at
+both places was not large enough to furnish an escort of more than four
+hundred men; they knew that the narrow pass at the Devil's Hole was the
+best point to place the ambuscade; also that when the train went up they
+could see whether its escort was large or small, and so they would know
+whether they should concentrate their force to attack the larger escort,
+or divide it and attack the train and small escort first and the
+relieving force afterward. They conjectured that the train would have a
+small escort; but if it should have a large one, so much the better, as
+there would be a larger number in a small space for their balls to
+riddle. They conjectured also that, if the escort were small, the firing
+on the first attack would be heard by the soldiers at Lewiston, and that
+they would hurry to the relief of their comrades, not dreaming of danger
+before they should reach them.
+
+The fatal result demonstrated the correctness of their reasoning. They
+made a double ambuscade: one for the train and escort, the other for the
+relieving force; and they destroyed them both, only three of the first
+escaping and eight of the latter. This event occurred on the 14th of
+September, 1773. John Stedman commanded the supply train. At the first
+fire of the Indians, seeing the fatal snare, he wheeled his horse at
+once, and, spurring him through a gauntlet of bullets, reached Schlosser
+in safety. A wounded soldier concealed himself in the bushes, and the
+drummer-boy lodged in a tree as he fell down the bank. Eight of the
+relieving force escaped to Fort Niagara to tell the story of their
+defeat.
+
+Three miles above Schlosser is Cayuga Creek, near the mouth of which La
+Salle built the _Griffin_, a vessel of sixty tons burden, the first
+civilized craft that floated on the upper lakes, and the pioneer of an
+inland commerce of unrivaled growth and value. She reached Green Bay
+safely, but on her return voyage foundered with all on board in Lake
+Huron.
+
+The French also built some small vessels on Navy Island. The
+reënforcements sent from Venango for the French, during the siege of
+Fort Niagara by Sir William Johnson, in 1759, were landed on this
+island. To the east of it there is a large deep basin, formed at the
+foot of the channel, between Grand and Buckhorn islands. The upper part
+of this channel being narrow, the basin appears like a bay. In this bay
+the French burnt and sunk the two vessels, as is supposed, which brought
+down the Venango reënforcements; hence the name "Burnt Ship Bay." The
+writer has seen the ribs and timbers of these vessels beneath the water,
+and caught many fine perch which had their haunts near them. The Niagara
+frontier was the theater of great activity during the War of 1812.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.--GEOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     America the old world--Geologically recent origin of the
+     Falls--Evidence thereof--Captain Williams's surveys for a ship
+     canal--Former extent of Lake Michigan--Its outlet into the Illinois
+     River--The Niagara barrier--How broken through--The birth of
+     Niagara.
+
+
+If Professor Agassiz and Elie De Beaumont are correct in their
+geological reading, America is the old world rather than the new, and
+the northern portion of it, stretching from Lake Huron eastward to
+Labrador and northward toward the Arctic, was the first to be lifted
+into the genial light of the sun. And Professor Lyell has recourse to
+the vast stellar spaces for a standard by which to estimate "the
+interval of time which divides the human epoch from the origin of the
+coralline limestone over which the Niagara is precipitated at the
+Falls." "The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas," he continues, "have not
+only begun to exist as lofty mountain chains, but the solid materials of
+which they are composed have been slowly elaborated beneath the sea
+within the stupendous interval of ages here alluded to."
+
+A little more than thirty years ago, Professor Agassiz made a tour to
+the Upper Lakes with a class of students, for the purpose of giving them
+practical lessons in geology and other branches of natural science. The
+day was devoted to outdoor examinations of different localities, and in
+the evening was given a familiar lecture expository of the day's work.
+One of the places thus visited was Niagara, and it was the writer's
+good-fortune to be able to listen to the instructive lecture which
+followed the examination. Professor Agassiz concurs with other
+geologists in the opinion that the Falls were once at Lewiston, and one
+of the most interesting portions of the lecture was his animated
+description of the retrocession of the Falls, traced step by step back
+to their present position. From this oral exposition, from other high
+geological authorities, and from personal observation extending through
+a quarter of a century, the writer has derived the facts herein
+presented.
+
+There can be no doubt that at a comparatively recent geological period
+the Falls of Niagara had no existence. It may suffice to mention two
+facts which are conclusive on this point. Dr. Houghton, geologist of the
+State of Michigan, stated in his report that the elevation of Lake
+Michigan above tide-water is five hundred and seventy-eight feet. That
+of Lake Erie, as shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal, is five hundred
+and sixty-eight feet, the difference of level between the two being ten
+feet. The fall or descent in the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Gill
+Creek, a few rods above the site of old Fort Schlosser, is twenty feet.
+Hence we learn that the surface of the water in Lake Michigan is thirty
+feet higher than that of the Niagara River near the mouth of Gill
+Creek. If, therefore, we find anywhere below the Falls a barrier drawn
+across this river that is more than thirty feet high, its water would
+thereby be set back to Lake Michigan. A moderate elevation above this
+thirty feet would serve as a safe shore-line for still water.
+
+The existence of this barrier has been demonstrated. In the year 1835,
+by direction of the War Department, Captain W. G. Williams, of the
+United States Topographical Engineers, surveyed three routes for a canal
+around Niagara Falls. The first of these routes was run from the river
+nearly in a straight line to the head of Bloody Run, and thence a
+portion of the way over the terrace laid bare by the rapid subsidence of
+the water after the barrier had been broken through. The second route,
+commencing at the same point with the first,--the old Schlosser
+Storehouse, just above Gill Creek,--was run up the valley of the creek,
+through the ridge above Lewiston, at a slight depression in the general
+line of the hill, and thence to Lake Ontario by two different routes.
+The highest point in the ridge was found to be sixty feet above the
+surface of the water in the river at the starting point. Here, then, is
+found the requisite barrier--a dam thirty feet higher than the water in
+Lake Michigan, and having a base, as will be seen by reference to the
+map, of two and a half miles in breadth. This was its breadth at the
+time of the survey. But a careful observance of the topography of the
+banks on both sides of the river will show that it must have been
+originally not less than twice that breadth, and that the depressions
+now existing are the results of the denudation caused by the removal of
+the barrier.
+
+While this barrier was unbroken, Lake Erie as extended would have
+covered all land that was not twenty-six feet higher than the present
+level of the river at old Schlosser landing, since the water there is
+sixteen feet below the level of Lake Erie. It is not difficult to trace
+this barrier on a good map. From old Fort Grey it stretches eastward a
+short distance past Batavia, and thence turns to the south through
+Wyoming into Cattaraugus County. In the latter county it forms the
+summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal. This summit is a swamp sixteen
+hundred and twenty-three feet above tide water, and the water runs from
+it northerly through the Genesee River into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
+and southerly, through the Alleghany, into the Gulf of Mexico, while
+within a short distance rises Cattaraugus Creek which flows west into
+Lake Erie.
+
+The gradual rise of the Niagara barrier as it extends to the east was
+demonstrated by the surveys of Captain Williams. By the Gill Creek line
+to Lewiston he found its elevation above the river, as has been stated,
+to be sixty feet. By the Cayuga Creek line to Pekin it was sixty-four
+feet, and by the Tonawanda Creek line to Lockport it was eighty-four
+feet, as is also shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal.
+
+To the west the barrier extends from Brock's Monument to the ridge which
+bounds the westerly side of the valley of the Chippewa Creek, and thence
+around the head of Lake Ontario into the Simcoe Hills.
+
+At that period all the islands in the Niagara River valley were
+submerged. The lower sections of the valleys of the Chippewa, Cayuga,
+Tonawanda, and Buffalo creeks were also submerged. The site of Buffalo
+was, probably, a small island, and many other similar islands were
+scattered over the broad expanse of water.
+
+And this brings us to our second cardinal fact. Lake Michigan, having
+absorbed or spread over all the vast water-links in the great chain
+between Superior and Ontario, was the most stupendous body of fresh
+water on the globe. Its drainage was to the south, through the valleys
+of the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers, into the
+Gulf of Mexico. The evidence of this fact is abundant. The survey of the
+Illinois Central Railroad shows that the surface of Lake Michigan is
+three hundred feet above the line of low water in the Ohio River at
+Cairo, where it joins the Mississippi. It also shows that the low-water
+line of the Kankakee, where the railroad crosses it, is eleven feet
+above the surface of the lake. This river, which forms the north-eastern
+branch of the Illinois, rises in the State of Indiana, near South Bend,
+two miles from the St. Joseph. From its very commencement at its
+head-springs it is a shallow channel in the middle of a swamp,--called
+on the maps the "Kankakee Pond,"--nearly a hundred miles long, and from
+two to five miles wide. On its north side, in Porter County, is a broad
+cove, with a small stream in the midst of it, which reaches up due north
+to within a stone's-throw of the south branch of the East Calumick
+River, which empties into the south-west corner of Lake Michigan.
+
+More than thirty years ago, while traveling by stage from Logansport,
+Indiana, to Chicago, the writer was told by a fellow-passenger that it
+was not an unusual thing, on the occurrence of a strong north wind
+during the spring floods, to cross with boats from this branch of the
+East Calumick into the Kankakee Pond through this cove. We have not been
+able to obtain any authentic topographical survey which shows the
+elevation that must be overcome in order to effect this meeting of the
+waters.
+
+Again: The river Des Plaines rises near the northern line of the State
+of Illinois, and running south parallel with the lake shore, at its
+junction with the Kankakee forms the Illinois. The Des Plaines is only
+ten miles west of Chicago. One of its eastern tributaries rises very
+near the head-waters of the south branch of the Chicago River, and
+often, when flooded by heavy rains, its waters flow over into the lake.
+At this point, also, the Jesuits and the early settlers were in the
+habit of crossing in their boats to the Des Plaines, and thence into the
+Illinois. The writer was informed by Colonel William A. Bird, the last
+Surveyor-in-Chief of the Boundary Commission, that when the party was at
+Mackinaw, in the spring of 1820, Mr. Ramsey Crooks, the adventurous and
+enterprising agent of John Jacob Astor, came up to that place from
+Joliet on the Illinois in one of the big canoes so generally used at
+that day for navigating the lakes, and that Mr. Crooks informed them
+that he crossed from the Des Plaines into Lake Michigan without taking
+his canoe out of the water. The deep cut in the Illinois and Michigan
+Canal, recently excavated by the city of Chicago in order to improve its
+sewer drainage, is quite uniform at its upper surface, and is sixteen to
+eighteen feet deep for a distance of twenty-six miles. The bottom of
+this cut is six feet below the lowest water-mark ever noted in the
+lake. At the point where the deep cut reaches the Des Plaines, it is ten
+feet lower than the bottom of the river. It is sixteen miles further
+down before the bottom of the cut and the river coincide with each
+other. Nearly the whole of this distance it is necessary to maintain a
+guard-bank, to protect the canal from the inundations of the river. Here
+we find there is a dam, only about twelve feet high, that once separated
+the waters of the lake from those of the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+There were, therefore, two courses through which the waters of Lake
+Michigan could once have passed into the Illinois--the first through the
+Des Plaines, and the second from the head-springs of the East Calumick
+into the great north cove of the Kankakee Pond. When we consider the
+immense drainage which must have been discharged through these channels
+into the valley of the Illinois, we can well understand the gigantic
+proportions of that valley when compared with the stream which now flows
+through it. The perpendicular and water-worn sides of Starved Rock,
+below Ottawa, attest the magnitude of the lake-like floods which must
+once have dashed around them.
+
+Having established the existence of the Niagara barrier, it remains to
+analyze its structure, and then to search out the agencies by which it
+was broken down. First, in regard to its organization. An examination of
+the locality reveals the fact that the portion of the ridge lying
+between old Fort Grey and Brock's Monument was of a peculiar character.
+At the former point the hard, compact clay had in it but a slight
+mixture of gray loam and sand. At the latter point, fine gravel was
+plentifully mingled with this loam. This latter mass, being quite
+porous, would rapidly become saturated with water, and its component
+parts be easily separated. The declivity of the high, hard, clay bank,
+down to the rock at the edge of the precipice, is abrupt on the American
+side, while on the opposite side the ascent toward Brock's Monument and
+above is gradual. This formation extends upward about one mile and a
+half, when the gravel and loam disappear, and the hard clay succeeds and
+continues upward with a gradual downward slope nearly to the Falls.
+
+This upper drift was about twenty feet thick, and rested on a laminated
+stratum of the Niagara limestone. This stratum, though quite compact,
+and having its seams closely jointed, was not so thoroughly indurated as
+the lower strata of the Niagara group, and its thin plates were more
+easily displaced and broken up. The depression marked in the sixth mile
+of the profile referred to was evidently cut out by the waters of Fish
+Creek, after the barrier had been removed, since the land near the
+head-waters of this stream is higher than at the point where the line
+runs through the ridge. It is also noticeable that the ridge, at this
+point, approaches the brink of the escarpment more nearly than at any
+other, and the sharp declivity of its northern face is clearly shown on
+the profile in the accompanying map.
+
+Within the last century there have been two, and perhaps more, large
+tidal waves on the Great Lakes. There have also been many severe gales,
+which have inundated the low lands around their shores, and attacked,
+with destructive effect, their higher banks. One of these gales is
+mentioned in another place. It came from about two points north of west,
+and, as noted, raised the water six feet on the rapids above the Falls.
+In the narrow portions of the river above, it must have elevated the
+water still more. Of course a much higher rise would have been produced
+by the force of such a gale acting upon the vastly increased surface of
+the larger lake.
+
+The first serious impression upon the Niagara barrier must have been
+made by these two mighty forces. By them, undoubtedly, was made the
+first breach over its top, thus commencing that slow but sure denudation
+which finally reached the rock below. And by their aid even the rock
+itself was removed.
+
+Here, then, is the composition and structure of our dam. It is thirty
+feet high, with a base two and a half miles certainly, and probably
+five, in width. How to break through it is the problem to be solved by
+the great inland sea which laves it, so that the water may flow onward
+and downward to the Atlantic.
+
+Fortunately we have, all along the shores of our inland lakes, an annual
+demonstration of the method by which such problems are solved. A
+constant abrasion of their banks is produced by the action of water,
+frost, and ice. And these are the resistless elements which, by their
+persistent and powerful action during the lapse of ages, excavated a
+channel for the waters of the Niagara. The gradual upward slope of the
+rock and the thick upper drift broke the force of the huge waves that
+were occasionally dashed upon them. Their position could not have been
+more favorable to resist attack. It was a Malakoff of earth on a
+foundation of rock. Little by little the refluent waves carried back
+portions of the crumbled mass, and deposited them in the neighboring
+depressions. Slowly, wearily, desultorily, the erosion and desquamation
+went on. At last the upper drift was broken down, and its crumbled
+remains were swept from the rock.
+
+Then the insidious forces of heat and cold, sun and frost became potent.
+The thin laminæ of limestone were loosened by the frost, broken up and
+disintegrated. At last a thin sheet of water was driven through the
+gorge by some fierce gale. The steep declivity of the counterscarp was
+then fatally attacked, and after a time its perpendicular face was laid
+bare. Thenceforth the elements had the top and one end of the rocky mass
+to work on, and they worked at a tremendous advantage. The breaking up
+and disintegration of the rock went on. It was gradually crumbled into
+sand, which was washed off by the rains or swept away by the winds.
+Finally a channel was excavated, of which the bottom was lower than the
+surface of the great lake above; the sparkling waters rushed in, dashed
+over the precipice, and Niagara was born.
+
+As the water worked its way over the precipice gradually, so it would
+gradually excavate its channel to Lake Ontario, and it is not probable
+that any great inundation of the lower terrace could have occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Composition of the terrace cut through--Why retrocession is
+     possible--Three sections from Lewiston to the Falls--Devil's
+     Hole--The Medina group--Recession long checked--The Whirlpool--The
+     narrowest part of the river--The mirror--Depth of the water in the
+     chasm--Former grand Fall.
+
+
+The water having laid bare the face of the mountain barrier from top to
+bottom, we are enabled to examine the composition of the mass through
+which it slowly cut its way. After removing the thin plates of the upper
+stratum, as we descend, according to Professor Hall, we find:
+
+1. Niagara limestone--compact and geodiferous.
+
+2. Soft argillo-calcareous shale.
+
+3. Compact gray limestone.
+
+4. Thin layers of green shale.
+
+5. Gray and mottled sandstone, constituting with those below the Medina
+group.
+
+6. Red shale and marl, with thin courses of sandstone near the top.
+
+7. Gray quartzose sandstone.
+
+8. Red shaly sandstone and marl.
+
+Before reaching the Whirlpool the mass becomes, practically, resolved
+into numbers three, four, and five, the limestone, as a general rule,
+growing thicker and harder, and the shale also, as we follow up the
+stream.
+
+The reason why retrocession of the Falls is possible is found in the
+occurrence of the shale noted above as underlying the rock. It is a
+species of indurated clay, harder or softer according to the pressure to
+which it may have been subjected. When protected from the action of the
+elements it retains its hardness, but when exposed to them it gradually
+softens and crumbles away. After a time the superstratum of rock, which
+is full of cracks and seams, is undermined and precipitated into the
+chasm below. If the stratum of shale lies at or near the bottom of the
+channel below the Falls, it will be measurably protected from the action
+of the elements. In this case retrocession will necessarily be very
+gradual. If above the Falls the shale projects upward from the channel
+below, then in proportion to the elevation and thickness of its stratum
+will be the ease and rapidity of disintegration and retrocession. The
+shale furnishes, therefore, a good standard by which to determine the
+comparative rapidity with which the retrocession has been accomplished
+at different points.
+
+From the base of the escarpment at Lewiston up the narrow bend in the
+channel above Devil's Hole, a distance of four and a quarter miles, the
+shale varies in thickness above the water, from one hundred and thirty
+feet at the commencement of the gorge, to one hundred and ten feet at
+the upper extremity of the bend. Here, although there is very little
+upward curve in the limestone, there is yet a decided curve upward in
+the Medina group, noticed above, composed mainly of a hard, red
+sandstone. It projects across the chasm, and also extends upward to near
+the neck of the Whirlpool, where it dips suddenly downward. The two
+strata of shale, becoming apparently united, follow its dip and also
+extend upward until they reach their maximum elevation near the middle
+of the Whirlpool. Thence the shale gradually dips again to the Railway
+Suspension Bridge, three-quarters of a mile above. For the remaining one
+and a half miles from this bridge to the present site of the Falls the
+dip is downward. We may then divide this reach of the Niagara River into
+three sections:
+
+First. From Lewiston to the upper end of the Bend above Devil's Hole.
+
+Second. Thence to the head of the rapid above the Railway Suspension
+Bridge.
+
+Third. Thence to the present site of the Falls.
+
+We are now prepared to consider these sections with reference to the
+retrocession of the fall of water. Through the first section the shale,
+as before noted, lying much above the water surface, and the superposed
+limestone being rather soft and thinner than at any point above, the
+retreat was probably quite uniform and comparatively rapid, about the
+same progress being made in each of the many centuries required to
+accomplish its whole length. Professor James Hall, in his able and
+interesting Report on the Geology of the Fourth District of the State of
+New York, suggests the probability of there having been three distinct
+Falls, one below the other, for some distance up-stream, when the
+retrocession first began. The average width of this section between the
+banks is one thousand feet. About one mile below its upper extremity is
+"Devil's Hole," a side-chasm cut out of the American bank of the river
+by a small stream called "Bloody Run," which, in heavy rains, forms a
+torrent. The "Hole" has been made by the detrition and washing out of
+the shale and the fall of the overlying rock. A short distance above, on
+the Canadian side, lies Foster's Glen, a singular and extensive lateral
+excavation left dry by the receding flood. The cliff at its upper end is
+bare and water-worn, showing that the arc or curve of the Falls must
+have been greater here than at any point below.
+
+Near the upper end of this section there is a rocky cape, which juts out
+from the Canadian bank, and reaches nearly two-thirds of the distance
+across the chasm. At this point the great Fall met with a more obstinate
+and longer continued resistance than at any other, for the reason that
+the fine, firm sandstone belonging to the Medina group, as has been
+stated, here projects across the channel of the river, and, forming a
+part of its bed, rises upward several feet above the surface of the
+water. And here this hard, compact rock held the cataract for many
+centuries. The crooked channel which incessant friction and hammering
+finally cut through that rock is the narrowest in the river, being only
+two hundred and ninety-two feet wide, and the fierce rush of the water
+through the narrow, rock-ribbed gorge is almost appalling to the
+beholder. The average width between the banks of this section is about
+nine hundred feet.
+
+In the second section is found the Whirlpool, one of the most
+interesting and attractive portions of the river. The large basin in
+which it lies was cut out much more rapidly than any other part of the
+chasm. And this for the reason that, in addition to the thick stratum of
+shale, there was, underlying the channel, a large pocket, and probably,
+also, a broad seam or cleavage, filled with gravel and pebbles. Indeed,
+there is a broad and very ancient cleavage in the rock-wall on the
+Canadian side, extending from near the top of the bank to an unknown
+depth below. Its course can be traced from the north side of the pool
+some distance in a north-westerly direction. Of course the resistless
+power of the falling water was not long restrained by these feeble
+barriers, and here the broadest and deepest notch of any given century
+was made. The name, Whirlpool, is not quite accurate, since the body of
+water to which it is applied is rather a large eddy, in which small
+whirlpools are constantly forming and breaking. The spectator cannot
+realize the tremendous power exerted by these pools, unless there is
+some object floating upon the surface by which it may be demonstrated.
+Logs from broken rafts are frequently carried over the Falls, and, when
+they reach this eddy, tree-trunks from two to three feet in diameter and
+fifty feet long, after a few preliminary and stately gyrations, are
+drawn down end-wise, submerged for awhile and then ejected with great
+force, to resume again their devious way in the resistless current. And
+they will often be kept in this monotonous round from four to six weeks
+before escaping to the rapids below.
+
+The cleft in the bed-rock which forms the outlet of the basin is one of
+the narrowest parts of the river, being only four hundred feet in
+width. Standing on one side of this gorge, and considering that the
+whole volume of the water in the river is rushing through it, the
+spectator witnesses a manifestation of physical force which makes a more
+vivid impression upon his mind than even the great Fall itself. No
+extravagant attempt at fine writing, no studied and elaborate
+description, can exaggerate the wonderful beauty and fascination of this
+pool. It is separated from the habitations of men, at a distance from
+any highway, and lies secluded in the midst of a small tract of wood
+which has fortunately been preserved around it, in which the dark and
+pale greens of stately pines and cedars predominate. Within the basin
+the waters are rushing onward, plunging downward, leaping upward,
+combing over at the top in beautiful waves and ruffles of dazzling
+whiteness, shaded down through all the opalescent tints to the deep
+emerald at their base. It is ever varying, never presenting the same
+aspect in any two consecutive moments, and the beholder is lost in
+admiration as he comprehends more and more the many-sided and varied
+beauties of the matchless scene. No one visiting the Whirlpool should
+fail to go down the bank to the water's edge. On a bright summer
+morning, after a night shower has laid the dust, cleansed and brightened
+the foliage of shrub and tree, purified and glorified the atmosphere,
+there are few more inviting and charming views.
+
+The remaining portion of this section is the Whirlpool rapid, a
+beautiful curve, reaching up just above the Railway Suspension Bridge.
+It was the most tumultuous and dangerous portion of the voyage once made
+by the _Maid of the Mist_. The water is in a perpetual tumult, a
+perfect embodiment of the spirit of unrest. Owing to the rapidity of the
+descent and the narrowness of the curve, the water is forced into a
+broken ridge in the center of the channel. There, in its wild tumult, it
+is tossed up into fanciful cones and mounds, which are crowned with a
+flashing coronal of liquid gems by the isolated drops and delicate spray
+thrown off from the whirling mass, and rising sometimes to the height of
+thirty feet. Standing on the bridge and looking down-stream, the
+spectator will see near by, on the American shore, a very good
+illustration of the manner in which the shale, there cropping out above
+the surface of the water, is worn away, leaving the superposed rock
+projecting beyond it.
+
+In the third and last section the shale continues its downward dip, and
+at several places entirely disappears. The rock lying upon it is quite
+compact, and some of it very hard. The deep water into which the falling
+water was formerly received partially protected the shale, so that many
+centuries must have elapsed before the excavation of this section was
+completed. Its average width is eleven hundred feet.
+
+Sixty rods below the American Fall is the upper Suspension Bridge. From
+this bridge, looking downward, no one can fail to be impressed with the
+serene and quiet beauty of the mirror below, reflecting from the surface
+of its emerald and apparently unfathomable depths life-size and
+life-like images of surrounding objects. The calm, majestic, unbroken
+current is in striking contrast with the fall and foam and chopping sea
+above.
+
+The greatest depth of the water in mid-channel between the two
+Suspension Bridges, as ascertained by measuring, is two hundred feet.
+But it must be borne in mind that this is the depth of the water flowing
+above the immense mass of rock, stones, and gravel which has fallen into
+the channel. The bottom of the chasm, therefore, must be more than a
+hundred feet lower, since the fallen rocks, having tumbled down
+promiscuously, must occupy much more space than they did in their
+original bed. There are isolated points, as at the Whirlpool and Devil's
+Hole, where the river is wider than in any part of this section, but the
+depth is less. Taking into consideration both depth and width, this is
+the finest part of the chasm. And for this reason chiefly, when the
+great cataract was at a point about one hundred rods below the upper
+bridge, it must have presented its sublimest aspect. The secondary bank
+on each side of the river is here high and firm, whereby the whole mass
+of water must have been concentrated into a single channel of greater
+depth at the top of the Fall than it could have had at any other point.
+And here the mighty column exerted its most terrific force, rolling over
+the precipice in one broad, vertical curve, water falling into water,
+and lifting up, perpetually, that snowy veil of mist and spray which
+constitutes at any point its crowning beauty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     Recession above the present position of the Falls--The Falls will
+     be higher as they recede--Reason why--Professor Tyndall's
+     prediction--Present and former accumulations of rock--Terrific
+     power of the elements--Ice and ice bridges--Remarkable geognosy of
+     the lake region.
+
+
+There is probably little foundation for the apprehension which has been
+expressed that the recession of the chasm will ultimately reach Lake
+Erie and lower its level, or that the bed of the river will be worn into
+an inclined plane by gradual detrition, thus changing the perpendicular
+Fall into a tumultuous rapid. And for these reasons: The contour or arc
+of the Fall in its present location is much greater than it could have
+been at any point below. Consequently a much smaller body of water, less
+effective in force, is passed over any given portion of the precipice,
+the current being also divided by Goat and Luna islands. Also, the river
+bed increases in width above the Fall until it reaches Grand Island,
+which, being twelve miles in length by eight in width, divides the river
+into two broad channels, thus still further diminishing the weight and
+force of the falling water. The average width of the channel from
+Lewiston upward is one thousand feet. The present curve formed by the
+Falls and islands is four thousand two hundred feet. Of course the water
+concentrated in mass and force below the present Falls must have proved
+vastly more effective in disintegrating and breaking down the shale and
+limestone than it possibly can be at any point above. After receding
+half a mile further the curve will be more than a mile in extent, and
+hold this length for two additional miles, provided the water shall
+cover the bed-rock from shore to shore.
+
+In reference to this recession, Professor Tyndall, in the closing
+paragraph of a lecture on Niagara, delivered before the Royal Institute,
+after his return to England, says: "In conclusion, we may say a word
+regarding the proximate future of Niagara. At the rate of excavation
+assigned to it by Sir Charles Lyell, namely, a foot a year, five
+thousand years will carry the Horseshoe Fall far higher than Goat
+Island. As the gorge recedes * * * it will totally drain the American
+branch of the river, the channel of which will in due time become
+cultivatable land. * * * To those who visit Niagara five millenniums
+hence, I leave the verification of this prediction." In his "Travels in
+the United States," in 1841-2, vol. 1, page 27, Sir Charles Lyell says:
+"Mr. Bakewell calculated that, in the forty years preceding 1830, the
+Niagara had been going back at the rate of about a yard annually, but I
+conceive that one foot per year would be a more probable conjecture."
+
+Thus it appears that the rate suggested was the result of a conjecture
+founded on a guess. From certain oral and written statements which we
+have been able to collect, we have made an estimate of the time which
+was required to excavate the present chasm-channel from Lewiston upward.
+During the last hundred and seventy-five years certain masses of rock
+have been known to fall from the water-covered surface of the cataract,
+and a statement as to the surface-measure of each mass was made. In
+using these data it is supposed that each break extended to the bottom
+of the precipice, although the whole mass did not fall at once. Of
+course, the substructure must have worn out before the superstructure
+could have gone down. Father Hennepin says that the projection of the
+rock on the American side was so great that "four coaches" could "drive
+abreast" beneath it. Seven years later, Baron La Hontan, referring to
+the Canadian side, says "three men" could "cross in abreast." We cannot
+assign less than twenty-four feet to the four coaches moving abreast.
+The projection on the Canadian side has diminished but little, whereas
+the overhang on the American side has almost entirely fallen, as is
+abundantly shown by the huge pile of large bowlders now lying at the
+foot of the precipice. Authentic accounts of similar abrasions are the
+following: In 1818, a mass one hundred and sixty feet long by sixty feet
+wide; and later in the same year a huge mass, the top surface of which
+was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it would
+show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot of the whole surface of
+the Canadian Fall. In 1829 two other masses, equal to the first that
+fell in 1818, went down. In 1850 there fell a smaller mass, about fifty
+feet long and ten feet wide. In 1852, a triangular mass fell, which was
+about six hundred feet long, extending south from Goat Island beyond the
+Terrapin Tower, and having an average width of twenty feet. Here we have
+approximate data on which to base our calculations. In addition to
+these, it is supposed that there have been unobserved abrasions by
+piecemeal that equaled all the others. Combining these minor masses into
+one grand mass and omitting fractions, the result is a bowlder
+containing something more than twelve million cubic feet of rock. If
+this were spread over a surface one thousand feet wide and one hundred
+and sixty feet deep--about the average width and depth of the Falls
+below the ferry--it would make a block about seventy-eight feet thick.
+This, for one hundred and seventy-five years, is a little over five
+inches a year. At this rate, to cut back six miles--the present length
+of the chasm--would require nearly sixty thousand years, or ten thousand
+years for a single mile, a mere shadow of time compared with the age of
+the coralline limestone over which the water flows. So, if this estimate
+is reasonably correct, two millenniums will be exhausted before
+Professor Tyndall's prophecy can be fulfilled.
+
+As to the "entire drainage of the American branch" of the river, we must
+be incredulous when we consider the fact that the bottom of that branch,
+two and a half miles above the Falls, is thirty-two feet higher than the
+upper surface of the water where it goes over the cliff, and that there
+is a continuous channel the whole distance varying from twelve to twenty
+feet in depth; and the further fact that, in the great syncope of the
+water which occurred in 1848, the topography, so to speak, of the river
+bottom was clearly revealed. It showed that the water was so divided,
+half a mile above the rapids, as to form a huge Y, through both branches
+of which it flowed over the precipice below, thus showing that nothing
+but an entire stoppage of the water can leave the American channel dry.
+But even if this part of Professor Tyndall's prediction should be
+verified, it is to be feared that his "vision" of "cultivatable land" in
+the case supposed will prove to be visionary. "To complete my
+knowledge," says Professor Tyndall, "it was necessary to see the Fall
+from the river below it, and long negotiations were necessary to secure
+the means of doing so. The only boat fit for the undertaking had been
+laid up for the winter, but this difficulty * * * was overcome." Two
+oarsmen were obtained. The elder assumed command, and "hugged" the
+cross-freshets instead of striking out into the smoother water. I asked
+him why he did so; he replied that they were directed outward and not
+downward. If Professor Tyndall had been at Niagara during the summer
+season, he would have had the opportunity, daily, of seeing the Fall
+"from below," and of going up or down the river on any day in a boat.
+All the boats (four) at the ferry are "fit for the undertaking," and all
+of them are, very properly, "laid up in the winter," since they would be
+crushed by the ice if left in the water. The oarsmen do not consider
+themselves very shrewd because they have discovered that it is easier to
+row across a current than to row against it. The party had an exciting
+and, according to Professor Tyndall's account, a perilous trip. It is
+an exciting trip to a stranger, but the writer has made it so frequently
+that it has ceased to be a novelty.
+
+[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS FROM BELOW]
+
+"We reached," he says, "the Cave [of the Winds] and entered it, first by
+a wooden way carried over the bowlders, and then along a narrow ledge to
+the point eaten deepest into the shale." He also speaks of the "blinding
+hurricane of spray hurled against" him. This last circumstance,
+probably, prevented him from noticing the fact that no shale is visible
+in the Cave of the Winds. Its wall from the top downward, some distance
+beneath the place where he stood, is formed entirely of the Niagara
+limestone. But it is checkered by many seams, and is easily abraded by
+the elements.
+
+Long-continued observation of the locality enables the writer to offer
+still other reasons why the Fall will never dwindle down to a rapid. As
+has already been noticed, the course of the river above the present
+Falls is a little south of west, so that it flows across the trend of
+the bed-rock. Hence, as the Falls recede there can be no diminution in
+their altitude resulting from the dip of this rock. On the contrary,
+there is a rise of fifty feet to the head of the present rapids, and a
+further rise of twenty feet to the level of Lake Erie. During 1871-2,
+the bed of the river from Buffalo to Cayuga Creek was thoroughly
+examined for the purpose of locating piers for railway bridges over the
+stream. The greatest depth at which they found the rock--just below
+Black Rock dam--was forty-five feet. Generally the rock was found to be
+only twenty to twenty-five feet below the surface of the water.
+
+About five miles above the present Falls there is, in the bottom of the
+river, a shelf of rock stretching, in nearly a straight line, across the
+channel to Grand Island, and having, apparently, a perpendicular face
+about sixteen inches deep. Its presence is indicated by a short but
+decided curve in the surface of the water above it, the water itself
+varying in depth from eleven to sixteen feet. The shelf above referred
+to extends under Grand Island and across the Canadian channel of the
+river, under which, however, its face is no longer perpendicular. If the
+Falls were at this point, they would be fifty-five feet higher than they
+are now, supposing the bed-rock to be firm. Now, by excavations made
+during the year 1870 for the new railway from the Suspension Bridge to
+Buffalo, the surface rock was found to be compact and hard, much of it
+unusually so. As a general rule it is well known that the greater the
+depth at which any given kind of rock lies below the surface, and the
+greater the depth to which it is penetrated, the more compact and hard
+it will be found to be. The rock which was found to be so hard, in
+excavating for the railway, lies within six feet of the surface. The
+deepest water in the Niagara River, between the Falls and Buffalo, is
+twenty-five feet. At this point, then, it would seem that the shale of
+the Niagara group must be at such a depth that the top of it is below
+the surface of the water at the bottom of the present fall. Hence, being
+protected from the disintegrating action of the atmosphere, and the
+incessant chiseling of the dashing spray, it would make a firm
+foundation for the hard limestone which would form the perpendicular
+ledge over which the water would fall. Supposing the bottom of the
+channel below this fall to have the same declivity as that for a mile
+below the present fall, the then cataract would be, as has been before
+stated, fifty-five feet higher than the present one. If we should allow
+fifty feet for a soft-surface limestone, full of cleavages and seams
+which might be easily broken down, still the new fall would be five feet
+higher than the old one. But, so far as can now be discovered, there is
+no geological necessity, so to speak, for making any such allowance. In
+the new cataract the American Fall would still be the higher, and its
+line across the channel nearly straight. The Canadian Fall would
+undoubtedly present a curve, but more gradual and uniform than the
+present horseshoe.
+
+But there might possibly occur one new feature in the chasm-channel of
+the river as the result of future recession. That would be the presence
+in that channel of rocky islands, similar to that which has already
+formed just below the American Fall. The points at which these islands
+would be likely to form are those where the indurated rock of either the
+Medina or the Niagara group lies near the surface of the water. This
+probably was the case at the narrow bend below the Whirlpool, before
+noticed, and from thence up to the outlet of the pool. After considering
+what must have occurred in the last case, we may form some opinion
+concerning the probabilities in reference to the first.
+
+We can hardly resist the conclusion that masses of fallen rock must have
+accumulated below the Whirlpool as we now see them under the American
+Fall. But if so, where are they? The answer to this question brings us
+to the consideration of the most remarkable phenomenon connected with
+this wonderful river. To the beholder it is matter of astonishment what
+can have become of the great mass of earth, rock, gravel, and bowlders,
+large and small, which once filled the immense chasm that lies below
+him. He learns that the water for a mile below the Falls is two hundred
+feet deep, and flows over a mass of fallen rock and stone of great depth
+lying below it; he sees a chasm of nearly double these dimensions, more
+than half of which was once filled with solid rock; he beholds the large
+quantities which have already fallen, which are still defiant, still
+breasting the ceaseless hammering of the descending flood. For centuries
+past this process has been going on, until a chasm seven miles long, a
+thousand feet wide, and, including the secondary banks, more than four
+hundred feet deep, has been excavated, and the material which filled it
+entirely removed. How? By what? Frost was the agent, ice was his delver,
+water his carrier, and the basin of Lake Ontario his dumping-ground.
+Although there is little likelihood that islands similar to Goat Island
+have existed in the channel from Lewiston upward, still it is probable
+that, when the Fall receded from the rocky cape below the Whirlpool up
+to the pool, it left masses of rock, large and small, lying on the rocky
+floor and projecting above the surface of the water. As there were no
+islands above, there were no broken, tumultuous rapids. As has been
+before remarked, the water poured over in one broad, deep, resistless
+flood. When frozen by the intense cold of winter, the great cakes of
+ice would descend with crushing force on these rocks. The smaller ones
+would be broken, pulverized, and swept down-stream, the channel for the
+water would be enlarged gradually, and the larger masses thus partially
+undermined. Then the spray and dashing water would freeze and the ice
+accumulate upon them until they were toppled over. Then the falling ice
+would recommence its chipping labors, and with every piece of ice
+knocked off, a portion of the rock would go with it. Finally, as the
+cold continued, the master force, the mightiest of mechanical powers,
+would be brought into action. The vast quantities of ice pouring over
+the precipice would freeze together, agglomerate, and form an
+ice-bridge. The roof being formed, the succeeding cakes of ice would be
+drawn under, and, raising it, be frozen to it. This process goes on.
+Every piece of rock above and below the surface is embraced in a
+relentless icy grip. Millions of tons are frozen fast together. The
+water and ice continue to plunge over the precipice. The principle of
+the hydrostatic press is made effective. Then commences a crushing and
+grinding process which is perfectly terrific. Under the resistless
+pressure brought to bear upon it, the huge mass moves half an inch in
+one direction, and an hundred cubic feet of rock are crushed to powder.
+There is a pause. Then again the immense structure moves half an inch
+another way, and once more the crumbling atoms attest its awful power.
+This goes on for weeks continuously. Finally the temperature changes.
+The sunlight becomes potent; the ice ceases to form; the warm rays
+loosen the grip of the ice-bridge along the borders of the chasm below.
+The water becomes more abundant; the bridge rises, bringing in its icy
+grasp whatever it had attached itself to beneath; it breaks up into
+masses of different dimensions: each mass starts downward with the
+growing current, breaking down or filing off everything with which it
+comes in contact. Fearful sounds come up from the hidden depths, from
+the mills which are slowly pulverizing the massive rock. The smaller
+bits and finer particles, after filling the interstices between the
+larger rocks in the bottom of the chasm, are borne lakeward. The heavier
+portions make a part of the journey this year; they will make another
+part next year, and another the next, being constantly disintegrated and
+pulverized.
+
+This work has been going on for many centuries. The result is seen in
+the vast bar of unknown depth which is spread over the bottom of Lake
+Ontario around the mouth of the river. On the inner side of the bar the
+water is from sixty to eighty feet deep, on the bar it is twenty-five
+feet deep, and outside of it in the lake it reaches a depth of six
+hundred feet.
+
+[Illustration: GREAT ICICLES UNDER THE AMERICAN FALL]
+
+And finally, to the force we have been considering, more than to any
+other, it is probable that all the coming generations of men will be
+indebted for a grand and perpendicular Fall somewhere between its
+present location and Lake St. Clair; for it must be remembered that the
+bottom of Lake Erie is only fourteen feet lower than the crest of the
+present Fall, and the bottom of Lake St. Clair is sixty-two feet higher.
+It may also be considered that the corniferous limestone of the Onondaga
+group--which succeeds the Niagara group as we approach Lake Erie--is
+more competent to maintain a perpendicular face than is the limestone of
+the latter group.
+
+We may here appropriately notice a remarkable feature in the geognosy of
+the earth's surface from Lake Huron to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have
+before stated that the elevation of that lake above tide-water is five
+hundred and seventy-eight feet. But its depth, according to Dr.
+Houghton, is one thousand feet. If this statement is correct, the bottom
+of it is four hundred and twenty-two feet below the sea-level. The
+elevation of Lake St. Clair is five hundred and seventy feet. But its
+depth is only twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty
+feet above the sea-level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five hundred and
+sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four feet deep, making it four
+hundred and eighty-four feet above the sea-level. From Lake Erie to Lake
+Ontario there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. But the
+latter lake is six hundred feet deep, and its elevation two hundred and
+thirty-two feet. Hence the bottom of it is three hundred and sixty-eight
+feet below the sea-level. From the outlet of Lake Ontario the St.
+Lawrence River flows eight hundred and twenty miles to tide-water,
+falling two hundred and thirty-two feet in this distance. The water from
+the springs at the bottom of Lake Huron is compelled to climb a mountain
+nine hundred and eighty feet high before it can start on this long
+oceanward journey.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     Forty years since--Niagara in winter--Frozen spray--Ice foliage and
+     ice apples--Ice moss--Frozen fog--Ice islands--Ice
+     statues--Sleigh-riding on the American rapids--Boys coasting on
+     them--Ice gorges.
+
+
+If the first white man who saw Niagara could have been certain that he
+was the first to see it, and had simply recorded the fact with whatever
+note or comment, he would have secured for himself that species of
+immortality which accrues to such as are connected with those first and
+last events and things in which all men feel a certain interest. But he
+failed to improve his opportunity, and Father Hennepin was the first, so
+far as known, to profit by such neglect, and his somewhat crude and
+exaggerated description of the Falls has been often quoted and is well
+known. So long as "waters flow and trees grow" it will continue to be
+read by successive generations. The French missionaries and traders who
+followed him seem to have been too much occupied in saving souls or in
+seeking for gold to spend much time in contemplating the cataract, or to
+waste much sentiment in writing about it. And so it happens that,
+considering its fame, very little has been written, or rather published,
+concerning it.
+
+Seventy years ago, the few travelers who were drawn to the vicinity by
+interest or curiosity were obliged to approach it by Indian trails, or
+rude corduroy roads, through dense and dark forests. Within the solitude
+of their deep shadows, beneath their protecting arms, was hidden one of
+the sublimest works of the physical creation. The scene was grand,
+impressive, almost oppressive, not less sublime than the Alps or the
+ocean, but more fascinating, more companionable, than either.
+
+Niagara we can take to our hearts. We realize its majesty and its
+beauty, but we are never obliged to challenge its power. Its
+surroundings and accessories are calm and peaceful. Even in all the
+treacherous and bloody warfare of savage Indians it was neutral ground.
+It was a forest city of refuge for contending tribes. The generous,
+noble, and peaceful Niagaras--a people, according to M. Charlevoix,
+"larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages," and who
+lived upon its borders--were called by the whites and the neighboring
+tribes the Neuter Nation.
+
+The crafty Hurons, the unwarlike Eries, the invincible league formed by
+the six aggressive and conquering tribes composing the Iroquois
+confederacy,--the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the
+Senecas, and the Tuscaroras,--all extinguished the torch, buried the
+tomahawk, and smoked the calumet when they came to the shores of the
+Niagara, and sat down within sight of its incense cloud, and listened to
+its perpetual anthem. In succeeding contests between the whites, on two
+occasions only was nature's repose here disturbed by the din of
+battle--first, in the running fight at Chippewa, and again at the
+obstinate and bloody struggle of Lundy's Lane.
+
+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.
+
+There is something marvelous in the purity and whiteness of congealed
+spray. One might think it to be frozen sunlight. And when, by reason of
+an angle or a curve, it is thrown into shadow, one sees where the
+rainbow has been caught and frozen in. After a day of sunshine which has
+been sufficiently warm to fill the atmosphere with aqueous vapor, if a
+sharp, still, cold night succeed, and if on this there break a clear,
+calm morning, the scene presented is one of unique and enchanting
+beauty.
+
+[Illustration: WINTER FOLIAGE]
+
+The frozen spray on every boll, limb, and twig of tree and shrub, on
+every stiffened blade of grass, on every rigid stem and tendril of the
+vines, is covered over with a fine white powder, a frosty bloom, from
+which there springs a line of delicate frost-spines, forming a perfect
+fringe of ice-moss, than which nothing more fanciful nor more beautiful
+can be imagined.
+
+Then, as the day advances, the increasing warmth of the sun's rays
+dissolves this fairy frost-work and spreads it like a delicate varnish
+over the solid spray, giving it a brilliant polish rivaling the luster
+of the rarest gems; the mid-morning breeze sets in motion this flashing,
+dazzling forest, which varies its color as the sunlight-angle varies;
+and finally, when the waxing warmth and growing breeze loosen the hold
+of the icy covering in the tree-tops, and it drops to the still solid
+surface in the shade beneath,--the tiny particles with a silver tinkle
+and the larger pieces with the sharp, rattling sound of the
+castanet,--the ear is charmed with a wild, dashing rataplan, while a
+scene of strange enchantment challenges the admiration of the spectator.
+
+Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the garment of
+frozen fog with which all external objects are adorned and etherealized
+when the spring advances and the temperature of the water is raised. As
+the sharp, still night wears on, the light mists begin to rise, and when
+the morning breaks, the river is buried in a deep, dense bank of fog. A
+gentle wave of air bears it landward; its progress is stayed by
+everything with which it comes in contact, and as soon as its motion is
+arrested it freezes sufficiently to adhere to whatever it touches. So it
+grows upon itself, and all things are soon covered half an inch in depth
+with a most delicate and fragile white fringe of frozen fog. The morning
+sun dispels the mist, and in an hour the gay frost-work vanishes.
+
+The ice islands are sometimes extensive. In the year 1856 the whole of
+the rocky bar above Goat Island was covered with ice, piled together in
+a rough heap, the lower end of which rested on Goat Island and the three
+Moss Islands lying outside of it, all of which were visited by different
+persons passing over this new route.
+
+The ice formed on the rocks below the American Fall, stretched upward,
+reached the edge of the precipice just north of the Little Horseshoe,
+continued up-stream above Chapin's Island, spread out laterally from
+that to Goat Island on the south, and over nearly half of the American
+rapids to the north. At the brow of the precipice it accumulated upward
+until it formed a ridge some forty feet high. About fifteen rods
+up-stream another ridge was formed of half the height of the first.
+Every rock projecting upward bore an immense ice-cap. Around and between
+these mounds and caps horses were driven to sleighs, albeit the course
+was not favorable for quick time. The boys drew their sleds to the top
+of the large mound, slid down it, up-stream, and nearly to the top of
+the smaller hill.
+
+On the lower or down-stream side, they would have had a clear course to
+the water below, at the brink of the Falls, and might have made "time"
+compared with which Dexter's minimum would have seemed only a funeral
+march. But with all Young America's passion for speed, he declined to
+try this route. The writer walked over the south end of Luna Island,
+above the tops of the trees.
+
+The ice-bridge of that year filled the whole chasm from the Railway
+Suspension Bridge up past the American Fall. When the ice broke up in
+the spring, such immense quantities were carried down that a strong
+northerly wind across Lake Ontario caused an ice-jam at Fort Niagara.
+The ice accumulated and set back until it reached the Whirlpool, and
+could be crossed at any point between the Whirlpool and the Fort. It was
+lifted up about sixty feet above the surface, and spread out over both
+shores, crushing and destroying everything with which it came in
+contact. Many persons from different parts of the country visited the
+extraordinary scene.
+
+At Lewiston the writer, with many others, saw a most remarkable
+illustration of the terrific power of this hydrostatic press. Just below
+the village, on the American side, there stood, about two rods from
+high-water mark, a sound, thrifty, tough white-oak tree, perhaps a
+hundred years old, and two feet in diameter. The ice, moved by the
+water, struck it near the ground and pressed it outward and upward,
+until it was actually pulled up by the roots--or rather some of the
+roots were broken and others were pulled out--and landed twenty feet
+farther away from the chasm.
+
+Those who watched the operation stated that, from the time the ice
+touched the tree until it was landed on the bank above, the motion of
+the ice could not be detected by the eye.
+
+[Illustration: ICE BRIDGE AND FROST FREAKS]
+
+Slowly, steadily, surely it pressed on. Suddenly there would be an
+explosion, sharp and loud, when a root gave way. No motion in the ice or
+tree could be discovered. After a lapse of two or three hours another
+sharp crack would give notice of another fracture. Thus the ice pressed
+gradually on, and in ten hours the work was done. A thousandth part of
+this force would pulverize a bowlder of adamant. We need not wonder,
+therefore, that the river Niagara keeps its channel clear.
+
+In the ice-gorge of 1866 the ice was set back to the upper end of the
+Whirlpool, over which it was twenty feet deep. The Whirlpool rapid was
+subdued nearly to an unbroken current, which all the way below to Lake
+Ontario was reduced to a gentle flow of quiet waters. Never was there a
+sublimer contest of the great forces of nature. The frost laid its hand
+upon the raging torrent and it was still.
+
+The winter of 1875 was intensely cold. The singular figures represented
+in the illustrations--the eagle, dog, baboon, and others--are exact
+reproductions of the real chance-work of the frost of that season. The
+long-continued prevalence of the south-west wind fastened to every
+object facing it a border or apron of dazzling whiteness, and more than
+five feet thick. The ice mountain below the American Fall, reaching
+nearly to the top of the precipice, was appropriated as a "coasting"
+course, and furnished most exhilarating sport to the people who used it.
+A large number of visitors came from all directions, and, on the 22d of
+February, fifteen hundred were assembled to see the extraordinary
+exhibition.
+
+In the coldest winters, the ice-bridges cannot be less than two hundred
+and fifty feet thick. The ice-bridge of 1875 formed on the 6th and 7th
+of May, was crossed on the 8th, and broke up on the 14th--the only one
+ever known in the river so late in the spring.
+
+[Illustration: COASTING BELOW THE AMERICAN FALL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Judge Porter--General Porter--Goat Island--Origin of its
+     name--Early dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the
+     rock--Professor Kalm's wonderful story--Bridges to the
+     Island--Method of construction--Red Jacket--Anecdotes--Grand
+     Island--Major Noah and the New Jerusalem--The Stone Tower--The
+     Biddle Stairs--Sam Patch--Depth of water on the Horseshoe--Ships
+     sent over the Falls.
+
+
+In preparing this narrative, the writer has had the good fortune to
+listen to many recitals of facts and incidents by the late Judge
+Augustus Porter and the late General Peter B. Porter, whose names are
+intimately and honorably connected with the more recent history, not
+only of this particular locality but of the Empire State.
+
+Judge Porter, after having spent several years in surveying and lotting
+large portions of the territory of Western New York and the Western
+Reserve in Ohio, came from Canandaigua to Niagara Falls with his family
+in June, 1806, where he continued to live until his death, nearly fifty
+years afterward.
+
+General Porter settled as a lawyer at Canandaigua in 1795, removed to
+Black Rock in 1810, and to Niagara Falls in 1838.
+
+In 1805, the two brothers became interested with others in the purchase
+from the State of New York of four lots in the Mile Strip lying both
+above and below the Falls.
+
+A few years later, they purchased not only the interest of their
+partners in these lots, but other lands at different points along this
+strip. In 1814, they bought of Samuel Sherwood a paper since named a
+_float_--an instrument given by the State authorizing the bearer to
+locate two hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated lands
+belonging to the State. This float they fortunately anchored on Goat
+Island and the islands adjacent thereto lying "immediately above and
+adjoining the Great Falls."
+
+The origin of the name of Goat Island is as follows: Mr. John Stedman,
+who came into the country in 1760, had cleared a portion of the upper
+end of the island, and in the summer of 1779 he placed on it an aged and
+dignified male goat. The following winter was very severe, navigation to
+the island was impracticable, and the goat fell a victim to the intense
+cold. Since which the scene of his exile and death has been called Goat
+Island.
+
+By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, the boundary
+line between Great Britain and the United States, on the Niagara
+frontier, was to run through the deepest water along the river-courses
+and through the center of the Great Lakes. As the deepest water, at this
+point, is in the center of the Horseshoe Fall, the islands in the river
+fell to the Americans. General Porter, acting as Commissioner for the
+United States, proposed to call the largest one Iris Island, and it was
+so printed on the boundary maps. But the public adhered to the old name
+of Goat Island.
+
+One of the early chronicles states that the island contained two hundred
+and fifty acres of land. At the present time there are in it less than
+seventy. A strip some ten rods wide by eighty rods long has been worn
+away from the southern side of it since 1818, when Judge Porter made the
+first road around it.
+
+The earliest date he found on the island was 1765, carved on a
+beech-tree. The earliest date cut in the rock on the main-land was 1645.
+Human bones and arrowheads were found on the island. The Indians went to
+it with their canoes, which they paddled up and down in the
+comparatively quiet water lying on the rocky bar which extends upward
+nearly a mile above the head of the island.
+
+Notwithstanding this fact, the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, who visited the
+place in 1750, relates a fabulous story of two Indians who, on a hunting
+excursion above the Falls, drank too freely from "two bottles of French
+brandy" which they brought from Fort Niagara; becoming drowsy, they laid
+themselves down in the bottom of their canoe for a nap.
+
+The canoe swung off shore and floated down-stream. Nearing the rapids,
+the noise awakened one of them, who had apparently been more fortunate
+in learning the English language from the French than most of his tribe,
+for, seeing their perilous situation, he exclaimed: "We are gone!" But
+the two plied their paddles with such aboriginal vigor that they
+succeeded in landing on Goat Island. From the sequel it would seem that
+they must have destroyed or lost their canoe. Finding no houses of
+refreshment, nor cairns of stores left by former explorers, and most
+naturally getting hungry, they concluded it would be desirable to get
+back to the fort--a wish more easily expressed than accomplished.
+
+But it was necessary for them to "do or die." So, as the story runs,
+they stripped the bark from the basswood trees, and with it made a
+ladder long enough to reach from a tree standing on the edge of the
+precipice at the foot of the island down to the water below.
+
+After dropping their ladder they followed it downward. Reaching the
+water, and being good swimmers, they plunged in with great glee,
+expecting to be able to swim across to the opposite shore, which they
+could easily climb. But the counter current forced them back to the
+island.
+
+After being a good deal bruised on the rocks, they were compelled to
+abandon the attempt to cross, and then returned up their ladder to the
+island. There, after much whooping, they attracted the notice of other
+Indians on the shore. These reported the situation at the fort, and the
+commandant sent up a party of whites and Indians to rescue them. They
+brought with them four light pike-poles. Going to a point opposite the
+head of the island, they exchanged salutations with the new Crusoes, and
+began preparations for their rescue. Two Indians volunteered to
+undertake the task. "They took leave of all their friends as if they
+were going to their death." Each Indian rescuer, according to the
+wondrous fable, took two pike-poles and _waded_ across the channel to
+the island, gave each of the Crusoes a pike-pole, and then the four
+waded back to the main-land, where they were joyfully received by their
+anxious, waiting friends, after having been "nine days on the island."
+
+Remembering that the water in mid-channel is twelve feet deep, with a
+twelve-mile current, we must concede this to be the most marvelous of
+all aquatic achievements.
+
+In 1817 Judge Porter built the first bridge to Goat Island, about forty
+rods above the present bridge. In the following spring the large cakes
+of ice from the river above, not being sufficiently broken up by the
+short stretch of rapids over which they passed, struck the bridge with
+terrific force, and carried away the greater part of it. With the
+courage and enterprise of a New-Englander, the next season he
+constructed another bridge farther down, on the present site, rightly
+judging that the ice would be so much broken up before reaching it as to
+be harmless.
+
+That bridge, with constant repairs and one almost entire renewal, stood
+firm in its place until the year 1856, when it was removed to make room
+for the present iron bridge. The old piers were much enlarged and
+strengthened, and also raised about three feet higher to receive the new
+bridge. As nearly every stranger inquires how the first bridge was
+carried over the turbulent waters, a brief description of the process
+may be acceptable. First, a strong bulkhead was built in the shallow
+water next to the shore; a solid backing was put in behind this, and
+the upper surface properly graded and well floored with plank. Strong
+rollers were placed parallel with the stream and fastened to the floor.
+In the old forest then standing near by were many noble oaks, of
+different sizes and great length. A number of these were felled and
+hewed "tapering," as it was termed, so that, when finished, they were
+about eighteen inches square at the butt, fifteen at the top, and eighty
+feet long. Through the small ends were bored large auger-holes. These
+sticks were placed, as required, on the rollers, at right angles to the
+stream, the small ends over the water, and the shore ends heavily
+weighted down.
+
+[Illustration: SECOND MOSS ISLAND BRIDGE]
+
+The first stick being properly placed, levers were applied to the
+rollers and the stick was run out until the small end reached an eddy in
+the water. Then another similar stick was run out in like manner,
+parallel to the first, and about six feet from it. A few light, strong
+planks were placed across and made fast. Two men were provided each with
+strong, iron-pointed pike-staffs, each staff having in its upper end a
+hole, through which was drawn some ten feet of new rope. Thus provided,
+they walked out on the timbers, drove their iron pikes down among the
+stones, and tied them fast to the timbers. Thus the whole problem was
+solved. Around these pike-staffs the first pier was built and filled
+with stone. Then other timbers were run out, all were planked over, and
+the first span was completed. The other spans were laid in the same way.
+
+The great Indian chief and orator, Red Jacket, occasionally visited
+Judge and General Porter--the latter then living at Black Rock. Judge
+Porter told this anecdote of the chief: He visited the Falls while the
+mechanics were stretching the timbers across the rapids for the second
+bridge. He sat for a long time on a pile of plank, watching their
+operations. His mind seemed to be busy both with the past and the
+present, reflecting upon the vast territory his race once possessed, and
+intensely conscious of the fact that it was theirs no longer. Apparently
+mortified, and vexed that its paleface owners should so successfully
+develop and improve it, he rose from his seat, and, uttering the
+well-known Indian guttural "Ugh, ugh!" he exclaimed: "D----n Yankee!
+d----n Yankee!" Then, gathering his blanket-cloak around him, with his
+usual dignity and downcast eyes, he slowly walked away, and never
+returned to the spot.
+
+Before parting with the distinguished chief, we will repeat after
+General Porter two other anecdotes characteristic of him. He lived not
+far from Buffalo, on the Seneca Reservation, and frequently visited the
+late General Wadsworth, at Geneseo. Indeed, his visits grew to be
+somewhat perplexing, for the great chief must be entertained personally
+by the host of the establishment.
+
+Of course he was a "teetotaler"--only in one way. When he got a glass of
+good liquor he drank the whole of it. He was very fond of the rich
+apple-juice of the Geneseo orchards. Having repeated his visits to
+General Wadsworth, at one time, with rather inconvenient frequency, and
+coming one day when the General saw that he had been drinking pretty
+freely somewhere else, his host concluded he would not offer him the
+usual refreshments. In due time, therefore, Red Jacket rose and excused
+himself. As he was leaving the room the orator said, "General, hear!"
+"Well, what, Red Jacket?" To which he replied with great gravity:
+"General, when I get home to my people, and they ask me how your cider
+tasted, what shall I tell them?" Of course he got the cider.
+
+His determined and constant opposition to the sale of the lands
+belonging to the Indians is well known. At the council held at Buffalo
+Creek, in 1811, he was selected by the Indians to answer the proposition
+of a New York land company to buy more land. The Indians refused to
+sell, although, as usual, the company only wanted "a small tract." To
+illustrate the system, after the speech-making was over, Red Jacket
+placed half a dozen Indians on a log, which lay near by. They did not
+sit very close together, but had plenty of room. He then took a white
+man who wanted "a small tract," and making the Indians at one end "move
+up," he put the white man beside them. Then he brought another
+"small-tract" white man, and making the aborigines "move up" once more,
+the Indian on the end was obliged to rise from the log. He repeated this
+process until but one of the original occupants was left on the log.
+Then suddenly he shoved him off, put a white man in his place, and
+turning to the land agent said: "See what one _small tract_ means; white
+man _all_, Indian _nothing_."
+
+Colonel William L. Stone, in his "Life of Red Jacket," relates the
+following: In 1816, after Red Jacket took up his residence on Buffalo
+Creek, east of the city, a young French count traveling through the
+country made a brief stay at Buffalo, whence he sent a request to the
+sachem to visit him at his hotel.
+
+Red Jacket, in reply, informed the young nobleman that if he wished to
+see the old chief he would give him a welcome greeting at his cabin. The
+count sent again to say that he was much fatigued by his journey of four
+thousand miles, which he had made for the purpose of seeing the
+celebrated Indian orator, Red Jacket, and thought it strange that he
+should not be willing to come four miles to meet him. But the proud and
+shrewd old chief replied that he thought it still more strange, after
+the count had traveled so great a distance for that purpose, that he
+should halt only a few miles from the home of the man he had come so far
+to see. The count finally visited the sachem at his house, and was much
+pleased with the dignity and wisdom of his savage host. The point of
+etiquette having been satisfactorily settled, the chief accepted an
+invitation to dinner, and was no doubt able to tell his people how the
+count's "cider" tasted.
+
+In 1819, when the boundary commissioners ran the line through the
+Niagara River, Grand Island fell to the United States, under the rule
+that that line should be in the center of the main channel. To ascertain
+this, accurate measurements were made, by which it was found that
+12,802,750 cubic feet of water passed through the Canadian channel, and
+8,540,080 through the American channel. To test the accuracy of these
+measurements, the quantity passing in the narrow channel at Black Rock
+was determined by the same method, and was found to be 21,549,590 cubic
+feet, thus substantially corroborating the first two measurements.
+
+The Indian name of Grand Island is Owanunga. In 1825, Mr. M. M. Noah, a
+politician of the last generation, took some preliminary steps for
+reëstablishing the lost nationality of the Jews upon this island, where
+a New Jerusalem was to be founded. Assuming the title of "Judge of
+Israel," he appeared at Buffalo in September for the purpose of founding
+the new nation and city. A meeting was held in old St. Paul's Church, at
+which, with the aid of a militia company, martial music, and masonic
+rites, the remarkable initiatory proceedings took place.
+
+The self-constituted judge presented himself arrayed in gorgeous robes
+of office, consisting of a rich black cloth tunic, covered by a
+capacious mantle of crimson silk trimmed with ermine, and having a
+richly embossed golden medal hanging from his neck. After what, in the
+account published in his own paper of the day's proceedings, he called
+"impressive and unique ceremonies," he read a proclamation to "all the
+Jews throughout the world," informing them "that an Asylum was prepared
+and offered to them," and that he did "revive, renew, and establish (in
+the Lord's name), the government of the Jewish nation, * * * confirming
+and perpetuating all our rights and privileges, our rank and power,
+among the nations of the earth as they existed and were recognized under
+the government of the Judges." He also ordered a census to be taken of
+all the Hebrews in the world, and levied a capitation tax of three
+shekels--about one dollar and sixty cents--"to pay the expenses of
+re-organizing the government and assisting emigrants." He had prepared a
+"foundation stone," which was afterward erected on the site of the new
+city, and which bore the following inscription:
+
+
+          "Hear, O Israel, the Lord
+          is our God--the Lord is one."
+
+                   "ARARAT,
+          A CITY OF REFUGE FOR THE JEWS,
+         FOUNDED BY MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH,
+     IN THE MONTH OF TISRI 5586--SEPT. 1825,
+            IN THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF
+            AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE."
+
+
+After the meeting at St. Paul's, the "Judge" returned at once to New
+York, and, like the great early ruler of his nation, he only saw the
+land of promise, as he never crossed to the island.
+
+The strong round tower, called the Terrapin Tower, which stood near Goat
+Island, not far from the precipice, was built in 1833, of stones
+gathered in the vicinity. It was forty-five feet high, and twelve feet
+in diameter at the base. So much was said in 1873 about the growing
+insecurity of the tower that it was taken down.
+
+The Biddle Staircase was named for Mr. Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia,
+who contributed a sum of money toward its construction. It was erected
+in 1829. The shaft is eighty feet high and firmly fastened to the rock.
+The stairs are spiral, winding round it from top to bottom. Near the
+foot of these stairs, at the water's edge, Samuel Patch, who wished to
+demonstrate to the world that "some things could be done as well as
+others," set up a ladder one hundred feet high, from which he made two
+leaps into the water below. Going thence to Rochester, he took another
+leap near the Genesee Falls, which proved to be his last.
+
+The depth of water on the Horseshoe Fall is a subject of speculation
+with every visitor. It was correctly determined in 1827. In the autumn
+of that year, the ship _Michigan_, having been condemned as unseaworthy,
+was purchased by a few persons, and sent over the Falls. Her hull was
+eighteen feet deep. It filled going down the rapids, and went over the
+Horseshoe Fall with some water above the deck, indicating that there
+must have been at least twenty feet of water above the rock. This voyage
+of the _Michigan_ was an event of the day. A glowing hand-bill, charged
+with bold type and sensational tropes, announced that "The Pirate
+_Michigan_, with a cargo of furious animals," would "pass the great
+rapids and the Falls of Niagara," on the "eighth of September, 1827."
+She would sail "through the white-tossing and deep-rolling rapids of
+Niagara, and down its grand precipice into the basin below."
+Entertainment was promised "for all who may visit the Falls on the
+present occasion, which will, for its novelty and the remarkable
+spectacle it will present, be unequaled in the annals of _infernal_
+navigation." Considering that the Falls could be reached only by road
+conveyances, the gathering of people was very large. The voyage was
+successfully made, and the "cargo of live animals" duly deposited in the
+"basin below," except a bear which left the ship near the center of the
+rapids and swam ashore, but was recaptured.
+
+Two enterprising individuals made arrangements to supply the people
+assembled on the island with refreshments. They had an ample spread of
+tables and an abundant supply of provisions. As there was much delay in
+getting the vessel down the river, the people got impatient and hungry.
+They took their places at the tables. When their appetites were nearly
+satisfied, notice was given that the ship was coming, whereupon they
+departed hurriedly, forgetting to leave the equivalent half-dollar for
+the benefit of the purveyors.
+
+In after years, one of the proprietors of this unexpected "free
+lunch"--the late General Whitney--established here one of the best
+hotels in the country, and left his heirs an ample fortune.
+
+A few geese in the cargo were only badly confused by their unusual
+plunge, and were afterward picked up from boats. It was noticed as being
+a little singular that geese which went over the Falls in the Pirate
+_Michigan_ were for sale at extravagant prices all the next season.
+
+Another condemned vessel of about five hundred tons burden, the
+_Detroit_, which had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was
+sent down the rapids in 1841. A large concourse of people assembled from
+all parts of the country to witness the spectacle. Her rolling and
+plunging in the rapids were fearful, until about midway of them she
+stuck fast on a bar, where she lay until knocked to pieces by the ice.
+From Baron La Hontan we know that the Indians went on the water, just
+below the Falls, in their canoes, to gather the game which had been
+swept over them. For more than a hundred years there has been a ferry of
+skiff and yawl boats at this point, and in all that time not one serious
+accident has happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the
+     Rapids--Rescue of Chapin--Rescue of Allen--He takes the _Maid of
+     the Mist_ through the Whirlpool--His companions--Effect upon
+     Robinson--Biographical notice--His grave unmarked.
+
+
+The history of the navigation of the Rapids of Niagara may be
+appropriately concluded in this chapter, which is devoted to a notice of
+the remarkable man who began it, who had no rival and has left no
+successor in it--Joel R. Robinson.
+
+In the summer of 1838, while some extensive repairs were being made on
+the main bridge to Goat Island, a mechanic named Chapin fell from the
+lower side of it into the rapids, about ten rods from the Bath Island
+shore. The swift current bore him toward the first small island lying
+below the bridge. Knowing how to swim, he made a desperate and
+successful effort to reach it. It is hardly more than thirty feet
+square, and is covered with cedars and hemlocks. Saved from drowning, he
+seemed likely to fall a victim to starvation. All thoughts were then
+turned to Robinson, and not in vain. He launched his light red skiff
+from the foot of Bath Island, picked his way cautiously and skillfully
+through the rapids to the little island, took Chapin in and brought him
+safely to the shore, much to the relief of the spectators, who gave
+expression to their appreciation of Robinson's service by a moderate
+contribution.
+
+[Illustration: JOEL R. ROBINSON]
+
+In the summer of 1841, a Mr. Allen started for Chippewa in a boat just
+before sunset. Being anxious to get across before dark, he plied his
+oars with such vigor that one of them broke when he was about opposite
+the middle Sister. With the remaining oar he tried to make the head of
+Goat Island. The current, however, set too strongly toward the great
+Canadian Rapids, and his only hope was to reach the outer Sister.
+Nearing this, and not being able to run his boat upon it, he sprang out,
+and, being a good swimmer, by a vigorous effort succeeded in getting
+ashore. Certain of having a lonely if not an unpleasant night, and being
+the fortunate possessor of two stray matches, he lighted a fire and
+solaced himself with his thoughts and his pipe. Next morning, taking off
+his red flannel shirt, he raised a signal of distress. Toward noon the
+unusual smoke and the red flag attracted attention. The situation was
+soon ascertained, and Robinson informed of it. Not long after noon, the
+little red skiff was carried across Goat Island and launched in the
+channel just below the Moss Islands. Robinson then pulled himself across
+to the foot of the middle Sister, and tried in vain to find a point
+where he could cross to the outer one. Approaching darkness compelled
+him to suspend operations. He rowed back to Goat Island, got some
+refreshments, returned to the middle Sister, threw the food across to
+Allen, and then left him to his second night of solitude. The next day
+Robinson took with him two long, light, strong cords, with a properly
+shaped piece of lead weighing about a pound. Tying the lead to one of
+the cords he threw it across to Allen. Robinson fastened the other end
+of Allen's cord to the bow of the skiff; then attaching his own cord to
+the skiff also, he shoved it off. Allen drew it to himself, got into it,
+pushed off, and Robinson drew him to where he stood on the middle
+island. Then seating Allen in the stern of the skiff he returned across
+the rapids to Goat Island, where both were assisted up the bank by the
+spectators, and the little craft, too, which seemed to be almost as much
+an object of curiosity with the crowd as Robinson himself.
+
+This was the second person rescued by Robinson from islands which had
+been considered wholly inaccessible. It is no exaggeration to say that
+there was not another man in the country who could have saved Chapin and
+Allen as he did.
+
+In the summer of 1855 a canal-boat, with two men and a dog in it, was
+discovered in the strong current near Grass Island. The men, finding
+they could not save the large boat, took to their small one and got
+ashore, leaving the dog to his fate. The abandoned craft floated down
+and lodged on the rocks on the south side of Goat Island, and about
+twenty rods above the ledge over which the rapids make the first
+perpendicular break. There were left in the boat a watch, a gun, and
+some articles of clothing. The owner offered Robinson a liberal salvage
+if he would recover the property. Taking one of his sons with him, he
+started the little red skiff from the head of the hydraulic canal, half
+a mile above the island, shot across the American channel, and ran
+directly to the boat. Holding the skiff to it himself, the young man got
+on board and secured the valuables. The dog had escaped during the
+night. Leaving the canal-boat, Robinson ran down the ledge between the
+second and third Moss Islands, and thence to Goat Island. On going over
+the ledge he had occasion to exercise that quickness of apprehension and
+presence of mind for which he was so noted. The water was rather lower
+than he had calculated, and on reaching the top of the ledge the bottom
+of the skiff near the bow struck the rock. Instantly he sprang to the
+stern, freed the skiff, and made the descent safely. If the stern had
+swung athwart the current, the skiff would certainly have been wrecked.
+
+In the year 1846, a small steamer was built in the eddy just above the
+Railway Suspension Bridge, to run up to the Falls. She was very
+appropriately named _The Maid of the Mist_. Her engine was rather weak,
+but she safely accomplished the trip. As, however, she took passengers
+aboard only from the Canadian side, she could pay little more than
+expenses. In 1854 a larger, better boat, with a more powerful engine,
+the new _Maid of the Mist_, was put on the route, and as she took
+passengers from both sides of the river, many thousands of persons made
+the exciting and impressive voyage up to the Falls. The admiration which
+the visitor felt as he passed quietly along near the American Fall was
+changed into awe when he began to feel the mighty pulse of the great
+deep just below the tower, then swung round into the white foam
+directly in front of the Horseshoe, and saw the sky of waters falling
+toward him. And he seemed to be lifted on wings as he sailed swiftly
+down on the rushing stream through a baptism of spray. To many persons
+there was a fascination about it that induced them to make the trip
+every time they had an opportunity to do so. Owing to some change in her
+appointments, which confined her to the Canadian shore for the reception
+of passengers, she became unprofitable. Her owner, having decided to
+leave the neighborhood, wished to sell her as she lay at her dock. This
+he could not do, but he received an offer of something more than half of
+her cost, if he would deliver her at Niagara, opposite the fort. This he
+decided to do, after consultation with Robinson, who had acted as her
+captain and pilot on her trips below the Falls. The boat required for
+her navigation an engineer, who also acted as fireman, and a pilot.
+
+Mr. Robinson agreed to act as pilot for the fearful voyage, and the
+engineer, Mr. Jones, consented to go with him. A courageous machinist,
+Mr. McIntyre, volunteered to share the risk with them. They put her in
+complete trim, removing from deck and hold all superfluous articles.
+Notice was given of the time for starting, and a large number of people
+assembled to see the fearful plunge, no one expecting to see the crew
+again alive after they should leave the dock. This dock, as has been
+before stated, was just above the Railway Suspension Bridge, at the
+place where she was built, and where she was laid up in the
+winter--that, too, being the only place where she could lie without
+danger of being crushed by the ice. Twenty rods below this eddy the
+water plunges sharply down into the head of the crooked, tumultuous
+rapid which we have before noticed as reaching from the bridge to the
+Whirlpool. At the Whirlpool, the danger of being drawn under was most to
+be apprehended; in the rapids, of being turned over or knocked to
+pieces. From the Whirlpool to Lewiston is one wild, turbulent rush and
+whirl of water, without a square foot of smooth surface in the whole
+distance.
+
+About three o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, 1861, the engineer took
+his place in the hold, and, knowing that their flitting would be short
+at the best, and might be only the preface to swift destruction, set his
+steam-valve at the proper gauge, and awaited--not without anxiety--the
+tinkling signal that should start them on their flying voyage. McIntyre
+joined Robinson at the wheel on the upper deck. Self-possessed, and with
+the calmness which results from undoubting courage and confidence, yet
+with the humility which recognizes all possibilities, with downcast eyes
+and firm hands, Robinson took his place at the wheel and pulled the
+starting bell. With a shriek from her whistle and a white puff from her
+escape-pipe, to take leave, as it were, of the multitude gathered on the
+shores and on the bridge, the boat ran up the eddy a short distance,
+then swung round to the right, cleared the smooth water, and shot like
+an arrow into the rapid under the bridge. Robinson intended to take the
+inside curve of the rapid, but a fierce cross-current carried him to
+the outer curve, and when a third of the way down it a jet of water
+struck against her rudder, a column dashed up under her starboard side,
+heeled her over, carried away her smokestack, started her overhang on
+that side, threw Robinson flat on his back, and thrust McIntyre against
+her starboard wheel-house with such force as to break it through. Every
+eye was fixed, every tongue was silent, and every looker-on breathed
+freer as she emerged from the fearful baptism, shook her wounded sides,
+slid into the Whirlpool, and for a moment rode again on an even keel.
+Robinson rose at once, seized the helm, set her to the right of the
+large pot in the pool, then turned her directly through the neck of it.
+Thence, after receiving another drenching from its combing waves, she
+dashed on without further accident to the quiet bosom of the river below
+Lewiston.
+
+[Illustration: THE _Maid of the Mist_ IN THE WHIRLPOOL]
+
+Thus was accomplished one of the most remarkable and perilous voyages
+ever made by men. The boat was seventy-two feet long, with seventeen
+feet breadth of beam and eight feet depth of hold, and carried an engine
+of one hundred horse-power. In conversation with Robinson after the
+voyage, he stated that the greater part of it was like what he had
+always imagined must be the swift sailing of a large bird in a downward
+flight; that when the accident occurred the boat seemed to be struck
+from all directions at once; that she trembled like a fiddle-string, and
+felt as if she would crumble away and drop into atoms; that both he and
+McIntyre were holding to the wheel with all their strength, but produced
+no more effect than they would if they had been two flies; that he had
+no fear of striking the rocks, for he knew that the strongest suction
+must be in the deepest channel, and that the boat must remain in that.
+Finding that McIntyre was somewhat bewildered by excitement or by his
+fall, as he rolled up by his side but did not rise, he quietly put his
+foot on his breast, to keep him from rolling around the deck, and thus
+finished the voyage.
+
+Poor Jones, imprisoned beneath the hatches before the glowing furnace,
+went down on his knees, as he related afterward, and although a more
+earnest prayer was never uttered and few that were shorter, still it
+seemed to him prodigiously long. To that prayer he thought they owed
+their salvation.
+
+The effect of this trip upon Robinson was decidedly marked. As he lived
+only a few years afterward, his death was commonly attributed to it. But
+this was incorrect, since the disease which terminated his life was
+contracted at New Orleans at a later day. "He was," said Mrs. Robinson
+to the writer, "twenty years older when he came home that day than when
+he went out." He sank into his chair like a person overcome with
+weariness. He decided to abandon the water, and advised his sons to
+venture no more about the rapids. Both his manner and appearance were
+changed. Calm and deliberate before, he became thoughtful and serious
+afterward. He had been borne, as it were, in the arms of a power so
+mighty that its impress was stamped on his features and on his mind.
+Through a slightly opened door he had seen a vision which awed and
+subdued him. He became reverent in a moment. He grew venerable in an
+hour.
+
+Yet he had a strange, almost irrepressible, desire to make this voyage
+immediately after the steamer was put on below the Falls. The wish was
+only increased when the first _Maid of the Mist_ was superseded by the
+new and stancher one. He insisted that the voyage could be made with
+safety, and that it might be made a good pecuniary speculation.
+
+He was a character--an original. Born on the banks of the Connecticut,
+in the town of Springfield, Massachusetts, it was in the beautiful reach
+of water which skirts that city that he acquired his love of aquatic
+sports and exercises and his skill in them. He was nearly six feet in
+stature, with light chestnut hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. He
+was a kind-hearted man, of equable temper, few words, cool, deliberate,
+decided; lithe as a Gaul and gentle as a girl. It goes without saying
+that he was a man of "undaunted courage." He had that calm, serene,
+supreme equanimity of temperament which fear could not reach nor
+disturb. He might have been, under right conditions, a quiet, willing
+martyr, and at last he bore patiently the wearying hours of slow decay
+which ended his life. His love of nature and adventure was paramount to
+his love of money, and although he was never pinched with poverty, he
+never had abundance.
+
+He loved the water, and was at home in it or on it, as he was a capital
+swimmer and a skillful oarsman. Especially he delighted in the rapids of
+the Niagara. Kind and compassionate as he was by nature, he was almost
+glad when he heard that a fellow-creature was, in some way, entangled in
+the rapids, since it would give him an excuse, an opportunity, to work
+in them and to help him. As he was not a boaster, he made no superfluous
+exhibitions of his skill or courage, albeit he might occasionally
+indulge--and be indulged--in some mirthful manifestation of his
+good-nature; as when, on reaching Chapin's refuge for his rescue, he
+waved from one of its tallest cedars a green branch to the anxious
+spectators, as if to assure and encourage them; and when he returned
+with his skiff half filled with cedar-sprigs, which he distributed to
+the multitude, they raised his pet craft to their shoulders, with both
+Chapin and himself in it, and bore them in triumph through the village,
+while money tokens were thrown into the boat to replace the green ones.
+
+He never foolishly challenged the admiration of his fellow-men. But when
+the emergency arose for the proper exercise of his powers, when news
+came that some one was in trouble in the river, then he went to work
+with a calm and cheerful will which gave assurance of the best results.
+Beneath his quiet deliberation of manner there was concealed a wonderful
+vigor both of resolution and nerve, as was amply shown by the dangers
+which he faced, and by the bend in his withy oar as he forced it through
+the water, and the feathery spray which flashed from its blade when he
+lifted it to the surface.
+
+In all fishing and sailing parties his presence was indispensable for
+those who knew him. The most timid child or woman no longer hesitated if
+Robinson was to go with the party. His quick eye saw everything, and his
+willing hand did all that it was necessary to do, to secure the comfort
+and safety of the company.
+
+It is doubtful whether more than a very few of his neighbors know where
+he lies, in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery, near the rapids.
+Robinson went forth on a turbulent, unreturning flood, where the
+slightest hesitancy in thought or act would have proved instantly fatal.
+Benevolent associations in different cities and countries bestow honor
+and rewards on those who, by unselfish effort and a noble courage, save
+the life of a fellow-being. This Robinson did repeatedly, yet no
+monument commemorates his worthy deeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     A fisherman and a bear in a canoe--Frightful experience with
+     floating ice--Early farming on the Niagara--Fruit growing--The
+     original forest--Testimony of the trees--The first hotel--General
+     Whitney--Cataract House--Distinguished visitors--Carriage road down
+     the Canadian bank--Ontario House--Clifton House--The Museum--Table
+     and Termination Rocks--Burning Spring--Lundy's Lane--Battle
+     Anecdotes.
+
+
+Soon after the War of 1812, a fisherman--whose name we will call
+Fisher--on a certain day went out upon the river, about three miles
+above the Fall; and while anchored and fishing from his canoe, he saw a
+bear in the water making, very leisurely, for Navy Island. Not
+understanding thoroughly the nature and habits of the animal, thinking
+he would be a capital prize, and having a spear in the canoe, he hoisted
+anchor and started in pursuit. As the canoe drew near, the bear turned
+to pay his respects to its occupant. Fisher, with his spear, made a
+desperate thrust at him. Quicker and more deftly than the most expert
+fencer could have done it, the quadruped parried the blow, and,
+disarming his assailant, knocked the spear more than ten feet from the
+canoe. Fisher then seized a paddle and belabored the bear over his head
+and on his paws, as he placed the latter on the side of the canoe and
+drew himself in. The now frightened fisherman, not knowing how to swim,
+was in a most uncomfortable predicament. He felt greatly relieved,
+therefore, when the animal deliberately sat himself down, facing him, in
+the bow of the canoe. Resolving in his own mind that he would generously
+resign the whole canoe to the creature as soon as he should reach the
+land, he raised his paddle and began to pull vigorously shoreward,
+especially as the rapids lay just below him, and the Falls were roaring
+most ominously.
+
+Much to his surprise, as soon as he began to paddle Bruin began to
+growl, and, as he repeated his stroke, the occupant of the bow raised
+his note of disapproval an octave higher, and at the same time made a
+motion as if he would attack him. Fisher had no desire to cultivate a
+closer intimacy, and so stopped paddling.
+
+[Illustration: FISHER AND THE BEAR]
+
+Bruin serenely contemplated the landscape in the direction of the
+island. Fisher was also intensely interested in the same scene, and
+still more intensely impressed with their gradual approach to the
+rapids. He tried the paddle again. But the tyrant of the quarter-deck
+again emphatically objected, and as _he_ was master of the situation,
+and fully resolved not to resign the command of the craft until the
+termination of the voyage, there was no alternative but submission.
+Still, the rapids were frightfully near and something must be done. He
+gave a tremendous shout. But Bruin was not in a musical mood, and vetoed
+that with as much emphasis as he had done the paddling. Then he turned
+his eyes on Fisher quite interestedly, as if he were calculating the
+best method of dissecting him. The situation was fast becoming
+something more than painful. Man and bear in opposite ends of the canoe
+floating--not exactly double--but together to inevitable destruction.
+But every suspense has an end. The single shout, or something else, had
+called the attention of the neighbors to the canoe. They came to the
+rescue, and an old settler, with a musket which he had used in the War
+of 1812, fired a charge of buck-shot into Bruin which induced him to
+take to the water, after which he was soon taken, captive and dead, to
+the shore. He weighed over three hundred pounds.
+
+A son of the settler who shot the bear had a frightful experience in the
+river many years afterward. He was engaged in Canada in the business of
+buying saw-logs for the American market. Coming from the woods down to
+Chippewa one cold day in December, at a time when considerable
+quantities of strong, thin cakes of ice were floating in the river, he
+took a flat-bottom skiff to row across to his home. This he did without
+apprehension, as he had been born and brought up on the banks of the
+Niagara, understood it well, and was also a strong, resolute man.
+
+As he drew near the foot of Navy Island, intending to take the chute
+between it and Buckhorn Island, two large cakes between which he was
+sailing suddenly closed together and cut the bottom of his skiff square
+off. Just above the cake on which his bottomless skiff was then floating
+there was a second large cake, at a little distance from it, and beyond
+this a strip of water which washed the shore of Navy Island. In less
+time than it has taken to write this, he sprang upon the first piece of
+ice, ran across it with desperate speed, cleared the first space of
+water at a single leap, ran across the next cake of ice, jumped with all
+his might, and landed in the icy water within a rod of the shore, to
+which he swam. He was soon after warming and drying himself before the
+rousing fire of the only occupant of the island.
+
+His father had a fine farm on the bank of the river, which he cultivated
+with much care. But before the drainage of the country was completed the
+land was decidedly wet. A friend from the East who made him a call found
+him plowing. The water stood in the bottom of the furrows. But
+agriculture has been progressive since those days. It is now almost a
+fine art instead of a mere pursuit. And nowhere north of the equator is
+there a climate and soil so genial and favorable for the growth of
+certain kinds of fruit, especially the apple and the peach, as are those
+of Niagara County. Many persons claim that they can tell from the
+peculiar consistency of the pulp, and by its flavor and _bouquet_, on
+which side of the Genesee River an apple is grown.
+
+It is said that the winter apples of Niagara are as well known and as
+greatly prized above all others of their kind on the docks of Liverpool,
+as is Sea Island cotton above all other grades of that plant. The
+delicious little russet known as the _Pomme Gris_, with its fine
+aromatic flavor when ripe, grows nowhere else to such perfection as
+along the Niagara River. In 1825, at the grand celebration held to
+commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal, the late Judge Porter
+made the first shipment east of apples raised in Niagara County. It
+consisted of two barrels, one of which was sent to the corporation of
+the city of Troy, and the other to that of New York. They were duly
+received and honored. From this small beginning the fruit trade has
+grown to the yearly value of more than a million of dollars for Niagara
+County alone.
+
+With reference to the forest which once covered this country, an
+erroneous impression prevails as to its age. Poets and romancers have
+been in the habit of speaking of these "primeval forests" as though they
+might have been bushes when Nahor and Abraham were infants. But this is
+a great error. Since the discovery of the country only one tree has been
+found that was eight hundred years old. This is mentioned by Sir Charles
+Lyell as having grown out of one of the ancient mounds near Marietta,
+Ohio. But the great majority of them were not over three hundred years
+old. The testimony of the trees concerning the past is not quite so
+abundant as that of the rocks, but that of one tree grown in central New
+York is of a remarkable character. It was a white oak, which grew in the
+rich valley of the Clyde River, about one mile west of Lyons' Court
+House, and was cut down in the year 1837. The body made a stick of
+timber eighty feet long, which before sawing was about five feet in
+diameter. It was cut into short logs and sawed up. From the center of
+the butt-log was sawed a piece about eight by twelve inches. At the butt
+end of this piece the saw laid bare, without marring them, some old
+scars made by an ax or some other sharp instrument. These scars were
+perfectly distinct and their character equally unmistakable. They were
+made, apparently, when the young tree was about six inches in diameter.
+Outside of these scars there were counted four hundred and sixty
+distinct rings, each ring marking with unerring certainty one year's
+growth of the tree. It follows that this chopping was done in 1374, or
+one hundred and eighteen years before the first voyage of Columbus
+across the Atlantic.
+
+It has been questioned whether the rings shown in a cross-section of a
+tree can be relied upon to determine truly the number of years it has
+been growing. A singular confirmation of the correctness of this method
+of counting was furnished some years since.
+
+In the latter part of the last century the late Judge Porter surveyed a
+large tract of land lying east of the Genesee River, known as "The
+Gore." Some thirty-five years afterward it became necessary to resurvey
+one of its lines, and recourse was had to the original surveys. Most of
+the forest through which the first line had been run was cleared off,
+and such trees as had been "blazed" as line-trees had overgrown the
+scars. One tree was found which was declared to be an original
+line-tree. On cutting into it carefully the old "blaze" was brought to
+light, and on counting the rings outside of it, they were found to
+correspond with the number of years which had elapsed since the first
+survey.
+
+One of the three small buildings at Niagara which escaped the flames of
+1814 was a log-cabin, about thirty by forty feet in its dimensions,
+that stood in the center of the front of the International block. In the
+latter part of 1815 the inhabitants returned, and the late General P.
+Whitney put a board addition to the log-house, and opened the first
+hotel. From that has grown up the present International. The immediate
+predecessor of the International was the Eagle Tavern, which was, for
+some years, in charge of a genial and popular landlord, the late Mr.
+Hollis White. It was formed by the addition to the old frame structure
+of a three-story brick building, of moderate dimensions. Across the
+front of this addition was a long, wide, old-fashioned stoop. This was
+well supplied with comfortable arm-chairs, which furnished easy rests
+for guests or neighbors, and were well patronized by both, and
+especially during the summer season by the genial humorists of the
+place. On the opposite side of the street was a small house, a story and
+a half high, belonging to Judge Porter, and to which he built an
+addition. Then, as now, there were occasionally more visitors than the
+hotel could accommodate, and the neighbors assisted in entertaining
+them. Judge Porter, did this frequently, and among his guests were
+President Monroe, Marshal Grouchy, General La Fayette, General Brown,
+General Scott, Judge Spencer, and other distinguished strangers.
+
+The first building erected on the ground where the Cataract House now
+stands was of a later date--1824--a frame house about fifty feet square.
+It was purchased by General Whitney in 1826, and formed the nucleus of
+the great pile which constitutes the present Cataract House.
+
+In 1829, the carriage road down the bank to the ferry on the Canadian
+side was made. For several years previous the principal hotel at the
+Falls was also on that side. It was called the Pavilion, and stood on
+the high bank just above the Horseshoe Fall. It commanded a grand view
+of the river above, and almost a bird's-eye view of the Falls and the
+head of the chasm below. The principal stage-route from Buffalo was
+likewise on that side, and the register of the Pavilion contained the
+names of most of the noted visitors of the period. But the erection of
+the Cataract House and the establishing of stage-routes on the American
+side drew away much of its patronage, and finally, on the completion of
+the first half of the Clifton House, in 1833, it was quite abandoned. A
+few years later the Ontario House was built, about half-way between the
+Clifton and the Horseshoe Fall, toward which it fronted. There was not
+sufficient business to support it, and after standing unoccupied for
+several years, it took fire and was burned to the ground.
+
+The Clifton was greatly enlarged and improved by Mr. S. Zimmerman in
+1865. The Amusement Hall and several cottages were built and gas-works
+erected. The grounds were handsomely graded and adorned.
+
+Near the site of Table Rock is the Museum, its valuable collection being
+the result of several years' labor by its proprietor, Mr. Thomas
+Barnett. It contains several thousand specimens from the animal and
+mineral kingdoms, and the galleries are arranged to represent a forest
+scene.
+
+Just above the Museum the visitor steps upon what remains of the famous
+Table Rock. It was once a bare rock pavement, about fifteen rods long
+and about five rods wide, about fifty feet of its width projecting
+beyond its base at the bottom of the limestone stratum nearly one
+hundred feet below. Remembering this fact, we can more readily credit
+the probable truth of the statement made by Father Hennepin--which we
+have before noticed--that the projection on the American side in 1682,
+when he returned from his first tour to the West, was so great that four
+coaches could drive abreast under it. On top of the _débris_ below the
+bank lies the path by which Termination Rock, under the western end of
+the Horseshoe, is reached. It is a path which few neglect to follow.
+
+The Table itself has always been, and must continue to be, a favorite
+resort for visitors. The combined view of the Falls and the chasm below,
+as well as the rapids above, is finer, more extensive, here than from
+any other point. Moreover, the nearness to the great cataract is more
+sensibly felt, the communion with it is deeper and more intimate than it
+can be anywhere else. The view from this point can be most pleasantly
+and satisfactorily taken in the afternoon, when the spectator has the
+sun behind him, and can look at his leisure and with unvexed eyes at the
+brilliant scene before him. However long he may tarry he will find new
+pleasure in each return to it.
+
+Two miles above, following round the bend of the Oxbow toward Chippewa,
+and down near the water's edge, is the Burning Spring. The water is
+impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen gas, and is in a constant state
+of mild ebullition. The gas is perpetually rising to the surface of the
+water, and when a lighted match is applied it burns with an intermittent
+flame. If, however, a tub with an iron tube in the center of its bottom
+is placed over the spring, a constant stream of gas passes through it.
+On being lighted it burns constantly, with a pale blue, wavering flame,
+which possesses but little illuminating or heating power. The drive is a
+pleasant one, affording a fine view of the Oxbow Rapids and islands and
+the noble river above.
+
+A mile and a quarter west of Table Rock is the Lundy's Lane
+battle-ground. On the crown of the hill, where the severest struggle
+occurred, are two rival pagodas challenging the tourist's attention.
+From the top of each he has a rare outlook over a broad level plain,
+relieved on its northern horizon by the top of Brock's Monument, and to
+the south-east by the city of Buffalo and Lake Erie.
+
+The obliging custodian of either tower will enlighten his hearers with
+dextrous volubility, and, according as he is certain of the nationality
+of his listeners, will the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph, or the
+Cross of Saint George float in glory, over the bloody and hard-fought
+field. If he cannot feel sure of his listeners' habitat, like Justice,
+he will hold an even balance and be blind withal.
+
+It was the writer's privilege to go over the field on a pleasant June
+day with Generals Scott and Porter, and to learn from them its stirring
+incidents. General Scott pointed out the location of the famous battery
+on the British left which made such havoc with his brave brigade, and
+in taking which the gallant Miller converted his modest "I'll try, sir,"
+into a triumphant "It is done." The General also found the tree under
+which, faint from his bleeding wound, he sat down to rest, placing its
+protecting boll between his back and the British bullets, as he leaned
+against it. Plucking a small wild flower growing near it, he presented
+it to one of the ladies of the party, telling her that "it grew in soil
+once nourished by his blood."
+
+General Porter showed us where, with his volunteers and Indians, he
+broke through the woods on the British right, just as Miller had
+captured the troublesome battery, thus aiding to win the most obstinate
+and bloody fight of the war. Its hard-won trophies, however, were too
+easily lost, as, by some misunderstanding or neglect of orders, the
+proper guard around the field was not maintained, and, in the darkness
+proverbially intense just before day, the British returned to the field
+and quietly removed most of the guns. So our English friends claim it
+was a drawn battle.
+
+Nearly half a century later a dinner was given at Queenston by our
+Canadian friends, to signalize the completion of the Lewiston Suspension
+Bridge. On this occasion a British-Canadian officer, the late Major
+Woodruff, of St. David's, who served with his regiment during the war,
+was called upon by the chairman, the late Sir Allan McNabb, to follow,
+in response to a toast, the late Colonel Porter, only son of General
+Porter. In a mirthful reference to the stirring events of the war he
+alluded to the British retreat after the battle of Chippewa, and
+condensing the opposing forces into two personal pronouns, one
+representing General Porter and the other himself, he turned to Colonel
+Porter and said: "Yes, sir, I remember well the _moving_ events of that
+day, and how sharp he was after me. But, sir, he was balked in his
+purpose, for although he won the _victory_ I won the _race_, and so we
+were even."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Incidents--Fall of Table Rock--Remarkable phenomenon in the
+     river--Driving and lumbering on the Rapids--Points of the compass
+     at the Falls--A first view of the Falls commonly
+     disappointing--Lunar bow--Golden spray--Gull Island and the
+     gulls--The highest water ever known at the Falls--The Hermit of the
+     Falls.
+
+
+Of incidents, curious, comic, and tragic, connected with the locality
+the catalogue is long, but we must make our recital of them brief.
+
+We have before referred to Professor Kalm's notice of the fall of a
+portion of Table Rock previous to 1750. Authentic accounts of like
+events are the following: In 1818 a mass one hundred and sixty feet long
+by thirty wide; in 1828 and '29 two smaller masses; also in 1828 there
+went down in the center of the Horseshoe a huge mass, of which the top
+area was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it
+would show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot from the whole
+surface of the Canadian Fall. In April, 1843, a mass of rock and earth
+about thirty-five feet long and six feet wide fell from the middle of
+Goat Island. In 1847, just north of the Biddle Stairs, there was a slide
+of bowlders, earth, and gravel, with a small portion of the bed-rock,
+the whole mass being about forty feet long and ten feet wide. About
+every third return of spring has increased the abrasion at these two
+points. At the first-named point more than twenty feet in width has
+disappeared, with the whole of the road crossing the island. From the
+latter point, near the Biddle Stairs, which was a favorite one for
+viewing the Horseshoe Fall, the seats provided for visitors and the
+trees which shaded them have fallen.
+
+[Illustration: FALL OF TABLE ROCK]
+
+On the 25th of June, 1850, occurred the great downfall which reduced
+Table Rock to a narrow bench along the bank. The portion which fell was
+one immense solid rock two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide, and one
+hundred feet deep where it separated from the bank. The noise of the
+crash was heard like muffled thunder for miles around. Fortunately it
+fell at noonday, when but few people were out, and no lives were lost.
+The driver of an omnibus, who had taken off his horses for their midday
+feed, and was washing his vehicle, felt the preliminary cracking and
+escaped, the vehicle itself being plunged into the gulf below.
+
+In 1850, a canal-boat that became detached from a raft, went down the
+Canadian Rapids, turned broadside across the river before reaching the
+Falls, struck amidships against a rock projecting up from the bottom and
+lodged. It remained there more than a year, and when it went down took
+with it a piece of the rock apparently about ten feet wide and forty
+feet long. At the foot of Goat Island some smaller masses have fallen,
+and three extensive earth-slides have occurred.
+
+In the spring of 1852 a triangular mass, the vertex of which was just
+beyond or south of the Terrapin Tower, while its altitude of more than
+forty feet lay along the shore of the south corner of Goat Island, fell
+in the night with the usual grinding crash. And with it fell some
+isolated rocks which lay on the brink of the precipice in front of the
+tower, and from which the tower derived its name. Before the tower was
+built, some person looking at the rocks from the shore suggested that
+they looked like huge terrapins sunning themselves on the edge of the
+Fall. A few days after the fall of the triangular mass, a huge column of
+rock a hundred feet high, about fourteen feet by twelve, and flat on the
+top, became separated from the bank and settled down perpendicularly
+until its top was about ten feet below the surface rock. It stood thus
+about four years, when it began gradually to settle, as the shale and
+stone were disintegrated beneath it, and finally it tumbled over upon
+the rocks below, furnishing an illustration of the manner in which we
+suppose the rocks which once accumulated below the Whirlpool must have
+been broken down. In the spring of 1871 a portion of the west side of
+the sharp angle of the Horseshoe, apparently about ten by thirty feet,
+went down, producing a decided change in the curve.
+
+On the 7th day of February, 1877, about eleven o'clock of a cold, cloudy
+day, there occurred the most extensive abrasion of the Horseshoe Fall
+ever noted. It extended from near the water's edge at Table Rock, more
+than half the distance round the curve, some fifteen hundred feet, and
+at the most salient angle the mass that fell was from fifty to one
+hundred feet wide. By this downfall the contour of the Horseshoe was
+decidedly changed, the reëntering angle being made acute and very
+ragged. Less than three months afterward the abrasion was continued some
+two hundred feet toward Goat Island.
+
+The trembling earth and muffled thunder gave evidence of the immensity
+of the mass of fallen rock, but no one saw it go down. For several
+months after the fall, until the mass of rock got thoroughly settled in
+the bed of the Falls, the exhibition of water-rockets, sent up a hundred
+feet above the top of the precipice, was unique and beautiful. The
+greatest angle of retrocession, which had previously been wearing toward
+Goat Island, is again turning toward the center of the stream.
+
+On the 29th of March, 1848, the river presented a remarkable phenomenon.
+There is no record of a similar one, nor has it been observed since. The
+winter had been intensely cold, and the ice formed on Lake Erie was very
+thick. This was loosened around the shores by the warm days of the early
+spring. During the day, a stiff easterly wind moved the whole field up
+the lake. About sundown, the wind chopped suddenly round and blew a gale
+from the west. This brought the vast tract of ice down again with such
+tremendous force that it filled in the neck of the lake and the outlet,
+so that the outflow of the water was very greatly impeded. Of course, it
+only needed a short space of time for the Falls to drain off the water
+below Black Rock.
+
+The consequence was that, when we arose in the morning at Niagara, we
+found our river was nearly half gone. The American channel had dwindled
+to a respectable creek. The British channel looked as though it had been
+smitten with a quick consumption, and was fast passing away. Far up from
+the head of Goat Island and out into the Canadian rapids the water was
+gone, as it was also from the lower end of Goat Island, out beyond the
+tower. The rocks were bare, black, and forbidding. The roar of Niagara
+had subsided almost to a moan. The scene was desolate, and but for its
+novelty and the certainty that it would change before many hours, would
+have been gloomy and saddening. Every person who has visited Niagara
+will remember a beautiful jet of water which shoots up into the air
+about forty rods south of the outer Sister in the great rapids, called,
+with a singular contradiction of terms, the "Leaping Rock." The writer
+drove a horse and buggy from near the head of Goat Island out to a point
+above and near to that jet. With a log-cart and four horses, he drew
+from the outside of the outer island a stick of pine timber hewed twelve
+inches square and forty feet long. From the top of the middle island was
+drawn a still larger stick, hewed on one side and sixty feet long.
+
+There are few places on the globe where a person would be less likely to
+go lumbering than in the rapids of Niagara, just above the brink of the
+Horseshoe Fall. All the people of the neighborhood were abroad,
+exploring recesses and cavities that had never before been exposed to
+mortal eyes. The writer went some distance up the shore of the river.
+Large fields of the muddy bottom were laid bare. The shell-fish, the
+uni-valves, and the bi-valves were in despair. Their housekeeping and
+domestic arrangements were most unceremoniously exposed. The clams, with
+their backs up and their open mouths down in the mud, were making their
+sinuous courses toward the shrunken stream. The small-fry of fishes were
+wriggling in wonder to find themselves impounded in small pools.
+
+This singular syncope of the waters lasted all the day, and night closed
+over the strange scene. But in the morning our river was restored in all
+its strength and beauty and majesty, and we were glad to welcome its
+swelling tide once more.
+
+It is a curious fact that nine out of every ten persons who visit the
+Falls for the first time, are on their arrival completely bewildered as
+to the points of the compass; and this without reference to the
+direction from which they may approach them. All understand the general
+geographical fact that Canada lies north of the United States. Hence
+they naturally suppose, when they arrive at the frontier, that they must
+see Canada to the north of them. But when they reach Niagara Falls they
+look across the river into Canada, in one direction directly south, and
+in another directly west. Only a reference to the map will rectify the
+erroneous impression. It is corrected at once by remembering that the
+Niagara River empties into the south side of Lake Ontario.
+
+One other fact may be regarded as well-established, namely, that most
+visitors are disappointed when they first look upon the Falls. They are
+not immediately and forcibly impressed by the scene, as they had
+expected to be. The reasons for this are easily explained. The chief
+one is that the visitor first sees the Falls from a point above them.
+Before seeing them, he reads of their great height; he expects to look
+up at them and behold the great mass of water falling, as it were, from
+the sky. He reads of the trembling earth; of the cloud of spray, that
+may be seen a hundred miles away; of the thunder of the torrent, and of
+the rainbows. He does not consider that these are occasional facts. He
+may not know he is near the Falls until he gets just over them. At
+certain times he feels no trembling of the earth; he hears no stunning
+roar; he may see the spray scattered in all directions by the wind, and
+of course he will see no bow. Naturally, he is disappointed. But it is
+not long before the grand reality begins to break upon him, and every
+succeeding day and hour of observation impresses him more and more
+deeply with the vastness, the power, the sublimity of the scene, and the
+wonderful and varied beauty of its surroundings. Those who spend one or
+more seasons at Niagara know how very little can be seen or comprehended
+by those who "stop over one train."
+
+[Illustration: ROCK OF AGES AND WHIRLWIND BRIDGE]
+
+They are fortunate who can see the Falls first from the ferry-boat on
+the river below, and about one-third of the way across from the American
+shore. The writer has frequently tried the experiment with friends who
+were willing to trust themselves, with closed eyes, to his guidance, and
+wait until he had given them the signal to look upward.
+
+Those who may be at Niagara a few nights before and after a full moon
+should not fail to go to Goat Island to see the lunar bow. It is the
+most unreal of all real things--a thing of weird and shadowy beauty.
+
+Another striking scene peculiar to the locality is witnessed in the
+autumn, when the sun in making its annual southing reaches a point
+which, at the sunset hour, is directly west from the Falls. Then those
+who are east of them see the spray illuminated by the slant rays of the
+sinking sun. In the calm of the hour and the peculiar atmosphere of the
+season, the majestic cloud looks like the spray of molten gold.
+
+In 1840 there was a small patch of stones, gravel, sand, and earth,
+called Gull Island, lying near the center of the Canadian rapid and
+about one hundred rods above the Horseshoe Fall. It was apparently
+twenty rods long by two rods wide, and was covered with a growth of
+willow bushes. It was so named because it was a favorite resort of that
+singular combination of the most delicate bones and lightest feathers
+called a gull.
+
+The birds seem large and awkward on the wing, but as they sit upon the
+water nothing can appear more graceful. They are far-sighted and
+keen-scented. Their eyes are marvels of beauty. They are eccentric in
+their habits, the very Arabs of their race--here to-day and gone
+to-morrow. They are gregarious and often assemble in large numbers. At
+times in a series of wild, rapid, devious gyrations, and uttering a low,
+mournful murmur, they seem to be engaged, as it were, in some solemn
+festival commemorative of their departed kindred. One moment the air
+will be filled with them and their sad refrain; the next moment the cry
+will have ceased and not a gull will be seen. They come as they go,
+summer and winter alike. In thirty years the writer has never been able
+to discover when nor whence they came. In winter they generally appear
+in the milder days, and their disappearance is followed by cooler
+weather.
+
+In the spring of 1847 a long and fierce gale from the west, which drove
+the water down Lake Erie, caused the highest rise ever known in the
+river. It rose six feet on the rapids, and for the first time reached
+the floor-planking of the old bridge. The greater part of Gull Island
+was washed down in this flood, and ten years later it had wholly
+disappeared.
+
+The vague tradition--the origin of which cannot be traced--that there is
+a flux and reflux of the waters in the Great Lakes, which embraces a
+period of about seven years, is not confirmed by our observation, if it
+be intended to affirm that the ebb and flow are both completed in seven
+years. Our observation shows that there is a flow of about seven years,
+and a reflux, which is accomplished in the same period. The water in the
+Niagara was very low in 1843-4, again in 1857-8, and again in 1871-2.
+This last is the lowest long continued shrinkage ever known. It is,
+however, altogether probable that the general level of the lakes will
+fall hereafter, owing to the destruction of the forests and the
+cultivation of the land along their shores. In this case the waters of
+the Niagara and Detroit rivers may, in the far future, meet in the bed
+of Lake Erie, and their margins be covered with orchards and vineyards
+more extensive and productive than those along the Rhine.
+
+The Hermit of the Falls, so called, Mr. Francis Abbott, came to the
+village in June, 1829. He was a rather good-looking, respectable young
+man, of moderate attainments, who was subject, apparently, to a mild
+form of intermittent derangement. Though his manner was eccentric, his
+conduct was harmless, and it is probable that his parents, who, it was
+afterward ascertained, were respectable members of the Society of
+Friends in England, encouraged his desire to travel, and furnished him
+the means to do so. He seems to have had some taste for music, and to
+have been a tolerable performer on the flute. He wandered much about the
+island, both night and day, and often bathed below the little fall on
+the south side of Goat Island, near its head. He lived alone in an
+unoccupied log-hut, directly across the island from this fall, until
+about the first of April, 1831, when he removed to a little cabin of his
+own building, on Point View. In June of that year, just two years after
+his arrival, he was drowned while bathing below the ferry. Ten days
+after, his body was found at Fort Niagara, brought back, and buried in
+the God's-acre at the Falls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     Avery's descent of the Falls--The fatal practical joke--Death of
+     Miss Rugg--Swans--Eagles--Crows--Ducks over the Falls--Why dogs
+     have survived the descent.
+
+
+On the morning of the 19th of July, 1853, a man was discovered in the
+middle of the American rapid, about thirty rods below the bridge. He was
+clinging to a log, which the previous spring had lodged against a rock.
+He proved to be a Mr. Avery, who had undertaken to cross the river above
+the night before, but, getting bewildered in the current, was drawn into
+the rapids. His boat struck the log, and was overturned, yet, by some
+extraordinary good fortune, he was able to hold to the timber. A large
+crowd soon gathered on the shore and bridge. A sign, painted in large
+letters, "We will save you," was fastened to a building, that the
+reading of it might cheer and encourage him. Boats and ropes were
+provided, with willing hands to use them. The first boat lowered into
+the rapids filled and sank just before reaching Avery. The next, a
+life-boat, which had been procured from Buffalo, was let down, reached
+the log, was dashed off by the reacting waters, upset, and sank beside
+him. Another light, clinker-built boat was launched, and reached him
+just right. But, in some unaccountable manner, the rope got caught
+between the rock and the log. It was impossible to loosen it. Poor
+Avery tugged and worked at it with almost superhuman energy for hours.
+The citizens above pulled at the rope until it broke.
+
+By this time a raft had been constructed, with a strong cask fastened to
+each corner, and ropes attached so that Avery could tie himself to it.
+It was lowered, and reached him safely. He got on it and seized the
+ropes. Every heart grew lighter as the rescuers moved across the lower
+part of Bath Island, drawing in the rope, while the raft swung easily
+toward Goat Island. But when it reached the head of Chapin's Island, all
+hopes were dashed again. The rope attached to the raft got caught in the
+rocks as it was passing below a ledge in a swift chute of water. All
+efforts to loosen it were ineffectual. Another boat was launched and let
+down-stream. It reached the raft all right, and Avery, in his eagerness
+to seize it, dropped the ropes he had been holding, stepped to the edge
+of the raft, with his hands extended to catch the boat, when the raft,
+under his weight, settled in the water, and, just missing his hold, he
+was swept into the rapids, went down the north side of Chapin's Island,
+and, almost in reach of it, in water so shallow that he regained his
+feet for an instant, threw up his hands in despair, fell backward, and
+went over the Fall. The tragedy lasted eighteen hours.
+
+The names connected with the next incident are suppressed, out of regard
+for the feelings of surviving friends. It is given as a warning to
+future visitors to Niagara not to attempt any mirthful experiments
+around the Falls. A party of ladies, gentlemen, and children were on
+Luna Island, near a small beech tree, since destroyed, called "the
+Parasol." A young girl of ten was standing near her mother, just on the
+brink of the water, when a young man of twenty-two stepped up beside her
+and seized her playfully by the arms, saying, "Now, Nannie, I am going
+to throw you in," and swung her out over the water. Taken by surprise
+and frightened, she struggled, twisted herself out of his grasp, and
+fell into the rapid within twenty feet of the brink of the precipice.
+Instantly the young man plunged in after her, seized hold of her dress,
+and swung her around toward her half-distracted mother, who almost
+reached her as she slipped by and went over the Fall, immediately
+followed by the young man. The young girl was found some days afterward,
+lying on her back, on a large rock, holding her open parasol above her
+head, as though she had lain down to rest. A few weeks afterward the
+father of the young man was coming up the river, on the _Maid of the
+Mist_, from the lower landing. A body was discovered floating in the
+water, and, by the aid of a small boat, was brought on board the
+steamer. It was that of his son.
+
+On the 23d of August, 1844, Miss Martha K. Rugg was walking to Table
+Rock with a friend. Seeing a bunch of cedar-berries on a low tree, which
+grew out from the edge of the bank, she left her companion, reached out
+to pick it, lost her footing, and fell one hundred and fifteen feet upon
+the rocks below. She survived about three hours. Pilgrims to Table Rock
+used to inquire for the spot where this accident happened. The following
+spring, an enterprising Irishman brought out a table of suitable
+dimensions, set it down on the bank of the river, and covered it with
+different articles, which he offered for sale. In order to enlighten
+strangers about the spot, he provided a remarkable sign, which he set up
+near one end of the table. This sign was a monumental obelisk, about
+five feet high, made of pine boards, and painted white. On the base he
+painted, in black letters, the following inscription:
+
+
+     "Ladies fair, most beauteous of the race,
+     Beware and shun a dangerous place.
+     Miss Martha Rugg here lost a life,
+     Who might now have been a happy wife."
+
+
+An envious competitor, one of his own countrymen, brought his own table
+of wares, and placed it just above the original mourner. Thereupon, the
+latter, determining that his rival should not have the benefit of his
+sign, removed it below his own table, having first removed the table
+itself as far down as circumstances would permit. Then he added his
+master-stroke of policy. Up to that time the monument had been
+stationary. Thenceforward, every day on quitting business he put it on a
+wheelbarrow and took it home, bringing it out again on resuming
+operations in the morning.
+
+Previous to the War of 1812, the Niagara River abounded in swans, wild
+geese, and ducks. Since that war none of the swans have been seen here,
+except two pair which came at different times. One of each pair went
+over the Falls, and was taken out alive but stunned. Their mates,
+faithful unto death, were shot while watching and waiting for their
+return.
+
+Eagles have always been seen in the vicinity, and a few have been
+captured. A single pair for many years had their aerie in the top of a
+huge dead sycamore tree, near the head of Burnt Ship Bay. It was
+interesting to watch the flight of the male bird when he left his
+brooding mate to go on a foraging expedition. Leaving the topmost limb
+that served as his home observatory, he would sweep round in a circle,
+forming the base of a regular spiral curve, in which he rose to any
+desired height. Then, having apparently determined by scent or sight, or
+by both, the direction he would take, he sailed grandly off. How
+grandly, too, on his return, he floated to his lofty perch with a single
+fold of his great wings, and sat for a few moments, motionless as a
+statue, before greeting his mate. When the young eaglets had but
+recently chipped their shells, passing sportsmen were content to view
+the majestic pair at a respectful distance. A pair of eagles, each
+carrying ten talons, a hooked beak, a strong pair of wings, and an
+unerring eye, all backed and propelled by an indomitable will and
+courage, are not to be recklessly trifled with.
+
+Early in July, 1877, two farmers riding in a buggy from Bergholtz, in
+the easterly part of the town of Niagara, toward the town of Wilson on
+Lake Ontario, saw a large gray eagle sitting on a fence by the roadside,
+and watching with much interest some object in a field beyond. Leaving
+their buggy, they ascertained that the object of its solicitude was an
+eaglet sitting on the ground, unable to fly, his wings and feathers
+having been drenched by a heavy shower. One of the men who first reached
+the young bird found it rather bellicose, and while attempting to
+secure it was surprised by a vigorous thump on the head from the old
+bird, accompanied with a sensation of sharp claws in his hair which
+nearly prostrated him. His assailant then rose quickly some forty feet
+in the air, and, turning again, descended upon the man with such force
+as to compel him to relinquish his game. His friend joined him, and for
+nearly half an hour the two were engaged in a fierce fight with the
+resolute bird, which they estimated would measure eight feet across the
+extended wings. The eagle would soar quickly upward as at first until it
+reached the desired range, when it would turn upon them with great
+fierceness, thumping with its wings and striking with its talons at
+their very faces. Finally, securing a number of good-sized
+cobble-stones, they advanced again upon the eaglet, and were at once
+attacked by the parent. But they used their stone artillery with vigor,
+and succeeded in getting the eaglet to their buggy, leaving its gallant
+defender still unconquered and soaring in the air with a slightly
+injured wing.
+
+Before the War of the Rebellion, Niagara was a favorite resort of that
+winged scavenger, the crow, and, at times, they were very numerous. But
+after the first year of the war they entirely disappeared. Snuffing the
+battle from afar, they turned instinctively to the South, and did not
+re-appear among us until several years after the war had ended.
+
+Large numbers of ducks formerly went over the Falls, but not for the
+reason generally assigned, namely, that they cannot rise out of the
+rapids. It is true that they cannot rise from the water while heading
+up-stream. When they wish to do so, they turn down the current, and
+sail out without difficulty. No sound and living duck ever went over the
+precipice by daylight. Dark and especially foggy nights are most fatal
+to them. In the month of September, 1841, four hundred ducks were picked
+up below the Falls, that had gone over in the fog of the previous night.
+In two instances, dogs have been sent over the Falls and have survived
+the plunge. In 1858 a bull-terrier was thrown into the rapids, also near
+the middle of the bridge. In less than an hour he came up the
+ferry-stairs, very wet and not at all gay.
+
+The reason why the dogs were not killed may be thus explained. From the
+top of the Rapids Tower, before its destruction, the spectator could get
+a perfect view of the Canadian Fall. On a bright day, by looking
+steadily at the bottom of the Horseshoe, where water falls into water,
+he could see, as the spray was occasionally removed, a beautiful
+exhibition of water-cones, apparently ten or twelve feet high. These are
+formed by the rapid accumulation and condensation of the falling water.
+It pours down so rapidly and in such quantities that the water below, so
+to speak, cannot run off fast enough, and it piles up as though it were
+in a state of violent ebullition. These cones are constantly forming and
+breaking. If any strong animal should fall upon one of these cones, as
+upon a soft cushion, it might slide safely into the current below. The
+dogs were, doubtless, fortunate enough to fall in this way, aided also
+by the repulsion of the water from the rocks in the swift channel
+through which they passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     Wedding tourists at the Falls--Bridges to the Moss Islands--Railway
+     at the ferry--List of persons who have been carried over the
+     Falls--Other accidents.
+
+
+For many years Niagara has been a favorite resort for bridal tourists,
+who in a crowd of strangers can be so excessively proper that every one
+else can see how charmingly improper they are.
+
+The three fine, graceful bridges which unite Goat Island with the three
+smaller islands--the Moss Islands, or the Three Sisters--lying south of
+it were built in 1858. They opened up a new and attractive feature of
+the locality, with which all visitors are charmed. Those who have been
+on them will remember what a broken, wild, tangled mass of rocks, wood,
+and vines they are. Nothing on Onalaska's wildest shore could be more
+thoroughly primitive.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE SISTERS OR MOSS ISLANDS]
+
+A rude path with steps cut in the slope of the bank was for several
+years the only way of getting down to the water's edge at the ferry. In
+1825 several flights of stairs were erected, with good paths between,
+which made the task quite safe and easy. The double railway-track at the
+ferry was completed in 1845. When the necessary excavations were nearly
+finished, and people were told the object of it, the scheme met no
+approval from those conservative persons who have no faith in new
+things. The idea of a railway "to go by water" was not considered a
+brilliant one. Indeed, the greater number shrugged their shoulders at
+the thought of riding down _that_ hill. But as soon as the lumber cars
+were started for the convenience of the workmen, and people saw how
+expeditious and easy was the trip, it was difficult to keep them off the
+cars. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have ridden in them without
+accident or injury. The motive power is a reaction waterwheel set in a
+deep pit, and as all the machinery is concealed, it has quite the
+appearance of a self-working apparatus. There is alongside of the
+railroad a straight stair-way of two hundred and ninety steps, for those
+who prefer to use it.
+
+The number of victims whom carelessness or folly has sent over the Falls
+is large, and, it may be believed, is quite independent of the Indian
+tradition that the great cataract demands a yearly sacrifice of two
+human victims.
+
+
+OVER THE FALLS.
+
+In 1810 the boat _Independence_, laden with salt, filled and sunk while
+crossing to Chippewa. The captain and two of the crew went over the
+Falls. One of the crew clung to a large oar, and was saved by a small
+boat from Chippewa.
+
+1821 Two men in a scow were driven down the current by the wind, and
+went over the Falls.
+
+1825 Two men in a boat from Grand Island went over.
+
+--Three men went over in three different canoes.
+
+1841 Two men, engaged in smuggling, were upset in the current; one went
+over. One was found dead on Grass Island.
+
+--Two men who were carrying sand in a scow were drawn into the current
+and went over.
+
+1847 A lad of fourteen undertook to row across on a Sunday morning, and
+went over.
+
+1848 In August, a man in a boat passed under the Goat Island Bridge,
+within ten feet of the shore; he asked of persons on the bridge, "Can I
+be saved?" Soon after the boat upset, and he went over, feet foremost,
+struck on the rocks below, and was never seen afterward.
+
+--A little boy and girl were playing in a skiff, which swung off the
+shore; the mother waded into the water and rescued the girl. The boy,
+sitting in the bottom of the skiff, with a hand on each side, went over.
+
+1870 A lady from Chicago, said to be deranged, threw herself from Goat
+Island Bridge, and went over.
+
+1871 In June three men, unacquainted with the river, hired a boat to
+cross, were drawn into the rapids and went over.
+
+--In July two men in a boat went over.
+
+1873 Friday, July 4th, a young man and woman, and a boy twelve years of
+age, brother of the latter, hired a boat in Chippewa, ostensibly for a
+sail on the river. Not understanding the currents, they were drawn into
+the rapids and carried over the Horseshoe Fall. The bodies were not
+recovered. It was afterward ascertained that the young man had taken
+$500 from his father, in Ohio; had come to Chippewa to meet the young
+woman, who was from Toronto, to whom he was married on the day preceding
+their death.
+
+1874 September 19th, a young man connected with the Mohawk Institute, at
+Brantford, Canada--whether as student or instructor was not
+known--walked deliberately into the rapids above Table Rock, and was
+carried over the precipice, never to be seen again.
+
+1875 September 8th, Captain John Jones--at that time marine surveyor for
+a New York insurance company--jumped into the rapids below Goat Island
+Bridge, and went over the cliff, before the eyes of many excursionists.
+Ill-health was supposed to be the cause. The body was not found.
+
+1877 March 5th, Mr. G. Homer Stone, aged twenty-four, a school-teacher,
+living near Geneva, N. Y., leaped into the rapids, near the upper end of
+Prospect Park, and was carried over the Falls. The body was not
+recovered.
+
+--July 1st, three men went out in a sail-boat from Connor's Island,
+during a high wind and very rough water. Attempting a starboard tack, in
+order to reach Gill Creek Island, the boat was upset, and two of
+them--after the three had tried in vain to right the boat, and found it
+difficult to keep their hold--abandoned it and tried to swim ashore;
+but, owing to the rough sea and their wet and heavy clothing, they were
+soon exhausted, and went to the bottom. The third man, divesting himself
+of everything except his pantaloons, determined to swim for the nearest
+land the down-floating boat should pass. Fortunately, a large boat,
+manned by three sturdy oarsmen, coming up the river, rescued him, after
+he had become nearly exhausted. Three days after the accident one of the
+bodies was found near Grass Island, above the Falls, and the other, two
+days later, in the Whirlpool below.
+
+1877 October 16th, the discovery in the morning of several articles of
+female apparel on a flat rock, near the site of the old stone tower, and
+close to the brink of the Falls, led to investigation, which developed
+the fact that Miss Schofield, a young woman from Woodstock, in Canada,
+while suffering from a sudden attack of brain fever, had thrown herself
+into the rapids, and gone over the Horseshoe Fall. She was a skillful
+telegrapher, and had some local literary reputation. Her body was never
+recovered.
+
+1878 April 1st, John and Patrick Reilley, brothers, started from Port
+Day, above the Falls, to row across to Chippewa. One of them, being
+under the influence of liquor, refused to row steadily and quarreled
+with his brother, thus preventing him from rowing. They were drawn over
+the Canadian side of the Horseshoe Fall about four o'clock in the
+afternoon. They were both skillful rowers, and well acquainted with the
+river, which they had crossed and recrossed many times. Their bodies
+were recovered several weeks later.
+
+1878 April 6th, a young man, nineteen years of age, from Woodstock,
+Canada, a member of the Queen's Own, a volunteer regiment, which had
+attended a recent military review at Montreal, was on his return home,
+and crossed from Chippewa to Navy Island to visit friends who kept small
+boats on both sides of the river. After finishing his visit, he declined
+to accept the assistance of a young relative in recrossing the river,
+and started alone. The result was that, not understanding the force of
+the treacherous current, he was carried into the great rapids and went
+over the Horseshoe Fall. His body was found, two days afterward, below
+the ferry.
+
+1879 June 21st, the names of Monsieur and Madame Rolland were registered
+at one of the hotels, where they spent a night, but took their meals at
+a restaurant kept by a Frenchman, because Monsieur R. could not, as he
+said, speak English. The following morning they went to the Moss
+Islands. While near the lower end of the outer island, so the husband
+claimed, madame took a cup from him to get a drink of water from the
+rapids, and, while his attention was diverted for a moment, he heard a
+splash in the water, and on looking round, saw that his wife had fallen
+into the rapids. She went over the Horseshoe Fall. He showed great
+distress and every demonstration of sorrow. Nevertheless, he left the
+next day for New York, after giving his address to the
+restaurant-keeper, who, a few days afterward, sent word to him that the
+body had been recovered. Monsieur R. sent thirty dollars to pay expenses
+of burial, and sailed for France. Those who have seen the place where,
+according to his story, madame fell in, are skeptical on that point.
+
+1881 February 23d, a stranger named Doyle threw himself into the rapids
+from Prospect Park, and was carried over the American Fall. A body found
+some days after in the river below, claimed by friends to be his, was
+identified by a coroner's jury as that of a man named Rowell, whose body
+had been found some days before in the river, near the ferry, with a
+bullet through the head. It was never ascertained whether it was a
+suicide or an assassination.
+
+--July 12th, the body of a woman was found floating below the Falls,
+having evidently come from the river above. Some female wearing apparel
+found on the shore of the rapids, below Goat Island Bridge, it was
+supposed belonged to the suicide.
+
+1881 Dr. H. and Mrs. S., of good birth, education, and social position,
+loved not wisely but too well. Exposure was certain and near. They met
+at Niagara, July 14th, and went over the Falls together.
+
+--September 5th, a man from Toronto plunged into the rapids at Table
+Rock, and went over. In a letter to a Toronto paper, he stated that
+domestic trouble was the impelling motive.
+
+
+BELOW THE FALLS.
+
+In 1841 A number of British soldiers, stationed at Drummondville,
+attempted to swim across the rapids at the ferry at different times.
+None succeeded, and two were drowned.
+
+1842 A British soldier attempted to lower himself down the bank,
+opposite Barnett's Museum, in order to escape to the American shore. The
+rope broke, and he was killed by the fall.
+
+1844 In August, a gentleman was washed under the great Fall, from a rock
+on which he had stepped, against the remonstrances of the guide. He was
+drowned.
+
+1846 In August, a gentleman fell forty feet from a rock near the Cave of
+the Winds, and was instantly killed.
+
+1875 August 9th, two young women and three young men, residents of the
+village, went through the Cave of the Winds, as they had often done
+before, to enjoy the exhilarating bath. One of the young women, Miss P.,
+stepped into one of the eddying pools lying a little outside of the
+usual track, and one of the young men, Mr. P., thinking she might find
+the current stronger than she anticipated, followed her, and while
+seeking a sure footing for himself to guard against accident, the young
+lady lost her balance and fell into the current. Mr. P. endeavored to
+seize her bathing-dress, but not succeeding, sprang at once into the
+current, and both went over a ledge some eight feet high, at the foot of
+which Miss P. rose to her feet in an eddy, and sought support by leaning
+against a large rock lying adjacent to it. When Mr. P. rose to the
+surface he swam to her, and thinking they would be safer in an opening
+among smaller rocks on the opposite side of the eddy, he put his arm
+round her, and both made a desperate effort to reach the desired
+shelter. But the current proved too strong, and bore them both out into
+the river; Mr. P. swimming on his back, and supporting Miss P. with his
+right arm, while her right hand rested upon his shoulder. Suddenly they
+became separated. Miss P., apparently concluding that both could not be
+saved, disengaged herself from him, and immediately sank below the
+surface. Instantly her heroic friend plunged after her. A cloud of spray
+covered the troubled waters for a moment, and when it passed nothing
+could be seen of the unfortunate pair. The treacherous under-currents
+bore them to their doom. Both bodies were recovered a few days afterward
+from the Whirlpool.
+
+1877 August 31st, Dr. Louis M. Stein registered at the International
+Hotel. The following day, after riding to different points on the
+American side of the Falls, he alighted at the upper Suspension Bridge,
+and inviting a young bootblack to accompany him, he started across the
+bridge, talking rather incoherently on the way. When near the Canadian
+end he stopped, took from his pocket a roll of bills, gave the boy a
+dollar note, and returned the others to his pocket. He then started
+back, and when near the center of the bridge dropped his hand-bag and
+shawl, seized the boy, saying with an oath, "You have got to come, too!"
+and attempted to climb over the railing. The boy successfully resisted,
+but the man got over and dropped from one of the wire stays into the
+river, one hundred and ninety feet below. He was probably killed
+instantly, and the body floated down the river, from which it was taken
+some ten days afterward and delivered to a son, who arrived from New
+York city.
+
+--December 25th, a man from Chatauqua County, N. Y., suffering from
+ill-health and misfortune, jumped from the new Suspension Bridge, and
+was never seen again.
+
+The narrowest escape at the Falls was that of the man who, in January,
+1852, fell from the Tower Bridge into the rapids, and was caught between
+two rocks just on the brink of the precipice, whence he was rescued,
+nearly exhausted, by means of a rope.
+
+In 1874, Mr. William McCullough, while at work painting the small bridge
+between the first and second Moss Islands, missed his footing and fell
+into the middle of the channel; he was carried down about fifty rods,
+and, going over a ledge into more quiet water, got on his feet and waded
+to a small rock projecting above the water, upon which he seated himself
+to collect his senses and await results. After several vain efforts to
+get a rope to him, Mr. Thomas Conroy, a guide, then connected with the
+Cave of the Winds, who had in the previous autumn conducted Professor
+Tyndall up to Tyndall's Rock, put on a pair of felt shoes, and, holding
+to an inch rope, picked his way with an alpen-stock, from a point a
+short distance up-stream, through favoring eddies and pools to
+McCullough. After a short rest, he put the rope around McCullough, under
+his arms, and winding the end around his own right arm, the two started
+shoreward. On reaching the deep water near the shore, both were taken
+off their feet, and, as the people pulled vigorously at the rope, their
+heads went under for a short distance, but they were safely landed. A
+contribution was taken up for Conroy's benefit, and Professor Tyndall,
+on hearing of the rescue, sent him a five-pound note.
+
+In view of the fact that nearly every year persons are drawn into the
+rapids and carried over the Falls, a New York journalist suggested a
+most extraordinary method of saving them. He proposed that a cable
+should be stretched across the rapids, above the Falls, strong enough to
+arrest boats, and to which persons in danger might cling until rescued.
+But this kind and ingenious person forgot that old canal-boats, rafts of
+logs, and large trunks of trees, with roots attached, would be
+troublesome things to hold at anchor. As well hope to stay an Alpine
+avalanche with pipe-stems.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     The first Suspension Bridge--The Railway Suspension
+     Bridge--Extraordinary vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the
+     fall of a mass of rock--De Veaux College--The Lewiston Suspension
+     Bridge--The Suspension Bridge at the Falls.
+
+
+On the partial completion of the Hydraulic Canal, the principal
+stockholders, with a number of invited guests, celebrated the event on
+July 4, 1857, by an excursion from Buffalo in the _Cygnet_, the first
+steamer that ever landed within the limits of the village of Niagara.
+The same route is followed during the season of navigation by tugs
+towing canal-boats and rafts out and in. No passenger boat, however, has
+been placed on the route, although the sail on the river is a charming
+one.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE WAS BEGUN]
+
+Mr. Charles Ellet, in 1840, built the first suspension bridge over the
+chasm. He offered a reward of five dollars to any one who would get a
+string across it. The next windy day all the boys in the neighborhood
+were kiting, and before night a youth landed his kite in Canada and
+received the reward. The first iron successor of the string was a small
+wire cable, seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. To this was suspended
+a wire basket in which two persons could cross the chasm. The basket was
+attached to an endless rope, worked by a windlass on each bank. At an
+entertainment given on the occasion of the completion of the bridge,
+the good people of the embryo village at the bridge, elated with their
+new acquisition, were inclined to regard their neighbors at the Falls
+with patronizing sympathy. One of the latter said to Mr. Ellet, "This
+bridge is a very clever affair, and you only need the Falls here to
+build up a respectable village." "Well," he replied, "give me money
+enough and I will put them here." He had great faith in dollar-power.
+
+This bridge was an excellent auxiliary in the construction of the
+present Railway Suspension Bridge, built by Mr. John A. Roebling. It was
+begun in 1852, and the first locomotive crossed it in March, 1855. It is
+one of the most brilliant examples of modern engineering, and stands
+unrivaled for its grace, beauty, and strength. Seizing at once upon the
+natural advantages of the location, the engineer resolved to combine the
+tubular system with that of the suspension bridge. The carriage way was
+placed level with the banks of the river at the edges of the chasm. The
+railway track was placed eighteen feet above, on a level with the top of
+the secondary banks across which the two railroads were to approach it.
+The plan was perfect, and perfectly and faithfully executed in all its
+details. It is practically a skeleton tube. As the traveler passes over
+it in a carriage or a railway car, from the almost total absence of any
+vibratory motion he feels at once that he is on a safe basis, and his
+sense of security is complete.
+
+One feature of the construction of the bridge may be noticed as having a
+bearing on the question of its durability. It is well known that when
+wrought-iron is exposed to long continued or oft repeated and rapid
+concussions, its fibers after a time become granulated, whereby its
+strength is greatly impaired and finally exhausted. It is also known
+that the effect of rhythmical or regular vibrations is more destructive
+than the effect of those which are inharmonious or irregular. Because of
+this, a body of men is never allowed to march to music across a bridge,
+nor is a large number of cattle ever driven across at one time, lest
+they should, by accident, fall into a common step and so overstrain or
+break down the bridge. It is the difference between a single heavy blow
+and an irregular succession of light ones. Hence, when harmonious,
+regular vibrations can be broken up, the destructive influence is
+greatly modified and retarded.
+
+The bridge is supported by two large cables on each side, one pair above
+the other, the lower pair being nearer together horizontally than the
+upper pair, so that a cross section of the skeleton tube would be shaped
+somewhat like the keystone of an arch. Each of these large cables is ten
+inches in diameter, and is composed of seven smaller ones, called
+strands. These smaller strands are made of number nine wire, and each
+one contains five hundred and twenty wires. Each of these wires was
+boiled three several times in linseed oil, giving it an oleaginous
+coating of considerable thickness and great adhesive power. Each wire
+was carried across the river separately, from tower to tower, by a
+contrivance of the engineers, the chief feature of which was a light
+iron pulley about twenty inches in diameter, suspended on what might be
+called a wire cord. This apparatus was called a traveler, and curious
+and interesting was its performance as seen from below. It looked like a
+huge spider weaving an iron web.
+
+Six of the seven strands forming each of the cables were laid around the
+seventh as a center, and when all were properly placed they were again
+saturated with oil and paint. After this, by another contrivance of the
+engineers, they were wound or wrapped with wire, like winding a rope
+cable with marlin, and thus the whole cable was made into a thoroughly
+compact, huge, round, iron rope. This was covered with numerous coats of
+paint to prevent the oxidation of the inner wires. The oleaginous
+coating of the wires, together with the small triangular spaces between
+them, would seem to reduce the destructive power of the vibrations to
+zero. But the vibrations are very greatly reduced and the stiffness of
+the structure is greatly increased by the use of a series of triangular
+stays, the triangle being the only geometrical figure whose angles
+cannot be shifted. There are sixty-four of these triangles. Their
+hypothenuses are formed by over-floor stays of wire rope reaching from
+the tops of the towers to different points in the lower floor, this
+latter, of course, forming their common base and the towers their
+altitude. The stays are fastened to the suspenders so as to form
+straight lines. As the towers and the floor are rigid and solid in the
+direction of the lines they represent, it follows that the intersections
+of the hypothenuses with the common base form so many stationary points
+in the latter. These stationary points present a powerful resistance to
+vibrations. The side trusses, with their system of diamond-work braces
+and the weight of the railway track on the upper bridge, also help to
+stiffen the structure. There are likewise fifty-six under stays or guys
+of wire rope fastened to the rocks below, designed to prevent upward and
+lateral vibrations. A heavy locomotive with twenty loaded cars produced
+a depression of the upward curvature of the track of nearly ten inches.
+The ordinary loads make a depression of only five inches.
+
+In Part II., attention was directed to a point on the American side of
+the river, just below this bridge, where the disintegration of the shale
+and abrasion of the superposed rock is strikingly exhibited. A singular
+phenomenon was witnessed here in 1863. A mass of rock and shale, about
+fifty feet long, twenty feet wide, and sixty feet deep, fell with a
+great crash. Directly following the fall a remarkable motion was
+developed in the bridge itself. A strong wave of motion passed through
+the whole structure from the American side to the opposite shore, and
+returned again to the same side.
+
+Some twelve or fifteen mechanics, who were at work on the upper or
+railway track, were so alarmed that they fled with all speed to the
+shore. The motion imparted to the bridge was incalculably greater than,
+and of a different character from, any motion imparted by the crossing
+of the heaviest trains. The rocky mass which fell was forty rods below
+the bridge, and the hard floor on which it struck was more than two
+hundred and thirty feet beneath it. The mass itself fell about sixty
+feet average distance, and might have weighed five thousand tons. The
+extraordinary motion imparted to the bridge by the concussion must have
+been transmitted along the bed-rock to the anchorages on the American
+side, thence through the cables and the bridge across to the anchorages
+on the Canadian side, whence it returned to the American side.
+
+Mr. Donald McKenzie, master carpenter and superintendent of repairs, who
+has been connected with the bridge constantly since its erection, and
+all the men under him at the time, confirm this statement, and declare
+it is impossible to exaggerate or describe the wave-like motion which
+they experienced while escaping to the shore.
+
+Half a mile further down is De Veaux College, a noble charity endowed by
+the late Mr. Samuel De Veaux. He was for many years an active business
+man at Niagara, and by his integrity, industry, and wise enterprise
+accumulated a handsome fortune. His death occurred in 1852, and by his
+will he left nearly the whole of his estate to certain trustees to
+establish an institution for the care, training, and education of orphan
+boys. In addition to these, other pupils are received who pay a fixed
+price for their tuition, board, and incidentals. The institution has
+gained a high reputation for the thoroughness of its instruction and the
+excellence of its discipline. One of its sources of income is the amount
+received annually for admissions to the Whirlpool. Every visitor to that
+interesting locality will cheerfully pay the fee charged when he
+understands this fact.
+
+The suspension bridge below the mountain near Lewiston, spanning the
+river where the water emerges from the fearful abyss through which it
+dashes for five miles, was built in 1856, by Mr. T. E. Serrel. The guys
+designed to protect it from the effect of the wind were fastened in the
+rocks on either side at the water's edge. The great ice jam of 1866
+tore from their fastenings, or broke off, many of these guys. Before
+they were replaced a terrific gale in the following autumn broke up the
+road-way, severed some of the suspenders, and left the structure a
+melancholy wreck dangling in the air.
+
+The New Suspension Bridge, as it is called, just below the ferry at the
+Falls, was built in 1868. It is a light, graceful structure, standing
+one hundred and ninety feet above the water. Its length is twelve
+hundred feet, after the Brooklyn bridge the longest structure of the
+kind in the world, and it is the narrowest of those designed for
+carriage travel. To its narrowness it probably owed its safety from
+destruction during a fierce gale which occurred in the fall of 1869. The
+fastenings or dowels of several of the guys on the Canadian side were
+torn out, and the bridge at its center deflected down-stream more than
+its width, so that the surface of its road-way could not be seen half
+its length. Then its undulations from end to end--like a stair-carpet
+being shaken between two persons--were frightful, and for a time it was
+feared that either cables or towers must give way. After the gale
+subsided the old guys were made fast again, new ones were added, and two
+two-inch steel wire cables were stretched from bank to bank, and
+connected with the bridge by wire stays. Wrought-iron beams were
+afterward placed on the bottom stringers, and channel irons on the top
+beams of the side trestles, all of which were strongly bolted together.
+These improvements added much to the strength of the whole structure,
+and greatly increased its ability to resist horizontal deflection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     Blondin and his "ascensions"--Visit of the Prince of Wales--Grand
+     illumination of the Falls--The steamer _Caroline_--The water-power
+     of Niagara--Lord Dufferin and the plan of an International Park.
+
+
+In the year 1858, a short, well-rounded, fair-complexioned, light-haired
+Frenchman made his appearance at the Falls, and expressed a wish to put
+a tight-rope across the chasm below them, for the purpose of crossing on
+the rope and exhibiting athletic feats. He received little
+encouragement, but, having a Napoleonic faith in his star, he
+persevered, and finally obtained the necessary authority to place his
+rope just below the Railway Suspension Bridge. It was a well and evenly
+twisted rope, about two inches in diameter; and after stretching it as
+taut as it could be drawn, it hung in a moderate catenary curve.
+Commencing at the shore ends he secured stays of small rope to the large
+one, placing them about eight feet apart. These were made fast to the
+shore in such a manner that all the stays on one side of the main rope
+were parallel to each other from the center outward to the ends. They
+were made tight somewhat in the manner that tent-cords are tightened,
+and when the structure was complete it looked like the opposite sections
+of a gigantic spider-web.
+
+At each end was a spacious inclosure, formed by a rough board fence,
+for the use of spectators. M. Blondin--for this was the name of the new
+aspirant for acrobatic honors--also made an arrangement with the
+superintendent of the railway bridge for its occupation during what,
+with a shade of irony, he called his "ascensions." Those who went within
+the inclosures and upon the bridge paid a certain sum. A contribution
+was asked of all outsiders. He selected Saturday as the day for
+fortnightly ascensions, and advertised his intentions very liberally.
+The speculation was successful and gave great satisfaction to the
+spectators. He exhibited a variety of rope-walking feats, balancing on
+the cable, hanging from it by his hands and feet, standing on his head,
+and lowering himself down to the surface of the water. He also carried a
+man across on his back, trundled over a loaded wheelbarrow, and did
+divers other things, and also walked over in a sack. He sprinkled in a
+few extras to heighten the effect, as the knowing ones declared, such as
+slipping astride the cable, falling across a stay-rope, or dropping
+something into the water. In 1860, he gave a special ascension in honor
+of the Prince of Wales. The Prince and his party occupied a sheltered
+space on the Canadian side, and Blondin walked to it from the opposite
+side, performing various feats on the way over. The Prince shook hands
+with him as he stepped into the shed, and commended his courage and
+nerve.
+
+[Illustration: BLONDIN CROSSING THE NIAGARA]
+
+As illustrating the power of the imagination over the nerves it may be
+noted that, if the great spider's-web had been stretched out anywhere on
+a level surface, and not more than three feet above the ground, a dozen
+men in any large community could have been found to walk it as
+unconcernedly, if not as gracefully, as the famous "ascensionist." After
+three years of successful labor at Niagara, he sought other air-spaces.
+
+The most notable occurrence, however, which emphasized the visit of the
+Prince of Wales in that year was the illumination of the Falls late in
+the evening of a moonless night. On the banks above and all about on the
+rocks below, on the lower side of the road down the Canadian bank, and
+along the water's edge, were placed numerous colored and white calcium,
+volcanic, and torpedo lights. At a signal they were set aflame all at
+once. At the same time rockets and wheels and flying artillery were set
+off in great abundance. The shores were crowded with spectators, and the
+scene was a most remarkable one. The steady, lurid light below and the
+intermittent flashes and explosions overhead, the seething, hissing
+volumes of flame and smoke rolling up from the deep abyss, the ghostly
+appearance of the descending stream, the ghastly swift current of white
+foam, the weird appearance of the cloud of spray with a faint and
+fantastic illumination at its base, which faded out in the dim light of
+the stars as it ascended, the peculiarly deep but muffled and solemn
+monotone of the falling water, the livid hue imparted to the faces of
+the quiet but deeply interested spectators, all made the scene memorable
+and impressive. When the Marquis of Lorne and the Princess Louise
+visited the Falls in January, 1879, they saw them illuminated by
+electricity, the light having the illuminating power of 32,000 candles.
+
+In December, 1837, the steamer _Caroline_ came down from Buffalo to
+aid, it was said, the so-called Patriots, then engaged in an
+insurrection against the Canadian Government. A motley collection of
+adventurers on Navy Island constituted the disturbing, not to say
+attacking, force. At Chippewa was stationed a body of Canadian militia,
+under the command of Colonel--afterward Sir--Allan McNabb, who had the
+good fortune to win his spurs in a single almost bloodless campaign. By
+his direction a boat expedition was sent to attack the _Caroline_, as
+she lay at the old Schlosser dock. In the _mêlée_ one American was
+killed. The steamer was set on fire, and her fastenings must have been
+burnt away, as also a part of her upper works, since the writer, ten
+years later, while returning from a fishing expedition, discovered her
+smoke-pipe lying at the bottom of the river, in a quiet basin not thirty
+rods below the dock. A cat-fish of moderate dimensions appeared to be
+keeping house in it, and, with his head barely projecting from one end,
+was serenely watching the current for whatever game it might bring to
+his iron parlor. After the new bridges were built connecting the Three
+Sisters with Goat Island, the guides and drivers, in their desire to
+enhance the interest of the scene, astonished travelers by informing
+them that it was the boiler of the _Caroline_ which caused the
+extraordinary elevation of the water which we have before referred to as
+the Leaping Rock.
+
+Nine miles from the Falls is the Tuscarora Reservation of four thousand
+acres. On this there are about three hundred and fifty Indians, mostly
+half-breeds, engaged in agricultural pursuits, which supply a portion
+of their necessities. The Indian women who are seen at the Falls in the
+summer season working and vending different articles of bead-work belong
+to this community. The Tuscaroras have not been more fortunate than
+others of their race in bargaining with their white brothers, and their
+lands are now stripped of the fine oak timber and valuable wood which
+stood upon it a few years since, and which was sold in large quantities
+at small prices.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN WOMEN SELLING BEAD-WORK]
+
+As a compensation for this system of robbery we maintained a Christian
+missionary among them for a few years, and we boast that they are all
+Protestants. The resident missionary, a very worthy man, but a rather
+prosy preacher, always addressed his dusky audience in the English
+language, his thoughts being conveyed to them by an interpreter. For
+many years the interpreter was a native Tuscarora, a fine specimen of
+his race, six feet tall, with a tawny complexion, dark, flashing eyes,
+and a musical voice. It was interesting to note his manner while acting
+as interpreter for different clergymen. When interpreting the pious but
+humdrum utterances of the passionless missionary, he stood at the right
+side of the preacher, with his left elbow resting on one end of the
+modest pulpit, and delivered himself with an air that seemed to say, "It
+does not amount to much, but I give it to you as it is." But the change
+was magical when, as sometimes happened during the summer season, some
+eloquent preacher addressed the congregation. The natural courtesy of
+the interpreter led him, instead of putting his elbow on the pulpit, to
+stand a little to the rear of the strange preacher, respectfully waiting
+for his words. As the priest warmed into his subject the interpreter
+caught his spirit, straightened his fine figure to its full height,
+advanced to a line with the speaker, and as the theme was developed and
+the orator grew more and more eloquent, the excitement became
+contagious; the Indian entered fully into its spirit, his face glowed
+with animation, his eyes shone with a warmer light, his long arms were
+stretched forth, and with gestures energetic or subdued, but always
+graceful, and the varied inflections of his voice in harmony with the
+theme, he followed the discourse to the end. His audience, too, would
+become thoroughly aroused, and a little more animation would be infused
+into the plaintive tones of the closing hymn.
+
+One of the future attractions of Niagara, to sportsmen at least, may be
+the catching of California trout, twenty thousand of the fry having been
+put into the rapids by the writer in June, 1881.
+
+Concerning the manufactories, shops, rubbish, and litter along the race
+near the brink of the American Falls, which appear so uncouth and
+inharmonious, and which are noticed by strangers as being a desecration
+of the scene, it is only just to remark that the utilization of the
+water-power here, in the easiest and most economical manner, was one of
+the imperative necessities of the early settlement of the country. For
+many years a large territory, lying on both sides of the river, was
+dependent upon the manufacturing, repairing, and milling facilities of
+this place. For furnishing these in those days, water-power was the
+only agent. And the name--Manchester--given to the place by its early
+settlers only foreshadowed their hope that it would one day rival its
+great English namesake.
+
+There are fewer manufactories on the old race-ways now than there were
+forty years ago, but many new ones have been located on the hydraulic
+canal that has been excavated at great expense, which leaves the river a
+mile above the Falls, and empties into the chasm half a mile below. The
+three years of unusual drought in the northern half of the United
+States, from 1876 forward, demonstrated how little dependence can be
+placed during the summer season on the ordinary water-powers of that
+region, and the attention of manufacturers has been newly drawn to
+Niagara.
+
+The early dream of growth in population and wealth at Niagara seems
+likely to be realized. Already extensive milling and manufacturing
+establishments have been put in operation, and others are in
+contemplation. When it is considered that engineers estimate the
+sum-total of all the water-power in the northern portion of the United
+States at less than 500,000 horse-power, and that, according to data
+furnished by the United States Lake Survey Bureau, the water-power of
+Niagara is equal to 1,500,000 horse-power, we can form some idea of the
+vastness of the force which awaits the enterprise of American
+manufacturers.
+
+"I understand, Mr. President," said Daniel Webster, in a speech
+prefacing a toast complimentary to the citizens of Rochester for their
+generous hospitality at the New York State Fair in 1844, "that the
+Genesee River has a fall of 250 feet within the limits of the city of
+Rochester. Sir, if the Thames had a fall of 250 feet within the limits
+of the city of London, London would not be a town--it would be a-l-l
+t-h-e w-o-r-l-d!" and as he deliberately stretched out his great arms,
+and expanded his broad chest, while slowly pronouncing the last three
+words, one could almost see London gradually enlarging its ample borders
+in all directions. When the 1,500,000 horse-power of Niagara is utilized
+for the economic wants of men, Niagara will not be a town--it will be a
+large part of all the world.
+
+On the 25th of September, 1878, in an after-luncheon speech before the
+Ontario Society of Artists at Toronto, Lord Dufferin, Governor-General
+of Canada, first publicly suggested the idea of creating an
+International Park from lands to be taken from both sides of the river
+adjacent to and including the Falls. He stated that he had conferred
+with Governor Robinson of New York upon the subject, and that the
+project was cordially approved by him. Governor Robinson, in his annual
+message the following winter, commended the project to the consideration
+of the Legislature, by whom a commission of distinguished gentlemen was
+appointed to investigate the subject and report thereon. After a full
+examination this commission reported warmly in favor of the plan, and
+their recommendation was cordially indorsed by a great many prominent
+citizens residing in different sections of the country. The press, too,
+was almost unanimously for it. A majority of the members of the
+Legislature to whom the report was made would have passed a bill for
+the further prosecution of the scheme, but, unfortunately, it was
+ascertained that any bill they might pass for this purpose would be
+vetoed for economical reasons. It is hoped that better counsels may
+ultimately prevail, and the plan be perfected. Nothing else can save
+Niagara from total desecration and disgrace. The fact that there is not
+a square foot of land in the United States from which an untaxed view of
+the great cataract can be obtained is a disgrace to the State, the
+nation, and the civilization of the age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     Poetry in the Table Rock albums--Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.
+     Clark, Lord Morpeth, José Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs.
+     Sigourney, and J. G. C. Brainard.
+
+
+Before the last fall of Table Rock, there stood upon it for many years a
+comfortable summer-house, where people could take refuge from the spray,
+look at the Falls, partake of luncheon, and procure guides and dresses
+to go under the sheet. In the sitting-room was a large round table, on
+which were placed a number of albums, as they were called. In these
+visitors could write whatever thoughts or sentiments might be suggested
+by the scene. With the grand reality before them but few persons
+attempted anything serious, by far the greater number adopting the
+facetious vein. It was emphatically light literature. One or two
+collections of it have been published, furnishing the reader with only a
+modicum of sense to an intolerable quantity of nonsense.
+
+The following specimens are better than the average:
+
+
+     "To view Niagara Falls, one day,
+     A Parson and a Tailor took their way.
+     The Parson cried, while rapt in wonder
+     And list'ning to the cataract's thunder:
+     'Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes,
+     And fill our hearts with vast surprise!'
+     The Tailor merely made this note:
+     'Lord! what a place to sponge a coat!'"
+
+
+         "THOUGHTS ON VISITING NIAGARA.
+
+     "I wonder how long you've been a roarin'
+       At this infernal rate:
+     I wonder if all you've been a pourin'
+       Could be ciphered on a slate.
+
+     "I wonder how such a thund'rin' sounded
+       When all New York was woods;
+     I suppose some Indians have been drownded
+       When rains have raised your floods.
+
+     "I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes
+       Hav'nt stood where now I stand;
+     Well, 'spose--bein' scared at first--they stub'd their toes,
+       I wonder where they'd land!
+
+     "I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'
+       Since sunrise at creation;
+     And this waterfall been underminin'
+       With constant spatteration!
+
+     "That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.
+       While other things describin';
+     My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'd
+       While the deluge was subsidin'!
+
+     "My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deep
+       While I look down on thee.
+     Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheep
+       Niagara would be!
+
+     "And oh! what a tremendous water power
+       Is wasted o'er its edge!
+     One man might furnish all the world with flour
+       With a single privilege.
+
+     "I wonder how many times the lakes have all
+       Been emptied over here?
+     Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand Canal
+       From hence, I think is queer."
+
+
+The most graceful verses on Niagara ever written by a resident are the
+following by the late Colonel Porter, who was an artist both with the
+pencil and the pen. They were written for a young relative in playful
+explanation of a sketch he had drawn at the top of a page in her album,
+representing the Falls in the distance, and an Indian chief and two
+Europeans in the foreground:
+
+
+     "An Artist, underneath his sign (a masterpiece, of course)
+     Had written, to prevent mistakes, 'This represents a horse':
+     So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err,
+     I think it well my Pen should be my Art's interpreter.
+
+     "A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,
+     Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.
+     He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flow
+     Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss--
+     The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.
+     One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;
+     What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;
+     What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;
+     What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;
+     What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bow
+     Of the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,
+     And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;
+     And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,
+     And gaze from off the stone-built perch--hence called the
+       Bridal Tower--
+     And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,
+     By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,
+     To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:
+     And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,
+     But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;
+     And on their verge our life sweeps on--alternate joy and woe;
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,
+     And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:
+     But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flow
+     Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."
+
+
+On turning to the more serious poems that have been written on the
+theme, the reader naturally experiences a feeling of disappointment that
+a scene which has filled and charmed so many eyes should have found so
+few interpreters. Only those who see Niagara know how fast the tongue
+is bound when the thought struggles most for utterance. One who seems to
+have experienced this feeling thus expresses it:
+
+
+     "I came to see;
+     I thought to write;
+     I am but----dumb."
+
+
+The late Mr. Willis G. Clark thus expands the same sentiment:
+
+
+     "Here speaks the voice of God--let man be dumb,
+     Nor with his vain aspiring hither come.
+     That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,
+     And like a Presence fills the distant woods.
+     These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;
+     For ages here his painted bow has smiled,
+     Mocking the changes and the chance of time--
+     Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!"
+
+
+The following from the Table Rock Album was written by the late Lord
+Morpeth:
+
+
+            NIAGARA FALLS.--BY LORD MORPETH.
+
+     "There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!
+     Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.
+     The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,
+     The stirring of the chambers of the deep;
+     Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,
+     The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;
+     The tread of armies thickening as they come.
+     The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;
+     The brow of beauty and the form of grace,
+     The passion and the prowess of our race;
+     The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,
+     The unresisted sweep of human power;
+     Britannia's trident on the azure sea,
+     America's young shout of Liberty!
+     Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deep
+     _There_ spend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;
+     And till the conflict of thy surges cease
+     The nations on thy banks repose in peace."
+
+
+The extracts below are from a poem written after a visit to the Falls by
+José Maria Heredia, and translated from the Spanish by William Cullen
+Bryant:
+
+
+                    "NIAGARA.
+
+     "Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush
+     The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside
+     Those wide involving shadows, that my eyes
+     May see the fearful beauty of thy face!
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves
+     Grow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current then
+     Shoots onward like the irresistible course
+     Of destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,--
+     The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brain
+     Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze
+     Upon the hurrying waters; and my sight
+     Vainly would follow, as toward the verge
+     Sweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerable
+     Meet there and madden,--waves innumerable
+     Urge on and overtake the waves before,
+     And disappear in thunder and in foam.
+
+     "They reach, they leap the barrier,--the abyss
+     Swallows insatiable the sinking waves.
+     A thousand rainbows arch them, and woods
+     Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock
+     Shatters to vapor the descending sheets.
+     A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heaves
+     The mighty pyramid of circling mist
+     To heaven. * * * *
+     What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,
+     About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,--
+     Ah, the delicious palms,--that on the plains
+     Of my own native Cuba spring and spread
+     Their thickly foliaged summits to the sun,
+     And, in the breathings of the ocean air
+     Wave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?
+
+     "But no, Niagara,--thy forest pines
+     Are fitter coronal for thee. The palm,
+     The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may grow
+     In gardens and give out their fragrance there,
+     Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it is
+     To do a nobler office. Generous minds
+     Behold thee, and are moved and learn to rise
+     Above earth's frivolous pleasures; they partake
+     Thy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fear
+     Dost overwhelm the soul of him who looks
+     Upon thee, and dost bear it from itself,--
+     Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,
+     Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?
+     What power hath ordered that, when all thy weight
+     Descends into the deep, the swollen waves
+     Rise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?
+
+     "The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,
+     Covered thy face with clouds and given his voice
+     To thy down-rushing waters: he hath girt
+     Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.
+     I see thy never-resting waters run,
+     And I bethink me how the tide of time
+     Sweeps to eternity."
+
+
+The lyric from which the following extracts are taken was written by Mr.
+A. S. Ridgely, of Baltimore, Md.:
+
+
+     "Man lays his scepter on the ocean waste,
+     His footprints stiffen in the Alpine snows,
+     But only God moves visibly in thee,
+     O King of Floods! that with resistless fate
+     Down plungest in thy mighty width and depth.
+     * * * Amazement, terror, fill,
+     Impress and overcome the gazer's soul.
+     Man's schemes and dreams and petty littleness
+     Lie open and revealed. Himself far less--
+     Kneeling before thy great confessional--
+     Than are the bubbles of the passing tides.
+     Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paint
+     Thy might of waters, volumed vast and deep;
+     Thy many-toned and all-pervading voice;
+     Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchor'd on the brink
+     Of the dread precipice; thy double stream,
+     Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired;
+     Thy wat'ry caverns and thy crystal walls;
+     Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade,
+     Boiling and seething like a Phlegethon
+     Amid the wind-swept and convolving spray,
+     Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope.
+     There, of beam and cloud the fair creation,
+     The rainbow arches its ethereal hues.
+     From flint and granite in compacture strong,
+     Not with steel thrice harden'd--but with the wave
+     Soft and translucent--did the new-born Time
+     Chisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever poured
+     Earth's grand libation to Eternity;
+     Thy misty incense rising unto God--
+     The God that was and is and is to be."
+
+
+Mrs. Sigourney wrote the following poem, it is said, during a visit to
+Table Rock:
+
+
+             "APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA.
+
+     "Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robe
+     Of terror and of beauty. God has set
+     His rainbow on thy forehead, and the clouds
+     Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give
+     Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him
+     Eternally, bidding the lip of man
+     Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour
+     Incense of awe-struck praise.
+                             And who can dare
+     To lift the insect trump of earthly hope,
+     Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime
+     Of thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinks
+     Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves
+     Retire abashed; for he doth sometimes seem
+     To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall
+     His wearied billows from their vieing play,
+     And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,
+     With everlasting, undecaying tide
+     Dost rest not night nor day.
+                             The morning stars,
+     When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,
+     Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires
+     That wait the archangel's signal, to dissolve
+     The solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name
+     Graven, as with a thousand spears,
+     On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy bough
+     That lifts itself within thy proud domain
+     Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,
+     And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birds
+     Do venture boldly near, bathing their wings
+     Amid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for them
+     To touch thy garment here, or lightly stir
+     The snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,
+     Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,
+     And listen to the echoing gate of heaven
+     Without reproof. But as for us, it seems
+     Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak
+     Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint
+     Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,
+     Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,
+     Were profanation.
+                             Thou dost make the soul
+     A wondering witness of thy majesty;
+     And while it rushes with delirious joy
+     To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,
+     And check its rapture, with the humbling view
+     Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand
+     In the dread presence of the Invisible,
+     As if to answer to its God through thee."
+
+
+The following lines were written by the late John G. C. Brainard, who
+never saw the Falls. They were dashed off at a single short sitting, for
+the head of the literary column of the _Connecticut Mirror_, of
+Hartford, which he then edited:
+
+
+                  "THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
+
+     "The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain
+     While I look upward to thee. It would seem
+     As if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'
+     And hung his bow upon thine awful front,
+     And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him
+     Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,
+     'The sound of many waters,' and had bade
+     Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,
+     And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks.
+
+     "Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we
+     That hear the question of that voice sublime?
+     Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung
+     From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!
+     Yea, what is all the riot man can make
+     In his short life to thy unceasing roar!
+     And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to HIM
+     Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far
+     Above its loftiest mountains?--a light wave
+     That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     Yosemite--Vernal--Nevada--Yellowstone--Shoshone--St.
+     Maurice--Montmorency.
+
+
+For the purpose of comparison it may be interesting to note other
+cataracts in the United States, and in other parts of the world, and
+also some of the remarkable rapids, which may be successors to what were
+once perpendicular falls. For descriptions of those in foreign countries
+we are chiefly indebted to the geographical gazetteers and the journals
+of Humboldt, Livingstone, Bohle, and Stanley; for information regarding
+the cataracts of Norway we are indebted to Murray's "Norway, Denmark and
+Sweden."
+
+[Illustration: YOSEMITE FALLS]
+
+In the United States, after Niagara, the first to claim our attention
+are the Falls of the Yosemite, so graphically and scientifically made
+known to us in the second volume of Professor J. D. Whitney's Geological
+Report for California.
+
+Before describing them it is necessary to note the physical features of
+the region in which they are placed. The valley of the Yosemite forms a
+portion of the bed of the Merced River, which flows through it and
+passes from it by a wild, deep cañon into the San Joaquin. It is about
+eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a sharp bend
+to the west, about two miles from its upper end. To this place the
+Merced and two tributaries, called the North and South Forks, have come
+through the most rugged cañons, falling nearly two thousand feet in the
+space of two miles.
+
+Near the southerly end of the valley is the remarkable rock El Capitan,
+an almost vertical cliff 3,600 feet high, and one of the grandest
+objects in the valley. Just above this is the imposing pile called the
+Cathedral Rocks, and behind these, connected with them, two slender and
+beautiful granite columns called the Cathedral Spires.
+
+Two miles above, on the opposite side, is the row of summits, rising
+like steps one above another, named the Three Brothers. On the other
+side, in the angle of the valley, stands Sentinel Rock, so called from
+its fancied resemblance to a watch-tower. Three-fourths of a mile in a
+southerly direction from this is the Sentinel Dome, more than four
+thousand feet high and affording from its summit a most magnificent
+view. Following up the North Fork, just at the entrance of the cañon,
+rises the Half Dome, the grandest and loftiest in the Yosemite Valley,
+an inaccessible crest of granite, having an elevation--according to
+Prof. Brewer--of 6,000 feet. On the opposite side of the same cañon
+stands the North Dome, another of those rounded masses of granite so
+characteristic of the sierras. Appearing as a buttress to this is
+Washington's Column, and below this the Royal Arches, an immense arched
+cavity, formed by the giving way and sliding down of portions of the
+rock, and presenting, in the upper part, a vaulted appearance.
+
+In the angle formed by the Merced with the South Fork is the symmetrical
+and beautiful North Dome. This valley is the most remarkable basin thus
+far found in the world, and in view of its gigantic and impressive
+scenery we cannot but marvel at its size--a mere cup or trough in the
+midst of one of the sublimest of geological formations. This tiny strip
+of wonder-land is, as we have seen, only eight miles long and less than
+three-quarters of a mile average width.
+
+[Illustration: BRIDAL VEIL FALL]
+
+Beginning at the south-westerly end of the valley we first reach, in
+ascending it, the Bridal Veil, formed by one of the torrents that feed
+the Merced River. It is 1,000 feet in height, the body of water not
+being large, but sufficient to produce the most picturesque effect. As
+it is swayed backward and forward by the force of the wind, it seems to
+flutter like a white veil.
+
+Near the head of the valley, where it turns sharply toward the west, we
+have before us the Yosemite Fall. "From the edge of the cliff to the
+bottom of the valley the perpendicular distance is, in round numbers,
+2,550 feet. The fall is not one perpendicular sheet. There is first a
+vertical descent of 1,500 feet, when the water strikes on what seems to
+be a projecting ledge, but which is in reality a shelf or recess about a
+third of a mile back from the front of the lower portion of the cliff.
+Across this shelf the water rushes downward in a foaming torrent on a
+slope, equal to a perpendicular height of 626 feet, when it makes a
+final plunge of about 400 feet on to a low talus of rock at the foot of
+the precipice. As these various falls are in one vertical plane, the
+effect of the whole from the opposite side of the valley is nearly as
+grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the
+descent was made in one sheet from the top to the bottom. The mass of
+water in the 1,500 feet fall is too great to allow of its being entirely
+broken up into spray, but it widens very much as it descends, and as the
+sheet vibrates backward and forward with the varying pressure of the
+wind, which acts with immense force on this long column of water, the
+effect is indescribably grand."
+
+The first fall in the cañon of the Merced is the Vernal, "a simple
+perpendicular sheet 475 feet high, the rock behind it being a perfectly
+square-cut mass of granite. Ascending to the summit of the Vernal Fall
+by a series of ladders, and passing a succession of rapids and cascades
+of great beauty, we come to the last great fall of the Merced--the
+Nevada, which has a descent of 639 feet, and near its summit has a
+peculiar twist caused by the mass of water falling on a projecting ledge
+which throws it off to one side, adding greatly to the picturesque
+effect. It must be ranked as one of the finest cataracts in the world,
+taking into consideration its height, the volume and purity of the
+water, and the whole character of the scenery which surrounds it."
+
+The fall from end to end of the valley proper is about fifty feet. "Its
+smooth and brilliant color, diversified as it is with groves of trees
+and carpeted with showy flowers, offers the most wonderful contrast to
+the towering masses of neutral and light purple-tinted rocks by which it
+is surrounded. Its elevation above the sea is estimated at 4,060 feet,
+and the cliffs and domes about it from 3,000 to 5,000 feet higher." It
+is a source of great satisfaction to the lover of nature that this
+famous and favored territory, so studded with grandeur and fretted with
+beauty, has wisely been set apart by Governmental authority to minister
+to the higher needs and better instincts of man.
+
+[Illustration: VERNAL FALLS]
+
+The valley of the Yellowstone east of the Rocky Mountains in the north,
+like that of the Yosemite west of the sierras of the Pacific slope, is
+another wonder-land, presenting a bewildering variety of land and water
+formations which, in turn, awe, charm, fascinate, or amuse, but always
+astonish, the beholder.
+
+Among the most interesting objects in the Yellowstone Valley are the
+upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. "No language," says
+Professor Hayden, "can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty
+of these scenes, and it is only through the eye that the mind can gather
+anything like an adequate conception of them. The two falls are not more
+than a fourth of a mile apart. Above the upper fall the Yellowstone
+flows through a grassy, meadow-like valley with a calm, steady current,
+giving no warning until very near the fall that it is about to rush over
+a precipice 140 feet high, and then, within a quarter of a mile, again
+leap down a distance of 350 feet. After the waters roll over the upper
+descent they flow with great rapidity along the upper flat, rocky bottom
+which spreads out to near double the width above the falls, and
+continues thus until near the fall, when the channel again contracts and
+the waters seem, as it were, to gather into a compact mass and plunge
+over the descent of 350 feet in detached drops of foam as white as
+snow."
+
+On the Snake or Lewis River, the largest tributary of the Columbia
+River, are three falls, the greatest of which is the Shoshone in Idaho,
+where the river, with a width of six hundred yards, is said to be of so
+great a depth that it discharges nearly as much water as the Niagara,
+over a precipice about two hundred feet high. This grand fall is
+situated in the midst of magnificent scenery, and is surrounded by a
+fertile country.
+
+Another lesser Niagara is found in the north-east, in the river St.
+Maurice, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, which falls into it
+from the north below Three Rivers and about twenty-two miles above its
+mouth. The fall--the Shawenegan--is the same height as Niagara, and
+while the width and depth of the river are not given, the volume of
+water pouring over the precipice is said to be forty thousand feet per
+second, a supply sufficient to produce a grand and impressive cataract.
+
+Eight miles below Quebec the river Montmorency discharges directly into
+the St. Lawrence, over a cliff two hundred and fifty feet high, with a
+width of one hundred and fifty feet. The falling foam-flecked sheet
+presents a beautiful and picturesque appearance. It is unique as being
+the only known instance in which a tributary falls perpendicularly into
+the main stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     Tequendama--Kaiteeur--Paulo
+     Affonso--Keel-fos--Riunkan-fos--Sarp-fos--Staubbach--Zambesi or
+     Victoria--Murchison--Cavery--Schaffhausen.
+
+
+In South America is the remarkable fall of Tequendama, on the river
+Bogota, which, at this point, is only one hundred and forty feet wide,
+and is divided into numerous narrow and deep channels which finally
+unite in two of nearly the same width, and make a perpendicular plunge
+of six hundred and fifty feet to the plain below. "The cataract," says
+Humboldt, "forms an assemblage of everything that is sublimely
+picturesque in beautiful scenery. It is not one of the highest falls,
+but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so lofty a height,
+precipitates so voluminous a mass of water. The body, when it first
+parts from its bed, forms a broad arch of glassy appearance; a little
+lower down it assumes a fleecy form, and ultimately, in its progress, it
+shoots forth in millions of smaller masses, which chase each other like
+sky-rockets. The attending noises are quite astounding, and dense clouds
+of vapor soar upward, presenting beautiful rainbows in their ascent.
+What gives a remarkable appearance to the scene is the great difference
+in the vegetation surrounding different parts of it." At the summit the
+traveler "finds himself surrounded, not only with begonias and the
+yellow bark tree (Sandal), but with oaks, elms, and other plants, the
+growth of which recall to mind the vegetation of Europe, when suddenly
+he discovers, as from a terrace and at his feet, a country producing the
+palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. The cause of the difference is not
+ascertained, the difference of altitude--one hundred and seventy-five
+metres--not being sufficient to exert much influence on the atmosphere."
+
+[Illustration: NEVADA FALLS]
+
+Another and grander South American fall, of comparatively recent
+discovery, is the Kaiteeur, so called, in the river Potaro, a large
+affluent of the Essequibo, the largest river in British Guiana. The
+volume of water is greater than that in the Bogota, and falls in a
+single column of dazzling whiteness seven hundred and forty feet into a
+vast basin below. The ascending cloud of spray, the solemn monotone of
+the descending flood, the extreme wildness of the primitive forest, and
+the luxuriant and abundant growth of tropical vines and shrubs, and
+their gorgeous colors, make the scene impressive.
+
+[Illustration: LOWER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE]
+
+"There is in Brazil," says Elisée Reclus, "not far from Bahia, the
+wonderful cataract of San Francisco, known by the name of Paulo Affonso.
+At the foot of a long slope over which it glides in rapids, the river,
+one of the most considerable of the South American continent, whirls
+round and round as it enters a kind of funnel-shaped cavity, roughened
+with rocks, and suddenly contracting its width, dashes against three
+rocky masses reared up like towers at the edge of the abyss; then
+dividing into four vast columns of water, it plunges down into a gulf
+two hundred and forty-six feet in depth. The principal column, being
+confined in a perpendicular passage, is scarcely sixty-six feet in
+width, but it must be of an enormous thickness (depth), as it forms
+almost the whole body of the river. Half way up, the channel which
+contains it bends to the left, and the falling mass, changing its
+direction, passes under a vertical column of water, which penetrates
+through it from one side to the other, and breaking it up into a chaos
+of surges, converts it into a sea of foam. Sometimes the white, misty
+vapor may be seen, and the thunder of the water may be heard at a
+distance of more than fifteen miles." The spray and roar of Niagara are
+often seen and heard at Toronto, forty miles away, across Lake Ontario.
+
+In Norway is found the highest perpendicular fall in the world that is
+constantly supplied with water. It is the Keel-fos, formed by a mountain
+stream that falls two thousand feet into the Navöens Fjord near
+Gudhaven, but the water becomes a mere billowy bank of mist before it
+reaches the bottom.
+
+The Riunkan-fos is another Norwegian cataract in the outlet of Lake
+Mjösvard, which pours through a wild, rock-studded slope until it
+reaches a precipice, on the brink of which it is divided by a huge mass
+of rock into two channels. Thence it falls eight hundred and eighty feet
+into a dark basin at its foot, from which water-rockets and sharp jets
+of foam shoot up and out in all directions. The intense whiteness of the
+fleecy column is indescribable.
+
+A still more famous Norwegian cataract is the Sarp-fos in the
+Stor-Elven, formed by the junction of the Lougen and Glommen, the
+largest of the Norwegian rivers. Like the Riunkan-fos the stream is
+greatly contracted in a rocky gorge, and at the edge of the cliff is
+divided into two channels which, however, soon unite in a fall of one
+hundred feet upon huge masses of rock, through and over which it rushes
+tumultuously for a short distance, and then flows quietly into the sea.
+The volume of water is unusually large for a purely mountain river,
+being in the gorge at the top of the fall one hundred and fifty feet
+wide and forty feet deep. The massive and intensely white column
+contrasted with the dark green foliage of the solemn pines, and the
+darker rocks about it, and the deep blue water into which it falls,
+produce a vivid impression on the mind of the beholder. The Stor-Elven
+here presents the curious phenomenon of a stream changing, not from a
+perpendicular fall to a rapid, but the reverse, from a rapid to a
+perpendicular fall. A great portion of the right bank of the river at
+the fall, and for a considerable distance below, is chiefly composed of
+a stiff blue clay, and the river once flowed past Sarpsborg, a mile
+below, in a succession of magnificent rapids. At that time a superb
+mansion with numerous out-buildings stood at the termination of the
+rapids. On the 5th of February, 1702, the mansion, together with
+everything in and about it, sunk into an abyss six hundred feet deep,
+and was entirely buried beneath the water. The walls of the house were
+of unusual strength and thickness, with several high towers, but the
+whole was buried out of sight. Fourteen persons and two hundred head of
+cattle were also engulfed. The catastrophe was caused by the washing
+out of the blue clay, and the undermining of the bank, which then
+toppled over into the watery chasm.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE]
+
+In Switzerland is the Staubbach--dust-stream--a well known fall in the
+canton of Berne. It has a sheer descent of nearly nine hundred feet, in
+which the water is converted into spray that is easily moved by the
+wind, thus giving it a singularly beautiful resemblance to a white
+curtain floating in the air.
+
+In South Africa, Livingstone has made the public acquainted with that
+extraordinary hiatus in the crust of the earth in which the great river
+Zambesi is swallowed up. A stream more than a thousand yards wide,
+dotted with islands, flowing between fertile banks clothed with the
+luxuriant and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, without the least
+preliminary break or rapid, suddenly drops into a dark chasm of unknown
+depth, which, repeatedly doubling on itself, pursues its tortuous course
+some forty miles through the hills before emerging again into the
+sunlight. "From Kalai," says Livingstone, "after some twenty minutes'
+sail we came in sight of the columns of vapor appropriately called
+smoke. * * * Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of
+the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees. The
+tops of the columns at this distance (six miles) appeared to mingle with
+the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful." At the brink of
+the chasm he found the river divided into two channels of unequal width
+by a large island called the "Garden," on account of its rich
+vegetation. "Creeping with awe to the verge I peered down into a large
+rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and
+saw that a stream a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and
+then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards.
+In looking down into this fissure on the right of the island one sees
+nothing but a dense, white cloud. From this cloud rushed up a great jet
+of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred
+feet high; then, condensing, it changed its hue into that of dark smoke,
+and came back in a constant shower. This shower fell chiefly on the
+opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the top there
+stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet.
+From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf, but as
+they flow down the steep wall the column of vapor in its ascent licks
+them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are
+constantly running down, but never reach the bottom."
+
+[Illustration: THE STAUBBACH, SWITZERLAND]
+
+In Northern Africa the Murchison Falls in the White Nile, between lakes
+Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi, were discovered by Sir Samuel
+Baker, and are described by him. "Upon rounding the corner a magnificent
+sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were
+beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about three
+hundred feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage,
+and, rushing through a gap that cleft the river exactly before us, the
+river itself, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow
+gorge scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through the
+rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of about one hundred and twenty
+feet perpendicularly into a dark abyss below. The fall of water was
+snow-white, which had a superb effect, as it contrasted with the dark
+cliffs that walled the river, while graceful palms of the tropics and
+wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view."
+
+A writer in Hamilton's "East Indian Gazetteer" gives us an account of
+the cataract of Gungani Chuki in the northern branch of the river
+Cavery. "Much the larger stream is broken by projecting masses of rock
+into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller
+torrents. The first plunges into the river below from a height variously
+estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the
+others, impeded in their course by intervening rocks, work their way
+with many fantastic evolutions to a distance about two hundred feet from
+the base of the precipice, where they all unite to make a single final
+plunge, while the other branch of the river precipitates itself in two
+columns from a cliff of the same height, and standing nearly at right
+angles with the main fall. The surrounding scenery is wild in the
+extreme, and the whole presents a very imposing spectacle.
+
+"A second cataract is formed by the southern arm of the Cavery about a
+mile below. The channel here spreads out into a magnificent expanse,
+which is divided into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall
+with infinite variety of configuration over a precipice of more than one
+hundred feet, but presenting no single body equal to the Gungani Chuki,
+but the whole forming an amphitheatre of cataracts, meeting the eye in
+every direction along a sweep of perhaps 90°, and combined with scenery
+of such sequestered wildness that for picturesque effect it is perhaps
+without parallel in the world." This branch of the stream is used to
+irrigate the province of Tanjore, and the coming of its floods is
+celebrated by the natives with special festivities, as they consider the
+river to be one of their most beneficent deities.
+
+The beautiful and picturesque fall of the Rhine below Schaffhausen,
+where the water falls sixty-five feet in a single column, is the
+admiration of all travelers.
+
+[Illustration: VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     Famous Rapids and
+     Cascades--Niagara--Amazon--Orinoco--Parana--Nile--Livingstone.
+
+
+In all its features and characteristics the great water-course,
+including the great lakes, which feeds the Niagara, is peculiar and
+interesting. It is more than two thousand miles long; its utmost
+surface-sources are scarcely six hundred feet above tide-water; its
+bottom, at its greater depth, is more than four hundred feet below
+tide-water. In all its course it receives less than two score of
+affluents, and only two of these, the St. Maurice and the Saugeen, bring
+to it any considerable quantity of water, and no flood in any of them
+discolors its emerald surface from shore to shore. Only fierce gales of
+wind bring up from its own depths the sediment that can discolor its
+whole face. Far the greater portion of its water-supply is drawn from
+countless hidden springs, lying deep in the bosom of the earth. In all
+the elements of beautiful, picturesque, and enchanting scenery it is
+unrivaled.
+
+The rapids of the Niagara just above the Falls, from the Leaping Rock
+down through the Witches' Caldron to the edge of the precipice, are
+nearly a mile in width, and discharge ten million cubic feet of water
+each minute. But for a combination of grandeur and beauty, and for
+imparting a sense of almost infinite power, nothing can surpass the
+Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls, where the ten million cubic feet of
+water are compressed into a tortuous, tumultuous channel, less than four
+hundred feet wide.
+
+There are many lesser rapids in the St. Lawrence, from the Thousand
+Islands to Montreal, the passage of which in the large lake steamers is
+an exciting voyage. The constant changes of scenery at every turn and in
+every rood of progress is almost bewildering. Then the alternation of
+rapids and broad expanses of river, the bird-like motion as the steamer
+sinks and sails down through the rapids, and the sense of relief when it
+seems to rise and glide over the smooth river, vary and increase the
+excitement. There is developed in one of those expanses a peculiar
+geological feature called the Split Rock. The name is strictly accurate.
+The descending steamer finds but one narrow channel, a little more than
+its own width, through which it can pass in a stream more than half a
+mile wide. It lies between the sharp corners of a broad, wedge-shaped
+cleavage in an immense rock which, by some convulsion of nature--not by
+any abrading process of the elements--has been literally split downward
+more than eighty feet. The last crooked and turbulent rapid passed just
+before reaching Montreal is the terror of the river pilots, and they
+never attempt its passage except by daylight. From Montreal to the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence the constantly deepening channel flows with an unbroken
+current.
+
+It is a notable fact that the great river of rivers, which drains a
+larger territory than any other on the globe, the Amazon proper, has a
+fall of only two hundred and ten feet in a course of three thousand
+miles, and while it has a deep channel and a uniform current of three
+miles an hour for its whole length, it has no broken rapids. But in its
+many great affluents rapids are numerous, though not so famous as those
+found in other South American rivers.
+
+The river Orinoco, more remarkable in some respects than the Amazon,
+receives the waters of four hundred and thirty-six rivers, besides two
+thousand smaller streams. It is one thousand five hundred miles long, is
+navigable for seven hundred and eighty miles, and at Bolivar, two
+hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, it is four miles wide and three
+hundred and ninety feet deep. Its famous rapids of the Apure and Maypure
+were visited by Humboldt. At the latter, the river is two thousand eight
+hundred and forty yards wide, and plunges down an inclined plane about
+three miles long, making a fall equal to forty feet in vertical height.
+It is dotted with innumerable islands which furnish a striking contrast
+to the vast sheet of white water, presenting the singular appearance of
+an eruption of shrub-crowned rocks in a sea of foam. These islands, and
+its great width, constitute the peculiar characteristics of this chute.
+
+In the grandest of the South American rapids, those of the river Parana,
+a vast volume of water from a channel nearly two and a half miles in
+width is compressed into a gorge only sixty-six yards wide, through
+which the flood dashes down a slope of sixty degrees inclination and
+fifty-six feet perpendicular fall. Its roar--a perpetual monotone--is
+heard thirty miles away.
+
+Hardly less remarkable than the rapids of the South American rivers are
+those of the two great African rivers, the Nile and the Congo, or, as
+Mr. Stanley has re-christened the latter, the Livingstone. The Nile may
+be compared to a vast tree with its huge delta-roots in the
+Mediterranean, its boll extending up through a rainless desert nearly
+one thousand five hundred miles to meet its numerous branches which
+stretch up into the mountains of Abyssinia, and the vast basin south of
+the equator that contains the great lakes of Victoria N'yanzi and Albert
+N'yanzi. From these branches in each year, at a fixed season, are poured
+down the sediment-charged waters which irrigate and fertilize an immense
+valley that would otherwise be only a parched and desert waste.
+
+Without specifying the data for his calculations, Mr. Stanley, who saw
+them both, states that the volume of the Livingstone is ten times
+greater than that of the Nile. Its course is interrupted by two series
+of cataracts, or rather a combination of cascades and rapids. The first
+series, seven in number, occurs within four hundred miles of its source,
+and consists of the Stanley Falls, occupying different points in a
+channel sixty-two miles long. Its banks are of moderate elevation above
+its bed, and in the long, bright, equatorial days the leaping,
+sparkling, foaming waters present a scene of dazzling brilliancy. In the
+second series, named by Mr. Stanley the Livingstone Falls, there are
+thirty-two cascades, more extensive and imposing than those of the
+first. The river, after a gentle descent of nearly one thousand miles,
+and after receiving many large affluents, reaches the first of these
+impetuous torrents where all its waters are compressed into a narrow
+gorge only four hundred and fifty feet wide, and at a single point near
+the right bank where a sounding was possible, Mr. Stanley found a depth
+of one hundred and thirty-eight feet.
+
+The remaining thirty-one cascades are distributed along a channel one
+hundred and fifty-five miles in length, between banks from fifty to six
+hundred feet high, and having a fall of one thousand one hundred feet.
+The dimensions here given indicate that these rapids are second, in
+power and impressiveness, only to those above the Whirlpool of Niagara.
+
+
+Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
+
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Falls Of Niagara, by George W. Holley.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous Cataracts
+
+Author: George W. Holley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35669]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALLS OF NIAGARA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="bold2">NIAGARA.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="frontispiece.jpg" id="frontispiece.jpg"></a><img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width='700' height='503' alt="Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side - Frontispiece" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side - Frontispiece.</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1><span><span class="smaller">THE</span><br />FALLS OF NIAGARA<br /><br /><span class="smaller">AND</span><br /><span class="smaller"><i>OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS</i>.</span></span>
+<br /><span id="id1">BY</span> <span>GEORGE W. HOLLEY.</span></h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="bold">With Thirty Illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="bold">London:<br />HODDER AND STOUGHTON,<br />
+27, PATERNOSTER ROW.<br /><br />MDCCCLXXXII.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="bold2">CONTENTS.</p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<table summary="CONTENTS">
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Part I.&mdash;History.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER I.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">First French expedition&mdash;Jacques Cartier&mdash;He first hears of the great<br />
+Cataract&mdash;Champlain&mdash;Route to China&mdash;La Salle&mdash;Father Hennepin's<br />
+first and second visits to the Falls</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER II.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls&mdash;M. Charlevoix's letter to<br />
+Madame Maintenon&mdash;Number of the Falls&mdash;Geological indications&mdash;Great<br />
+projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's time&mdash;Cave of the<br />
+Winds&mdash;Rainbows</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER III.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">The name Niagara&mdash;The musical dialect of the Hurons&mdash;Niagara one<br />
+of the oldest of Indian names&mdash;Description of the River, the Falls,<br />
+and the surrounding country</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IV.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Niagara a tribal name&mdash;Other names given to the tribe&mdash;The Niagaras<br />
+a superior race&mdash;The true pronunciation of Indian words</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>CHAPTER V.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">The lower Niagara&mdash;Fort Niagara&mdash;Fort Mississauga&mdash;Niagara village&mdash;<br />Lewiston&mdash;Portage
+around the Falls&mdash;The first railroad in the
+United<br />States&mdash;Fort Schlosser&mdash;The ambuscade at Devil's Hole&mdash;La
+Salle's vessel,<br />the <i>Griffin</i>&mdash;The Niagara frontier</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Part II.&mdash;Geology.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VI.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">America the old world&mdash;Geologically recent origin of the Falls&mdash;Evidence<br />
+thereof&mdash;Captain Williams's surveys for a ship-canal&mdash;Former
+extent of<br />Lake Michigan&mdash;Its outlet into the Illinois River&mdash;The
+Niagara Barrier&mdash;How<br />broken through&mdash;The birth of Niagara</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Composition of the terrace cut through&mdash;Why retrocession is possible&mdash;Three<br />
+sections from Lewiston to the Falls&mdash;Devil's Hole&mdash;The
+Medina<br />group&mdash;Recession long checked&mdash;The Whirlpool&mdash;The narrowest
+part of the<br />river&mdash;The mirror&mdash;Depth of the water in the
+Chasm&mdash;Former grand Fall</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Recession above the present position of the Falls&mdash;The Falls will be
+higher<br />as they recede&mdash;Reason Why&mdash;Professor Tyndall's prediction&mdash;Present<br />
+and former accumulations of rock&mdash;Terrific power of
+the elements&mdash;<br />Ice and ice bridges&mdash;Remarkable geognosy of the lake region</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Part III.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Local History and Incidents.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IX.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Forty years since&mdash;Niagara in winter&mdash;Frozen spray&mdash;Ice foliage and<br />
+ice apples&mdash;Ice moss&mdash;Frozen fog&mdash;Ice islands&mdash;Ice statues&mdash;Sleigh-riding<br />
+on the American Rapids&mdash;Boys coasting on them&mdash;Ice gorges</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>CHAPTER X.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Judge Porter&mdash;General Porter&mdash;Goat Island&mdash;Origin of its name&mdash;Early<br />
+dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the rock&mdash;Professor<br />
+Kalm's wonderful story&mdash;Bridges to the Island&mdash;Method of construction&mdash;Red<br />
+Jacket&mdash;Anecdotes&mdash;Grand Island&mdash;Major Noah and the<br />
+New Jerusalem&mdash;The Stone Tower&mdash;The Biddle stairs&mdash;Sam Patch&mdash;Depth<br />
+of water on the Horseshoe&mdash;Ships sent over the Falls</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XI.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the Rapids&mdash;Rescue<br />
+of Chapin&mdash;Rescue of Allen&mdash;He takes the <i>Maid of the Mist</i> through<br />
+the Whirlpool&mdash;His companions&mdash;Effect upon Robinson&mdash;Biographical<br />
+notice&mdash;His grave unmarked</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">A fisherman and a bear in a canoe&mdash;Frightful experience with floating ice&mdash;Early<br />
+farming on the Niagara&mdash;Fruit-growing&mdash;The original forest&mdash;Testimony<br />
+of the trees&mdash;The first hotel&mdash;General Whitney&mdash;Cataract<br />
+House&mdash;Distinguished visitors&mdash;Carriage road down the Canadian<br />
+bank&mdash;Ontario House&mdash;Clifton House&mdash;The Museum&mdash;Table and<br />
+Termination Rocks&mdash;Burning Spring&mdash;Lundy's Lane&mdash;Battle Anecdotes</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Incidents&mdash;Fall of Table Rock&mdash;Remarkable phenomenon in the river&mdash;Driving<br />
+and lumbering on the Rapids&mdash;Points of the compass at<br />
+the Falls&mdash;A first view of the Falls commonly disappointing&mdash;Lunar<br />
+bow&mdash;Golden spray&mdash;Gull Island and the gulls&mdash;The highest water<br />
+ever known at the Falls&mdash;The Hermit of the Falls</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIV.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Avery's descent of the Falls&mdash;The fatal practical joke&mdash;Death of Miss<br />
+Rugg&mdash;Swans&mdash;Eagles&mdash;Crows&mdash;Ducks over the Falls&mdash;Why dogs<br />
+have survived the descent</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XV.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Wedding tourists at the Falls&mdash;Bridges to the Moss Islands&mdash;Railway
+at the<br />Ferry&mdash;List of persons who have been carried over the Falls&mdash;Other accidents</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>CHAPTER XVI.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">The first Suspension Bridge&mdash;The Railway Suspension Bridge&mdash;Extraordinary<br />
+vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the fall of a mass of
+rock&mdash;De Veaux<br />College&mdash;The Lewiston Suspension Bridge&mdash;The
+Suspension Bridge at the Falls</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XVII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Blondin and his "ascensions"&mdash;Visit of the Prince of Wales&mdash;Grand<br />
+illumination of the Falls&mdash;The steamer <i>Caroline</i>&mdash;The Water-power<br />
+of Niagara&mdash;Lord Dufferin and the plan of an international park</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XVIII.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Poetry in the Table Rock albums&mdash;Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.<br />
+Clark, Lord Morpeth, Jos&eacute; Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs. Sigourney,<br />
+and J. G. C. Brainard</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Part IV.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2" class="center"><span class="smcap">Other Famous Cataracts of the World.</span></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIX.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Yosemite&mdash;Vernal&mdash;Nevada&mdash;Yellowstone&mdash;Shoshone&mdash;St. Maurice&mdash;<br />Montmorency</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XX.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Tequendama&mdash;Kaiteeur&mdash;Paulo Affonso&mdash;Keel-fos&mdash;Riunkan-fos&mdash;Sarp-fos&mdash;<br />Staubbach&mdash;Zambesi
+or Victoria&mdash;Murchison&mdash;Cavery&mdash;Schaffhausen</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XXI.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Famous rapids and cascades&mdash;Niagara&mdash;Amazon&mdash;Orinoco&mdash;Parana&mdash;Nile&mdash;<br />Livingstone</td>
+    <td style="vertical-align: bottom"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="bold2">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<table summary="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#frontispiece.jpg"><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side</span></a></td>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Frontispiece.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp006.jpg"><span class="smcap">The Horseshoe Fall from Goat Island</span></a></td>
+    <td>Opposite page 6</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp011.jpg"><span class="smcap">Luna Fall and Island in Winter</span></a></td>
+    <td>11</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp017.jpg"><span class="smcap">The Rapids above the Falls</span></a></td>
+    <td>17</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp022.jpg"><span class="smcap">The Youngest Inhabitant</span></a></td>
+    <td>22</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp029.jpg"><span class="smcap">Mouth of the Chasm and Brock's Monument</span></a></td>
+    <td>29</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp054.jpg"><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls from Below</span></a></td>
+    <td>54</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp060.jpg"><span class="smcap">Great Icicles under the American Fall</span></a></td>
+    <td>60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp066.jpg"><span class="smcap">Winter Foliage</span></a></td>
+    <td>66</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp069.jpg"><span class="smcap">Ice Bridge and Frost Freaks</span></a></td>
+    <td>69</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp070.jpg"><span class="smcap">Coasting below the American Fall</span></a></td>
+    <td>70</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp076.jpg"><span class="smcap">Second Moss Island Bridge</span></a></td>
+    <td>76</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp086.jpg"><span class="smcap">Joel R. Robinson</span></a></td>
+    <td>86</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp091.jpg"><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Maid of the Mist</i> <span class="smcap">in the Whirlpool</span></a></td>
+    <td>91</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp097.jpg"><span class="smcap">Fisher and the Bear</span></a></td>
+    <td>97</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp109.jpg"><span class="smcap">Fall of Table Rock</span></a></td>
+    <td>109</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp114.jpg"><span class="smcap">Rock of Ages and Whirlwind Bridge</span></a></td>
+    <td>114</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp125.jpg"><span class="smcap">The Three Sisters or Moss Islands</span></a></td>
+    <td>125</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp137.jpg"><span class="smcap">How the Suspension Bridge was Begun</span></a></td>
+    <td>137</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span><a href="#fp145.jpg"><span class="smcap">Blondin Crossing the Niagara</span></a></td>
+    <td>145</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp148.jpg"><span class="smcap">Indian Women Selling Bead-work</span></a></td>
+    <td>148</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp164.jpg"><span class="smcap">Yosemite Falls</span></a></td>
+    <td>164</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp166.jpg"><span class="smcap">Bridal Veil Fall</span></a></td>
+    <td>166</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp168.jpg"><span class="smcap">Vernal Falls</span></a></td>
+    <td>168</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp171.jpg"><span class="smcap">Nevada Falls</span></a></td>
+    <td>171</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp172.jpg"><span class="smcap">Lower Falls of the Yellowstone</span></a></td>
+    <td>172</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp174.jpg"><span class="smcap">Upper Falls of the Yellowstone</span></a></td>
+    <td>174</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp176.jpg"><span class="smcap">The Staubbach, Switzerland</span></a></td>
+    <td>176</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp178.jpg"><span class="smcap">Victoria Falls, Zambesi</span></a></td>
+    <td>178</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="center">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left"><a href="#fp001.jpg"><span class="smcap">Map of the Niagara Region</span></a></td>
+    <td>1</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>PREFACE.</span></h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p>The writer, having resided in the village of Niagara Falls for more than
+a third of a century, has had opportunity to become thoroughly
+acquainted with the locality, and to study it with constantly increasing
+interest and admiration. Long observation enables him to offer some new
+suggestions in regard to the geological age of the Falls, their
+retrocession, and the causes which have been potent in producing it; and
+also to demonstrate the existence of a barrier or dam that was once the
+shore of an immense fresh-water sea, which reached from Niagara to Lake
+Michigan, and emptied its waters into the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever undertakes to write comprehensively on this subject will soon
+become aware of the weakness of exclamation points and adjectives, and
+the almost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>irresistible temptation to indulge in a style of composition
+which he cannot maintain, and should not if he could. So far as the
+writer, yielding to the inspiration of his theme, and in opposition to
+all resolutions to the contrary, may have trespassed in this direction,
+he bares and bows his head to the severest treatment that the critic may
+adopt. His labor has been one of love, and in giving its results to the
+public he regrets that it is not more worthy of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>As it is hoped that the work may be useful to future visitors to the
+Falls, and also possess some interest for those who have visited them,
+it seemed desirable to avoid the introduction of notes and the citation
+of authorities. For this reason several paragraphs are placed in the
+text which would otherwise have been introduced in notes. This is
+especially true of the chapters of local history.</p>
+
+<p>The writer is especially indebted to the Hon. Orsamus H. Marshall, of
+Buffalo, for a copy of his admirable "Historical Sketches," and for
+access to his library of American history. The Documentary History and
+Colonial Documents of the State of New York, "The Relations of the
+Jesuits," the works of other early French missionaries, travelers, and
+adventurers, made familiar to the public by the indefatigable labors of
+Shea and Parkman, have all helped to make the writer's task
+comparatively an easy one.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p><p>Several years ago, the body of this work, which has since been revised
+and considerably enlarged, was published in a small volume, that has
+long been out of print. Believing that the interest of the volume would
+be enhanced for the reader if he were able to contrast Niagara Falls
+with other famous falls, cataracts, and rapids, the writer has added
+chapters, describing the most noted of these in all parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p class="right">G. W. H.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls, N. Y.</span><br />
+<span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>September, 1882.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i016.jpg" id="i016.jpg"></a><img src="images/i016.jpg" width='350' height='199' alt="Map of the Niagara Region" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp001.jpg" id="fp001.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp001.jpg" width='700' height='422' alt="Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side - Frontispiece" /></div>
+
+<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Map of the Niagara Region</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>PART I.&mdash;HISTORY.</span></h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER I.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>First French expedition&mdash;Jacques Cartier&mdash;He first hears of the
+great Cataract&mdash;Champlain&mdash;Route to China&mdash;La Salle&mdash;Father
+Hennepin's first and second visits to the Falls.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In 1534, Jacques Cartier, a shrewd, enterprising, and adventurous
+sailor, made his first voyage across the Atlantic, touching at
+Newfoundland, and exploring the coast to the west and south of it. The
+two vessels of Cartier, called ships by the historians of the period,
+were each of only forty tons burden.</p>
+
+<p>On the return of Cartier to France, so favorable was his report of the
+results of the expedition, that Francis I. commissioned him, the year
+following, for another voyage, and in May, 1535, after impressive
+religious ceremonies, he sailed with three vessels thoroughly equipped.
+The record of this second voyage of Cartier, by Lescarbot, contains the
+first historical notice of the cataract of Niagara. The navigator, in
+answer to his inquiries concerning the source of the St. Lawrence, "was
+told that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> after ascending many leagues among rapids and water-falls,
+he would reach a lake one hundred and forty or fifty leagues broad, at
+the western extremity of which the waters were wholesome and the winters
+mild; that a river emptied into it from the south, which had its source
+in the country of the Iroquois; that beyond the lake he would find a
+cataract and portage, then another lake about equal to the former, which
+they had never explored."</p>
+
+<p>In 1603, a company of merchants in Rouen obtained the necessary
+authority for a new expedition to the St. Lawrence, which they placed
+under the direction of Samuel Champlain, an able, discreet, and resolute
+commander. On a map published in 1613 he indicated the position of the
+cataract, calling it merely a water-fall (<i>saut d'eau</i>), and describing
+it as being "so very high that many kinds of fish are stunned in its
+descent." It does not appear by the record that he ever saw the Falls.</p>
+
+<p>During the sixty years that elapsed between the establishment of the
+French settlements by Champlain and the expedition of La Salle and
+Hennepin, there can be little doubt that the great cataract was
+repeatedly visited by French traders and adventurers. Many of the
+earlier travelers to the region of the St. Lawrence believed that China
+could be reached by an overland journey across the northern part of the
+continent. Father Vimont informs us ("Relations of the Jesuits," 1642-3)
+that the Jesuit Raymbault "designed to go to China across the American
+wilderness, but God sent him on the road to heaven." As he died at the
+Saut Ste.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Marie in 1641, he must have passed to the north of the Falls
+without seeing them. In 1648, the Jesuit father Ragueneau, in a letter
+to the Superior of the Mission, at Paris, says: "North of the Eries is a
+great lake, about two hundred leagues in circumference, called Erie,
+formed by the discharge of the <i>mer-douce</i> or Lake Huron, and which
+falls into a third lake, called Ontario, over a cataract of frightful height."</p>
+
+<p>In some important manuscripts relating to the earliest expeditions of
+the French into Canada,&mdash;discovered a few years ago, and now in the
+possession of M. Pierre Margry, of Paris,&mdash;occurs a description of the
+Falls communicated by the Indians to Father Gallin&eacute;e, one of the two
+Sulpician priests who accompanied La Salle in his first visit to the
+Senecas, in 1669. He seems to have been more indifferent to the charms
+of Nature than Father Raymbault, since he crossed the Niagara River near
+its mouth, and within hearing of its falling waters, yet did not turn
+aside to see the cataract. In his journal he says: "We found a river
+one-eighth of a league broad and extremely rapid, forming the outlet of
+Lake Erie and emptying into Lake Ontario. The depth of the river is, at
+this place, extraordinary, for, on sounding close by the shore, we found
+fifteen or sixteen fathoms of water. This outlet (the Niagara River) is
+forty leagues long, and has, from ten to twelve leagues above Lake
+Ontario, one of the finest cataracts in the world; for all the Indians
+of whom I have inquired about it say that the river falls at that place
+from a rock higher than the tallest pines&mdash;that is, about two hundred
+feet. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> fact, we heard it from the place where we were, although from
+ten to twelve leagues distant, but the fall gives such a momentum to the
+water that its velocity prevented our ascending the current by rowing,
+except with great difficulty. At a quarter of a league from the outlet,
+where we were, it grows narrower, and its channel is confined between
+two very high, steep, rocky banks, inducing the belief that the
+navigation would be very difficult quite up to the cataract. As to the
+river above the Falls, the current very often sucks into this gulf, from
+a great distance above, deer and stags, elk and roebucks, which, in
+attempting to swim the river, suffer themselves to be drawn so far
+down-stream that they are compelled to descend the Falls, and are
+overwhelmed in its frightful abyss.</p>
+
+<p>"Our desire to reach the little village called Ganastoque Sonontona
+(between the west end of Lake Ontario and Grand River) prevented our
+going to view that wonder. * * * I will leave you to judge if that must
+not be a fine cataract, in which all the water of the large river (St.
+Lawrence) * * * falls from a height of two hundred feet, with a noise
+that is heard not only at the place where we were,&mdash;ten or twelve
+leagues distant,&mdash;but also from the other side of Lake Ontario, opposite
+its mouth" (Toronto, forty miles distant).</p>
+
+<p>Of the rattlesnakes on the mountain ridges he says: "There are many in
+this place as large as your arm, and six or seven feet long, and entirely black."</p>
+
+<p>From Ganastoque Sonontona the party separated, the two priests, with
+their guides and attendants, designing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> to move to the west, along the
+north shore of Lake Erie, and La Salle apparently to return to Montreal,
+but in reality, as is supposed, to prosecute by a more southerly route
+the grand ambition of his life&mdash;the discovery of the Mississippi
+River&mdash;a purpose which he executed with even more than the "bigot's
+zeal," and literally, as it proved in the end, with the "martyr's
+constancy," for he was assassinated on the plains of Texas, some few
+years after, while endeavoring to secure to France the benefits of his great discovery.</p>
+
+<p>After separating from his companions at the Indian village, he probably
+returned to Lake Ontario and the Niagara River, which he crossed, no
+doubt, on his way to some of the Iroquois villages, in search of a guide
+and attendants to assist him in his explorations. It may be assumed that
+he visited the Falls at this time, but his journal of this expedition
+has never been found.</p>
+
+<p>The first description of the Falls by an eye-witness is that of Father
+Hennepin, so well known to those conversant with our early history. He
+saw it for the first time in the winter of 1678-9, and his exaggerated
+account of it is accompanied by a sketch which in its principal features
+is undoubtedly correct, though its perspective and proportions are quite
+otherwise. He says: "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Erie there is a vast
+and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down in a surprising and
+astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its
+parallel. 'Tis true that Italy and Switzerland boast of some such
+things, but we may well say they are sorry patterns when compared with
+this of which we now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> speak. * * * it [the river] is so rapid above the
+descent, that it violently hurries down the wild beasts while
+endeavoring to pass it, * * * they not being able to withstand the force
+of its current, which inevitably casts them headlong above six hundred
+feet high. This wonderful downfall is composed of two great streams of
+water and two falls, with an isle sloping along the middle of it. The
+waters which fall from this horrible precipice do foam and boil after
+the most hideous manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more
+terrible than that of thunder; for, when the wind blows out of the
+south, their dismal roaring may be heard more than fifteen leagues off."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp006.jpg" id="fp006.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp006.jpg" width='432' height='700' alt="The Horseshoe Fall from Goat Island" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The Horseshoe Fall from Goat Island</span></p>
+
+<p>"The river Niagara having thrown itself down this incredible precipice,
+continues its impetuous course for two leagues together to the great
+rock, above mentioned [in another chapter as lying at the foot of the
+mountain at Lewiston], with inexpressible rapidity. * * * From the great
+Fall unto this rock, which is to the west of the river, the two brinks
+of it are so prodigiously high, that it would make one tremble to look
+steadily upon the water rolling along with a rapidity not to be imagined."</p>
+
+<p>On his return from the West, in the summer of 1681, the Father informs
+us that he "spent half a day in considering the wonders of that
+prodigious cascade." Referring to the spray, he says: "The rebounding of
+these waters is so great that a sort of cloud arises from the foam of
+it, which is seen hanging over this abyss even at noon-day." Of the
+river, he says: "From the mouth of Lake Erie to the Falls are reckoned
+six leagues. * * *<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> The lands which lie on both sides of it to the east
+and west are all level from Lake Erie to the great Fall." At the end of
+the six leagues "it meets with a small sloping island, about half a
+quarter of a league long and near three hundred feet broad, as well as
+one can guess by the eye. From the end, then, of this island it is that
+these two great falls of water, as also the third, throw themselves,
+after a most surprising manner, down into the dreadful gulph, six
+hundred feet and more in depth." On the Canadian side, he says: "One may
+go down as far as the bottom of this terrible gulph. The author of this
+discovery was down there, the more narrowly to observe the fall of these
+prodigious cascades. From there we could discover a spot of ground which
+lay under the fall of water which is to the east [American Fall] big
+enough for four coaches to drive abreast without being wet; but because
+the ground * * * where the first fall empties itself into the gulph is
+very steep and almost perpendicular, it is impossible for a man to get
+down on that side, into the place where the four coaches may go abreast,
+or to make his way through such a quantity of water as falls toward the
+gulph, so that it is very probable that to this dry place it is that the
+rattlesnakes retire, by certain passages which they find under-ground."</p>
+
+<p>Finding no Indians living at the Falls, he suggests a probable reason
+therefor: "I have often heard talk of the Cataracts of the Nile, which
+make people deaf that live near them. I know not if the Iroquois who
+formerly lived near this fall * * * withdrew themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> from its
+neighborhood lest they should likewise become deaf, or out of the
+continual fear they were in of the rattlesnakes, which are very common
+in this place. * * * Be it as it will, these dangerous creatures are to
+be met with as far as the Lake Frontenac [Ontario], on the south side;
+and it is reasonable to presume that the horrid noise of the Fall and
+the fear of these poisonous serpents might oblige the savages to seek
+out a more commodious habitation." In the view of the Falls accompanying
+his description, a large rock is represented as standing on the edge of
+the Table Rock. This rock is mentioned by Kalm, a Swedish naturalist,
+who visited the Falls in 1750, as having disappeared a few years before
+that date. Father Hennepin's reference to the animals drawn into the
+current and going over the Falls, and to the rattlesnakes, indicates
+unmistakably his previous acquaintance with Father Gallin&eacute;es's narrative.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER II.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls&mdash;M. Charlevoix's letter
+to Madame Maintenon&mdash;Number of the Falls&mdash;Geological
+indications&mdash;Great projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's
+time&mdash;Cave of the Winds&mdash;Rainbows.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Even more exaggerated than Father Hennepin's is the next account of the
+Falls which has come down to us, and which was written by Baron La
+Hontan, in the autumn of 1687. Fear of an attack from the Iroquois, the
+relentless enemies of the French, made his visit short and
+unsatisfactory. He says: "As for the water-fall of Niagara, 'tis seven
+or eight hundred feet high, and half a league wide. Toward the middle of
+it we descry an island, that leans toward the precipice, as if it were
+ready to fall." Concerning the beasts and fish drawn over the precipice,
+he says they "serve for food" for the Iroquois, who "take 'em out of the
+water with their canoes"; and also that "between the surface of the
+water, that shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of the precipice,
+three men may cross in abreast, without further damage than a sprinkling
+of some few drops of water." Father Hennepin, it will be remembered,
+makes this space broad enough for four coaches, instead of three men.</p>
+
+<p>From the Baron's declaration as to the manner in which the Indians
+captured the game which went over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the Falls, it would seem that the
+bark canoe of the Indian was the precursor of the white man's skiff and
+yawl, that serve as a ferry below the Falls. And the timid traveler of
+the present day, who hesitates about crossing in this latter craft, will
+probably pronounce the Indian foolhardy for venturing on those turbulent
+waters in his light canoe, whereas, in skillful hands, it is peculiarly
+fitted for such navigation.</p>
+
+<p>A more correct estimate of the cataract than either of the preceding is
+that of M. Charlevoix, sent to Madame Maintenon, in 1721. After
+referring to the inaccurate accounts of Hennepin and La Hontan, he says:
+"For my own part, after having examined it on all sides, where it could
+be viewed to the greatest advantage, I am inclined to think we cannot
+allow it [the height] less than one hundred and forty or fifty feet." As
+to its figure, "it is in the shape of a horseshoe, and it is about four
+hundred paces in circumference. It is divided in two exactly in the
+center by a very narrow island, half a quarter of a league long." In
+relation to the noise of the falling water, he says: "You can scarce
+hear it at M. de Joncaire's [Fort Schlosser], and what you hear in this
+place [Lewiston] may possibly be the whirlpools, caused by the rocks
+which fill up the bed of the river as far as this."</p>
+
+<p>Neither Baron La Hontan nor M. Charlevoix speaks of the number of
+water-falls. But Father Hennepin, it will be remembered, mentions three,
+two of which were to the south and west of Goat Island. And the Rev.
+Abb&eacute; Picquet, who visited the place in 1751,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> seventy years after Father
+Hennepin, says (Documentary History, I., p. 283): "This cascade is as
+prodigious by reason of its height and the quantity of water which falls
+there, as on account of the variety of its falls, which are to the
+number of six principal ones divided by a small island, leaving three to
+the north and three to the south. They produce of themselves a singular
+symmetry and wonderful effect."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp011.jpg" id="fp011.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp011.jpg" width='700' height='693' alt="Luna Fall and Island in Winter" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Luna Fall and Island in Winter</span></p>
+
+<p>The geological indications are that Goat Island once embraced all the
+small islands lying near it, and also that it covered the whole of the
+rocky bar which stretches up stream some hundred and fifty rods above
+the head of the present island. At that period, from the depressions now
+visible in the rocky bed of the river, it would seem probable that the
+water cut channels through the modern drift corresponding with these
+depressions. In that case there would then have been a third fall in the
+American channel, north of Goat Island, lying between Luna Island and a
+small island then lying just north of the Little Horseshoe, and
+stretching up toward Chapin's Island. On the south side of Goat Island,
+there would have been a fall between its southern shore and an island
+then situated about two hundred feet farther south.</p>
+
+<p>The highest point in the American Fall, the salient and beautiful
+projection near the shore at Prospect Park, is upheld by a more
+substantial foundation than is revealed at any other accessible portion
+of the face of the precipice. This is made manifest on entering the
+"Shadow-of-the-Rock," where the spectator sees a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>massive wall of
+thoroughly indurated limestone, disposed in regular layers more than two
+feet in thickness, with faces as smooth as if dressed with the chisel.
+Passing in front of this, across the American Fall, under the Horseshoe
+and Table Rock, there must have been formerly a broad cleft of soft,
+friable limestone, to the disintegration and removal of which was due
+the great overhanging of the upper strata noticed by Father Hennepin and Baron La Hontan.</p>
+
+<p>For three miles above the Falls, the course of the river is almost due
+west. But after leaving the precipice it makes an acute angle with its
+former direction, and thence runs north-east to the railway suspension
+bridge. The formation of the rapids&mdash;one of the most beautiful features
+of the scene&mdash;is due to this change of direction. At no point below its
+present position could there have been such a prelude&mdash;musical as well
+as motional&mdash;to the great cataract. And when these rapids shall have
+disappeared in the receding flood it is not probable that there will be
+other rapids that can equal them in length, breadth, beauty, and power.</p>
+
+<p>The declivity in the lower channel through the gorge is ninety feet; but
+on the surface of the upper banks there is a rise of more than one
+hundred feet in the same direction&mdash;that is, down the river. Hence, when
+the Falls were at Lewiston they were more than two hundred and fifty
+feet high. Now the greatest descent is one hundred and sixty-eight feet,
+the diminution being the result of retrocession in the line of the
+dip&mdash;from north-east to south-west&mdash;in the bed-rock. It is owing to
+this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> dip that the surface of the water on the American side is ten feet
+higher than it is on the Canadian. The continuous column of water,
+however, is longest in the center of the Horseshoe, because of the
+fallen rock and <i>d&eacute;bris</i> lying at the foot of the other portions of the
+Fall. At this time the upward slope of the bed-rock is such that&mdash;if it
+shall prove to be sufficiently hard&mdash;the Falls, after receding four
+miles farther, will be two hundred and twenty feet high.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident from the descriptions of Father Hennepin and of Baron La
+Hontan, that the upper stratum of rock over which the water falls must
+have projected beyond the face of the rock below much farther than it
+now does. The large masses of fallen rock lying at the foot of the
+American and Horse-shoe Falls are evidence of this fact. Travelers still
+go behind the sheet on the Canadian side, and into and through the Cave
+of the Winds, on the American side. But they do not expect to keep dry
+in so doing, nor to sun themselves on the rocks below, like the
+"rattlesnakes" of former days. Nevertheless, there is no more exciting
+nor exhilarating excursion to be made at the Falls than that through the
+Cave of the Winds.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere else are the prismatic hues exhibited in such wonderful variety,
+nor in such surpassing brilliancy and beauty. And although a rainbow is
+not a spraybow, it may be admitted that a spraybow is a rainbow, formed
+of drops of water, large or small. So here rainbow dust and shattered
+rainbows are scattered around; rainbow bars and arches, horizontal and
+perpendicular, are flashing and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> forming, breaking and reforming, around
+and above the visitor in the most fantastic and delightful confusion of
+form and effect. And if his fancy prompts him, he may arrange himself as
+a portrait, at half or full length, in an annular bow. The enamored
+Strephon may literally place his charming Delia in a living, sparkling
+rainbow-frame, flecked all over with diamonds and pearls.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER III.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>The name Niagara&mdash;The musical dialect of the Hurons&mdash;Niagara one of
+the oldest of Indian names&mdash;Description of the river, the Falls,
+and the surrounding country.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There is in some words a mystic power which it is not easy to analyze or
+define; they fascinate the ear even of those who do not understand their
+meaning. The very sound of them as they are enunciated by the human
+voice touches a chord to which the heart instinctively responds. So it
+is with the name of the great cataract. No one can hear it correctly
+pronounced without being charmed with its rhythmical beauty, or without
+feeling confident of its poetical aptness and significance in the
+dialect from which it was derived.</p>
+
+<p>And although we have no means of determining the correctness of any of
+the fanciful or poetical interpretations which have been given of the
+word, still we cannot doubt that it must have had a peculiar force and
+justness with those who first applied it. Baron La Hontan, who spent
+several years among the Indians, noticed the remarkable fact concerning
+their language that it had no labials. "Nevertheless," he says, "the
+language of the Hurons appears very beautiful, and the sound of it
+perfectly charming, although, in speaking it, they never close their lips."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>The most voluminous and among the earliest existing records connected
+with the River St. Lawrence, and the great lakes which it drains, are
+the well-known "Relations of the Jesuits," so called, comprising a
+yearly account of the labors of the Missionary Fathers sent out by the
+College at Paris to Christianize the Indians. In 1615, they established
+their mission at Quebec, and from thence extended their operations
+westward. In 1626, they reached the large and powerful tribe of Indians
+which occupied the splendid domain which may be described with proximate
+accuracy as bounded by a line commencing at a point on the southerly
+shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles west of the mouth of the
+Genesee River, and running thence parallel to that river to a point due
+west from Avon; thence nearly due west to Buffalo; thence along the
+north shore of Lake Erie to the Detroit River; thence up that river to a
+point directly west from the west end of Lake Ontario; thence east to
+that lake, and finally along the southern shore of it to the place of beginning.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest and most notable name in all this territory is <span class="smcap">Niagara</span>, as
+would naturally be inferred, when we consider the varied and wonderful
+features of the mighty river which flows across this country. Taking
+leave of Lake Erie, its clear waters gradually spread themselves out in
+a broad, bright channel, over a plain, open country, having a slight
+declivity, just sufficient to make a gentle current, thereby adding the
+living beauty and force of motion to the broad expanse of a lake-like
+surface, that surface itself diversified and relieved by the pleasant
+islands, large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and small, which are scattered over it. Eddying into
+every quiet bay, coquetting with every salient angle, moving to the
+melody of its own murmurs, it flows on serenely and musically.</p>
+
+<p>But after a time this holiday journey is interrupted. A fearful change
+takes place. The careless waters are hurried down a long and sharp
+descent, over the rough, denuded, bowlder-studded bed-rock of the
+stream. Breaking and bounding, surging and resurging, flashing and
+foaming, rushing fiercely upon some huge bowlder, recoiling an instant,
+then madly leaping entirely over it, rushing on to others huger still,
+then breaking wildly around them, the troubled waters hurry on until,
+culminating in their sublimest aspect, they plunge sheer downward in the
+grandest of cataracts.</p>
+
+<p>And now the scene and the effect it produces on the beholder both
+change. The rapids are beautiful; the falls are grand; those are
+exhilarating, these are inspiring; those are noisy, turbulent, fickle;
+these are calm, resistless, inexorable.</p>
+
+<p>After the water has made the final plunge over the precipice the
+cataract acquires its most impressive characteristics; the majestic
+monotone, the bow, the cloud, which is its veil by night, its crowning
+glory and beauty by day. The combinations of grandeur and beauty have
+reached their climax in the fall, the foam, the voice, the spray, the bow.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp017.jpg" id="fp017.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp017.jpg" width='671' height='700' alt="The Rapids above the Falls" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The Rapids above the Falls</span></p>
+
+<p>The chasm of the river from the Falls to Lewiston will be sufficiently
+described in treating of the geology of the district. From Lewiston to
+Lake Ontario,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> seven miles, the waters of the river flow on through an
+elevated and fertile plain, in a strong, calm, majestic current, smiling
+with dimples and reversed in occasional eddies, but neither broken by
+rapids nor impeded by islands. Finally it is lost in the lake, after
+passing an immense bar formed by the enormous mass of sedimentary matter
+carried down by its own current. The landscape, as seen from the top of
+the terrace above Lewiston, is one of the finest and most extensive of
+its peculiar character which can be found on the continent, all its
+features being such as appertain to a broad, open country.</p>
+
+<p>The visitor at Niagara, as he looks at the Falls, will have a profounder
+appreciation of their magnitude by considering that it requires the
+water drainage of a quarter of a continent to sustain them, and that the
+remoter springs, which send to them their constant tribute, are more
+than twelve hundred miles distant.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER IV.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Niagara a tribal name&mdash;Other names given to the tribe&mdash;The Niagaras
+a superior race&mdash;The true pronunciation of Indian words.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The name Niagara has been so thoroughly identified with the river and
+the Falls that the question whether it was also the name of an Indian
+nation or tribe has been quite neglected. It is proposed now to give the
+question some consideration, assuming, at once, its affirmative to be
+true. This, it is believed, we shall be justified in doing by every
+principle of analogy. We know that it was a general practice of the
+Indians who occupied this region of country, so abounding in lakes and
+rivers, to give the name of the nation or tribe to, or to name them
+after, the most prominent bodies and courses of water found in their
+territory. Such was the fact with the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas,
+Onondagas, and Hurons, the tribal name of each being perpetuated both in
+a lake and a river. The Mohawks, the warrior tribe of the Six Nations,
+having no noted lake within their boundaries, left a perpetual memorial
+of themselves in the name of a beautiful river. The unwarlike Eries,
+too, though finally exterminated by their more powerful and aggressive
+neighbors, the Iroquois, are still remembered in the lake which bears their name.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>With the Niagaras the river and the cataract were the most notable and
+impressive features of their territory. Their principal village bore the
+same name; and when we recall the proverbial vanity of the race, we can
+hardly doubt that this must also have been their tribal name. That it
+should have been perpetuated in reference to the village, the river, and
+the falls, and that the use of it, in reference to the tribe, should
+have lapsed, can be readily understood when we recollect that they had
+two substitutes for the tribal name. One of these substitutes is
+explained at page 70 of the "Relations" of 1641, in a passage which we
+translate as follows: "Our Hurons call the Neuter Nation
+<i>Attouanderonks</i>, as though they would say a people of a little
+different language: for as to those nations that speak a language of
+which they understand nothing, they call them <i>Attouankes</i>, whatever
+nation they may be, or as though they spoke of strangers. They of the
+Neuter Nation in turn, and for the same reason, call our Hurons <i>Attouanderonks</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it would seem that this was a mere title of convenience used to
+indicate a certain fact, namely, a difference of language. The other
+substitute by which the nation was best known among their white brethren
+will be understood by an extract from a letter contained in the same
+"Relations," and written from St. Mary's Mission on the river Severn, by
+Father Lalement. In it he gives an account of a journey made by the
+Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumont to the country of the
+<i>Neuter Nation</i>, as the Niagaras were called by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> Hurons on the north
+and the Iroquois on the south of them, learning it, as they did, from
+the French. The letter says: "Our French, who first discovered this
+people, named them the <i>Neuter Nation</i>, and not without reason, for
+their country being the ordinary passage by land, between some of the
+Iroquois nations and the Hurons, who are sworn enemies, they remained at
+peace with both; so that in times past the Hurons and the Iroquois,
+meeting in the same wigwam or village of that nation, were both in
+safety while they remained. There are some things in which they differ
+from our Hurons. They are larger, stronger, and better formed. They also
+entertain a great affection for the dead. * * * The Sonontonheronons
+[Senecas], one of the Iroquois nations the nearest to and most dreaded
+by the Hurons, are not more than a day's journey distant from the
+easternmost village of the Neuter Nation, named Onguiaahra [Niagara], of
+the same name as the river."</p>
+
+<p>It would seem, then, that this name, Neuter Nation, as applied to this
+tribe, was an appellation used merely to indicate a peculiarity of its
+location, or of the relation in which it stood to the hostile tribes
+living to the north and south of it. The Indians, it is needless to say,
+were not philologists, and seem not to have objected to the names
+applied to them, nor to have criticised the erroneous pronunciation of
+words of their own dialects.</p>
+
+<p>In the extract given above, the name of our river first appears in type.
+Its orthography will be noted as peculiar. It is one of forty different
+ways of spelling the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> name, thirty-nine of which are given in the index
+volume of the Colonial History of New York, and the fortieth, the most
+pertinent to our present purpose, in Drake's "Book of the Indians,"
+seventh edition. Prefixed to "Book First" is a "Table of the Principal
+Tribes," in which we find the following:</p>
+
+<p>"Nicariagas, once about Michilimakinak; joined the Iroquois in 1723."</p>
+
+<p>M. Charlevoix, apparently using the facts stated in one of Lalement's
+letters and quoting also a portion of its language, says: "A people
+larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages, and who
+lived south of the Huron country, were visited by the Jesuits, who
+preached to them the Kingdom of God. They were called the Neuter Nation,
+because they took no part in the wars which desolated the country. But
+in the end they could not themselves escape entire destruction. To avoid
+the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined them against the Hurons,
+but gained nothing by the union." Later, he says they were destroyed
+about the year 1643. But we have before observed that Father Raugeneau
+states that their destruction occurred in 1651. The tribe mentioned by
+Drake was probably a remnant that escaped in the final overthrow of
+their nation in this last-named year, and sought refuge at Mackinaw,
+among the Hurons, who had previously retreated to this almost
+inaccessible locality, in order, also, to escape from the all-conquering
+Iroquois. After the lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, when
+the hostility of the latter had subsided, and they had themselves been
+weakened and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> subdued by the whites, the wretched remnant of the
+Niagaras, with that strong love of home so characteristic of the Indian,
+returned to their native hunting-grounds, where they remained for a few
+years, and then joined their conquerors in that mournful procession of
+their race toward the setting sun. If there were a Nemesis for nations
+as well as for individuals, it would be fearful to contemplate the time
+when the Anglo-Saxon should be called on to pay the "long arrears" of
+the Indians' "bloody debt."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp022.jpg" id="fp022.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp022.jpg" width='634' height='700' alt="The Youngest Inhabitant" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The Youngest Inhabitant</span></p>
+
+<p>Returning to the orthography of our name, we find on Sanson's map of
+Canada, published in Paris in 1657, that it is shortened into "Oniagra,"
+and on Coronelli's map of the same region, published in Paris in 1688,
+it crystallizes into <i>Niagara</i>. There is also on this map a village
+located on or near the site of Buffalo, designated as follows:
+"<i>Kah-kou-a-go-gah, a destroyed nation</i>." This name bears a closer
+resemblance to the true one than several of the forty to which we have
+just referred, and if it be reduced to Kahkwa it would still be only a
+corrupt abbreviation of Niagara.</p>
+
+<p>More than fifty years ago, while leisurely traveling through western New
+York, the writer well remembers how his youthful ears were charmed with
+the flowing cadences of the better class of Indians, as they intoned
+rather than spoke the beautiful names which their ancestors had given to
+different localities. Every vowel was fully sounded.</p>
+
+<p>O-N-E-I-D-A was then Oh-ne-i-dah; C-A-Y-U-G-A was Kah-yu-gah;
+G-E-N-E-S-E-E was Gen-e-se-e; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>C-A-N-A-N-D-A-I-G-U-A was
+Kan-nan-dar-quah, and N-I-A-G-A-R-A was Ni-ah-gah-rah.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the name, the pronunciation nearest to the original which
+it may be possible to perpetuate is Ni-ag-a-rah; the accent on the
+second syllable, the vowel in the first pronounced as in the word
+<i>nigh</i>; the <i>a</i> in the third and fourth syllables but slightly
+abbreviated from the long <i>a</i> in <i>far</i>, and that in the second syllable
+but slightly aspirated.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER V.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>The lower Niagara&mdash;Fort Niagara&mdash;Fort Mississauga&mdash;Niagara
+Village&mdash;Lewiston&mdash;Portage around the Falls&mdash;The first railroad in
+the United States&mdash;Fort Schlosser&mdash;The ambuscade at Devil's
+Hole&mdash;La Salle's vessel, the <i>Griffin</i>&mdash;The Niagara frontier.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>From the earliest visit of the French missionaries and <i>voyageurs</i> to
+the lake region, the banks of the lower Niagara were to them a favorite
+locality. Very early they were cleared of the grand forest which covered
+them, and the genial, fertile, and easily worked soil, enriched by the
+deep vegetable mold that had been accumulating upon it for centuries,
+produced in lavish abundance wheat, maize, garden vegetables, and
+fruits, large and small. "On the 6th day of December, 1678," says
+Marshall, "La Salle, in his brigantine of ten tons, doubled the point
+where Fort Niagara now stands, and anchored in the sheltered waters of
+the river. The prosecution of his bold enterprise at that inclement
+season, involving the exploration of a vast and unknown country, in
+vessels built on the way, indicates the indomitable energy and
+self-reliance of the intrepid discoverer. His crew consisted of sixteen
+persons, under the immediate command of the Sieur de la Motte. The
+grateful Franciscans chanted '<i>Te Deum laudamus</i>' as they entered the
+noble river. The strains of that ancient hymn of the Church, as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+rose from the deck of the adventurous bark, and echoed from shore and
+forest, must have startled the watchful Senecas with the unusual sound,
+as they gazed upon their strange visitors. Never before had white men,
+so far as history tells us, ascended the river."</p>
+
+<p>La Salle rested here for a time, but no defensive work was constructed
+until 1687, when the Marquis De Nonville, returning from his famous
+expedition against the Senecas, fortified it, after the fashion of the
+time, with palisades and ditches. The small garrison of one hundred men
+which he left were obliged to abandon it the following season, after
+partially destroying it. By consent of the Iroquois it was reconstructed
+in stone in 1725-6.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite to Fort Niagara, which is on the American side at the mouth of
+the river, are Fort Mississauga and the village of Niagara, formerly
+Newark, on the Canadian side. The village was captured by the English in
+1759, and occupied for a time by Sir William Johnson, who completed here
+his treaty with the Indians by which they released to him the land on
+both sides of the river. The first Provincial Parliament was held here
+in 1792, under the authority of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe. In the same
+year the place was visited by the father of Queen Victoria. The pioneer
+newspaper of the Province was published here in 1795, and although it
+ceased soon after to be the seat of government, which was removed to
+York (now Toronto), still it was a thriving village of about five
+thousand inhabitants until the completion of the Welland canal, which
+entirely diverted its trade and commerce, and left it to the
+uninterrupted quiet of a rural town. Several Americans have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> purchased
+dwellings in the place for summer occupation. A mile above was Fort
+George, now a ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Seven miles above the mouth of the river, at the head of navigation,
+nestling at the foot of the so-called mountain, is Lewiston, named in
+1805 in honor of Governor Lewis, of New York. Here, in 1678, La Salle
+"constructed a cabin of palisades to serve as a magazine or storehouse."
+And this was the commencement of the portage to the river above the
+Falls, which passed over nearly the same route as the present road from
+Lewiston, which is still called the Portage Road. Here, too, the first
+railway in the United States was constructed. True, it was built of
+wood, and was called a tram-way. But a car was run upon it to transport
+goods up and down the mountain The motion of the car was regulated by a
+windlass, and it was supported on runners instead of wheels. This was a
+very good arrangement for getting freight down the hill, but not so good
+for getting it up. But the wages of labor were low in every sense, since
+many of the Indians, demoralized by the use of those two most pestilent
+drugs, rum and tobacco, would do a day's work for a pint of the former
+and a plug of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>The upper terminus of this portage was for many years merely an open
+landing-place for canoes and boats. In 1750, the French constructed a
+strong stockade-work on the bank of the river, above their barracks and
+storehouses. This they called Fort du Portage. It was burnt, in 1759, by
+Chabert Joncaire, who was in command of it when the British commenced
+the formidable and fatal campaign of that year against the French. After
+Fort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Niagara was surrendered to Sir William Johnson, Joncaire retired
+with his small garrison to the station on Chippewa Creek.</p>
+
+<p>In less than two years the work was rebuilt in a much more substantial
+manner by Captain Joseph Schlosser, a German who served in the British
+army in that campaign. It had the outline of a tolerably regular
+fortification, with rude bastions and connecting curtains, surrounded by
+a somewhat formidable ditch. The interior plateau was a little elevated
+and surrounded by an earth embankment piled against the inner side of
+the palisades, over which its defenders could fire with great effect.</p>
+
+<p>When the writer first saw its remains, the outlines and ditches of the
+work were distinct. Only some slight inequalities in the surface now
+indicate its site. Captain Schlosser was afterward promoted to the rank
+of colonel, and died in the fort. An oak slab, on which his name was
+cut, was standing at his grave just above the fort as late as the year 1808.</p>
+
+<p>Some sixty rods below is still standing what is believed to be the first
+civilized chimney built in this part of the country. It is a large and
+most substantial stone structure, around which the French built their
+barracks. These were burnt by Joncaire on his retreat. A large
+dwelling-house was built to it by the English, which afforded shelter
+for many different occupants until it was burnt in 1813. Its last
+occupant, before it was destroyed, kept it as a tavern, which became a
+favorite place for festive and holiday gatherings. What hath been may be
+again. When the Falls shall have receded two miles, the brides and
+grooms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> of that age will find their Cataract House near the site of old
+Fort Schlosser.</p>
+
+<p>To the west of this old stone chimney stand the few surviving trees of
+the first apple orchard set out in this region. As early as 1796, it is
+described as being a "well-fenced orchard, containing 1200 trees." Not
+fifty are now standing.</p>
+
+<p>Across the river from Lewiston is Queenston, so named in honor of Queen
+Charlotte. The battle which bears its name was fought on the 13th of
+October, 1813, between the American and British armies. The former
+crossed the river, made the attack, and carried the heights. The
+commander of the British forces, General Brock, and one of his aids,
+Colonel McDonald, were killed. The British were re&euml;nforced, and the
+American militia refusing to cross over to aid the Americans, the latter
+were obliged to return across the river, leaving a number of prisoners
+in the hands of the enemy. Some years afterward, the Colonial Parliament
+caused a fine monument to be erected on the heights to the memory of
+General Brock. It presents a conspicuous and imposing appearance from the terrace below.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp029.jpg" id="fp029.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp029.jpg" width='493' height='700' alt="Mouth of the Chasm and Brock's Monument" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Mouth of the Chasm and Brock's Monument</span></p>
+
+<p>Two miles and a quarter above Lewiston is the Devil's Hole, famous as
+the scene of a short supplementary campaign, made against the English,
+by the Seneca Indians, in 1763. Though doubtless instigated by French
+traders, it was a purely Indian enterprise, gotten up among themselves,
+and commanded by Farmer's Brother, one of the Seneca chiefs, who was a
+fighter as well as an orator. It was one of the best planned and most
+successfully <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>executed military stratagems ever recorded. It was
+calculated upon the nicest balancing of facts and probabilities, and
+executed with unrivaled thoroughness and celerity.</p>
+
+<p>It was known to the Indians that the English were in the habit, almost
+daily, of sending supply trains, under escort, from Fort Niagara to Fort
+Schlosser. After unloading at the latter post, they returned to the
+former. They knew also that there was a smaller supporting force of one
+or two companies at Lewiston, which could join the escort from Fort
+Niagara, in case of an extra valuable train, and that the whole force at
+both places was not large enough to furnish an escort of more than four
+hundred men; they knew that the narrow pass at the Devil's Hole was the
+best point to place the ambuscade; also that when the train went up they
+could see whether its escort was large or small, and so they would know
+whether they should concentrate their force to attack the larger escort,
+or divide it and attack the train and small escort first and the
+relieving force afterward. They conjectured that the train would have a
+small escort; but if it should have a large one, so much the better, as
+there would be a larger number in a small space for their balls to
+riddle. They conjectured also that, if the escort were small, the firing
+on the first attack would be heard by the soldiers at Lewiston, and that
+they would hurry to the relief of their comrades, not dreaming of danger
+before they should reach them.</p>
+
+<p>The fatal result demonstrated the correctness of their reasoning. They
+made a double ambuscade: one for the train and escort, the other for the
+relieving force; and they destroyed them both, only three of the first
+escaping and eight of the latter. This event occurred on the 14th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> of
+September, 1773. John Stedman commanded the supply train. At the first
+fire of the Indians, seeing the fatal snare, he wheeled his horse at
+once, and, spurring him through a gauntlet of bullets, reached Schlosser
+in safety. A wounded soldier concealed himself in the bushes, and the
+drummer-boy lodged in a tree as he fell down the bank. Eight of the
+relieving force escaped to Fort Niagara to tell the story of their defeat.</p>
+
+<p>Three miles above Schlosser is Cayuga Creek, near the mouth of which La
+Salle built the <i>Griffin</i>, a vessel of sixty tons burden, the first
+civilized craft that floated on the upper lakes, and the pioneer of an
+inland commerce of unrivaled growth and value. She reached Green Bay
+safely, but on her return voyage foundered with all on board in Lake Huron.</p>
+
+<p>The French also built some small vessels on Navy Island. The
+re&euml;nforcements sent from Venango for the French, during the siege of
+Fort Niagara by Sir William Johnson, in 1759, were landed on this
+island. To the east of it there is a large deep basin, formed at the
+foot of the channel, between Grand and Buckhorn islands. The upper part
+of this channel being narrow, the basin appears like a bay. In this bay
+the French burnt and sunk the two vessels, as is supposed, which brought
+down the Venango re&euml;nforcements; hence the name "Burnt Ship Bay." The
+writer has seen the ribs and timbers of these vessels beneath the water,
+and caught many fine perch which had their haunts near them. The Niagara
+frontier was the theater of great activity during the War of 1812.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>PART II.&mdash;GEOLOGY.</span></h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER VI.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>America the old world&mdash;Geologically recent origin of the
+Falls&mdash;Evidence thereof&mdash;Captain Williams's surveys for a ship
+canal&mdash;Former extent of Lake Michigan&mdash;Its outlet into the Illinois
+River&mdash;The Niagara barrier&mdash;How broken through&mdash;The birth of
+Niagara.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>If Professor Agassiz and Elie De Beaumont are correct in their
+geological reading, America is the old world rather than the new, and
+the northern portion of it, stretching from Lake Huron eastward to
+Labrador and northward toward the Arctic, was the first to be lifted
+into the genial light of the sun. And Professor Lyell has recourse to
+the vast stellar spaces for a standard by which to estimate "the
+interval of time which divides the human epoch from the origin of the
+coralline limestone over which the Niagara is precipitated at the
+Falls." "The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas," he continues, "have not
+only begun to exist as lofty mountain chains, but the solid materials of
+which they are composed have been slowly elaborated beneath the sea
+within the stupendous interval of ages here alluded to."</p>
+
+<p>A little more than thirty years ago, Professor Agassiz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> made a tour to
+the Upper Lakes with a class of students, for the purpose of giving them
+practical lessons in geology and other branches of natural science. The
+day was devoted to outdoor examinations of different localities, and in
+the evening was given a familiar lecture expository of the day's work.
+One of the places thus visited was Niagara, and it was the writer's
+good-fortune to be able to listen to the instructive lecture which
+followed the examination. Professor Agassiz concurs with other
+geologists in the opinion that the Falls were once at Lewiston, and one
+of the most interesting portions of the lecture was his animated
+description of the retrocession of the Falls, traced step by step back
+to their present position. From this oral exposition, from other high
+geological authorities, and from personal observation extending through
+a quarter of a century, the writer has derived the facts herein presented.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that at a comparatively recent geological period
+the Falls of Niagara had no existence. It may suffice to mention two
+facts which are conclusive on this point. Dr. Houghton, geologist of the
+State of Michigan, stated in his report that the elevation of Lake
+Michigan above tide-water is five hundred and seventy-eight feet. That
+of Lake Erie, as shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal, is five hundred
+and sixty-eight feet, the difference of level between the two being ten
+feet. The fall or descent in the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Gill
+Creek, a few rods above the site of old Fort Schlosser, is twenty feet.
+Hence we learn that the surface of the water in Lake Michigan is thirty
+feet higher than that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> of the Niagara River near the mouth of Gill
+Creek. If, therefore, we find anywhere below the Falls a barrier drawn
+across this river that is more than thirty feet high, its water would
+thereby be set back to Lake Michigan. A moderate elevation above this
+thirty feet would serve as a safe shore-line for still water.</p>
+
+<p>The existence of this barrier has been demonstrated. In the year 1835,
+by direction of the War Department, Captain W. G. Williams, of the
+United States Topographical Engineers, surveyed three routes for a canal
+around Niagara Falls. The first of these routes was run from the river
+nearly in a straight line to the head of Bloody Run, and thence a
+portion of the way over the terrace laid bare by the rapid subsidence of
+the water after the barrier had been broken through. The second route,
+commencing at the same point with the first,&mdash;the old Schlosser
+Storehouse, just above Gill Creek,&mdash;was run up the valley of the creek,
+through the ridge above Lewiston, at a slight depression in the general
+line of the hill, and thence to Lake Ontario by two different routes.
+The highest point in the ridge was found to be sixty feet above the
+surface of the water in the river at the starting point. Here, then, is
+found the requisite barrier&mdash;a dam thirty feet higher than the water in
+Lake Michigan, and having a base, as will be seen by reference to the
+map, of two and a half miles in breadth. This was its breadth at the
+time of the survey. But a careful observance of the topography of the
+banks on both sides of the river will show that it must have been
+originally not less than twice that breadth, and that the depressions
+now existing are the results of the denudation caused by the removal of the barrier.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>While this barrier was unbroken, Lake Erie as extended would have
+covered all land that was not twenty-six feet higher than the present
+level of the river at old Schlosser landing, since the water there is
+sixteen feet below the level of Lake Erie. It is not difficult to trace
+this barrier on a good map. From old Fort Grey it stretches eastward a
+short distance past Batavia, and thence turns to the south through
+Wyoming into Cattaraugus County. In the latter county it forms the
+summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal. This summit is a swamp sixteen
+hundred and twenty-three feet above tide water, and the water runs from
+it northerly through the Genesee River into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
+and southerly, through the Alleghany, into the Gulf of Mexico, while
+within a short distance rises Cattaraugus Creek which flows west into Lake Erie.</p>
+
+<p>The gradual rise of the Niagara barrier as it extends to the east was
+demonstrated by the surveys of Captain Williams. By the Gill Creek line
+to Lewiston he found its elevation above the river, as has been stated,
+to be sixty feet. By the Cayuga Creek line to Pekin it was sixty-four
+feet, and by the Tonawanda Creek line to Lockport it was eighty-four
+feet, as is also shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal.</p>
+
+<p>To the west the barrier extends from Brock's Monument to the ridge which
+bounds the westerly side of the valley of the Chippewa Creek, and thence
+around the head of Lake Ontario into the Simcoe Hills.</p>
+
+<p>At that period all the islands in the Niagara River valley were
+submerged. The lower sections of the valleys of the Chippewa, Cayuga,
+Tonawanda, and Buffalo creeks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> were also submerged. The site of Buffalo
+was, probably, a small island, and many other similar islands were
+scattered over the broad expanse of water.</p>
+
+<p>And this brings us to our second cardinal fact. Lake Michigan, having
+absorbed or spread over all the vast water-links in the great chain
+between Superior and Ontario, was the most stupendous body of fresh
+water on the globe. Its drainage was to the south, through the valleys
+of the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers, into the
+Gulf of Mexico. The evidence of this fact is abundant. The survey of the
+Illinois Central Railroad shows that the surface of Lake Michigan is
+three hundred feet above the line of low water in the Ohio River at
+Cairo, where it joins the Mississippi. It also shows that the low-water
+line of the Kankakee, where the railroad crosses it, is eleven feet
+above the surface of the lake. This river, which forms the north-eastern
+branch of the Illinois, rises in the State of Indiana, near South Bend,
+two miles from the St. Joseph. From its very commencement at its
+head-springs it is a shallow channel in the middle of a swamp,&mdash;called
+on the maps the "Kankakee Pond,"&mdash;nearly a hundred miles long, and from
+two to five miles wide. On its north side, in Porter County, is a broad
+cove, with a small stream in the midst of it, which reaches up due north
+to within a stone's-throw of the south branch of the East Calumick
+River, which empties into the south-west corner of Lake Michigan.</p>
+
+<p>More than thirty years ago, while traveling by stage from Logansport,
+Indiana, to Chicago, the writer was told by a fellow-passenger that it
+was not an unusual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> thing, on the occurrence of a strong north wind
+during the spring floods, to cross with boats from this branch of the
+East Calumick into the Kankakee Pond through this cove. We have not been
+able to obtain any authentic topographical survey which shows the
+elevation that must be overcome in order to effect this meeting of the waters.</p>
+
+<p>Again: The river Des Plaines rises near the northern line of the State
+of Illinois, and running south parallel with the lake shore, at its
+junction with the Kankakee forms the Illinois. The Des Plaines is only
+ten miles west of Chicago. One of its eastern tributaries rises very
+near the head-waters of the south branch of the Chicago River, and
+often, when flooded by heavy rains, its waters flow over into the lake.
+At this point, also, the Jesuits and the early settlers were in the
+habit of crossing in their boats to the Des Plaines, and thence into the
+Illinois. The writer was informed by Colonel William A. Bird, the last
+Surveyor-in-Chief of the Boundary Commission, that when the party was at
+Mackinaw, in the spring of 1820, Mr. Ramsey Crooks, the adventurous and
+enterprising agent of John Jacob Astor, came up to that place from
+Joliet on the Illinois in one of the big canoes so generally used at
+that day for navigating the lakes, and that Mr. Crooks informed them
+that he crossed from the Des Plaines into Lake Michigan without taking
+his canoe out of the water. The deep cut in the Illinois and Michigan
+Canal, recently excavated by the city of Chicago in order to improve its
+sewer drainage, is quite uniform at its upper surface, and is sixteen to
+eighteen feet deep for a distance of twenty-six miles. The bottom of
+this cut is six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> feet below the lowest water-mark ever noted in the
+lake. At the point where the deep cut reaches the Des Plaines, it is ten
+feet lower than the bottom of the river. It is sixteen miles further
+down before the bottom of the cut and the river coincide with each
+other. Nearly the whole of this distance it is necessary to maintain a
+guard-bank, to protect the canal from the inundations of the river. Here
+we find there is a dam, only about twelve feet high, that once separated
+the waters of the lake from those of the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>There were, therefore, two courses through which the waters of Lake
+Michigan could once have passed into the Illinois&mdash;the first through the
+Des Plaines, and the second from the head-springs of the East Calumick
+into the great north cove of the Kankakee Pond. When we consider the
+immense drainage which must have been discharged through these channels
+into the valley of the Illinois, we can well understand the gigantic
+proportions of that valley when compared with the stream which now flows
+through it. The perpendicular and water-worn sides of Starved Rock,
+below Ottawa, attest the magnitude of the lake-like floods which must
+once have dashed around them.</p>
+
+<p>Having established the existence of the Niagara barrier, it remains to
+analyze its structure, and then to search out the agencies by which it
+was broken down. First, in regard to its organization. An examination of
+the locality reveals the fact that the portion of the ridge lying
+between old Fort Grey and Brock's Monument was of a peculiar character.
+At the former point the hard, compact clay had in it but a slight
+mixture of gray loam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> and sand. At the latter point, fine gravel was
+plentifully mingled with this loam. This latter mass, being quite
+porous, would rapidly become saturated with water, and its component
+parts be easily separated. The declivity of the high, hard, clay bank,
+down to the rock at the edge of the precipice, is abrupt on the American
+side, while on the opposite side the ascent toward Brock's Monument and
+above is gradual. This formation extends upward about one mile and a
+half, when the gravel and loam disappear, and the hard clay succeeds and
+continues upward with a gradual downward slope nearly to the Falls.</p>
+
+<p>This upper drift was about twenty feet thick, and rested on a laminated
+stratum of the Niagara limestone. This stratum, though quite compact,
+and having its seams closely jointed, was not so thoroughly indurated as
+the lower strata of the Niagara group, and its thin plates were more
+easily displaced and broken up. The depression marked in the sixth mile
+of the profile referred to was evidently cut out by the waters of Fish
+Creek, after the barrier had been removed, since the land near the
+head-waters of this stream is higher than at the point where the line
+runs through the ridge. It is also noticeable that the ridge, at this
+point, approaches the brink of the escarpment more nearly than at any
+other, and the sharp declivity of its northern face is clearly shown on
+the profile in the accompanying map.</p>
+
+<p>Within the last century there have been two, and perhaps more, large
+tidal waves on the Great Lakes. There have also been many severe gales,
+which have inundated the low lands around their shores, and attacked,
+with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>destructive effect, their higher banks. One of these gales is
+mentioned in another place. It came from about two points north of west,
+and, as noted, raised the water six feet on the rapids above the Falls.
+In the narrow portions of the river above, it must have elevated the
+water still more. Of course a much higher rise would have been produced
+by the force of such a gale acting upon the vastly increased surface of
+the larger lake.</p>
+
+<p>The first serious impression upon the Niagara barrier must have been
+made by these two mighty forces. By them, undoubtedly, was made the
+first breach over its top, thus commencing that slow but sure denudation
+which finally reached the rock below. And by their aid even the rock
+itself was removed.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, is the composition and structure of our dam. It is thirty
+feet high, with a base two and a half miles certainly, and probably
+five, in width. How to break through it is the problem to be solved by
+the great inland sea which laves it, so that the water may flow onward
+and downward to the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately we have, all along the shores of our inland lakes, an annual
+demonstration of the method by which such problems are solved. A
+constant abrasion of their banks is produced by the action of water,
+frost, and ice. And these are the resistless elements which, by their
+persistent and powerful action during the lapse of ages, excavated a
+channel for the waters of the Niagara. The gradual upward slope of the
+rock and the thick upper drift broke the force of the huge waves that
+were occasionally dashed upon them. Their position could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> have been
+more favorable to resist attack. It was a Malakoff of earth on a
+foundation of rock. Little by little the refluent waves carried back
+portions of the crumbled mass, and deposited them in the neighboring
+depressions. Slowly, wearily, desultorily, the erosion and desquamation
+went on. At last the upper drift was broken down, and its crumbled
+remains were swept from the rock.</p>
+
+<p>Then the insidious forces of heat and cold, sun and frost became potent.
+The thin lamin&aelig; of limestone were loosened by the frost, broken up and
+disintegrated. At last a thin sheet of water was driven through the
+gorge by some fierce gale. The steep declivity of the counterscarp was
+then fatally attacked, and after a time its perpendicular face was laid
+bare. Thenceforth the elements had the top and one end of the rocky mass
+to work on, and they worked at a tremendous advantage. The breaking up
+and disintegration of the rock went on. It was gradually crumbled into
+sand, which was washed off by the rains or swept away by the winds.
+Finally a channel was excavated, of which the bottom was lower than the
+surface of the great lake above; the sparkling waters rushed in, dashed
+over the precipice, and Niagara was born.</p>
+
+<p>As the water worked its way over the precipice gradually, so it would
+gradually excavate its channel to Lake Ontario, and it is not probable
+that any great inundation of the lower terrace could have occurred.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER VII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Composition of the terrace cut through&mdash;Why retrocession is
+possible&mdash;Three sections from Lewiston to the Falls&mdash;Devil's
+Hole&mdash;The Medina group&mdash;Recession long checked&mdash;The Whirlpool&mdash;The
+narrowest part of the river&mdash;The mirror&mdash;Depth of the water in the
+chasm&mdash;Former grand Fall.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The water having laid bare the face of the mountain barrier from top to
+bottom, we are enabled to examine the composition of the mass through
+which it slowly cut its way. After removing the thin plates of the upper
+stratum, as we descend, according to Professor Hall, we find:</p>
+
+<p>1. Niagara limestone&mdash;compact and geodiferous.</p>
+
+<p>2. Soft argillo-calcareous shale.</p>
+
+<p>3. Compact gray limestone.</p>
+
+<p>4. Thin layers of green shale.</p>
+
+<p>5. Gray and mottled sandstone, constituting with those below the Medina group.</p>
+
+<p>6. Red shale and marl, with thin courses of sandstone near the top.</p>
+
+<p>7. Gray quartzose sandstone.</p>
+
+<p>8. Red shaly sandstone and marl.</p>
+
+<p>Before reaching the Whirlpool the mass becomes, practically, resolved
+into numbers three, four, and five,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> the limestone, as a general rule,
+growing thicker and harder, and the shale also, as we follow up the stream.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why retrocession of the Falls is possible is found in the
+occurrence of the shale noted above as underlying the rock. It is a
+species of indurated clay, harder or softer according to the pressure to
+which it may have been subjected. When protected from the action of the
+elements it retains its hardness, but when exposed to them it gradually
+softens and crumbles away. After a time the superstratum of rock, which
+is full of cracks and seams, is undermined and precipitated into the
+chasm below. If the stratum of shale lies at or near the bottom of the
+channel below the Falls, it will be measurably protected from the action
+of the elements. In this case retrocession will necessarily be very
+gradual. If above the Falls the shale projects upward from the channel
+below, then in proportion to the elevation and thickness of its stratum
+will be the ease and rapidity of disintegration and retrocession. The
+shale furnishes, therefore, a good standard by which to determine the
+comparative rapidity with which the retrocession has been accomplished
+at different points.</p>
+
+<p>From the base of the escarpment at Lewiston up the narrow bend in the
+channel above Devil's Hole, a distance of four and a quarter miles, the
+shale varies in thickness above the water, from one hundred and thirty
+feet at the commencement of the gorge, to one hundred and ten feet at
+the upper extremity of the bend. Here, although there is very little
+upward curve in the limestone, there is yet a decided curve upward in
+the Medina<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> group, noticed above, composed mainly of a hard, red
+sandstone. It projects across the chasm, and also extends upward to near
+the neck of the Whirlpool, where it dips suddenly downward. The two
+strata of shale, becoming apparently united, follow its dip and also
+extend upward until they reach their maximum elevation near the middle
+of the Whirlpool. Thence the shale gradually dips again to the Railway
+Suspension Bridge, three-quarters of a mile above. For the remaining one
+and a half miles from this bridge to the present site of the Falls the
+dip is downward. We may then divide this reach of the Niagara River into three sections:</p>
+
+<p>First. From Lewiston to the upper end of the Bend above Devil's Hole.</p>
+
+<p>Second. Thence to the head of the rapid above the Railway Suspension Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Third. Thence to the present site of the Falls.</p>
+
+<p>We are now prepared to consider these sections with reference to the
+retrocession of the fall of water. Through the first section the shale,
+as before noted, lying much above the water surface, and the superposed
+limestone being rather soft and thinner than at any point above, the
+retreat was probably quite uniform and comparatively rapid, about the
+same progress being made in each of the many centuries required to
+accomplish its whole length. Professor James Hall, in his able and
+interesting Report on the Geology of the Fourth District of the State of
+New York, suggests the probability of there having been three distinct
+Falls, one below the other, for some distance up-stream, when the
+retrocession first began. The average width of this section between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> the
+banks is one thousand feet. About one mile below its upper extremity is
+"Devil's Hole," a side-chasm cut out of the American bank of the river
+by a small stream called "Bloody Run," which, in heavy rains, forms a
+torrent. The "Hole" has been made by the detrition and washing out of
+the shale and the fall of the overlying rock. A short distance above, on
+the Canadian side, lies Foster's Glen, a singular and extensive lateral
+excavation left dry by the receding flood. The cliff at its upper end is
+bare and water-worn, showing that the arc or curve of the Falls must
+have been greater here than at any point below.</p>
+
+<p>Near the upper end of this section there is a rocky cape, which juts out
+from the Canadian bank, and reaches nearly two-thirds of the distance
+across the chasm. At this point the great Fall met with a more obstinate
+and longer continued resistance than at any other, for the reason that
+the fine, firm sandstone belonging to the Medina group, as has been
+stated, here projects across the channel of the river, and, forming a
+part of its bed, rises upward several feet above the surface of the
+water. And here this hard, compact rock held the cataract for many
+centuries. The crooked channel which incessant friction and hammering
+finally cut through that rock is the narrowest in the river, being only
+two hundred and ninety-two feet wide, and the fierce rush of the water
+through the narrow, rock-ribbed gorge is almost appalling to the
+beholder. The average width between the banks of this section is about
+nine hundred feet.</p>
+
+<p>In the second section is found the Whirlpool, one of the most
+interesting and attractive portions of the river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> The large basin in
+which it lies was cut out much more rapidly than any other part of the
+chasm. And this for the reason that, in addition to the thick stratum of
+shale, there was, underlying the channel, a large pocket, and probably,
+also, a broad seam or cleavage, filled with gravel and pebbles. Indeed,
+there is a broad and very ancient cleavage in the rock-wall on the
+Canadian side, extending from near the top of the bank to an unknown
+depth below. Its course can be traced from the north side of the pool
+some distance in a north-westerly direction. Of course the resistless
+power of the falling water was not long restrained by these feeble
+barriers, and here the broadest and deepest notch of any given century
+was made. The name, Whirlpool, is not quite accurate, since the body of
+water to which it is applied is rather a large eddy, in which small
+whirlpools are constantly forming and breaking. The spectator cannot
+realize the tremendous power exerted by these pools, unless there is
+some object floating upon the surface by which it may be demonstrated.
+Logs from broken rafts are frequently carried over the Falls, and, when
+they reach this eddy, tree-trunks from two to three feet in diameter and
+fifty feet long, after a few preliminary and stately gyrations, are
+drawn down end-wise, submerged for awhile and then ejected with great
+force, to resume again their devious way in the resistless current. And
+they will often be kept in this monotonous round from four to six weeks
+before escaping to the rapids below.</p>
+
+<p>The cleft in the bed-rock which forms the outlet of the basin is one of
+the narrowest parts of the river,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> being only four hundred feet in
+width. Standing on one side of this gorge, and considering that the
+whole volume of the water in the river is rushing through it, the
+spectator witnesses a manifestation of physical force which makes a more
+vivid impression upon his mind than even the great Fall itself. No
+extravagant attempt at fine writing, no studied and elaborate
+description, can exaggerate the wonderful beauty and fascination of this
+pool. It is separated from the habitations of men, at a distance from
+any highway, and lies secluded in the midst of a small tract of wood
+which has fortunately been preserved around it, in which the dark and
+pale greens of stately pines and cedars predominate. Within the basin
+the waters are rushing onward, plunging downward, leaping upward,
+combing over at the top in beautiful waves and ruffles of dazzling
+whiteness, shaded down through all the opalescent tints to the deep
+emerald at their base. It is ever varying, never presenting the same
+aspect in any two consecutive moments, and the beholder is lost in
+admiration as he comprehends more and more the many-sided and varied
+beauties of the matchless scene. No one visiting the Whirlpool should
+fail to go down the bank to the water's edge. On a bright summer
+morning, after a night shower has laid the dust, cleansed and brightened
+the foliage of shrub and tree, purified and glorified the atmosphere,
+there are few more inviting and charming views.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining portion of this section is the Whirlpool rapid, a
+beautiful curve, reaching up just above the Railway Suspension Bridge.
+It was the most tumultuous and dangerous portion of the voyage once made
+by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span><i>Maid of the Mist</i>. The water is in a perpetual tumult, a
+perfect embodiment of the spirit of unrest. Owing to the rapidity of the
+descent and the narrowness of the curve, the water is forced into a
+broken ridge in the center of the channel. There, in its wild tumult, it
+is tossed up into fanciful cones and mounds, which are crowned with a
+flashing coronal of liquid gems by the isolated drops and delicate spray
+thrown off from the whirling mass, and rising sometimes to the height of
+thirty feet. Standing on the bridge and looking down-stream, the
+spectator will see near by, on the American shore, a very good
+illustration of the manner in which the shale, there cropping out above
+the surface of the water, is worn away, leaving the superposed rock
+projecting beyond it.</p>
+
+<p>In the third and last section the shale continues its downward dip, and
+at several places entirely disappears. The rock lying upon it is quite
+compact, and some of it very hard. The deep water into which the falling
+water was formerly received partially protected the shale, so that many
+centuries must have elapsed before the excavation of this section was
+completed. Its average width is eleven hundred feet.</p>
+
+<p>Sixty rods below the American Fall is the upper Suspension Bridge. From
+this bridge, looking downward, no one can fail to be impressed with the
+serene and quiet beauty of the mirror below, reflecting from the surface
+of its emerald and apparently unfathomable depths life-size and
+life-like images of surrounding objects. The calm, majestic, unbroken
+current is in striking contrast with the fall and foam and chopping sea above.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>The greatest depth of the water in mid-channel between the two
+Suspension Bridges, as ascertained by measuring, is two hundred feet.
+But it must be borne in mind that this is the depth of the water flowing
+above the immense mass of rock, stones, and gravel which has fallen into
+the channel. The bottom of the chasm, therefore, must be more than a
+hundred feet lower, since the fallen rocks, having tumbled down
+promiscuously, must occupy much more space than they did in their
+original bed. There are isolated points, as at the Whirlpool and Devil's
+Hole, where the river is wider than in any part of this section, but the
+depth is less. Taking into consideration both depth and width, this is
+the finest part of the chasm. And for this reason chiefly, when the
+great cataract was at a point about one hundred rods below the upper
+bridge, it must have presented its sublimest aspect. The secondary bank
+on each side of the river is here high and firm, whereby the whole mass
+of water must have been concentrated into a single channel of greater
+depth at the top of the Fall than it could have had at any other point.
+And here the mighty column exerted its most terrific force, rolling over
+the precipice in one broad, vertical curve, water falling into water,
+and lifting up, perpetually, that snowy veil of mist and spray which
+constitutes at any point its crowning beauty.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER VIII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Recession above the present position of the Falls&mdash;The Falls will
+be higher as they recede&mdash;Reason why&mdash;Professor Tyndall's
+prediction&mdash;Present and former accumulations of rock&mdash;Terrific
+power of the elements&mdash;Ice and ice bridges&mdash;Remarkable geognosy of
+the lake region.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There is probably little foundation for the apprehension which has been
+expressed that the recession of the chasm will ultimately reach Lake
+Erie and lower its level, or that the bed of the river will be worn into
+an inclined plane by gradual detrition, thus changing the perpendicular
+Fall into a tumultuous rapid. And for these reasons: The contour or arc
+of the Fall in its present location is much greater than it could have
+been at any point below. Consequently a much smaller body of water, less
+effective in force, is passed over any given portion of the precipice,
+the current being also divided by Goat and Luna islands. Also, the river
+bed increases in width above the Fall until it reaches Grand Island,
+which, being twelve miles in length by eight in width, divides the river
+into two broad channels, thus still further diminishing the weight and
+force of the falling water. The average width of the channel from
+Lewiston upward is one thousand feet. The present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> curve formed by the
+Falls and islands is four thousand two hundred feet. Of course the water
+concentrated in mass and force below the present Falls must have proved
+vastly more effective in disintegrating and breaking down the shale and
+limestone than it possibly can be at any point above. After receding
+half a mile further the curve will be more than a mile in extent, and
+hold this length for two additional miles, provided the water shall
+cover the bed-rock from shore to shore.</p>
+
+<p>In reference to this recession, Professor Tyndall, in the closing
+paragraph of a lecture on Niagara, delivered before the Royal Institute,
+after his return to England, says: "In conclusion, we may say a word
+regarding the proximate future of Niagara. At the rate of excavation
+assigned to it by Sir Charles Lyell, namely, a foot a year, five
+thousand years will carry the Horseshoe Fall far higher than Goat
+Island. As the gorge recedes * * * it will totally drain the American
+branch of the river, the channel of which will in due time become
+cultivatable land. * * * To those who visit Niagara five millenniums
+hence, I leave the verification of this prediction." In his "Travels in
+the United States," in 1841-2, vol. 1, page 27, Sir Charles Lyell says:
+"Mr. Bakewell calculated that, in the forty years preceding 1830, the
+Niagara had been going back at the rate of about a yard annually, but I
+conceive that one foot per year would be a more probable conjecture."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it appears that the rate suggested was the result of a conjecture
+founded on a guess. From certain oral and written statements which we
+have been able to collect,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> we have made an estimate of the time which
+was required to excavate the present chasm-channel from Lewiston upward.
+During the last hundred and seventy-five years certain masses of rock
+have been known to fall from the water-covered surface of the cataract,
+and a statement as to the surface-measure of each mass was made. In
+using these data it is supposed that each break extended to the bottom
+of the precipice, although the whole mass did not fall at once. Of
+course, the substructure must have worn out before the superstructure
+could have gone down. Father Hennepin says that the projection of the
+rock on the American side was so great that "four coaches" could "drive
+abreast" beneath it. Seven years later, Baron La Hontan, referring to
+the Canadian side, says "three men" could "cross in abreast." We cannot
+assign less than twenty-four feet to the four coaches moving abreast.
+The projection on the Canadian side has diminished but little, whereas
+the overhang on the American side has almost entirely fallen, as is
+abundantly shown by the huge pile of large bowlders now lying at the
+foot of the precipice. Authentic accounts of similar abrasions are the
+following: In 1818, a mass one hundred and sixty feet long by sixty feet
+wide; and later in the same year a huge mass, the top surface of which
+was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it would
+show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot of the whole surface of
+the Canadian Fall. In 1829 two other masses, equal to the first that
+fell in 1818, went down. In 1850 there fell a smaller mass, about fifty
+feet long and ten feet wide. In 1852, a triangular mass fell, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> was
+about six hundred feet long, extending south from Goat Island beyond the
+Terrapin Tower, and having an average width of twenty feet. Here we have
+approximate data on which to base our calculations. In addition to
+these, it is supposed that there have been unobserved abrasions by
+piecemeal that equaled all the others. Combining these minor masses into
+one grand mass and omitting fractions, the result is a bowlder
+containing something more than twelve million cubic feet of rock. If
+this were spread over a surface one thousand feet wide and one hundred
+and sixty feet deep&mdash;about the average width and depth of the Falls
+below the ferry&mdash;it would make a block about seventy-eight feet thick.
+This, for one hundred and seventy-five years, is a little over five
+inches a year. At this rate, to cut back six miles&mdash;the present length
+of the chasm&mdash;would require nearly sixty thousand years, or ten thousand
+years for a single mile, a mere shadow of time compared with the age of
+the coralline limestone over which the water flows. So, if this estimate
+is reasonably correct, two millenniums will be exhausted before
+Professor Tyndall's prophecy can be fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>As to the "entire drainage of the American branch" of the river, we must
+be incredulous when we consider the fact that the bottom of that branch,
+two and a half miles above the Falls, is thirty-two feet higher than the
+upper surface of the water where it goes over the cliff, and that there
+is a continuous channel the whole distance varying from twelve to twenty
+feet in depth; and the further fact that, in the great syncope of the
+water which occurred in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> 1848, the topography, so to speak, of the river
+bottom was clearly revealed. It showed that the water was so divided,
+half a mile above the rapids, as to form a huge Y, through both branches
+of which it flowed over the precipice below, thus showing that nothing
+but an entire stoppage of the water can leave the American channel dry.
+But even if this part of Professor Tyndall's prediction should be
+verified, it is to be feared that his "vision" of "cultivatable land" in
+the case supposed will prove to be visionary. "To complete my
+knowledge," says Professor Tyndall, "it was necessary to see the Fall
+from the river below it, and long negotiations were necessary to secure
+the means of doing so. The only boat fit for the undertaking had been
+laid up for the winter, but this difficulty * * * was overcome." Two
+oarsmen were obtained. The elder assumed command, and "hugged" the
+cross-freshets instead of striking out into the smoother water. I asked
+him why he did so; he replied that they were directed outward and not
+downward. If Professor Tyndall had been at Niagara during the summer
+season, he would have had the opportunity, daily, of seeing the Fall
+"from below," and of going up or down the river on any day in a boat.
+All the boats (four) at the ferry are "fit for the undertaking," and all
+of them are, very properly, "laid up in the winter," since they would be
+crushed by the ice if left in the water. The oarsmen do not consider
+themselves very shrewd because they have discovered that it is easier to
+row across a current than to row against it. The party had an exciting
+and, according to Professor Tyndall's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> account, a perilous trip. It is
+an exciting trip to a stranger, but the writer has made it so frequently
+that it has ceased to be a novelty.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp054.jpg" id="fp054.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp054.jpg" width='700' height='700' alt="Niagara Falls from Below" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls from Below</span></p>
+
+<p>"We reached," he says, "the Cave [of the Winds] and entered it, first by
+a wooden way carried over the bowlders, and then along a narrow ledge to
+the point eaten deepest into the shale." He also speaks of the "blinding
+hurricane of spray hurled against" him. This last circumstance,
+probably, prevented him from noticing the fact that no shale is visible
+in the Cave of the Winds. Its wall from the top downward, some distance
+beneath the place where he stood, is formed entirely of the Niagara
+limestone. But it is checkered by many seams, and is easily abraded by the elements.</p>
+
+<p>Long-continued observation of the locality enables the writer to offer
+still other reasons why the Fall will never dwindle down to a rapid. As
+has already been noticed, the course of the river above the present
+Falls is a little south of west, so that it flows across the trend of
+the bed-rock. Hence, as the Falls recede there can be no diminution in
+their altitude resulting from the dip of this rock. On the contrary,
+there is a rise of fifty feet to the head of the present rapids, and a
+further rise of twenty feet to the level of Lake Erie. During 1871-2,
+the bed of the river from Buffalo to Cayuga Creek was thoroughly
+examined for the purpose of locating piers for railway bridges over the
+stream. The greatest depth at which they found the rock&mdash;just below
+Black Rock dam&mdash;was forty-five feet. Generally the rock was found to be
+only twenty to twenty-five feet below the surface of the water.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>About five miles above the present Falls there is, in the bottom of the
+river, a shelf of rock stretching, in nearly a straight line, across the
+channel to Grand Island, and having, apparently, a perpendicular face
+about sixteen inches deep. Its presence is indicated by a short but
+decided curve in the surface of the water above it, the water itself
+varying in depth from eleven to sixteen feet. The shelf above referred
+to extends under Grand Island and across the Canadian channel of the
+river, under which, however, its face is no longer perpendicular. If the
+Falls were at this point, they would be fifty-five feet higher than they
+are now, supposing the bed-rock to be firm. Now, by excavations made
+during the year 1870 for the new railway from the Suspension Bridge to
+Buffalo, the surface rock was found to be compact and hard, much of it
+unusually so. As a general rule it is well known that the greater the
+depth at which any given kind of rock lies below the surface, and the
+greater the depth to which it is penetrated, the more compact and hard
+it will be found to be. The rock which was found to be so hard, in
+excavating for the railway, lies within six feet of the surface. The
+deepest water in the Niagara River, between the Falls and Buffalo, is
+twenty-five feet. At this point, then, it would seem that the shale of
+the Niagara group must be at such a depth that the top of it is below
+the surface of the water at the bottom of the present fall. Hence, being
+protected from the disintegrating action of the atmosphere, and the
+incessant chiseling of the dashing spray, it would make a firm
+foundation for the hard limestone which would form the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>perpendicular
+ledge over which the water would fall. Supposing the bottom of the
+channel below this fall to have the same declivity as that for a mile
+below the present fall, the then cataract would be, as has been before
+stated, fifty-five feet higher than the present one. If we should allow
+fifty feet for a soft-surface limestone, full of cleavages and seams
+which might be easily broken down, still the new fall would be five feet
+higher than the old one. But, so far as can now be discovered, there is
+no geological necessity, so to speak, for making any such allowance. In
+the new cataract the American Fall would still be the higher, and its
+line across the channel nearly straight. The Canadian Fall would
+undoubtedly present a curve, but more gradual and uniform than the present horseshoe.</p>
+
+<p>But there might possibly occur one new feature in the chasm-channel of
+the river as the result of future recession. That would be the presence
+in that channel of rocky islands, similar to that which has already
+formed just below the American Fall. The points at which these islands
+would be likely to form are those where the indurated rock of either the
+Medina or the Niagara group lies near the surface of the water. This
+probably was the case at the narrow bend below the Whirlpool, before
+noticed, and from thence up to the outlet of the pool. After considering
+what must have occurred in the last case, we may form some opinion
+concerning the probabilities in reference to the first.</p>
+
+<p>We can hardly resist the conclusion that masses of fallen rock must have
+accumulated below the Whirlpool<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> as we now see them under the American
+Fall. But if so, where are they? The answer to this question brings us
+to the consideration of the most remarkable phenomenon connected with
+this wonderful river. To the beholder it is matter of astonishment what
+can have become of the great mass of earth, rock, gravel, and bowlders,
+large and small, which once filled the immense chasm that lies below
+him. He learns that the water for a mile below the Falls is two hundred
+feet deep, and flows over a mass of fallen rock and stone of great depth
+lying below it; he sees a chasm of nearly double these dimensions, more
+than half of which was once filled with solid rock; he beholds the large
+quantities which have already fallen, which are still defiant, still
+breasting the ceaseless hammering of the descending flood. For centuries
+past this process has been going on, until a chasm seven miles long, a
+thousand feet wide, and, including the secondary banks, more than four
+hundred feet deep, has been excavated, and the material which filled it
+entirely removed. How? By what? Frost was the agent, ice was his delver,
+water his carrier, and the basin of Lake Ontario his dumping-ground.
+Although there is little likelihood that islands similar to Goat Island
+have existed in the channel from Lewiston upward, still it is probable
+that, when the Fall receded from the rocky cape below the Whirlpool up
+to the pool, it left masses of rock, large and small, lying on the rocky
+floor and projecting above the surface of the water. As there were no
+islands above, there were no broken, tumultuous rapids. As has been
+before remarked, the water poured over in one broad, deep, resistless
+flood. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> frozen by the intense cold of winter, the great cakes of
+ice would descend with crushing force on these rocks. The smaller ones
+would be broken, pulverized, and swept down-stream, the channel for the
+water would be enlarged gradually, and the larger masses thus partially
+undermined. Then the spray and dashing water would freeze and the ice
+accumulate upon them until they were toppled over. Then the falling ice
+would recommence its chipping labors, and with every piece of ice
+knocked off, a portion of the rock would go with it. Finally, as the
+cold continued, the master force, the mightiest of mechanical powers,
+would be brought into action. The vast quantities of ice pouring over
+the precipice would freeze together, agglomerate, and form an
+ice-bridge. The roof being formed, the succeeding cakes of ice would be
+drawn under, and, raising it, be frozen to it. This process goes on.
+Every piece of rock above and below the surface is embraced in a
+relentless icy grip. Millions of tons are frozen fast together. The
+water and ice continue to plunge over the precipice. The principle of
+the hydrostatic press is made effective. Then commences a crushing and
+grinding process which is perfectly terrific. Under the resistless
+pressure brought to bear upon it, the huge mass moves half an inch in
+one direction, and an hundred cubic feet of rock are crushed to powder.
+There is a pause. Then again the immense structure moves half an inch
+another way, and once more the crumbling atoms attest its awful power.
+This goes on for weeks continuously. Finally the temperature changes.
+The sunlight becomes potent; the ice ceases to form; the warm rays
+loosen the grip of the ice-bridge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> along the borders of the chasm below.
+The water becomes more abundant; the bridge rises, bringing in its icy
+grasp whatever it had attached itself to beneath; it breaks up into
+masses of different dimensions: each mass starts downward with the
+growing current, breaking down or filing off everything with which it
+comes in contact. Fearful sounds come up from the hidden depths, from
+the mills which are slowly pulverizing the massive rock. The smaller
+bits and finer particles, after filling the interstices between the
+larger rocks in the bottom of the chasm, are borne lakeward. The heavier
+portions make a part of the journey this year; they will make another
+part next year, and another the next, being constantly disintegrated and pulverized.</p>
+
+<p>This work has been going on for many centuries. The result is seen in
+the vast bar of unknown depth which is spread over the bottom of Lake
+Ontario around the mouth of the river. On the inner side of the bar the
+water is from sixty to eighty feet deep, on the bar it is twenty-five
+feet deep, and outside of it in the lake it reaches a depth of six hundred feet.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp060.jpg" id="fp060.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp060.jpg" width='500' height='700' alt="Great Icicles under the American Fall" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Great Icicles under the American Fall</span></p>
+
+<p>And finally, to the force we have been considering, more than to any
+other, it is probable that all the coming generations of men will be
+indebted for a grand and perpendicular Fall somewhere between its
+present location and Lake St. Clair; for it must be remembered that the
+bottom of Lake Erie is only fourteen feet lower than the crest of the
+present Fall, and the bottom of Lake St. Clair is sixty-two feet higher.
+It may also be considered that the corniferous limestone of the Onondaga
+group&mdash;which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> succeeds the Niagara group as we approach Lake Erie&mdash;is
+more competent to maintain a perpendicular face than is the limestone of the latter group.</p>
+
+<p>We may here appropriately notice a remarkable feature in the geognosy of
+the earth's surface from Lake Huron to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have
+before stated that the elevation of that lake above tide-water is five
+hundred and seventy-eight feet. But its depth, according to Dr.
+Houghton, is one thousand feet. If this statement is correct, the bottom
+of it is four hundred and twenty-two feet below the sea-level. The
+elevation of Lake St. Clair is five hundred and seventy feet. But its
+depth is only twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty
+feet above the sea-level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five hundred and
+sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four feet deep, making it four
+hundred and eighty-four feet above the sea-level. From Lake Erie to Lake
+Ontario there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. But the
+latter lake is six hundred feet deep, and its elevation two hundred and
+thirty-two feet. Hence the bottom of it is three hundred and sixty-eight
+feet below the sea-level. From the outlet of Lake Ontario the St.
+Lawrence River flows eight hundred and twenty miles to tide-water,
+falling two hundred and thirty-two feet in this distance. The water from
+the springs at the bottom of Lake Huron is compelled to climb a mountain
+nine hundred and eighty feet high before it can start on this long oceanward journey.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>PART III.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="bold2">LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.</p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER IX.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Forty years since&mdash;Niagara in winter&mdash;Frozen spray&mdash;Ice foliage and
+ice apples&mdash;Ice moss&mdash;Frozen fog&mdash;Ice islands&mdash;Ice
+statues&mdash;Sleigh-riding on the American rapids&mdash;Boys coasting on
+them&mdash;Ice gorges.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>If the first white man who saw Niagara could have been certain that he
+was the first to see it, and had simply recorded the fact with whatever
+note or comment, he would have secured for himself that species of
+immortality which accrues to such as are connected with those first and
+last events and things in which all men feel a certain interest. But he
+failed to improve his opportunity, and Father Hennepin was the first, so
+far as known, to profit by such neglect, and his somewhat crude and
+exaggerated description of the Falls has been often quoted and is well
+known. So long as "waters flow and trees grow" it will continue to be
+read by successive generations. The French missionaries and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> traders who
+followed him seem to have been too much occupied in saving souls or in
+seeking for gold to spend much time in contemplating the cataract, or to
+waste much sentiment in writing about it. And so it happens that,
+considering its fame, very little has been written, or rather published, concerning it.</p>
+
+<p>Seventy years ago, the few travelers who were drawn to the vicinity by
+interest or curiosity were obliged to approach it by Indian trails, or
+rude corduroy roads, through dense and dark forests. Within the solitude
+of their deep shadows, beneath their protecting arms, was hidden one of
+the sublimest works of the physical creation. The scene was grand,
+impressive, almost oppressive, not less sublime than the Alps or the
+ocean, but more fascinating, more companionable, than either.</p>
+
+<p>Niagara we can take to our hearts. We realize its majesty and its
+beauty, but we are never obliged to challenge its power. Its
+surroundings and accessories are calm and peaceful. Even in all the
+treacherous and bloody warfare of savage Indians it was neutral ground.
+It was a forest city of refuge for contending tribes. The generous,
+noble, and peaceful Niagaras&mdash;a people, according to M. Charlevoix,
+"larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages," and who
+lived upon its borders&mdash;were called by the whites and the neighboring
+tribes the Neuter Nation.</p>
+
+<p>The crafty Hurons, the unwarlike Eries, the invincible league formed by
+the six aggressive and conquering tribes composing the Iroquois
+confederacy,&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the
+Senecas, and the Tuscaroras,&mdash;all extinguished the torch, buried the
+tomahawk, and smoked the calumet when they came to the shores of the
+Niagara, and sat down within sight of its incense cloud, and listened to
+its perpetual anthem. In succeeding contests between the whites, on two
+occasions only was nature's repose here disturbed by the din of
+battle&mdash;first, in the running fight at Chippewa, and again at the
+obstinate and bloody struggle of Lundy's Lane.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;now Rochester&mdash;and the
+river road on the Canadian side from Buffalo to Drummondville.</p>
+
+<p>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; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> apples which tip the
+extremities of the branches of the evergreen trees.</p>
+
+<p>There is something marvelous in the purity and whiteness of congealed
+spray. One might think it to be frozen sunlight. And when, by reason of
+an angle or a curve, it is thrown into shadow, one sees where the
+rainbow has been caught and frozen in. After a day of sunshine which has
+been sufficiently warm to fill the atmosphere with aqueous vapor, if a
+sharp, still, cold night succeed, and if on this there break a clear,
+calm morning, the scene presented is one of unique and enchanting beauty.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp066.jpg" id="fp066.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp066.jpg" width='541' height='700' alt="Winter Foliage" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Winter Foliage</span></p>
+
+<p>The frozen spray on every boll, limb, and twig of tree and shrub, on
+every stiffened blade of grass, on every rigid stem and tendril of the
+vines, is covered over with a fine white powder, a frosty bloom, from
+which there springs a line of delicate frost-spines, forming a perfect
+fringe of ice-moss, than which nothing more fanciful nor more beautiful
+can be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as the day advances, the increasing warmth of the sun's rays
+dissolves this fairy frost-work and spreads it like a delicate varnish
+over the solid spray, giving it a brilliant polish rivaling the luster
+of the rarest gems; the mid-morning breeze sets in motion this flashing,
+dazzling forest, which varies its color as the sunlight-angle varies;
+and finally, when the waxing warmth and growing breeze loosen the hold
+of the icy covering in the tree-tops, and it drops to the still solid
+surface in the shade beneath,&mdash;the tiny particles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> with a silver tinkle
+and the larger pieces with the sharp, rattling sound of the
+castanet,&mdash;the ear is charmed with a wild, dashing rataplan, while a
+scene of strange enchantment challenges the admiration of the spectator.</p>
+
+<p>Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the garment of
+frozen fog with which all external objects are adorned and etherealized
+when the spring advances and the temperature of the water is raised. As
+the sharp, still night wears on, the light mists begin to rise, and when
+the morning breaks, the river is buried in a deep, dense bank of fog. A
+gentle wave of air bears it landward; its progress is stayed by
+everything with which it comes in contact, and as soon as its motion is
+arrested it freezes sufficiently to adhere to whatever it touches. So it
+grows upon itself, and all things are soon covered half an inch in depth
+with a most delicate and fragile white fringe of frozen fog. The morning
+sun dispels the mist, and in an hour the gay frost-work vanishes.</p>
+
+<p>The ice islands are sometimes extensive. In the year 1856 the whole of
+the rocky bar above Goat Island was covered with ice, piled together in
+a rough heap, the lower end of which rested on Goat Island and the three
+Moss Islands lying outside of it, all of which were visited by different
+persons passing over this new route.</p>
+
+<p>The ice formed on the rocks below the American Fall, stretched upward,
+reached the edge of the precipice just north of the Little Horseshoe,
+continued up-stream above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Chapin's Island, spread out laterally from
+that to Goat Island on the south, and over nearly half of the American
+rapids to the north. At the brow of the precipice it accumulated upward
+until it formed a ridge some forty feet high. About fifteen rods
+up-stream another ridge was formed of half the height of the first.
+Every rock projecting upward bore an immense ice-cap. Around and between
+these mounds and caps horses were driven to sleighs, albeit the course
+was not favorable for quick time. The boys drew their sleds to the top
+of the large mound, slid down it, up-stream, and nearly to the top of
+the smaller hill.</p>
+
+<p>On the lower or down-stream side, they would have had a clear course to
+the water below, at the brink of the Falls, and might have made "time"
+compared with which Dexter's minimum would have seemed only a funeral
+march. But with all Young America's passion for speed, he declined to
+try this route. The writer walked over the south end of Luna Island,
+above the tops of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>The ice-bridge of that year filled the whole chasm from the Railway
+Suspension Bridge up past the American Fall. When the ice broke up in
+the spring, such immense quantities were carried down that a strong
+northerly wind across Lake Ontario caused an ice-jam at Fort Niagara.
+The ice accumulated and set back until it reached the Whirlpool, and
+could be crossed at any point between the Whirlpool and the Fort. It was
+lifted up about sixty feet above the surface, and spread out over both
+shores, crushing and destroying everything with which it came in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+contact. Many persons from different parts of the country visited the
+extraordinary scene.</p>
+
+<p>At Lewiston the writer, with many others, saw a most remarkable
+illustration of the terrific power of this hydrostatic press. Just below
+the village, on the American side, there stood, about two rods from
+high-water mark, a sound, thrifty, tough white-oak tree, perhaps a
+hundred years old, and two feet in diameter. The ice, moved by the
+water, struck it near the ground and pressed it outward and upward,
+until it was actually pulled up by the roots&mdash;or rather some of the
+roots were broken and others were pulled out&mdash;and landed twenty feet
+farther away from the chasm.</p>
+
+<p>Those who watched the operation stated that, from the time the ice
+touched the tree until it was landed on the bank above, the motion of
+the ice could not be detected by the eye.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp069.jpg" id="fp069.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp069.jpg" width='698' height='700' alt="Ice Bridge and Frost Freaks" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Ice Bridge and Frost Freaks</span></p>
+
+<p>Slowly, steadily, surely it pressed on. Suddenly there would be an
+explosion, sharp and loud, when a root gave way. No motion in the ice or
+tree could be discovered. After a lapse of two or three hours another
+sharp crack would give notice of another fracture. Thus the ice pressed
+gradually on, and in ten hours the work was done. A thousandth part of
+this force would pulverize a bowlder of adamant. We need not wonder,
+therefore, that the river Niagara keeps its channel clear.</p>
+
+<p>In the ice-gorge of 1866 the ice was set back to the upper end of the
+Whirlpool, over which it was twenty feet deep. The Whirlpool rapid was
+subdued nearly to an unbroken current, which all the way below to Lake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+Ontario was reduced to a gentle flow of quiet waters. Never was there a
+sublimer contest of the great forces of nature. The frost laid its hand
+upon the raging torrent and it was still.</p>
+
+<p>The winter of 1875 was intensely cold. The singular figures represented
+in the illustrations&mdash;the eagle, dog, baboon, and others&mdash;are exact
+reproductions of the real chance-work of the frost of that season. The
+long-continued prevalence of the south-west wind fastened to every
+object facing it a border or apron of dazzling whiteness, and more than
+five feet thick. The ice mountain below the American Fall, reaching
+nearly to the top of the precipice, was appropriated as a "coasting"
+course, and furnished most exhilarating sport to the people who used it.
+A large number of visitors came from all directions, and, on the 22d of
+February, fifteen hundred were assembled to see the extraordinary exhibition.</p>
+
+<p>In the coldest winters, the ice-bridges cannot be less than two hundred
+and fifty feet thick. The ice-bridge of 1875 formed on the 6th and 7th
+of May, was crossed on the 8th, and broke up on the 14th&mdash;the only one
+ever known in the river so late in the spring.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp070.jpg" id="fp070.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp070.jpg" width='578' height='700' alt="Coasting below the American Fall" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Coasting below the American Fall</span></p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER X.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Judge Porter&mdash;General Porter&mdash;Goat Island&mdash;Origin of its
+name&mdash;Early dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the
+rock&mdash;Professor Kalm's wonderful story&mdash;Bridges to the
+Island&mdash;Method of construction&mdash;Red Jacket&mdash;Anecdotes&mdash;Grand
+Island&mdash;Major Noah and the New Jerusalem&mdash;The Stone Tower&mdash;The
+Biddle Stairs&mdash;Sam Patch&mdash;Depth of water on the Horseshoe&mdash;Ships
+sent over the Falls.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In preparing this narrative, the writer has had the good fortune to
+listen to many recitals of facts and incidents by the late Judge
+Augustus Porter and the late General Peter B. Porter, whose names are
+intimately and honorably connected with the more recent history, not
+only of this particular locality but of the Empire State.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Porter, after having spent several years in surveying and lotting
+large portions of the territory of Western New York and the Western
+Reserve in Ohio, came from Canandaigua to Niagara Falls with his family
+in June, 1806, where he continued to live until his death, nearly fifty
+years afterward.</p>
+
+<p>General Porter settled as a lawyer at Canandaigua in 1795, removed to
+Black Rock in 1810, and to Niagara Falls in 1838.</p>
+
+<p>In 1805, the two brothers became interested with others in the purchase
+from the State of New York of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> four lots in the Mile Strip lying both
+above and below the Falls.</p>
+
+<p>A few years later, they purchased not only the interest of their
+partners in these lots, but other lands at different points along this
+strip. In 1814, they bought of Samuel Sherwood a paper since named a
+<i>float</i>&mdash;an instrument given by the State authorizing the bearer to
+locate two hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated lands
+belonging to the State. This float they fortunately anchored on Goat
+Island and the islands adjacent thereto lying "immediately above and
+adjoining the Great Falls."</p>
+
+<p>The origin of the name of Goat Island is as follows: Mr. John Stedman,
+who came into the country in 1760, had cleared a portion of the upper
+end of the island, and in the summer of 1779 he placed on it an aged and
+dignified male goat. The following winter was very severe, navigation to
+the island was impracticable, and the goat fell a victim to the intense
+cold. Since which the scene of his exile and death has been called Goat Island.</p>
+
+<p>By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, the boundary
+line between Great Britain and the United States, on the Niagara
+frontier, was to run through the deepest water along the river-courses
+and through the center of the Great Lakes. As the deepest water, at this
+point, is in the center of the Horseshoe Fall, the islands in the river
+fell to the Americans. General Porter, acting as Commissioner for the
+United States, proposed to call the largest one Iris Island, and it was
+so printed on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> boundary maps. But the public adhered to the old name
+of Goat Island.</p>
+
+<p>One of the early chronicles states that the island contained two hundred
+and fifty acres of land. At the present time there are in it less than
+seventy. A strip some ten rods wide by eighty rods long has been worn
+away from the southern side of it since 1818, when Judge Porter made the
+first road around it.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest date he found on the island was 1765, carved on a
+beech-tree. The earliest date cut in the rock on the main-land was 1645.
+Human bones and arrowheads were found on the island. The Indians went to
+it with their canoes, which they paddled up and down in the
+comparatively quiet water lying on the rocky bar which extends upward
+nearly a mile above the head of the island.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this fact, the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, who visited the
+place in 1750, relates a fabulous story of two Indians who, on a hunting
+excursion above the Falls, drank too freely from "two bottles of French
+brandy" which they brought from Fort Niagara; becoming drowsy, they laid
+themselves down in the bottom of their canoe for a nap.</p>
+
+<p>The canoe swung off shore and floated down-stream. Nearing the rapids,
+the noise awakened one of them, who had apparently been more fortunate
+in learning the English language from the French than most of his tribe,
+for, seeing their perilous situation, he exclaimed: "We are gone!" But
+the two plied their paddles with such aboriginal vigor that they
+succeeded in landing on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> Goat Island. From the sequel it would seem that
+they must have destroyed or lost their canoe. Finding no houses of
+refreshment, nor cairns of stores left by former explorers, and most
+naturally getting hungry, they concluded it would be desirable to get
+back to the fort&mdash;a wish more easily expressed than accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>But it was necessary for them to "do or die." So, as the story runs,
+they stripped the bark from the basswood trees, and with it made a
+ladder long enough to reach from a tree standing on the edge of the
+precipice at the foot of the island down to the water below.</p>
+
+<p>After dropping their ladder they followed it downward. Reaching the
+water, and being good swimmers, they plunged in with great glee,
+expecting to be able to swim across to the opposite shore, which they
+could easily climb. But the counter current forced them back to the island.</p>
+
+<p>After being a good deal bruised on the rocks, they were compelled to
+abandon the attempt to cross, and then returned up their ladder to the
+island. There, after much whooping, they attracted the notice of other
+Indians on the shore. These reported the situation at the fort, and the
+commandant sent up a party of whites and Indians to rescue them. They
+brought with them four light pike-poles. Going to a point opposite the
+head of the island, they exchanged salutations with the new Crusoes, and
+began preparations for their rescue. Two Indians volunteered to
+undertake the task. "They took leave of all their friends as if they
+were going to their death." Each Indian rescuer, according to the
+wondrous fable, took two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> pike-poles and <i>waded</i> across the channel to
+the island, gave each of the Crusoes a pike-pole, and then the four
+waded back to the main-land, where they were joyfully received by their
+anxious, waiting friends, after having been "nine days on the island."</p>
+
+<p>Remembering that the water in mid-channel is twelve feet deep, with a
+twelve-mile current, we must concede this to be the most marvelous of
+all aquatic achievements.</p>
+
+<p>In 1817 Judge Porter built the first bridge to Goat Island, about forty
+rods above the present bridge. In the following spring the large cakes
+of ice from the river above, not being sufficiently broken up by the
+short stretch of rapids over which they passed, struck the bridge with
+terrific force, and carried away the greater part of it. With the
+courage and enterprise of a New-Englander, the next season he
+constructed another bridge farther down, on the present site, rightly
+judging that the ice would be so much broken up before reaching it as to be harmless.</p>
+
+<p>That bridge, with constant repairs and one almost entire renewal, stood
+firm in its place until the year 1856, when it was removed to make room
+for the present iron bridge. The old piers were much enlarged and
+strengthened, and also raised about three feet higher to receive the new
+bridge. As nearly every stranger inquires how the first bridge was
+carried over the turbulent waters, a brief description of the process
+may be acceptable. First, a strong bulkhead was built in the shallow
+water next to the shore; a solid backing was put in behind this, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+the upper surface properly graded and well floored with plank. Strong
+rollers were placed parallel with the stream and fastened to the floor.
+In the old forest then standing near by were many noble oaks, of
+different sizes and great length. A number of these were felled and
+hewed "tapering," as it was termed, so that, when finished, they were
+about eighteen inches square at the butt, fifteen at the top, and eighty
+feet long. Through the small ends were bored large auger-holes. These
+sticks were placed, as required, on the rollers, at right angles to the
+stream, the small ends over the water, and the shore ends heavily weighted down.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp076.jpg" id="fp076.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp076.jpg" width='700' height='453' alt="Second Moss Island Bridge" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Second Moss Island Bridge</span></p>
+
+<p>The first stick being properly placed, levers were applied to the
+rollers and the stick was run out until the small end reached an eddy in
+the water. Then another similar stick was run out in like manner,
+parallel to the first, and about six feet from it. A few light, strong
+planks were placed across and made fast. Two men were provided each with
+strong, iron-pointed pike-staffs, each staff having in its upper end a
+hole, through which was drawn some ten feet of new rope. Thus provided,
+they walked out on the timbers, drove their iron pikes down among the
+stones, and tied them fast to the timbers. Thus the whole problem was
+solved. Around these pike-staffs the first pier was built and filled
+with stone. Then other timbers were run out, all were planked over, and
+the first span was completed. The other spans were laid in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>The great Indian chief and orator, Red Jacket, occasionally visited
+Judge and General Porter&mdash;the latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> then living at Black Rock. Judge
+Porter told this anecdote of the chief: He visited the Falls while the
+mechanics were stretching the timbers across the rapids for the second
+bridge. He sat for a long time on a pile of plank, watching their
+operations. His mind seemed to be busy both with the past and the
+present, reflecting upon the vast territory his race once possessed, and
+intensely conscious of the fact that it was theirs no longer. Apparently
+mortified, and vexed that its paleface owners should so successfully
+develop and improve it, he rose from his seat, and, uttering the
+well-known Indian guttural "Ugh, ugh!" he exclaimed: "D&mdash;&mdash;n Yankee!
+d&mdash;&mdash;n Yankee!" Then, gathering his blanket-cloak around him, with his
+usual dignity and downcast eyes, he slowly walked away, and never
+returned to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Before parting with the distinguished chief, we will repeat after
+General Porter two other anecdotes characteristic of him. He lived not
+far from Buffalo, on the Seneca Reservation, and frequently visited the
+late General Wadsworth, at Geneseo. Indeed, his visits grew to be
+somewhat perplexing, for the great chief must be entertained personally
+by the host of the establishment.</p>
+
+<p>Of course he was a "teetotaler"&mdash;only in one way. When he got a glass of
+good liquor he drank the whole of it. He was very fond of the rich
+apple-juice of the Geneseo orchards. Having repeated his visits to
+General Wadsworth, at one time, with rather inconvenient frequency, and
+coming one day when the General saw that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> had been drinking pretty
+freely somewhere else, his host concluded he would not offer him the
+usual refreshments. In due time, therefore, Red Jacket rose and excused
+himself. As he was leaving the room the orator said, "General, hear!"
+"Well, what, Red Jacket?" To which he replied with great gravity:
+"General, when I get home to my people, and they ask me how your cider
+tasted, what shall I tell them?" Of course he got the cider.</p>
+
+<p>His determined and constant opposition to the sale of the lands
+belonging to the Indians is well known. At the council held at Buffalo
+Creek, in 1811, he was selected by the Indians to answer the proposition
+of a New York land company to buy more land. The Indians refused to
+sell, although, as usual, the company only wanted "a small tract." To
+illustrate the system, after the speech-making was over, Red Jacket
+placed half a dozen Indians on a log, which lay near by. They did not
+sit very close together, but had plenty of room. He then took a white
+man who wanted "a small tract," and making the Indians at one end "move
+up," he put the white man beside them. Then he brought another
+"small-tract" white man, and making the aborigines "move up" once more,
+the Indian on the end was obliged to rise from the log. He repeated this
+process until but one of the original occupants was left on the log.
+Then suddenly he shoved him off, put a white man in his place, and
+turning to the land agent said: "See what one <i>small tract</i> means; white
+man <i>all</i>, Indian <i>nothing</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Colonel William L. Stone, in his "Life of Red Jacket," relates the
+following: In 1816, after Red Jacket took up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> his residence on Buffalo
+Creek, east of the city, a young French count traveling through the
+country made a brief stay at Buffalo, whence he sent a request to the
+sachem to visit him at his hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Red Jacket, in reply, informed the young nobleman that if he wished to
+see the old chief he would give him a welcome greeting at his cabin. The
+count sent again to say that he was much fatigued by his journey of four
+thousand miles, which he had made for the purpose of seeing the
+celebrated Indian orator, Red Jacket, and thought it strange that he
+should not be willing to come four miles to meet him. But the proud and
+shrewd old chief replied that he thought it still more strange, after
+the count had traveled so great a distance for that purpose, that he
+should halt only a few miles from the home of the man he had come so far
+to see. The count finally visited the sachem at his house, and was much
+pleased with the dignity and wisdom of his savage host. The point of
+etiquette having been satisfactorily settled, the chief accepted an
+invitation to dinner, and was no doubt able to tell his people how the
+count's "cider" tasted.</p>
+
+<p>In 1819, when the boundary commissioners ran the line through the
+Niagara River, Grand Island fell to the United States, under the rule
+that that line should be in the center of the main channel. To ascertain
+this, accurate measurements were made, by which it was found that
+12,802,750 cubic feet of water passed through the Canadian channel, and
+8,540,080 through the American channel. To test the accuracy of these
+measurements, the quantity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> passing in the narrow channel at Black Rock
+was determined by the same method, and was found to be 21,549,590 cubic
+feet, thus substantially corroborating the first two measurements.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian name of Grand Island is Owanunga. In 1825, Mr. M. M. Noah, a
+politician of the last generation, took some preliminary steps for
+re&euml;stablishing the lost nationality of the Jews upon this island, where
+a New Jerusalem was to be founded. Assuming the title of "Judge of
+Israel," he appeared at Buffalo in September for the purpose of founding
+the new nation and city. A meeting was held in old St. Paul's Church, at
+which, with the aid of a militia company, martial music, and masonic
+rites, the remarkable initiatory proceedings took place.</p>
+
+<p>The self-constituted judge presented himself arrayed in gorgeous robes
+of office, consisting of a rich black cloth tunic, covered by a
+capacious mantle of crimson silk trimmed with ermine, and having a
+richly embossed golden medal hanging from his neck. After what, in the
+account published in his own paper of the day's proceedings, he called
+"impressive and unique ceremonies," he read a proclamation to "all the
+Jews throughout the world," informing them "that an Asylum was prepared
+and offered to them," and that he did "revive, renew, and establish (in
+the Lord's name), the government of the Jewish nation, * * * confirming
+and perpetuating all our rights and privileges, our rank and power,
+among the nations of the earth as they existed and were recognized under
+the government of the Judges." He also ordered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> a census to be taken of
+all the Hebrews in the world, and levied a capitation tax of three
+shekels&mdash;about one dollar and sixty cents&mdash;"to pay the expenses of
+re-organizing the government and assisting emigrants." He had prepared a
+"foundation stone," which was afterward erected on the site of the new
+city, and which bore the following inscription:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Hear, O Israel, the Lord<br />is our God&mdash;the Lord is one."</p>
+
+<p class="center">"ARARAT,<br />A CITY OF REFUGE FOR THE JEWS,<br />
+FOUNDED BY MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH,<br />IN THE MONTH OF TISRI 5586&mdash;SEPT. 1825,<br />
+IN THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF<br />AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE."</p>
+
+<p>After the meeting at St. Paul's, the "Judge" returned at once to New
+York, and, like the great early ruler of his nation, he only saw the
+land of promise, as he never crossed to the island.</p>
+
+<p>The strong round tower, called the Terrapin Tower, which stood near Goat
+Island, not far from the precipice, was built in 1833, of stones
+gathered in the vicinity. It was forty-five feet high, and twelve feet
+in diameter at the base. So much was said in 1873 about the growing
+insecurity of the tower that it was taken down.</p>
+
+<p>The Biddle Staircase was named for Mr. Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia,
+who contributed a sum of money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> toward its construction. It was erected
+in 1829. The shaft is eighty feet high and firmly fastened to the rock.
+The stairs are spiral, winding round it from top to bottom. Near the
+foot of these stairs, at the water's edge, Samuel Patch, who wished to
+demonstrate to the world that "some things could be done as well as
+others," set up a ladder one hundred feet high, from which he made two
+leaps into the water below. Going thence to Rochester, he took another
+leap near the Genesee Falls, which proved to be his last.</p>
+
+<p>The depth of water on the Horseshoe Fall is a subject of speculation
+with every visitor. It was correctly determined in 1827. In the autumn
+of that year, the ship <i>Michigan</i>, having been condemned as unseaworthy,
+was purchased by a few persons, and sent over the Falls. Her hull was
+eighteen feet deep. It filled going down the rapids, and went over the
+Horseshoe Fall with some water above the deck, indicating that there
+must have been at least twenty feet of water above the rock. This voyage
+of the <i>Michigan</i> was an event of the day. A glowing hand-bill, charged
+with bold type and sensational tropes, announced that "The Pirate
+<i>Michigan</i>, with a cargo of furious animals," would "pass the great
+rapids and the Falls of Niagara," on the "eighth of September, 1827."
+She would sail "through the white-tossing and deep-rolling rapids of
+Niagara, and down its grand precipice into the basin below."
+Entertainment was promised "for all who may visit the Falls on the
+present occasion, which will, for its novelty and the remarkable
+spectacle it will present, be unequaled in the annals of <i>infernal</i>
+navigation." <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Considering that the Falls could be reached only by road
+conveyances, the gathering of people was very large. The voyage was
+successfully made, and the "cargo of live animals" duly deposited in the
+"basin below," except a bear which left the ship near the center of the
+rapids and swam ashore, but was recaptured.</p>
+
+<p>Two enterprising individuals made arrangements to supply the people
+assembled on the island with refreshments. They had an ample spread of
+tables and an abundant supply of provisions. As there was much delay in
+getting the vessel down the river, the people got impatient and hungry.
+They took their places at the tables. When their appetites were nearly
+satisfied, notice was given that the ship was coming, whereupon they
+departed hurriedly, forgetting to leave the equivalent half-dollar for
+the benefit of the purveyors.</p>
+
+<p>In after years, one of the proprietors of this unexpected "free
+lunch"&mdash;the late General Whitney&mdash;established here one of the best
+hotels in the country, and left his heirs an ample fortune.</p>
+
+<p>A few geese in the cargo were only badly confused by their unusual
+plunge, and were afterward picked up from boats. It was noticed as being
+a little singular that geese which went over the Falls in the Pirate
+<i>Michigan</i> were for sale at extravagant prices all the next season.</p>
+
+<p>Another condemned vessel of about five hundred tons burden, the
+<i>Detroit</i>, which had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was
+sent down the rapids in 1841. A large concourse of people assembled from
+all parts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> the country to witness the spectacle. Her rolling and
+plunging in the rapids were fearful, until about midway of them she
+stuck fast on a bar, where she lay until knocked to pieces by the ice.
+From Baron La Hontan we know that the Indians went on the water, just
+below the Falls, in their canoes, to gather the game which had been
+swept over them. For more than a hundred years there has been a ferry of
+skiff and yawl boats at this point, and in all that time not one serious
+accident has happened.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XI.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the
+Rapids&mdash;Rescue of Chapin&mdash;Rescue of Allen&mdash;He takes the <i>Maid of
+the Mist</i> through the Whirlpool&mdash;His companions&mdash;Effect upon
+Robinson&mdash;Biographical notice&mdash;His grave unmarked.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The history of the navigation of the Rapids of Niagara may be
+appropriately concluded in this chapter, which is devoted to a notice of
+the remarkable man who began it, who had no rival and has left no
+successor in it&mdash;Joel R. Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1838, while some extensive repairs were being made on
+the main bridge to Goat Island, a mechanic named Chapin fell from the
+lower side of it into the rapids, about ten rods from the Bath Island
+shore. The swift current bore him toward the first small island lying
+below the bridge. Knowing how to swim, he made a desperate and
+successful effort to reach it. It is hardly more than thirty feet
+square, and is covered with cedars and hemlocks. Saved from drowning, he
+seemed likely to fall a victim to starvation. All thoughts were then
+turned to Robinson, and not in vain. He launched his light red skiff
+from the foot of Bath Island, picked his way cautiously and skillfully
+through the rapids to the little island, took Chapin in and brought him
+safely to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the shore, much to the relief of the spectators, who gave
+expression to their appreciation of Robinson's service by a moderate contribution.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp086.jpg" id="fp086.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp086.jpg" width='583' height='700' alt="Joel R. Robinson" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Joel R. Robinson</span></p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1841, a Mr. Allen started for Chippewa in a boat just
+before sunset. Being anxious to get across before dark, he plied his
+oars with such vigor that one of them broke when he was about opposite
+the middle Sister. With the remaining oar he tried to make the head of
+Goat Island. The current, however, set too strongly toward the great
+Canadian Rapids, and his only hope was to reach the outer Sister.
+Nearing this, and not being able to run his boat upon it, he sprang out,
+and, being a good swimmer, by a vigorous effort succeeded in getting
+ashore. Certain of having a lonely if not an unpleasant night, and being
+the fortunate possessor of two stray matches, he lighted a fire and
+solaced himself with his thoughts and his pipe. Next morning, taking off
+his red flannel shirt, he raised a signal of distress. Toward noon the
+unusual smoke and the red flag attracted attention. The situation was
+soon ascertained, and Robinson informed of it. Not long after noon, the
+little red skiff was carried across Goat Island and launched in the
+channel just below the Moss Islands. Robinson then pulled himself across
+to the foot of the middle Sister, and tried in vain to find a point
+where he could cross to the outer one. Approaching darkness compelled
+him to suspend operations. He rowed back to Goat Island, got some
+refreshments, returned to the middle Sister, threw the food across to
+Allen, and then left him to his second night of solitude. The next day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+Robinson took with him two long, light, strong cords, with a properly
+shaped piece of lead weighing about a pound. Tying the lead to one of
+the cords he threw it across to Allen. Robinson fastened the other end
+of Allen's cord to the bow of the skiff; then attaching his own cord to
+the skiff also, he shoved it off. Allen drew it to himself, got into it,
+pushed off, and Robinson drew him to where he stood on the middle
+island. Then seating Allen in the stern of the skiff he returned across
+the rapids to Goat Island, where both were assisted up the bank by the
+spectators, and the little craft, too, which seemed to be almost as much
+an object of curiosity with the crowd as Robinson himself.</p>
+
+<p>This was the second person rescued by Robinson from islands which had
+been considered wholly inaccessible. It is no exaggeration to say that
+there was not another man in the country who could have saved Chapin and
+Allen as he did.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1855 a canal-boat, with two men and a dog in it, was
+discovered in the strong current near Grass Island. The men, finding
+they could not save the large boat, took to their small one and got
+ashore, leaving the dog to his fate. The abandoned craft floated down
+and lodged on the rocks on the south side of Goat Island, and about
+twenty rods above the ledge over which the rapids make the first
+perpendicular break. There were left in the boat a watch, a gun, and
+some articles of clothing. The owner offered Robinson a liberal salvage
+if he would recover the property. Taking one of his sons with him, he
+started the little red skiff from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> head of the hydraulic canal, half
+a mile above the island, shot across the American channel, and ran
+directly to the boat. Holding the skiff to it himself, the young man got
+on board and secured the valuables. The dog had escaped during the
+night. Leaving the canal-boat, Robinson ran down the ledge between the
+second and third Moss Islands, and thence to Goat Island. On going over
+the ledge he had occasion to exercise that quickness of apprehension and
+presence of mind for which he was so noted. The water was rather lower
+than he had calculated, and on reaching the top of the ledge the bottom
+of the skiff near the bow struck the rock. Instantly he sprang to the
+stern, freed the skiff, and made the descent safely. If the stern had
+swung athwart the current, the skiff would certainly have been wrecked.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1846, a small steamer was built in the eddy just above the
+Railway Suspension Bridge, to run up to the Falls. She was very
+appropriately named <i>The Maid of the Mist</i>. Her engine was rather weak,
+but she safely accomplished the trip. As, however, she took passengers
+aboard only from the Canadian side, she could pay little more than
+expenses. In 1854 a larger, better boat, with a more powerful engine,
+the new <i>Maid of the Mist</i>, was put on the route, and as she took
+passengers from both sides of the river, many thousands of persons made
+the exciting and impressive voyage up to the Falls. The admiration which
+the visitor felt as he passed quietly along near the American Fall was
+changed into awe when he began to feel the mighty pulse of the great
+deep just below the tower, then swung round into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> white foam
+directly in front of the Horseshoe, and saw the sky of waters falling
+toward him. And he seemed to be lifted on wings as he sailed swiftly
+down on the rushing stream through a baptism of spray. To many persons
+there was a fascination about it that induced them to make the trip
+every time they had an opportunity to do so. Owing to some change in her
+appointments, which confined her to the Canadian shore for the reception
+of passengers, she became unprofitable. Her owner, having decided to
+leave the neighborhood, wished to sell her as she lay at her dock. This
+he could not do, but he received an offer of something more than half of
+her cost, if he would deliver her at Niagara, opposite the fort. This he
+decided to do, after consultation with Robinson, who had acted as her
+captain and pilot on her trips below the Falls. The boat required for
+her navigation an engineer, who also acted as fireman, and a pilot.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Robinson agreed to act as pilot for the fearful voyage, and the
+engineer, Mr. Jones, consented to go with him. A courageous machinist,
+Mr. McIntyre, volunteered to share the risk with them. They put her in
+complete trim, removing from deck and hold all superfluous articles.
+Notice was given of the time for starting, and a large number of people
+assembled to see the fearful plunge, no one expecting to see the crew
+again alive after they should leave the dock. This dock, as has been
+before stated, was just above the Railway Suspension Bridge, at the
+place where she was built, and where she was laid up in the
+winter&mdash;that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> too, being the only place where she could lie without
+danger of being crushed by the ice. Twenty rods below this eddy the
+water plunges sharply down into the head of the crooked, tumultuous
+rapid which we have before noticed as reaching from the bridge to the
+Whirlpool. At the Whirlpool, the danger of being drawn under was most to
+be apprehended; in the rapids, of being turned over or knocked to
+pieces. From the Whirlpool to Lewiston is one wild, turbulent rush and
+whirl of water, without a square foot of smooth surface in the whole distance.</p>
+
+<p>About three o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, 1861, the engineer took
+his place in the hold, and, knowing that their flitting would be short
+at the best, and might be only the preface to swift destruction, set his
+steam-valve at the proper gauge, and awaited&mdash;not without anxiety&mdash;the
+tinkling signal that should start them on their flying voyage. McIntyre
+joined Robinson at the wheel on the upper deck. Self-possessed, and with
+the calmness which results from undoubting courage and confidence, yet
+with the humility which recognizes all possibilities, with downcast eyes
+and firm hands, Robinson took his place at the wheel and pulled the
+starting bell. With a shriek from her whistle and a white puff from her
+escape-pipe, to take leave, as it were, of the multitude gathered on the
+shores and on the bridge, the boat ran up the eddy a short distance,
+then swung round to the right, cleared the smooth water, and shot like
+an arrow into the rapid under the bridge. Robinson intended to take the
+inside curve of the rapid, but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> fierce cross-current carried him to
+the outer curve, and when a third of the way down it a jet of water
+struck against her rudder, a column dashed up under her starboard side,
+heeled her over, carried away her smokestack, started her overhang on
+that side, threw Robinson flat on his back, and thrust McIntyre against
+her starboard wheel-house with such force as to break it through. Every
+eye was fixed, every tongue was silent, and every looker-on breathed
+freer as she emerged from the fearful baptism, shook her wounded sides,
+slid into the Whirlpool, and for a moment rode again on an even keel.
+Robinson rose at once, seized the helm, set her to the right of the
+large pot in the pool, then turned her directly through the neck of it.
+Thence, after receiving another drenching from its combing waves, she
+dashed on without further accident to the quiet bosom of the river below Lewiston.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp091.jpg" id="fp091.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp091.jpg" width='700' height='496' alt="The Maid of the Mist in the Whirlpool" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Maid of the Mist</i> <span class="smcap">in the Whirlpool</span></p>
+
+<p>Thus was accomplished one of the most remarkable and perilous voyages
+ever made by men. The boat was seventy-two feet long, with seventeen
+feet breadth of beam and eight feet depth of hold, and carried an engine
+of one hundred horse-power. In conversation with Robinson after the
+voyage, he stated that the greater part of it was like what he had
+always imagined must be the swift sailing of a large bird in a downward
+flight; that when the accident occurred the boat seemed to be struck
+from all directions at once; that she trembled like a fiddle-string, and
+felt as if she would crumble away and drop into atoms; that both he and
+McIntyre were holding to the wheel with all their strength, but produced
+no more effect than they would if they had been two flies;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> that he had
+no fear of striking the rocks, for he knew that the strongest suction
+must be in the deepest channel, and that the boat must remain in that.
+Finding that McIntyre was somewhat bewildered by excitement or by his
+fall, as he rolled up by his side but did not rise, he quietly put his
+foot on his breast, to keep him from rolling around the deck, and thus
+finished the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Jones, imprisoned beneath the hatches before the glowing furnace,
+went down on his knees, as he related afterward, and although a more
+earnest prayer was never uttered and few that were shorter, still it
+seemed to him prodigiously long. To that prayer he thought they owed their salvation.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this trip upon Robinson was decidedly marked. As he lived
+only a few years afterward, his death was commonly attributed to it. But
+this was incorrect, since the disease which terminated his life was
+contracted at New Orleans at a later day. "He was," said Mrs. Robinson
+to the writer, "twenty years older when he came home that day than when
+he went out." He sank into his chair like a person overcome with
+weariness. He decided to abandon the water, and advised his sons to
+venture no more about the rapids. Both his manner and appearance were
+changed. Calm and deliberate before, he became thoughtful and serious
+afterward. He had been borne, as it were, in the arms of a power so
+mighty that its impress was stamped on his features and on his mind.
+Through a slightly opened door he had seen a vision which awed and
+subdued him. He became reverent in a moment. He grew venerable in an hour.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>Yet he had a strange, almost irrepressible, desire to make this voyage
+immediately after the steamer was put on below the Falls. The wish was
+only increased when the first <i>Maid of the Mist</i> was superseded by the
+new and stancher one. He insisted that the voyage could be made with
+safety, and that it might be made a good pecuniary speculation.</p>
+
+<p>He was a character&mdash;an original. Born on the banks of the Connecticut,
+in the town of Springfield, Massachusetts, it was in the beautiful reach
+of water which skirts that city that he acquired his love of aquatic
+sports and exercises and his skill in them. He was nearly six feet in
+stature, with light chestnut hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. He
+was a kind-hearted man, of equable temper, few words, cool, deliberate,
+decided; lithe as a Gaul and gentle as a girl. It goes without saying
+that he was a man of "undaunted courage." He had that calm, serene,
+supreme equanimity of temperament which fear could not reach nor
+disturb. He might have been, under right conditions, a quiet, willing
+martyr, and at last he bore patiently the wearying hours of slow decay
+which ended his life. His love of nature and adventure was paramount to
+his love of money, and although he was never pinched with poverty, he
+never had abundance.</p>
+
+<p>He loved the water, and was at home in it or on it, as he was a capital
+swimmer and a skillful oarsman. Especially he delighted in the rapids of
+the Niagara. Kind and compassionate as he was by nature, he was almost
+glad when he heard that a fellow-creature was, in some way, entangled in
+the rapids, since it would give him an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>excuse, an opportunity, to work
+in them and to help him. As he was not a boaster, he made no superfluous
+exhibitions of his skill or courage, albeit he might occasionally
+indulge&mdash;and be indulged&mdash;in some mirthful manifestation of his
+good-nature; as when, on reaching Chapin's refuge for his rescue, he
+waved from one of its tallest cedars a green branch to the anxious
+spectators, as if to assure and encourage them; and when he returned
+with his skiff half filled with cedar-sprigs, which he distributed to
+the multitude, they raised his pet craft to their shoulders, with both
+Chapin and himself in it, and bore them in triumph through the village,
+while money tokens were thrown into the boat to replace the green ones.</p>
+
+<p>He never foolishly challenged the admiration of his fellow-men. But when
+the emergency arose for the proper exercise of his powers, when news
+came that some one was in trouble in the river, then he went to work
+with a calm and cheerful will which gave assurance of the best results.
+Beneath his quiet deliberation of manner there was concealed a wonderful
+vigor both of resolution and nerve, as was amply shown by the dangers
+which he faced, and by the bend in his withy oar as he forced it through
+the water, and the feathery spray which flashed from its blade when he
+lifted it to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>In all fishing and sailing parties his presence was indispensable for
+those who knew him. The most timid child or woman no longer hesitated if
+Robinson was to go with the party. His quick eye saw everything, and his
+willing hand did all that it was necessary to do, to secure the comfort
+and safety of the company.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>It is doubtful whether more than a very few of his neighbors know where
+he lies, in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery, near the rapids.
+Robinson went forth on a turbulent, unreturning flood, where the
+slightest hesitancy in thought or act would have proved instantly fatal.
+Benevolent associations in different cities and countries bestow honor
+and rewards on those who, by unselfish effort and a noble courage, save
+the life of a fellow-being. This Robinson did repeatedly, yet no
+monument commemorates his worthy deeds.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>A fisherman and a bear in a canoe&mdash;Frightful experience with
+floating ice&mdash;Early farming on the Niagara&mdash;Fruit growing&mdash;The
+original forest&mdash;Testimony of the trees&mdash;The first hotel&mdash;General
+Whitney&mdash;Cataract House&mdash;Distinguished visitors&mdash;Carriage road down
+the Canadian bank&mdash;Ontario House&mdash;Clifton House&mdash;The Museum&mdash;Table
+and Termination Rocks&mdash;Burning Spring&mdash;Lundy's Lane&mdash;Battle
+Anecdotes.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Soon after the War of 1812, a fisherman&mdash;whose name we will call
+Fisher&mdash;on a certain day went out upon the river, about three miles
+above the Fall; and while anchored and fishing from his canoe, he saw a
+bear in the water making, very leisurely, for Navy Island. Not
+understanding thoroughly the nature and habits of the animal, thinking
+he would be a capital prize, and having a spear in the canoe, he hoisted
+anchor and started in pursuit. As the canoe drew near, the bear turned
+to pay his respects to its occupant. Fisher, with his spear, made a
+desperate thrust at him. Quicker and more deftly than the most expert
+fencer could have done it, the quadruped parried the blow, and,
+disarming his assailant, knocked the spear more than ten feet from the
+canoe. Fisher then seized a paddle and belabored the bear over his head
+and on his paws, as he placed the latter on the side of the canoe and
+drew himself in. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> now frightened fisherman, not knowing how to swim,
+was in a most uncomfortable predicament. He felt greatly relieved,
+therefore, when the animal deliberately sat himself down, facing him, in
+the bow of the canoe. Resolving in his own mind that he would generously
+resign the whole canoe to the creature as soon as he should reach the
+land, he raised his paddle and began to pull vigorously shoreward,
+especially as the rapids lay just below him, and the Falls were roaring most ominously.</p>
+
+<p>Much to his surprise, as soon as he began to paddle Bruin began to
+growl, and, as he repeated his stroke, the occupant of the bow raised
+his note of disapproval an octave higher, and at the same time made a
+motion as if he would attack him. Fisher had no desire to cultivate a
+closer intimacy, and so stopped paddling.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp097.jpg" id="fp097.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp097.jpg" width='700' height='353' alt="Fisher and the Bear" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Fisher and the Bear</span></p>
+
+<p>Bruin serenely contemplated the landscape in the direction of the
+island. Fisher was also intensely interested in the same scene, and
+still more intensely impressed with their gradual approach to the
+rapids. He tried the paddle again. But the tyrant of the quarter-deck
+again emphatically objected, and as <i>he</i> was master of the situation,
+and fully resolved not to resign the command of the craft until the
+termination of the voyage, there was no alternative but submission.
+Still, the rapids were frightfully near and something must be done. He
+gave a tremendous shout. But Bruin was not in a musical mood, and vetoed
+that with as much emphasis as he had done the paddling. Then he turned
+his eyes on Fisher quite interestedly, as if he were calculating the
+best method of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> dissecting him. The situation was fast becoming
+something more than painful. Man and bear in opposite ends of the canoe
+floating&mdash;not exactly double&mdash;but together to inevitable destruction.
+But every suspense has an end. The single shout, or something else, had
+called the attention of the neighbors to the canoe. They came to the
+rescue, and an old settler, with a musket which he had used in the War
+of 1812, fired a charge of buck-shot into Bruin which induced him to
+take to the water, after which he was soon taken, captive and dead, to
+the shore. He weighed over three hundred pounds.</p>
+
+<p>A son of the settler who shot the bear had a frightful experience in the
+river many years afterward. He was engaged in Canada in the business of
+buying saw-logs for the American market. Coming from the woods down to
+Chippewa one cold day in December, at a time when considerable
+quantities of strong, thin cakes of ice were floating in the river, he
+took a flat-bottom skiff to row across to his home. This he did without
+apprehension, as he had been born and brought up on the banks of the
+Niagara, understood it well, and was also a strong, resolute man.</p>
+
+<p>As he drew near the foot of Navy Island, intending to take the chute
+between it and Buckhorn Island, two large cakes between which he was
+sailing suddenly closed together and cut the bottom of his skiff square
+off. Just above the cake on which his bottomless skiff was then floating
+there was a second large cake, at a little distance from it, and beyond
+this a strip of water which washed the shore of Navy Island. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> less
+time than it has taken to write this, he sprang upon the first piece of
+ice, ran across it with desperate speed, cleared the first space of
+water at a single leap, ran across the next cake of ice, jumped with all
+his might, and landed in the icy water within a rod of the shore, to
+which he swam. He was soon after warming and drying himself before the
+rousing fire of the only occupant of the island.</p>
+
+<p>His father had a fine farm on the bank of the river, which he cultivated
+with much care. But before the drainage of the country was completed the
+land was decidedly wet. A friend from the East who made him a call found
+him plowing. The water stood in the bottom of the furrows. But
+agriculture has been progressive since those days. It is now almost a
+fine art instead of a mere pursuit. And nowhere north of the equator is
+there a climate and soil so genial and favorable for the growth of
+certain kinds of fruit, especially the apple and the peach, as are those
+of Niagara County. Many persons claim that they can tell from the
+peculiar consistency of the pulp, and by its flavor and <i>bouquet</i>, on
+which side of the Genesee River an apple is grown.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the winter apples of Niagara are as well known and as
+greatly prized above all others of their kind on the docks of Liverpool,
+as is Sea Island cotton above all other grades of that plant. The
+delicious little russet known as the <i>Pomme Gris</i>, with its fine
+aromatic flavor when ripe, grows nowhere else to such perfection as
+along the Niagara River. In 1825, at the grand celebration held to
+commemorate the completion of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Erie Canal, the late Judge Porter
+made the first shipment east of apples raised in Niagara County. It
+consisted of two barrels, one of which was sent to the corporation of
+the city of Troy, and the other to that of New York. They were duly
+received and honored. From this small beginning the fruit trade has
+grown to the yearly value of more than a million of dollars for Niagara County alone.</p>
+
+<p>With reference to the forest which once covered this country, an
+erroneous impression prevails as to its age. Poets and romancers have
+been in the habit of speaking of these "primeval forests" as though they
+might have been bushes when Nahor and Abraham were infants. But this is
+a great error. Since the discovery of the country only one tree has been
+found that was eight hundred years old. This is mentioned by Sir Charles
+Lyell as having grown out of one of the ancient mounds near Marietta,
+Ohio. But the great majority of them were not over three hundred years
+old. The testimony of the trees concerning the past is not quite so
+abundant as that of the rocks, but that of one tree grown in central New
+York is of a remarkable character. It was a white oak, which grew in the
+rich valley of the Clyde River, about one mile west of Lyons' Court
+House, and was cut down in the year 1837. The body made a stick of
+timber eighty feet long, which before sawing was about five feet in
+diameter. It was cut into short logs and sawed up. From the center of
+the butt-log was sawed a piece about eight by twelve inches. At the butt
+end of this piece the saw laid bare, without marring them, some old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+scars made by an ax or some other sharp instrument. These scars were
+perfectly distinct and their character equally unmistakable. They were
+made, apparently, when the young tree was about six inches in diameter.
+Outside of these scars there were counted four hundred and sixty
+distinct rings, each ring marking with unerring certainty one year's
+growth of the tree. It follows that this chopping was done in 1374, or
+one hundred and eighteen years before the first voyage of Columbus
+across the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>It has been questioned whether the rings shown in a cross-section of a
+tree can be relied upon to determine truly the number of years it has
+been growing. A singular confirmation of the correctness of this method
+of counting was furnished some years since.</p>
+
+<p>In the latter part of the last century the late Judge Porter surveyed a
+large tract of land lying east of the Genesee River, known as "The
+Gore." Some thirty-five years afterward it became necessary to resurvey
+one of its lines, and recourse was had to the original surveys. Most of
+the forest through which the first line had been run was cleared off,
+and such trees as had been "blazed" as line-trees had overgrown the
+scars. One tree was found which was declared to be an original
+line-tree. On cutting into it carefully the old "blaze" was brought to
+light, and on counting the rings outside of it, they were found to
+correspond with the number of years which had elapsed since the first survey.</p>
+
+<p>One of the three small buildings at Niagara which escaped the flames of
+1814 was a log-cabin, about thirty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> by forty feet in its dimensions,
+that stood in the center of the front of the International block. In the
+latter part of 1815 the inhabitants returned, and the late General P.
+Whitney put a board addition to the log-house, and opened the first
+hotel. From that has grown up the present International. The immediate
+predecessor of the International was the Eagle Tavern, which was, for
+some years, in charge of a genial and popular landlord, the late Mr.
+Hollis White. It was formed by the addition to the old frame structure
+of a three-story brick building, of moderate dimensions. Across the
+front of this addition was a long, wide, old-fashioned stoop. This was
+well supplied with comfortable arm-chairs, which furnished easy rests
+for guests or neighbors, and were well patronized by both, and
+especially during the summer season by the genial humorists of the
+place. On the opposite side of the street was a small house, a story and
+a half high, belonging to Judge Porter, and to which he built an
+addition. Then, as now, there were occasionally more visitors than the
+hotel could accommodate, and the neighbors assisted in entertaining
+them. Judge Porter, did this frequently, and among his guests were
+President Monroe, Marshal Grouchy, General La Fayette, General Brown,
+General Scott, Judge Spencer, and other distinguished strangers.</p>
+
+<p>The first building erected on the ground where the Cataract House now
+stands was of a later date&mdash;1824&mdash;a frame house about fifty feet square.
+It was purchased by General Whitney in 1826, and formed the nucleus of
+the great pile which constitutes the present Cataract House.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>In 1829, the carriage road down the bank to the ferry on the Canadian
+side was made. For several years previous the principal hotel at the
+Falls was also on that side. It was called the Pavilion, and stood on
+the high bank just above the Horseshoe Fall. It commanded a grand view
+of the river above, and almost a bird's-eye view of the Falls and the
+head of the chasm below. The principal stage-route from Buffalo was
+likewise on that side, and the register of the Pavilion contained the
+names of most of the noted visitors of the period. But the erection of
+the Cataract House and the establishing of stage-routes on the American
+side drew away much of its patronage, and finally, on the completion of
+the first half of the Clifton House, in 1833, it was quite abandoned. A
+few years later the Ontario House was built, about half-way between the
+Clifton and the Horseshoe Fall, toward which it fronted. There was not
+sufficient business to support it, and after standing unoccupied for
+several years, it took fire and was burned to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The Clifton was greatly enlarged and improved by Mr. S. Zimmerman in
+1865. The Amusement Hall and several cottages were built and gas-works
+erected. The grounds were handsomely graded and adorned.</p>
+
+<p>Near the site of Table Rock is the Museum, its valuable collection being
+the result of several years' labor by its proprietor, Mr. Thomas
+Barnett. It contains several thousand specimens from the animal and
+mineral kingdoms, and the galleries are arranged to represent a forest scene.</p>
+
+<p>Just above the Museum the visitor steps upon what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> remains of the famous
+Table Rock. It was once a bare rock pavement, about fifteen rods long
+and about five rods wide, about fifty feet of its width projecting
+beyond its base at the bottom of the limestone stratum nearly one
+hundred feet below. Remembering this fact, we can more readily credit
+the probable truth of the statement made by Father Hennepin&mdash;which we
+have before noticed&mdash;that the projection on the American side in 1682,
+when he returned from his first tour to the West, was so great that four
+coaches could drive abreast under it. On top of the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> below the
+bank lies the path by which Termination Rock, under the western end of
+the Horseshoe, is reached. It is a path which few neglect to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The Table itself has always been, and must continue to be, a favorite
+resort for visitors. The combined view of the Falls and the chasm below,
+as well as the rapids above, is finer, more extensive, here than from
+any other point. Moreover, the nearness to the great cataract is more
+sensibly felt, the communion with it is deeper and more intimate than it
+can be anywhere else. The view from this point can be most pleasantly
+and satisfactorily taken in the afternoon, when the spectator has the
+sun behind him, and can look at his leisure and with unvexed eyes at the
+brilliant scene before him. However long he may tarry he will find new
+pleasure in each return to it.</p>
+
+<p>Two miles above, following round the bend of the Oxbow toward Chippewa,
+and down near the water's edge, is the Burning Spring. The water is
+impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen gas, and is in a constant state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+of mild ebullition. The gas is perpetually rising to the surface of the
+water, and when a lighted match is applied it burns with an intermittent
+flame. If, however, a tub with an iron tube in the center of its bottom
+is placed over the spring, a constant stream of gas passes through it.
+On being lighted it burns constantly, with a pale blue, wavering flame,
+which possesses but little illuminating or heating power. The drive is a
+pleasant one, affording a fine view of the Oxbow Rapids and islands and
+the noble river above.</p>
+
+<p>A mile and a quarter west of Table Rock is the Lundy's Lane
+battle-ground. On the crown of the hill, where the severest struggle
+occurred, are two rival pagodas challenging the tourist's attention.
+From the top of each he has a rare outlook over a broad level plain,
+relieved on its northern horizon by the top of Brock's Monument, and to
+the south-east by the city of Buffalo and Lake Erie.</p>
+
+<p>The obliging custodian of either tower will enlighten his hearers with
+dextrous volubility, and, according as he is certain of the nationality
+of his listeners, will the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph, or the
+Cross of Saint George float in glory, over the bloody and hard-fought
+field. If he cannot feel sure of his listeners' habitat, like Justice,
+he will hold an even balance and be blind withal.</p>
+
+<p>It was the writer's privilege to go over the field on a pleasant June
+day with Generals Scott and Porter, and to learn from them its stirring
+incidents. General Scott pointed out the location of the famous battery
+on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> British left which made such havoc with his brave brigade, and
+in taking which the gallant Miller converted his modest "I'll try, sir,"
+into a triumphant "It is done." The General also found the tree under
+which, faint from his bleeding wound, he sat down to rest, placing its
+protecting boll between his back and the British bullets, as he leaned
+against it. Plucking a small wild flower growing near it, he presented
+it to one of the ladies of the party, telling her that "it grew in soil
+once nourished by his blood."</p>
+
+<p>General Porter showed us where, with his volunteers and Indians, he
+broke through the woods on the British right, just as Miller had
+captured the troublesome battery, thus aiding to win the most obstinate
+and bloody fight of the war. Its hard-won trophies, however, were too
+easily lost, as, by some misunderstanding or neglect of orders, the
+proper guard around the field was not maintained, and, in the darkness
+proverbially intense just before day, the British returned to the field
+and quietly removed most of the guns. So our English friends claim it
+was a drawn battle.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly half a century later a dinner was given at Queenston by our
+Canadian friends, to signalize the completion of the Lewiston Suspension
+Bridge. On this occasion a British-Canadian officer, the late Major
+Woodruff, of St. David's, who served with his regiment during the war,
+was called upon by the chairman, the late Sir Allan McNabb, to follow,
+in response to a toast, the late Colonel Porter, only son of General
+Porter. In a mirthful reference to the stirring events of the war he
+alluded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> to the British retreat after the battle of Chippewa, and
+condensing the opposing forces into two personal pronouns, one
+representing General Porter and the other himself, he turned to Colonel
+Porter and said: "Yes, sir, I remember well the <i>moving</i> events of that
+day, and how sharp he was after me. But, sir, he was balked in his
+purpose, for although he won the <i>victory</i> I won the <i>race</i>, and so we
+were even."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XIII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Incidents&mdash;Fall of Table Rock&mdash;Remarkable phenomenon in the
+river&mdash;Driving and lumbering on the Rapids&mdash;Points of the compass
+at the Falls&mdash;A first view of the Falls commonly
+disappointing&mdash;Lunar bow&mdash;Golden spray&mdash;Gull Island and the
+gulls&mdash;The highest water ever known at the Falls&mdash;The Hermit of the Falls.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Of incidents, curious, comic, and tragic, connected with the locality
+the catalogue is long, but we must make our recital of them brief.</p>
+
+<p>We have before referred to Professor Kalm's notice of the fall of a
+portion of Table Rock previous to 1750. Authentic accounts of like
+events are the following: In 1818 a mass one hundred and sixty feet long
+by thirty wide; in 1828 and '29 two smaller masses; also in 1828 there
+went down in the center of the Horseshoe a huge mass, of which the top
+area was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it
+would show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot from the whole
+surface of the Canadian Fall. In April, 1843, a mass of rock and earth
+about thirty-five feet long and six feet wide fell from the middle of
+Goat Island. In 1847, just north of the Biddle Stairs, there was a slide
+of bowlders, earth, and gravel, with a small portion of the bed-rock,
+the whole mass being about forty feet long and ten feet wide. About<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+every third return of spring has increased the abrasion at these two
+points. At the first-named point more than twenty feet in width has
+disappeared, with the whole of the road crossing the island. From the
+latter point, near the Biddle Stairs, which was a favorite one for
+viewing the Horseshoe Fall, the seats provided for visitors and the
+trees which shaded them have fallen.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp109.jpg" id="fp109.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp109.jpg" width='388' height='700' alt="Fall of Table Rock" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Fall of Table Rock</span></p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of June, 1850, occurred the great downfall which reduced
+Table Rock to a narrow bench along the bank. The portion which fell was
+one immense solid rock two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide, and one
+hundred feet deep where it separated from the bank. The noise of the
+crash was heard like muffled thunder for miles around. Fortunately it
+fell at noonday, when but few people were out, and no lives were lost.
+The driver of an omnibus, who had taken off his horses for their midday
+feed, and was washing his vehicle, felt the preliminary cracking and
+escaped, the vehicle itself being plunged into the gulf below.</p>
+
+<p>In 1850, a canal-boat that became detached from a raft, went down the
+Canadian Rapids, turned broadside across the river before reaching the
+Falls, struck amidships against a rock projecting up from the bottom and
+lodged. It remained there more than a year, and when it went down took
+with it a piece of the rock apparently about ten feet wide and forty
+feet long. At the foot of Goat Island some smaller masses have fallen,
+and three extensive earth-slides have occurred.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1852 a triangular mass, the vertex of which was just
+beyond or south of the Terrapin Tower,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> while its altitude of more than
+forty feet lay along the shore of the south corner of Goat Island, fell
+in the night with the usual grinding crash. And with it fell some
+isolated rocks which lay on the brink of the precipice in front of the
+tower, and from which the tower derived its name. Before the tower was
+built, some person looking at the rocks from the shore suggested that
+they looked like huge terrapins sunning themselves on the edge of the
+Fall. A few days after the fall of the triangular mass, a huge column of
+rock a hundred feet high, about fourteen feet by twelve, and flat on the
+top, became separated from the bank and settled down perpendicularly
+until its top was about ten feet below the surface rock. It stood thus
+about four years, when it began gradually to settle, as the shale and
+stone were disintegrated beneath it, and finally it tumbled over upon
+the rocks below, furnishing an illustration of the manner in which we
+suppose the rocks which once accumulated below the Whirlpool must have
+been broken down. In the spring of 1871 a portion of the west side of
+the sharp angle of the Horseshoe, apparently about ten by thirty feet,
+went down, producing a decided change in the curve.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th day of February, 1877, about eleven o'clock of a cold, cloudy
+day, there occurred the most extensive abrasion of the Horseshoe Fall
+ever noted. It extended from near the water's edge at Table Rock, more
+than half the distance round the curve, some fifteen hundred feet, and
+at the most salient angle the mass that fell was from fifty to one
+hundred feet wide. By this downfall the contour of the Horseshoe was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+decidedly changed, the re&euml;ntering angle being made acute and very
+ragged. Less than three months afterward the abrasion was continued some
+two hundred feet toward Goat Island.</p>
+
+<p>The trembling earth and muffled thunder gave evidence of the immensity
+of the mass of fallen rock, but no one saw it go down. For several
+months after the fall, until the mass of rock got thoroughly settled in
+the bed of the Falls, the exhibition of water-rockets, sent up a hundred
+feet above the top of the precipice, was unique and beautiful. The
+greatest angle of retrocession, which had previously been wearing toward
+Goat Island, is again turning toward the center of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>On the 29th of March, 1848, the river presented a remarkable phenomenon.
+There is no record of a similar one, nor has it been observed since. The
+winter had been intensely cold, and the ice formed on Lake Erie was very
+thick. This was loosened around the shores by the warm days of the early
+spring. During the day, a stiff easterly wind moved the whole field up
+the lake. About sundown, the wind chopped suddenly round and blew a gale
+from the west. This brought the vast tract of ice down again with such
+tremendous force that it filled in the neck of the lake and the outlet,
+so that the outflow of the water was very greatly impeded. Of course, it
+only needed a short space of time for the Falls to drain off the water
+below Black Rock.</p>
+
+<p>The consequence was that, when we arose in the morning at Niagara, we
+found our river was nearly half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> gone. The American channel had dwindled
+to a respectable creek. The British channel looked as though it had been
+smitten with a quick consumption, and was fast passing away. Far up from
+the head of Goat Island and out into the Canadian rapids the water was
+gone, as it was also from the lower end of Goat Island, out beyond the
+tower. The rocks were bare, black, and forbidding. The roar of Niagara
+had subsided almost to a moan. The scene was desolate, and but for its
+novelty and the certainty that it would change before many hours, would
+have been gloomy and saddening. Every person who has visited Niagara
+will remember a beautiful jet of water which shoots up into the air
+about forty rods south of the outer Sister in the great rapids, called,
+with a singular contradiction of terms, the "Leaping Rock." The writer
+drove a horse and buggy from near the head of Goat Island out to a point
+above and near to that jet. With a log-cart and four horses, he drew
+from the outside of the outer island a stick of pine timber hewed twelve
+inches square and forty feet long. From the top of the middle island was
+drawn a still larger stick, hewed on one side and sixty feet long.</p>
+
+<p>There are few places on the globe where a person would be less likely to
+go lumbering than in the rapids of Niagara, just above the brink of the
+Horseshoe Fall. All the people of the neighborhood were abroad,
+exploring recesses and cavities that had never before been exposed to
+mortal eyes. The writer went some distance up the shore of the river.
+Large fields of the muddy bottom were laid bare. The shell-fish, the
+uni-valves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> and the bi-valves were in despair. Their housekeeping and
+domestic arrangements were most unceremoniously exposed. The clams, with
+their backs up and their open mouths down in the mud, were making their
+sinuous courses toward the shrunken stream. The small-fry of fishes were
+wriggling in wonder to find themselves impounded in small pools.</p>
+
+<p>This singular syncope of the waters lasted all the day, and night closed
+over the strange scene. But in the morning our river was restored in all
+its strength and beauty and majesty, and we were glad to welcome its
+swelling tide once more.</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious fact that nine out of every ten persons who visit the
+Falls for the first time, are on their arrival completely bewildered as
+to the points of the compass; and this without reference to the
+direction from which they may approach them. All understand the general
+geographical fact that Canada lies north of the United States. Hence
+they naturally suppose, when they arrive at the frontier, that they must
+see Canada to the north of them. But when they reach Niagara Falls they
+look across the river into Canada, in one direction directly south, and
+in another directly west. Only a reference to the map will rectify the
+erroneous impression. It is corrected at once by remembering that the
+Niagara River empties into the south side of Lake Ontario.</p>
+
+<p>One other fact may be regarded as well-established, namely, that most
+visitors are disappointed when they first look upon the Falls. They are
+not immediately and forcibly impressed by the scene, as they had
+expected to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> be. The reasons for this are easily explained. The chief
+one is that the visitor first sees the Falls from a point above them.
+Before seeing them, he reads of their great height; he expects to look
+up at them and behold the great mass of water falling, as it were, from
+the sky. He reads of the trembling earth; of the cloud of spray, that
+may be seen a hundred miles away; of the thunder of the torrent, and of
+the rainbows. He does not consider that these are occasional facts. He
+may not know he is near the Falls until he gets just over them. At
+certain times he feels no trembling of the earth; he hears no stunning
+roar; he may see the spray scattered in all directions by the wind, and
+of course he will see no bow. Naturally, he is disappointed. But it is
+not long before the grand reality begins to break upon him, and every
+succeeding day and hour of observation impresses him more and more
+deeply with the vastness, the power, the sublimity of the scene, and the
+wonderful and varied beauty of its surroundings. Those who spend one or
+more seasons at Niagara know how very little can be seen or comprehended
+by those who "stop over one train."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp114.jpg" id="fp114.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp114.jpg" width='533' height='700' alt="Rock of Ages and Whirlwind Bridge" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Rock of Ages and Whirlwind Bridge</span></p>
+
+<p>They are fortunate who can see the Falls first from the ferry-boat on
+the river below, and about one-third of the way across from the American
+shore. The writer has frequently tried the experiment with friends who
+were willing to trust themselves, with closed eyes, to his guidance, and
+wait until he had given them the signal to look upward.</p>
+
+<p>Those who may be at Niagara a few nights before and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> after a full moon
+should not fail to go to Goat Island to see the lunar bow. It is the
+most unreal of all real things&mdash;a thing of weird and shadowy beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Another striking scene peculiar to the locality is witnessed in the
+autumn, when the sun in making its annual southing reaches a point
+which, at the sunset hour, is directly west from the Falls. Then those
+who are east of them see the spray illuminated by the slant rays of the
+sinking sun. In the calm of the hour and the peculiar atmosphere of the
+season, the majestic cloud looks like the spray of molten gold.</p>
+
+<p>In 1840 there was a small patch of stones, gravel, sand, and earth,
+called Gull Island, lying near the center of the Canadian rapid and
+about one hundred rods above the Horseshoe Fall. It was apparently
+twenty rods long by two rods wide, and was covered with a growth of
+willow bushes. It was so named because it was a favorite resort of that
+singular combination of the most delicate bones and lightest feathers called a gull.</p>
+
+<p>The birds seem large and awkward on the wing, but as they sit upon the
+water nothing can appear more graceful. They are far-sighted and
+keen-scented. Their eyes are marvels of beauty. They are eccentric in
+their habits, the very Arabs of their race&mdash;here to-day and gone
+to-morrow. They are gregarious and often assemble in large numbers. At
+times in a series of wild, rapid, devious gyrations, and uttering a low,
+mournful murmur, they seem to be engaged, as it were, in some solemn
+festival commemorative of their departed kindred. One moment the air
+will be filled with them and their sad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> refrain; the next moment the cry
+will have ceased and not a gull will be seen. They come as they go,
+summer and winter alike. In thirty years the writer has never been able
+to discover when nor whence they came. In winter they generally appear
+in the milder days, and their disappearance is followed by cooler weather.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1847 a long and fierce gale from the west, which drove
+the water down Lake Erie, caused the highest rise ever known in the
+river. It rose six feet on the rapids, and for the first time reached
+the floor-planking of the old bridge. The greater part of Gull Island
+was washed down in this flood, and ten years later it had wholly disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The vague tradition&mdash;the origin of which cannot be traced&mdash;that there is
+a flux and reflux of the waters in the Great Lakes, which embraces a
+period of about seven years, is not confirmed by our observation, if it
+be intended to affirm that the ebb and flow are both completed in seven
+years. Our observation shows that there is a flow of about seven years,
+and a reflux, which is accomplished in the same period. The water in the
+Niagara was very low in 1843-4, again in 1857-8, and again in 1871-2.
+This last is the lowest long continued shrinkage ever known. It is,
+however, altogether probable that the general level of the lakes will
+fall hereafter, owing to the destruction of the forests and the
+cultivation of the land along their shores. In this case the waters of
+the Niagara and Detroit rivers may, in the far future, meet in the bed
+of Lake Erie, and their margins be covered with orchards and vineyards
+more extensive and productive than those along the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p><p>The Hermit of the Falls, so called, Mr. Francis Abbott, came to the
+village in June, 1829. He was a rather good-looking, respectable young
+man, of moderate attainments, who was subject, apparently, to a mild
+form of intermittent derangement. Though his manner was eccentric, his
+conduct was harmless, and it is probable that his parents, who, it was
+afterward ascertained, were respectable members of the Society of
+Friends in England, encouraged his desire to travel, and furnished him
+the means to do so. He seems to have had some taste for music, and to
+have been a tolerable performer on the flute. He wandered much about the
+island, both night and day, and often bathed below the little fall on
+the south side of Goat Island, near its head. He lived alone in an
+unoccupied log-hut, directly across the island from this fall, until
+about the first of April, 1831, when he removed to a little cabin of his
+own building, on Point View. In June of that year, just two years after
+his arrival, he was drowned while bathing below the ferry. Ten days
+after, his body was found at Fort Niagara, brought back, and buried in
+the God's-acre at the Falls.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XIV.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Avery's descent of the Falls&mdash;The fatal practical joke&mdash;Death of
+Miss Rugg&mdash;Swans&mdash;Eagles&mdash;Crows&mdash;Ducks over the Falls&mdash;Why dogs
+have survived the descent.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 19th of July, 1853, a man was discovered in the
+middle of the American rapid, about thirty rods below the bridge. He was
+clinging to a log, which the previous spring had lodged against a rock.
+He proved to be a Mr. Avery, who had undertaken to cross the river above
+the night before, but, getting bewildered in the current, was drawn into
+the rapids. His boat struck the log, and was overturned, yet, by some
+extraordinary good fortune, he was able to hold to the timber. A large
+crowd soon gathered on the shore and bridge. A sign, painted in large
+letters, "We will save you," was fastened to a building, that the
+reading of it might cheer and encourage him. Boats and ropes were
+provided, with willing hands to use them. The first boat lowered into
+the rapids filled and sank just before reaching Avery. The next, a
+life-boat, which had been procured from Buffalo, was let down, reached
+the log, was dashed off by the reacting waters, upset, and sank beside
+him. Another light, clinker-built boat was launched, and reached him
+just right. But, in some unaccountable manner, the rope got caught
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>between the rock and the log. It was impossible to loosen it. Poor
+Avery tugged and worked at it with almost superhuman energy for hours.
+The citizens above pulled at the rope until it broke.</p>
+
+<p>By this time a raft had been constructed, with a strong cask fastened to
+each corner, and ropes attached so that Avery could tie himself to it.
+It was lowered, and reached him safely. He got on it and seized the
+ropes. Every heart grew lighter as the rescuers moved across the lower
+part of Bath Island, drawing in the rope, while the raft swung easily
+toward Goat Island. But when it reached the head of Chapin's Island, all
+hopes were dashed again. The rope attached to the raft got caught in the
+rocks as it was passing below a ledge in a swift chute of water. All
+efforts to loosen it were ineffectual. Another boat was launched and let
+down-stream. It reached the raft all right, and Avery, in his eagerness
+to seize it, dropped the ropes he had been holding, stepped to the edge
+of the raft, with his hands extended to catch the boat, when the raft,
+under his weight, settled in the water, and, just missing his hold, he
+was swept into the rapids, went down the north side of Chapin's Island,
+and, almost in reach of it, in water so shallow that he regained his
+feet for an instant, threw up his hands in despair, fell backward, and
+went over the Fall. The tragedy lasted eighteen hours.</p>
+
+<p>The names connected with the next incident are suppressed, out of regard
+for the feelings of surviving friends. It is given as a warning to
+future visitors to Niagara not to attempt any mirthful experiments
+around the Falls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> A party of ladies, gentlemen, and children were on
+Luna Island, near a small beech tree, since destroyed, called "the
+Parasol." A young girl of ten was standing near her mother, just on the
+brink of the water, when a young man of twenty-two stepped up beside her
+and seized her playfully by the arms, saying, "Now, Nannie, I am going
+to throw you in," and swung her out over the water. Taken by surprise
+and frightened, she struggled, twisted herself out of his grasp, and
+fell into the rapid within twenty feet of the brink of the precipice.
+Instantly the young man plunged in after her, seized hold of her dress,
+and swung her around toward her half-distracted mother, who almost
+reached her as she slipped by and went over the Fall, immediately
+followed by the young man. The young girl was found some days afterward,
+lying on her back, on a large rock, holding her open parasol above her
+head, as though she had lain down to rest. A few weeks afterward the
+father of the young man was coming up the river, on the <i>Maid of the
+Mist</i>, from the lower landing. A body was discovered floating in the
+water, and, by the aid of a small boat, was brought on board the
+steamer. It was that of his son.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23d of August, 1844, Miss Martha K. Rugg was walking to Table
+Rock with a friend. Seeing a bunch of cedar-berries on a low tree, which
+grew out from the edge of the bank, she left her companion, reached out
+to pick it, lost her footing, and fell one hundred and fifteen feet upon
+the rocks below. She survived about three hours. Pilgrims to Table Rock
+used to inquire for the spot where this accident happened. The following
+spring, an enterprising Irishman brought out a table<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> of suitable
+dimensions, set it down on the bank of the river, and covered it with
+different articles, which he offered for sale. In order to enlighten
+strangers about the spot, he provided a remarkable sign, which he set up
+near one end of the table. This sign was a monumental obelisk, about
+five feet high, made of pine boards, and painted white. On the base he
+painted, in black letters, the following inscription:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Ladies fair, most beauteous of the race,</div>
+<div>Beware and shun a dangerous place.</div>
+<div>Miss Martha Rugg here lost a life,</div>
+<div>Who might now have been a happy wife."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>An envious competitor, one of his own countrymen, brought his own table
+of wares, and placed it just above the original mourner. Thereupon, the
+latter, determining that his rival should not have the benefit of his
+sign, removed it below his own table, having first removed the table
+itself as far down as circumstances would permit. Then he added his
+master-stroke of policy. Up to that time the monument had been
+stationary. Thenceforward, every day on quitting business he put it on a
+wheelbarrow and took it home, bringing it out again on resuming
+operations in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Previous to the War of 1812, the Niagara River abounded in swans, wild
+geese, and ducks. Since that war none of the swans have been seen here,
+except two pair which came at different times. One of each pair went
+over the Falls, and was taken out alive but stunned. Their mates,
+faithful unto death, were shot while watching and waiting for their return.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Eagles have always been seen in the vicinity, and a few have been
+captured. A single pair for many years had their aerie in the top of a
+huge dead sycamore tree, near the head of Burnt Ship Bay. It was
+interesting to watch the flight of the male bird when he left his
+brooding mate to go on a foraging expedition. Leaving the topmost limb
+that served as his home observatory, he would sweep round in a circle,
+forming the base of a regular spiral curve, in which he rose to any
+desired height. Then, having apparently determined by scent or sight, or
+by both, the direction he would take, he sailed grandly off. How
+grandly, too, on his return, he floated to his lofty perch with a single
+fold of his great wings, and sat for a few moments, motionless as a
+statue, before greeting his mate. When the young eaglets had but
+recently chipped their shells, passing sportsmen were content to view
+the majestic pair at a respectful distance. A pair of eagles, each
+carrying ten talons, a hooked beak, a strong pair of wings, and an
+unerring eye, all backed and propelled by an indomitable will and
+courage, are not to be recklessly trifled with.</p>
+
+<p>Early in July, 1877, two farmers riding in a buggy from Bergholtz, in
+the easterly part of the town of Niagara, toward the town of Wilson on
+Lake Ontario, saw a large gray eagle sitting on a fence by the roadside,
+and watching with much interest some object in a field beyond. Leaving
+their buggy, they ascertained that the object of its solicitude was an
+eaglet sitting on the ground, unable to fly, his wings and feathers
+having been drenched by a heavy shower. One of the men who first reached
+the young bird found it rather bellicose, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> while attempting to
+secure it was surprised by a vigorous thump on the head from the old
+bird, accompanied with a sensation of sharp claws in his hair which
+nearly prostrated him. His assailant then rose quickly some forty feet
+in the air, and, turning again, descended upon the man with such force
+as to compel him to relinquish his game. His friend joined him, and for
+nearly half an hour the two were engaged in a fierce fight with the
+resolute bird, which they estimated would measure eight feet across the
+extended wings. The eagle would soar quickly upward as at first until it
+reached the desired range, when it would turn upon them with great
+fierceness, thumping with its wings and striking with its talons at
+their very faces. Finally, securing a number of good-sized
+cobble-stones, they advanced again upon the eaglet, and were at once
+attacked by the parent. But they used their stone artillery with vigor,
+and succeeded in getting the eaglet to their buggy, leaving its gallant
+defender still unconquered and soaring in the air with a slightly injured wing.</p>
+
+<p>Before the War of the Rebellion, Niagara was a favorite resort of that
+winged scavenger, the crow, and, at times, they were very numerous. But
+after the first year of the war they entirely disappeared. Snuffing the
+battle from afar, they turned instinctively to the South, and did not
+re-appear among us until several years after the war had ended.</p>
+
+<p>Large numbers of ducks formerly went over the Falls, but not for the
+reason generally assigned, namely, that they cannot rise out of the
+rapids. It is true that they cannot rise from the water while heading
+up-stream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> When they wish to do so, they turn down the current, and
+sail out without difficulty. No sound and living duck ever went over the
+precipice by daylight. Dark and especially foggy nights are most fatal
+to them. In the month of September, 1841, four hundred ducks were picked
+up below the Falls, that had gone over in the fog of the previous night.
+In two instances, dogs have been sent over the Falls and have survived
+the plunge. In 1858 a bull-terrier was thrown into the rapids, also near
+the middle of the bridge. In less than an hour he came up the
+ferry-stairs, very wet and not at all gay.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why the dogs were not killed may be thus explained. From the
+top of the Rapids Tower, before its destruction, the spectator could get
+a perfect view of the Canadian Fall. On a bright day, by looking
+steadily at the bottom of the Horseshoe, where water falls into water,
+he could see, as the spray was occasionally removed, a beautiful
+exhibition of water-cones, apparently ten or twelve feet high. These are
+formed by the rapid accumulation and condensation of the falling water.
+It pours down so rapidly and in such quantities that the water below, so
+to speak, cannot run off fast enough, and it piles up as though it were
+in a state of violent ebullition. These cones are constantly forming and
+breaking. If any strong animal should fall upon one of these cones, as
+upon a soft cushion, it might slide safely into the current below. The
+dogs were, doubtless, fortunate enough to fall in this way, aided also
+by the repulsion of the water from the rocks in the swift channel
+through which they passed.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XV.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Wedding tourists at the Falls&mdash;Bridges to the Moss Islands&mdash;Railway
+at the ferry&mdash;List of persons who have been carried over the
+Falls&mdash;Other accidents.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>For many years Niagara has been a favorite resort for bridal tourists,
+who in a crowd of strangers can be so excessively proper that every one
+else can see how charmingly improper they are.</p>
+
+<p>The three fine, graceful bridges which unite Goat Island with the three
+smaller islands&mdash;the Moss Islands, or the Three Sisters&mdash;lying south of
+it were built in 1858. They opened up a new and attractive feature of
+the locality, with which all visitors are charmed. Those who have been
+on them will remember what a broken, wild, tangled mass of rocks, wood,
+and vines they are. Nothing on Onalaska's wildest shore could be more thoroughly primitive.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp125.jpg" id="fp125.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp125.jpg" width='700' height='447' alt="The Three Sisters or Moss Islands" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The Three Sisters or Moss Islands</span></p>
+
+<p>A rude path with steps cut in the slope of the bank was for several
+years the only way of getting down to the water's edge at the ferry. In
+1825 several flights of stairs were erected, with good paths between,
+which made the task quite safe and easy. The double railway-track at the
+ferry was completed in 1845. When the necessary excavations were nearly
+finished, and people were told the object of it, the scheme met no
+approval from those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> conservative persons who have no faith in new
+things. The idea of a railway "to go by water" was not considered a
+brilliant one. Indeed, the greater number shrugged their shoulders at
+the thought of riding down <i>that</i> hill. But as soon as the lumber cars
+were started for the convenience of the workmen, and people saw how
+expeditious and easy was the trip, it was difficult to keep them off the
+cars. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have ridden in them without
+accident or injury. The motive power is a reaction waterwheel set in a
+deep pit, and as all the machinery is concealed, it has quite the
+appearance of a self-working apparatus. There is alongside of the
+railroad a straight stair-way of two hundred and ninety steps, for those
+who prefer to use it.</p>
+
+<p>The number of victims whom carelessness or folly has sent over the Falls
+is large, and, it may be believed, is quite independent of the Indian
+tradition that the great cataract demands a yearly sacrifice of two human victims.</p>
+
+<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Over the Falls.</span></p>
+
+<table summary="Over the Falls">
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">In 1810</td>
+    <td class="left">the boat <i>Independence</i>, laden with salt, filled and sunk while
+crossing to Chippewa. The captain and two of the crew went over the
+Falls. One of the crew clung to a large oar, and was saved by a small
+boat from Chippewa.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1821</td>
+    <td class="left">Two men in a scow were driven down the current by the wind, and
+went over the Falls.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>1825</td>
+    <td class="left">Two men in a boat from Grand Island went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">Three men went over in three different canoes.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1841</td>
+    <td class="left">Two men, engaged in smuggling, were upset in the current; one went
+over. One was found dead on Grass Island.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">Two men who were carrying sand in a scow were drawn into the current
+and went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1847</td>
+    <td class="left">A lad of fourteen undertook to row across on a Sunday morning, and
+went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1848</td>
+    <td class="left">In August, a man in a boat passed under the Goat Island Bridge,
+within ten feet of the shore; he asked of persons on the bridge, "Can I
+be saved?" Soon after the boat upset, and he went over, feet foremost,
+struck on the rocks below, and was never seen afterward.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">A little boy and girl were playing in a skiff, which swung off the
+shore; the mother waded into the water and rescued the girl. The boy,
+sitting in the bottom of the skiff, with a hand on each side, went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1870</td>
+    <td class="left">A lady from Chicago, said to be deranged, threw herself from Goat
+Island Bridge, and went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1871</td>
+    <td class="left">In June three men, unacquainted with the river, hired a boat to
+cross, were drawn into the rapids and went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">In July two men in a boat went over.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1873</td>
+    <td class="left">Friday, July 4th, a young man and woman, and a boy twelve years of
+age, brother of the latter, hired a boat in Chippewa, ostensibly for a
+sail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> on the river. Not understanding the currents, they were drawn into
+the rapids and carried over the Horseshoe Fall. The bodies were not
+recovered. It was afterward ascertained that the young man had taken
+$500 from his father, in Ohio; had come to Chippewa to meet the young
+woman, who was from Toronto, to whom he was married on the day preceding
+their death.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1874</td>
+    <td class="left">September 19th, a young man connected with the Mohawk Institute, at
+Brantford, Canada&mdash;whether as student or instructor was not
+known&mdash;walked deliberately into the rapids above Table Rock, and was
+carried over the precipice, never to be seen again.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1875</td>
+    <td class="left">September 8th, Captain John Jones&mdash;at that time marine surveyor for
+a New York insurance company&mdash;jumped into the rapids below Goat Island
+Bridge, and went over the cliff, before the eyes of many excursionists.
+Ill-health was supposed to be the cause. The body was not found.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1877</td>
+    <td class="left">March 5th, Mr. G. Homer Stone, aged twenty-four, a school-teacher,
+living near Geneva, N. Y., leaped into the rapids, near the upper end of
+Prospect Park, and was carried over the Falls. The body was not
+recovered.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">July 1st, three men went out in a sail-boat from Connor's Island,
+during a high wind and very rough water. Attempting a starboard tack, in
+order to reach Gill Creek Island, the boat was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> upset, and two of
+them&mdash;after the three had tried in vain to right the boat, and found it
+difficult to keep their hold&mdash;abandoned it and tried to swim ashore;
+but, owing to the rough sea and their wet and heavy clothing, they were
+soon exhausted, and went to the bottom. The third man, divesting himself
+of everything except his pantaloons, determined to swim for the nearest
+land the down-floating boat should pass. Fortunately, a large boat,
+manned by three sturdy oarsmen, coming up the river, rescued him, after
+he had become nearly exhausted. Three days after the accident one of the
+bodies was found near Grass Island, above the Falls, and the other, two
+days later, in the Whirlpool below.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1877</td>
+    <td class="left">October 16th, the discovery in the morning of several articles of
+female apparel on a flat rock, near the site of the old stone tower, and
+close to the brink of the Falls, led to investigation, which developed
+the fact that Miss Schofield, a young woman from Woodstock, in Canada,
+while suffering from a sudden attack of brain fever, had thrown herself
+into the rapids, and gone over the Horseshoe Fall. She was a skillful
+telegrapher, and had some local literary reputation. Her body was never
+recovered.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1878</td>
+    <td class="left">April 1st, John and Patrick Reilley, brothers, started from Port
+Day, above the Falls, to row across to Chippewa. One of them, being
+under the influence of liquor, refused to row steadily and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> quarreled
+with his brother, thus preventing him from rowing. They were drawn over
+the Canadian side of the Horseshoe Fall about four o'clock in the
+afternoon. They were both skillful rowers, and well acquainted with the
+river, which they had crossed and recrossed many times. Their bodies
+were recovered several weeks later.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1878</td>
+    <td class="left">April 6th, a young man, nineteen years of age, from Woodstock,
+Canada, a member of the Queen's Own, a volunteer regiment, which had
+attended a recent military review at Montreal, was on his return home,
+and crossed from Chippewa to Navy Island to visit friends who kept small
+boats on both sides of the river. After finishing his visit, he declined
+to accept the assistance of a young relative in recrossing the river,
+and started alone. The result was that, not understanding the force of
+the treacherous current, he was carried into the great rapids and went
+over the Horseshoe Fall. His body was found, two days afterward, below
+the ferry.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1879</td>
+    <td class="left">June 21st, the names of Monsieur and Madame Rolland were registered
+at one of the hotels, where they spent a night, but took their meals at
+a restaurant kept by a Frenchman, because Monsieur R. could not, as he
+said, speak English. The following morning they went to the Moss
+Islands. While near the lower end of the outer island, so the husband
+claimed, madame took a cup from him to get a drink of water<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> from the
+rapids, and, while his attention was diverted for a moment, he heard a
+splash in the water, and on looking round, saw that his wife had fallen
+into the rapids. She went over the Horseshoe Fall. He showed great
+distress and every demonstration of sorrow. Nevertheless, he left the
+next day for New York, after giving his address to the
+restaurant-keeper, who, a few days afterward, sent word to him that the
+body had been recovered. Monsieur R. sent thirty dollars to pay expenses
+of burial, and sailed for France. Those who have seen the place where,
+according to his story, madame fell in, are skeptical on that point.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1881</td>
+    <td class="left">February 23d, a stranger named Doyle threw himself into the rapids
+from Prospect Park, and was carried over the American Fall. A body found
+some days after in the river below, claimed by friends to be his, was
+identified by a coroner's jury as that of a man named Rowell, whose body
+had been found some days before in the river, near the ferry, with a
+bullet through the head. It was never ascertained whether it was a
+suicide or an assassination.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">July 12th, the body of a woman was found floating below the Falls,
+having evidently come from the river above. Some female wearing apparel
+found on the shore of the rapids, below Goat Island Bridge, it was
+supposed belonged to the suicide.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>1881</td>
+    <td class="left">Dr. H. and Mrs. S., of good birth, education, and social position,
+loved not wisely but too well. Exposure was certain and near. They met
+at Niagara, July 14th, and went over the Falls together.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">September 5th, a man from Toronto plunged into the rapids at Table
+Rock, and went over. In a letter to a Toronto paper, he stated that
+domestic trouble was the impelling motive.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Below the Falls.</span></p>
+
+<table summary="Below the Falls">
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">In 1841</td>
+    <td class="left">A number of British soldiers, stationed at Drummondville,
+attempted to swim across the rapids at the ferry at different times.
+None succeeded, and two were drowned.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1842</td>
+    <td class="left">A British soldier attempted to lower himself down the bank,
+opposite Barnett's Museum, in order to escape to the American shore. The
+rope broke, and he was killed by the fall.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1844</td>
+    <td class="left">In August, a gentleman was washed under the great Fall, from a rock
+on which he had stepped, against the remonstrances of the guide. He was
+drowned.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1846</td>
+    <td class="left">In August, a gentleman fell forty feet from a rock near the Cave of
+the Winds, and was instantly killed.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1875</td>
+    <td class="left">August 9th, two young women and three young men, residents of the
+village, went through the Cave of the Winds, as they had often done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+before, to enjoy the exhilarating bath. One of the young women, Miss P.,
+stepped into one of the eddying pools lying a little outside of the
+usual track, and one of the young men, Mr. P., thinking she might find
+the current stronger than she anticipated, followed her, and while
+seeking a sure footing for himself to guard against accident, the young
+lady lost her balance and fell into the current. Mr. P. endeavored to
+seize her bathing-dress, but not succeeding, sprang at once into the
+current, and both went over a ledge some eight feet high, at the foot of
+which Miss P. rose to her feet in an eddy, and sought support by leaning
+against a large rock lying adjacent to it. When Mr. P. rose to the
+surface he swam to her, and thinking they would be safer in an opening
+among smaller rocks on the opposite side of the eddy, he put his arm
+round her, and both made a desperate effort to reach the desired
+shelter. But the current proved too strong, and bore them both out into
+the river; Mr. P. swimming on his back, and supporting Miss P. with his
+right arm, while her right hand rested upon his shoulder. Suddenly they
+became separated. Miss P., apparently concluding that both could not be
+saved, disengaged herself from him, and immediately sank below the
+surface. Instantly her heroic friend plunged after her. A cloud of spray
+covered the troubled waters for a moment, and when it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> passed nothing
+could be seen of the unfortunate pair. The treacherous under-currents
+bore them to their doom. Both bodies were recovered a few days afterward
+from the Whirlpool.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">1877</td>
+    <td class="left">August 31st, Dr. Louis M. Stein registered at the International
+Hotel. The following day, after riding to different points on the
+American side of the Falls, he alighted at the upper Suspension Bridge,
+and inviting a young bootblack to accompany him, he started across the
+bridge, talking rather incoherently on the way. When near the Canadian
+end he stopped, took from his pocket a roll of bills, gave the boy a
+dollar note, and returned the others to his pocket. He then started
+back, and when near the center of the bridge dropped his hand-bag and
+shawl, seized the boy, saying with an oath, "You have got to come, too!"
+and attempted to climb over the railing. The boy successfully resisted,
+but the man got over and dropped from one of the wire stays into the
+river, one hundred and ninety feet below. He was probably killed
+instantly, and the body floated down the river, from which it was taken
+some ten days afterward and delivered to a son, who arrived from New
+York city.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top">&mdash;</td>
+    <td class="left">December 25th, a man from Chatauqua County, N. Y., suffering from
+ill-health and misfortune, jumped from the new Suspension Bridge, and
+was never seen again.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>The narrowest escape at the Falls was that of the man who, in January,
+1852, fell from the Tower Bridge into the rapids, and was caught between
+two rocks just on the brink of the precipice, whence he was rescued,
+nearly exhausted, by means of a rope.</p>
+
+<p>In 1874, Mr. William McCullough, while at work painting the small bridge
+between the first and second Moss Islands, missed his footing and fell
+into the middle of the channel; he was carried down about fifty rods,
+and, going over a ledge into more quiet water, got on his feet and waded
+to a small rock projecting above the water, upon which he seated himself
+to collect his senses and await results. After several vain efforts to
+get a rope to him, Mr. Thomas Conroy, a guide, then connected with the
+Cave of the Winds, who had in the previous autumn conducted Professor
+Tyndall up to Tyndall's Rock, put on a pair of felt shoes, and, holding
+to an inch rope, picked his way with an alpen-stock, from a point a
+short distance up-stream, through favoring eddies and pools to
+McCullough. After a short rest, he put the rope around McCullough, under
+his arms, and winding the end around his own right arm, the two started
+shoreward. On reaching the deep water near the shore, both were taken
+off their feet, and, as the people pulled vigorously at the rope, their
+heads went under for a short distance, but they were safely landed. A
+contribution was taken up for Conroy's benefit, and Professor Tyndall,
+on hearing of the rescue, sent him a five-pound note.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the fact that nearly every year persons are drawn into the
+rapids and carried over the Falls, a New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> York journalist suggested a
+most extraordinary method of saving them. He proposed that a cable
+should be stretched across the rapids, above the Falls, strong enough to
+arrest boats, and to which persons in danger might cling until rescued.
+But this kind and ingenious person forgot that old canal-boats, rafts of
+logs, and large trunks of trees, with roots attached, would be
+troublesome things to hold at anchor. As well hope to stay an Alpine
+avalanche with pipe-stems.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XVI.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>The first Suspension Bridge&mdash;The Railway Suspension
+Bridge&mdash;Extraordinary vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the
+fall of a mass of rock&mdash;De Veaux College&mdash;The Lewiston Suspension
+Bridge&mdash;The Suspension Bridge at the Falls.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the partial completion of the Hydraulic Canal, the principal
+stockholders, with a number of invited guests, celebrated the event on
+July 4, 1857, by an excursion from Buffalo in the <i>Cygnet</i>, the first
+steamer that ever landed within the limits of the village of Niagara.
+The same route is followed during the season of navigation by tugs
+towing canal-boats and rafts out and in. No passenger boat, however, has
+been placed on the route, although the sail on the river is a charming one.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp137.jpg" id="fp137.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp137.jpg" width='700' height='520' alt="How the Suspension Bridge was Begun" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">How the Suspension Bridge was Begun</span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Charles Ellet, in 1840, built the first suspension bridge over the
+chasm. He offered a reward of five dollars to any one who would get a
+string across it. The next windy day all the boys in the neighborhood
+were kiting, and before night a youth landed his kite in Canada and
+received the reward. The first iron successor of the string was a small
+wire cable, seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. To this was suspended
+a wire basket in which two persons could cross the chasm. The basket was
+attached to an endless rope, worked by a windlass on each bank. At an
+entertainment given on the occasion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> of the completion of the bridge,
+the good people of the embryo village at the bridge, elated with their
+new acquisition, were inclined to regard their neighbors at the Falls
+with patronizing sympathy. One of the latter said to Mr. Ellet, "This
+bridge is a very clever affair, and you only need the Falls here to
+build up a respectable village." "Well," he replied, "give me money
+enough and I will put them here." He had great faith in dollar-power.</p>
+
+<p>This bridge was an excellent auxiliary in the construction of the
+present Railway Suspension Bridge, built by Mr. John A. Roebling. It was
+begun in 1852, and the first locomotive crossed it in March, 1855. It is
+one of the most brilliant examples of modern engineering, and stands
+unrivaled for its grace, beauty, and strength. Seizing at once upon the
+natural advantages of the location, the engineer resolved to combine the
+tubular system with that of the suspension bridge. The carriage way was
+placed level with the banks of the river at the edges of the chasm. The
+railway track was placed eighteen feet above, on a level with the top of
+the secondary banks across which the two railroads were to approach it.
+The plan was perfect, and perfectly and faithfully executed in all its
+details. It is practically a skeleton tube. As the traveler passes over
+it in a carriage or a railway car, from the almost total absence of any
+vibratory motion he feels at once that he is on a safe basis, and his
+sense of security is complete.</p>
+
+<p>One feature of the construction of the bridge may be noticed as having a
+bearing on the question of its durability. It is well known that when
+wrought-iron is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> exposed to long continued or oft repeated and rapid
+concussions, its fibers after a time become granulated, whereby its
+strength is greatly impaired and finally exhausted. It is also known
+that the effect of rhythmical or regular vibrations is more destructive
+than the effect of those which are inharmonious or irregular. Because of
+this, a body of men is never allowed to march to music across a bridge,
+nor is a large number of cattle ever driven across at one time, lest
+they should, by accident, fall into a common step and so overstrain or
+break down the bridge. It is the difference between a single heavy blow
+and an irregular succession of light ones. Hence, when harmonious,
+regular vibrations can be broken up, the destructive influence is
+greatly modified and retarded.</p>
+
+<p>The bridge is supported by two large cables on each side, one pair above
+the other, the lower pair being nearer together horizontally than the
+upper pair, so that a cross section of the skeleton tube would be shaped
+somewhat like the keystone of an arch. Each of these large cables is ten
+inches in diameter, and is composed of seven smaller ones, called
+strands. These smaller strands are made of number nine wire, and each
+one contains five hundred and twenty wires. Each of these wires was
+boiled three several times in linseed oil, giving it an oleaginous
+coating of considerable thickness and great adhesive power. Each wire
+was carried across the river separately, from tower to tower, by a
+contrivance of the engineers, the chief feature of which was a light
+iron pulley about twenty inches in diameter, suspended on what might be
+called a wire cord. This apparatus was called a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> traveler, and curious
+and interesting was its performance as seen from below. It looked like a
+huge spider weaving an iron web.</p>
+
+<p>Six of the seven strands forming each of the cables were laid around the
+seventh as a center, and when all were properly placed they were again
+saturated with oil and paint. After this, by another contrivance of the
+engineers, they were wound or wrapped with wire, like winding a rope
+cable with marlin, and thus the whole cable was made into a thoroughly
+compact, huge, round, iron rope. This was covered with numerous coats of
+paint to prevent the oxidation of the inner wires. The oleaginous
+coating of the wires, together with the small triangular spaces between
+them, would seem to reduce the destructive power of the vibrations to
+zero. But the vibrations are very greatly reduced and the stiffness of
+the structure is greatly increased by the use of a series of triangular
+stays, the triangle being the only geometrical figure whose angles
+cannot be shifted. There are sixty-four of these triangles. Their
+hypothenuses are formed by over-floor stays of wire rope reaching from
+the tops of the towers to different points in the lower floor, this
+latter, of course, forming their common base and the towers their
+altitude. The stays are fastened to the suspenders so as to form
+straight lines. As the towers and the floor are rigid and solid in the
+direction of the lines they represent, it follows that the intersections
+of the hypothenuses with the common base form so many stationary points
+in the latter. These stationary points present a powerful resistance to
+vibrations. The side trusses, with their system of diamond-work braces
+and the weight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> of the railway track on the upper bridge, also help to
+stiffen the structure. There are likewise fifty-six under stays or guys
+of wire rope fastened to the rocks below, designed to prevent upward and
+lateral vibrations. A heavy locomotive with twenty loaded cars produced
+a depression of the upward curvature of the track of nearly ten inches.
+The ordinary loads make a depression of only five inches.</p>
+
+<p>In Part II., attention was directed to a point on the American side of
+the river, just below this bridge, where the disintegration of the shale
+and abrasion of the superposed rock is strikingly exhibited. A singular
+phenomenon was witnessed here in 1863. A mass of rock and shale, about
+fifty feet long, twenty feet wide, and sixty feet deep, fell with a
+great crash. Directly following the fall a remarkable motion was
+developed in the bridge itself. A strong wave of motion passed through
+the whole structure from the American side to the opposite shore, and
+returned again to the same side.</p>
+
+<p>Some twelve or fifteen mechanics, who were at work on the upper or
+railway track, were so alarmed that they fled with all speed to the
+shore. The motion imparted to the bridge was incalculably greater than,
+and of a different character from, any motion imparted by the crossing
+of the heaviest trains. The rocky mass which fell was forty rods below
+the bridge, and the hard floor on which it struck was more than two
+hundred and thirty feet beneath it. The mass itself fell about sixty
+feet average distance, and might have weighed five thousand tons. The
+extraordinary motion imparted to the bridge by the concussion must have
+been transmitted along the bed-rock to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> anchorages on the American
+side, thence through the cables and the bridge across to the anchorages
+on the Canadian side, whence it returned to the American side.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Donald McKenzie, master carpenter and superintendent of repairs, who
+has been connected with the bridge constantly since its erection, and
+all the men under him at the time, confirm this statement, and declare
+it is impossible to exaggerate or describe the wave-like motion which
+they experienced while escaping to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>Half a mile further down is De Veaux College, a noble charity endowed by
+the late Mr. Samuel De Veaux. He was for many years an active business
+man at Niagara, and by his integrity, industry, and wise enterprise
+accumulated a handsome fortune. His death occurred in 1852, and by his
+will he left nearly the whole of his estate to certain trustees to
+establish an institution for the care, training, and education of orphan
+boys. In addition to these, other pupils are received who pay a fixed
+price for their tuition, board, and incidentals. The institution has
+gained a high reputation for the thoroughness of its instruction and the
+excellence of its discipline. One of its sources of income is the amount
+received annually for admissions to the Whirlpool. Every visitor to that
+interesting locality will cheerfully pay the fee charged when he
+understands this fact.</p>
+
+<p>The suspension bridge below the mountain near Lewiston, spanning the
+river where the water emerges from the fearful abyss through which it
+dashes for five miles, was built in 1856, by Mr. T. E. Serrel. The guys
+designed to protect it from the effect of the wind were fastened in the
+rocks on either side at the water's edge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> The great ice jam of 1866
+tore from their fastenings, or broke off, many of these guys. Before
+they were replaced a terrific gale in the following autumn broke up the
+road-way, severed some of the suspenders, and left the structure a
+melancholy wreck dangling in the air.</p>
+
+<p>The New Suspension Bridge, as it is called, just below the ferry at the
+Falls, was built in 1868. It is a light, graceful structure, standing
+one hundred and ninety feet above the water. Its length is twelve
+hundred feet, after the Brooklyn bridge the longest structure of the
+kind in the world, and it is the narrowest of those designed for
+carriage travel. To its narrowness it probably owed its safety from
+destruction during a fierce gale which occurred in the fall of 1869. The
+fastenings or dowels of several of the guys on the Canadian side were
+torn out, and the bridge at its center deflected down-stream more than
+its width, so that the surface of its road-way could not be seen half
+its length. Then its undulations from end to end&mdash;like a stair-carpet
+being shaken between two persons&mdash;were frightful, and for a time it was
+feared that either cables or towers must give way. After the gale
+subsided the old guys were made fast again, new ones were added, and two
+two-inch steel wire cables were stretched from bank to bank, and
+connected with the bridge by wire stays. Wrought-iron beams were
+afterward placed on the bottom stringers, and channel irons on the top
+beams of the side trestles, all of which were strongly bolted together.
+These improvements added much to the strength of the whole structure,
+and greatly increased its ability to resist horizontal deflection.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XVII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Blondin and his "ascensions"&mdash;Visit of the Prince of Wales&mdash;Grand
+illumination of the Falls&mdash;The steamer <i>Caroline</i>&mdash;The water-power
+of Niagara&mdash;Lord Dufferin and the plan of an International Park.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the year 1858, a short, well-rounded, fair-complexioned, light-haired
+Frenchman made his appearance at the Falls, and expressed a wish to put
+a tight-rope across the chasm below them, for the purpose of crossing on
+the rope and exhibiting athletic feats. He received little
+encouragement, but, having a Napoleonic faith in his star, he
+persevered, and finally obtained the necessary authority to place his
+rope just below the Railway Suspension Bridge. It was a well and evenly
+twisted rope, about two inches in diameter; and after stretching it as
+taut as it could be drawn, it hung in a moderate catenary curve.
+Commencing at the shore ends he secured stays of small rope to the large
+one, placing them about eight feet apart. These were made fast to the
+shore in such a manner that all the stays on one side of the main rope
+were parallel to each other from the center outward to the ends. They
+were made tight somewhat in the manner that tent-cords are tightened,
+and when the structure was complete it looked like the opposite sections
+of a gigantic spider-web.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p><p>At each end was a spacious inclosure, formed by a rough board fence,
+for the use of spectators. M. Blondin&mdash;for this was the name of the new
+aspirant for acrobatic honors&mdash;also made an arrangement with the
+superintendent of the railway bridge for its occupation during what,
+with a shade of irony, he called his "ascensions." Those who went within
+the inclosures and upon the bridge paid a certain sum. A contribution
+was asked of all outsiders. He selected Saturday as the day for
+fortnightly ascensions, and advertised his intentions very liberally.
+The speculation was successful and gave great satisfaction to the
+spectators. He exhibited a variety of rope-walking feats, balancing on
+the cable, hanging from it by his hands and feet, standing on his head,
+and lowering himself down to the surface of the water. He also carried a
+man across on his back, trundled over a loaded wheelbarrow, and did
+divers other things, and also walked over in a sack. He sprinkled in a
+few extras to heighten the effect, as the knowing ones declared, such as
+slipping astride the cable, falling across a stay-rope, or dropping
+something into the water. In 1860, he gave a special ascension in honor
+of the Prince of Wales. The Prince and his party occupied a sheltered
+space on the Canadian side, and Blondin walked to it from the opposite
+side, performing various feats on the way over. The Prince shook hands
+with him as he stepped into the shed, and commended his courage and nerve.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp145.jpg" id="fp145.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp145.jpg" width='361' height='700' alt="Blondin Crossing the Niagara" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Blondin Crossing the Niagara</span></p>
+
+<p>As illustrating the power of the imagination over the nerves it may be
+noted that, if the great spider's-web had been stretched out anywhere on
+a level surface, and not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> more than three feet above the ground, a dozen
+men in any large community could have been found to walk it as
+unconcernedly, if not as gracefully, as the famous "ascensionist." After
+three years of successful labor at Niagara, he sought other air-spaces.</p>
+
+<p>The most notable occurrence, however, which emphasized the visit of the
+Prince of Wales in that year was the illumination of the Falls late in
+the evening of a moonless night. On the banks above and all about on the
+rocks below, on the lower side of the road down the Canadian bank, and
+along the water's edge, were placed numerous colored and white calcium,
+volcanic, and torpedo lights. At a signal they were set aflame all at
+once. At the same time rockets and wheels and flying artillery were set
+off in great abundance. The shores were crowded with spectators, and the
+scene was a most remarkable one. The steady, lurid light below and the
+intermittent flashes and explosions overhead, the seething, hissing
+volumes of flame and smoke rolling up from the deep abyss, the ghostly
+appearance of the descending stream, the ghastly swift current of white
+foam, the weird appearance of the cloud of spray with a faint and
+fantastic illumination at its base, which faded out in the dim light of
+the stars as it ascended, the peculiarly deep but muffled and solemn
+monotone of the falling water, the livid hue imparted to the faces of
+the quiet but deeply interested spectators, all made the scene memorable
+and impressive. When the Marquis of Lorne and the Princess Louise
+visited the Falls in January, 1879, they saw them illuminated by
+electricity, the light having the illuminating power of 32,000 candles.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>In December, 1837, the steamer <i>Caroline</i> came down from Buffalo to
+aid, it was said, the so-called Patriots, then engaged in an
+insurrection against the Canadian Government. A motley collection of
+adventurers on Navy Island constituted the disturbing, not to say
+attacking, force. At Chippewa was stationed a body of Canadian militia,
+under the command of Colonel&mdash;afterward Sir&mdash;Allan McNabb, who had the
+good fortune to win his spurs in a single almost bloodless campaign. By
+his direction a boat expedition was sent to attack the <i>Caroline</i>, as
+she lay at the old Schlosser dock. In the <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i> one American was
+killed. The steamer was set on fire, and her fastenings must have been
+burnt away, as also a part of her upper works, since the writer, ten
+years later, while returning from a fishing expedition, discovered her
+smoke-pipe lying at the bottom of the river, in a quiet basin not thirty
+rods below the dock. A cat-fish of moderate dimensions appeared to be
+keeping house in it, and, with his head barely projecting from one end,
+was serenely watching the current for whatever game it might bring to
+his iron parlor. After the new bridges were built connecting the Three
+Sisters with Goat Island, the guides and drivers, in their desire to
+enhance the interest of the scene, astonished travelers by informing
+them that it was the boiler of the <i>Caroline</i> which caused the
+extraordinary elevation of the water which we have before referred to as
+the Leaping Rock.</p>
+
+<p>Nine miles from the Falls is the Tuscarora Reservation of four thousand
+acres. On this there are about three hundred and fifty Indians, mostly
+half-breeds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> engaged in agricultural pursuits, which supply a portion
+of their necessities. The Indian women who are seen at the Falls in the
+summer season working and vending different articles of bead-work belong
+to this community. The Tuscaroras have not been more fortunate than
+others of their race in bargaining with their white brothers, and their
+lands are now stripped of the fine oak timber and valuable wood which
+stood upon it a few years since, and which was sold in large quantities at small prices.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp148.jpg" id="fp148.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp148.jpg" width='659' height='700' alt="Indian Women Selling Bead-work" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Indian Women Selling Bead-work</span></p>
+
+<p>As a compensation for this system of robbery we maintained a Christian
+missionary among them for a few years, and we boast that they are all
+Protestants. The resident missionary, a very worthy man, but a rather
+prosy preacher, always addressed his dusky audience in the English
+language, his thoughts being conveyed to them by an interpreter. For
+many years the interpreter was a native Tuscarora, a fine specimen of
+his race, six feet tall, with a tawny complexion, dark, flashing eyes,
+and a musical voice. It was interesting to note his manner while acting
+as interpreter for different clergymen. When interpreting the pious but
+humdrum utterances of the passionless missionary, he stood at the right
+side of the preacher, with his left elbow resting on one end of the
+modest pulpit, and delivered himself with an air that seemed to say, "It
+does not amount to much, but I give it to you as it is." But the change
+was magical when, as sometimes happened during the summer season, some
+eloquent preacher addressed the congregation. The natural courtesy of
+the interpreter led him, instead of putting his elbow on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> the pulpit, to
+stand a little to the rear of the strange preacher, respectfully waiting
+for his words. As the priest warmed into his subject the interpreter
+caught his spirit, straightened his fine figure to its full height,
+advanced to a line with the speaker, and as the theme was developed and
+the orator grew more and more eloquent, the excitement became
+contagious; the Indian entered fully into its spirit, his face glowed
+with animation, his eyes shone with a warmer light, his long arms were
+stretched forth, and with gestures energetic or subdued, but always
+graceful, and the varied inflections of his voice in harmony with the
+theme, he followed the discourse to the end. His audience, too, would
+become thoroughly aroused, and a little more animation would be infused
+into the plaintive tones of the closing hymn.</p>
+
+<p>One of the future attractions of Niagara, to sportsmen at least, may be
+the catching of California trout, twenty thousand of the fry having been
+put into the rapids by the writer in June, 1881.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the manufactories, shops, rubbish, and litter along the race
+near the brink of the American Falls, which appear so uncouth and
+inharmonious, and which are noticed by strangers as being a desecration
+of the scene, it is only just to remark that the utilization of the
+water-power here, in the easiest and most economical manner, was one of
+the imperative necessities of the early settlement of the country. For
+many years a large territory, lying on both sides of the river, was
+dependent upon the manufacturing, repairing, and milling facilities of
+this place. For furnishing these in those days, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>water-power was the
+only agent. And the name&mdash;Manchester&mdash;given to the place by its early
+settlers only foreshadowed their hope that it would one day rival its great English namesake.</p>
+
+<p>There are fewer manufactories on the old race-ways now than there were
+forty years ago, but many new ones have been located on the hydraulic
+canal that has been excavated at great expense, which leaves the river a
+mile above the Falls, and empties into the chasm half a mile below. The
+three years of unusual drought in the northern half of the United
+States, from 1876 forward, demonstrated how little dependence can be
+placed during the summer season on the ordinary water-powers of that
+region, and the attention of manufacturers has been newly drawn to Niagara.</p>
+
+<p>The early dream of growth in population and wealth at Niagara seems
+likely to be realized. Already extensive milling and manufacturing
+establishments have been put in operation, and others are in
+contemplation. When it is considered that engineers estimate the
+sum-total of all the water-power in the northern portion of the United
+States at less than 500,000 horse-power, and that, according to data
+furnished by the United States Lake Survey Bureau, the water-power of
+Niagara is equal to 1,500,000 horse-power, we can form some idea of the
+vastness of the force which awaits the enterprise of American manufacturers.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand, Mr. President," said Daniel Webster, in a speech
+prefacing a toast complimentary to the citizens of Rochester for their
+generous hospitality at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> New York State Fair in 1844, "that the
+Genesee River has a fall of 250 feet within the limits of the city of
+Rochester. Sir, if the Thames had a fall of 250 feet within the limits
+of the city of London, London would not be a town&mdash;it would be a-l-l
+t-h-e w-o-r-l-d!" and as he deliberately stretched out his great arms,
+and expanded his broad chest, while slowly pronouncing the last three
+words, one could almost see London gradually enlarging its ample borders
+in all directions. When the 1,500,000 horse-power of Niagara is utilized
+for the economic wants of men, Niagara will not be a town&mdash;it will be a
+large part of all the world.</p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of September, 1878, in an after-luncheon speech before the
+Ontario Society of Artists at Toronto, Lord Dufferin, Governor-General
+of Canada, first publicly suggested the idea of creating an
+International Park from lands to be taken from both sides of the river
+adjacent to and including the Falls. He stated that he had conferred
+with Governor Robinson of New York upon the subject, and that the
+project was cordially approved by him. Governor Robinson, in his annual
+message the following winter, commended the project to the consideration
+of the Legislature, by whom a commission of distinguished gentlemen was
+appointed to investigate the subject and report thereon. After a full
+examination this commission reported warmly in favor of the plan, and
+their recommendation was cordially indorsed by a great many prominent
+citizens residing in different sections of the country. The press, too,
+was almost unanimously for it. A majority of the members of the
+Legislature to whom the report was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> made would have passed a bill for
+the further prosecution of the scheme, but, unfortunately, it was
+ascertained that any bill they might pass for this purpose would be
+vetoed for economical reasons. It is hoped that better counsels may
+ultimately prevail, and the plan be perfected. Nothing else can save
+Niagara from total desecration and disgrace. The fact that there is not
+a square foot of land in the United States from which an untaxed view of
+the great cataract can be obtained is a disgrace to the State, the
+nation, and the civilization of the age.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XVIII.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Poetry in the Table Rock albums&mdash;Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.
+Clark, Lord Morpeth, Jos&eacute; Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs.
+Sigourney, and J. G. C. Brainard.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Before the last fall of Table Rock, there stood upon it for many years a
+comfortable summer-house, where people could take refuge from the spray,
+look at the Falls, partake of luncheon, and procure guides and dresses
+to go under the sheet. In the sitting-room was a large round table, on
+which were placed a number of albums, as they were called. In these
+visitors could write whatever thoughts or sentiments might be suggested
+by the scene. With the grand reality before them but few persons
+attempted anything serious, by far the greater number adopting the
+facetious vein. It was emphatically light literature. One or two
+collections of it have been published, furnishing the reader with only a
+modicum of sense to an intolerable quantity of nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>The following specimens are better than the average:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"To view Niagara Falls, one day,</div>
+<div>A Parson and a Tailor took their way.</div>
+<div>The Parson cried, while rapt in wonder</div>
+<div>And list'ning to the cataract's thunder:</div>
+<div>'Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes,</div>
+<div>And fill our hearts with vast surprise!'</div>
+<div>The Tailor merely made this note:</div>
+<div>'Lord! what a place to sponge a coat!'"</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>"THOUGHTS ON VISITING NIAGARA.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I wonder how long you've been a roarin'</div>
+<div class="i1">At this infernal rate:</div>
+<div>I wonder if all you've been a pourin'</div>
+<div class="i1">Could be ciphered on a slate.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I wonder how such a thund'rin' sounded</div>
+<div class="i1">When all New York was woods;</div>
+<div>I suppose some Indians have been drownded</div>
+<div class="i1">When rains have raised your floods.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes</div>
+<div class="i1">Hav'nt stood where now I stand;</div>
+<div>Well, 'spose&mdash;bein' scared at first&mdash;they stub'd their toes,</div>
+<div class="i1">I wonder where they'd land!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'</div>
+<div class="i1">Since sunrise at creation;</div>
+<div>And this waterfall been underminin'</div>
+<div class="i1">With constant spatteration!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.</div>
+<div class="i1">While other things describin';</div>
+<div>My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'd</div>
+<div class="i1">While the deluge was subsidin'!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deep</div>
+<div class="i1">While I look down on thee.</div>
+<div>Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheep</div>
+<div class="i1">Niagara would be!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"And oh! what a tremendous water power</div>
+<div class="i1">Is wasted o'er its edge!</div>
+<div>One man might furnish all the world with flour</div>
+<div class="i1">With a single privilege.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I wonder how many times the lakes have all</div>
+<div class="i1">Been emptied over here?</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span><div>Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand Canal</div>
+<div class="i1">From hence, I think is queer."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The most graceful verses on Niagara ever written by a resident are the
+following by the late Colonel Porter, who was an artist both with the
+pencil and the pen. They were written for a young relative in playful
+explanation of a sketch he had drawn at the top of a page in her album,
+representing the Falls in the distance, and an Indian chief and two
+Europeans in the foreground:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"An Artist, underneath his sign (a masterpiece, of course)</div>
+<div>Had written, to prevent mistakes, 'This represents a horse':</div>
+<div>So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err,</div>
+<div>I think it well my Pen should be my Art's interpreter.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,</div>
+<div>Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.</div>
+<div>He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flow</div>
+<div>Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss&mdash;</div>
+<div>The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.</div>
+<div>One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;</div>
+<div>But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;</div>
+<div>What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;</div>
+<div>What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:</div>
+<div>But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;</div>
+<div>What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;</div>
+<div>What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bow</div>
+<div>Of the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span><div>"And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,</div>
+<div>And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;</div>
+<div>And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:</div>
+<div>But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,</div>
+<div>And gaze from off the stone-built perch&mdash;hence called the Bridal Tower&mdash;</div>
+<div>And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,</div>
+<div>By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,</div>
+<div>To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:</div>
+<div>And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,</div>
+<div>But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,</div>
+<div>But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;</div>
+<div>And on their verge our life sweeps on&mdash;alternate joy and woe;</div>
+<div>But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,</div>
+<div>And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:</div>
+<div>But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flow</div>
+<div>Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>On turning to the more serious poems that have been written on the
+theme, the reader naturally experiences a feeling of disappointment that
+a scene which has filled and charmed so many eyes should have found so
+few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>interpreters. Only those who see Niagara know how fast the tongue
+is bound when the thought struggles most for utterance. One who seems to
+have experienced this feeling thus expresses it:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I came to see;</div>
+<div>I thought to write;</div>
+<div>I am but&mdash;&mdash;dumb."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The late Mr. Willis G. Clark thus expands the same sentiment:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Here speaks the voice of God&mdash;let man be dumb,</div>
+<div>Nor with his vain aspiring hither come.</div>
+<div>That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,</div>
+<div>And like a Presence fills the distant woods.</div>
+<div>These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;</div>
+<div>For ages here his painted bow has smiled,</div>
+<div>Mocking the changes and the chance of time&mdash;</div>
+<div>Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!"</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The following from the Table Rock Album was written by the late Lord
+Morpeth:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>NIAGARA FALLS.&mdash;BY LORD MORPETH.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!</div>
+<div>Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.</div>
+<div>The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,</div>
+<div>The stirring of the chambers of the deep;</div>
+<div>Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,</div>
+<div>The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;</div>
+<div>The tread of armies thickening as they come.</div>
+<div>The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span><div>The brow of beauty and the form of grace,</div>
+<div>The passion and the prowess of our race;</div>
+<div>The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,</div>
+<div>The unresisted sweep of human power;</div>
+<div>Britannia's trident on the azure sea,</div>
+<div>America's young shout of Liberty!</div>
+<div>Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deep</div>
+<div><i>There</i> spend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;</div>
+<div>And till the conflict of thy surges cease</div>
+<div>The nations on thy banks repose in peace."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The extracts below are from a poem written after a visit to the Falls by
+Jos&eacute; Maria Heredia, and translated from the Spanish by William Cullen Bryant:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>"NIAGARA.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush</div>
+<div>The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside</div>
+<div>Those wide involving shadows, that my eyes</div>
+<div>May see the fearful beauty of thy face!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves</div>
+<div>Grow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current then</div>
+<div>Shoots onward like the irresistible course</div>
+<div>Of destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,&mdash;</div>
+<div>The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brain</div>
+<div>Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze</div>
+<div>Upon the hurrying waters; and my sight</div>
+<div>Vainly would follow, as toward the verge</div>
+<div>Sweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerable</div>
+<div>Meet there and madden,&mdash;waves innumerable</div>
+<div>Urge on and overtake the waves before,</div>
+<div>And disappear in thunder and in foam.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span><div>"They reach, they leap the barrier,&mdash;the abyss</div>
+<div>Swallows insatiable the sinking waves.</div>
+<div>A thousand rainbows arch them, and woods</div>
+<div>Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock</div>
+<div>Shatters to vapor the descending sheets.</div>
+<div>A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heaves</div>
+<div>The mighty pyramid of circling mist</div>
+<div>To heaven. * * * *</div>
+<div>What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,</div>
+<div>About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,&mdash;</div>
+<div>Ah, the delicious palms,&mdash;that on the plains</div>
+<div>Of my own native Cuba spring and spread</div>
+<div>Their thickly foliaged summits to the sun,</div>
+<div>And, in the breathings of the ocean air</div>
+<div>Wave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"But no, Niagara,&mdash;thy forest pines</div>
+<div>Are fitter coronal for thee. The palm,</div>
+<div>The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may grow</div>
+<div>In gardens and give out their fragrance there,</div>
+<div>Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it is</div>
+<div>To do a nobler office. Generous minds</div>
+<div>Behold thee, and are moved and learn to rise</div>
+<div>Above earth's frivolous pleasures; they partake</div>
+<div>Thy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fear</div>
+<div>Dost overwhelm the soul of him who looks</div>
+<div>Upon thee, and dost bear it from itself,&mdash;</div>
+<div>Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,</div>
+<div>Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?</div>
+<div>What power hath ordered that, when all thy weight</div>
+<div>Descends into the deep, the swollen waves</div>
+<div>Rise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span><div>"The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,</div>
+<div>Covered thy face with clouds and given his voice</div>
+<div>To thy down-rushing waters: he hath girt</div>
+<div>Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.</div>
+<div>I see thy never-resting waters run,</div>
+<div>And I bethink me how the tide of time</div>
+<div>Sweeps to eternity."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The lyric from which the following extracts are taken was written by Mr.
+A. S. Ridgely, of Baltimore, Md.:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Man lays his scepter on the ocean waste,</div>
+<div>His footprints stiffen in the Alpine snows,</div>
+<div>But only God moves visibly in thee,</div>
+<div>O King of Floods! that with resistless fate</div>
+<div>Down plungest in thy mighty width and depth.</div>
+<div>* * * Amazement, terror, fill,</div>
+<div>Impress and overcome the gazer's soul.</div>
+<div>Man's schemes and dreams and petty littleness</div>
+<div>Lie open and revealed. Himself far less&mdash;</div>
+<div>Kneeling before thy great confessional&mdash;</div>
+<div>Than are the bubbles of the passing tides.</div>
+<div>Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paint</div>
+<div>Thy might of waters, volumed vast and deep;</div>
+<div>Thy many-toned and all-pervading voice;</div>
+<div>Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchor'd on the brink</div>
+<div>Of the dread precipice; thy double stream,</div>
+<div>Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired;</div>
+<div>Thy wat'ry caverns and thy crystal walls;</div>
+<div>Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade,</div>
+<div>Boiling and seething like a Phlegethon</div>
+<div>Amid the wind-swept and convolving spray,</div>
+<div>Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope.</div>
+<div>There, of beam and cloud the fair creation,</div>
+<div>The rainbow arches its ethereal hues.</div>
+<div>From flint and granite in compacture strong,</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span><div>Not with steel thrice harden'd&mdash;but with the wave</div>
+<div>Soft and translucent&mdash;did the new-born Time</div>
+<div>Chisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever poured</div>
+<div>Earth's grand libation to Eternity;</div>
+<div>Thy misty incense rising unto God&mdash;</div>
+<div>The God that was and is and is to be."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Sigourney wrote the following poem, it is said, during a visit to Table Rock:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>"APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robe</div>
+<div>Of terror and of beauty. God has set</div>
+<div>His rainbow on thy forehead, and the clouds</div>
+<div>Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give</div>
+<div>Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him</div>
+<div>Eternally, bidding the lip of man</div>
+<div>Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour</div>
+<div>Incense of awe-struck praise.</div>
+<div class="i10">And who can dare</div>
+<div>To lift the insect trump of earthly hope,</div>
+<div>Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime</div>
+<div>Of thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinks</div>
+<div>Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves</div>
+<div>Retire abashed; for he doth sometimes seem</div>
+<div>To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall</div>
+<div>His wearied billows from their vieing play,</div>
+<div>And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,</div>
+<div>With everlasting, undecaying tide</div>
+<div>Dost rest not night nor day.</div>
+<div class="i10">The morning stars,</div>
+<div>When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,</div>
+<div>Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires</div>
+<div>That wait the archangel's signal, to dissolve</div>
+<div>The solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span><div>Graven, as with a thousand spears,</div>
+<div>On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy bough</div>
+<div>That lifts itself within thy proud domain</div>
+<div>Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,</div>
+<div>And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birds</div>
+<div>Do venture boldly near, bathing their wings</div>
+<div>Amid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for them</div>
+<div>To touch thy garment here, or lightly stir</div>
+<div>The snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,</div>
+<div>Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,</div>
+<div>And listen to the echoing gate of heaven</div>
+<div>Without reproof. But as for us, it seems</div>
+<div>Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak</div>
+<div>Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint</div>
+<div>Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,</div>
+<div>Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,</div>
+<div>Were profanation.</div>
+<div class="i10">Thou dost make the soul</div>
+<div>A wondering witness of thy majesty;</div>
+<div>And while it rushes with delirious joy</div>
+<div>To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,</div>
+<div>And check its rapture, with the humbling view</div>
+<div>Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand</div>
+<div>In the dread presence of the Invisible,</div>
+<div>As if to answer to its God through thee."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The following lines were written by the late John G. C. Brainard, who
+never saw the Falls. They were dashed off at a single short sitting, for
+the head of the literary column of the <i>Connecticut Mirror</i>, of
+Hartford, which he then edited:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>"THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain</div>
+<div>While I look upward to thee. It would seem</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span><div>As if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'</div>
+<div>And hung his bow upon thine awful front,</div>
+<div>And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him</div>
+<div>Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,</div>
+<div>'The sound of many waters,' and had bade</div>
+<div>Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,</div>
+<div>And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we</div>
+<div>That hear the question of that voice sublime?</div>
+<div>Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung</div>
+<div>From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!</div>
+<div>Yea, what is all the riot man can make</div>
+<div>In his short life to thy unceasing roar!</div>
+<div>And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to <span class="smcap">Him</span></div>
+<div>Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far</div>
+<div>Above its loftiest mountains?&mdash;a light wave</div>
+<div>That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>PART IV.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="bold2">OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS<br />OF THE WORLD.</p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XIX.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Yosemite&mdash;Vernal&mdash;Nevada&mdash;Yellowstone&mdash;Shoshone&mdash;St.
+Maurice&mdash;Montmorency.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>For the purpose of comparison it may be interesting to note other
+cataracts in the United States, and in other parts of the world, and
+also some of the remarkable rapids, which may be successors to what were
+once perpendicular falls. For descriptions of those in foreign countries
+we are chiefly indebted to the geographical gazetteers and the journals
+of Humboldt, Livingstone, Bohle, and Stanley; for information regarding
+the cataracts of Norway we are indebted to Murray's "Norway, Denmark and Sweden."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp164.jpg" id="fp164.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp164.jpg" width='531' height='700' alt="Yosemite Falls" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Yosemite Falls</span></p>
+
+<p>In the United States, after Niagara, the first to claim our attention
+are the Falls of the Yosemite, so graphically and scientifically made
+known to us in the second volume of Professor J. D. Whitney's Geological
+Report for California.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>Before describing them it is necessary to note the physical features of
+the region in which they are placed. The valley of the Yosemite forms a
+portion of the bed of the Merced River, which flows through it and
+passes from it by a wild, deep ca&ntilde;on into the San Joaquin. It is about
+eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a sharp bend
+to the west, about two miles from its upper end. To this place the
+Merced and two tributaries, called the North and South Forks, have come
+through the most rugged ca&ntilde;ons, falling nearly two thousand feet in the
+space of two miles.</p>
+
+<p>Near the southerly end of the valley is the remarkable rock El Capitan,
+an almost vertical cliff 3,600 feet high, and one of the grandest
+objects in the valley. Just above this is the imposing pile called the
+Cathedral Rocks, and behind these, connected with them, two slender and
+beautiful granite columns called the Cathedral Spires.</p>
+
+<p>Two miles above, on the opposite side, is the row of summits, rising
+like steps one above another, named the Three Brothers. On the other
+side, in the angle of the valley, stands Sentinel Rock, so called from
+its fancied resemblance to a watch-tower. Three-fourths of a mile in a
+southerly direction from this is the Sentinel Dome, more than four
+thousand feet high and affording from its summit a most magnificent
+view. Following up the North Fork, just at the entrance of the ca&ntilde;on,
+rises the Half Dome, the grandest and loftiest in the Yosemite Valley,
+an inaccessible crest of granite, having an elevation&mdash;according to
+Prof. Brewer&mdash;of 6,000 feet. On the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>opposite side of the same ca&ntilde;on
+stands the North Dome, another of those rounded masses of granite so
+characteristic of the sierras. Appearing as a buttress to this is
+Washington's Column, and below this the Royal Arches, an immense arched
+cavity, formed by the giving way and sliding down of portions of the
+rock, and presenting, in the upper part, a vaulted appearance.</p>
+
+<p>In the angle formed by the Merced with the South Fork is the symmetrical
+and beautiful North Dome. This valley is the most remarkable basin thus
+far found in the world, and in view of its gigantic and impressive
+scenery we cannot but marvel at its size&mdash;a mere cup or trough in the
+midst of one of the sublimest of geological formations. This tiny strip
+of wonder-land is, as we have seen, only eight miles long and less than
+three-quarters of a mile average width.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp166.jpg" id="fp166.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp166.jpg" width='560' height='700' alt="Bridal Veil Fall" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Bridal Veil Fall</span></p>
+
+<p>Beginning at the south-westerly end of the valley we first reach, in
+ascending it, the Bridal Veil, formed by one of the torrents that feed
+the Merced River. It is 1,000 feet in height, the body of water not
+being large, but sufficient to produce the most picturesque effect. As
+it is swayed backward and forward by the force of the wind, it seems to
+flutter like a white veil.</p>
+
+<p>Near the head of the valley, where it turns sharply toward the west, we
+have before us the Yosemite Fall. "From the edge of the cliff to the
+bottom of the valley the perpendicular distance is, in round numbers,
+2,550 feet. The fall is not one perpendicular sheet. There is first a
+vertical descent of 1,500 feet, when the water strikes on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> what seems to
+be a projecting ledge, but which is in reality a shelf or recess about a
+third of a mile back from the front of the lower portion of the cliff.
+Across this shelf the water rushes downward in a foaming torrent on a
+slope, equal to a perpendicular height of 626 feet, when it makes a
+final plunge of about 400 feet on to a low talus of rock at the foot of
+the precipice. As these various falls are in one vertical plane, the
+effect of the whole from the opposite side of the valley is nearly as
+grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the
+descent was made in one sheet from the top to the bottom. The mass of
+water in the 1,500 feet fall is too great to allow of its being entirely
+broken up into spray, but it widens very much as it descends, and as the
+sheet vibrates backward and forward with the varying pressure of the
+wind, which acts with immense force on this long column of water, the
+effect is indescribably grand."</p>
+
+<p>The first fall in the ca&ntilde;on of the Merced is the Vernal, "a simple
+perpendicular sheet 475 feet high, the rock behind it being a perfectly
+square-cut mass of granite. Ascending to the summit of the Vernal Fall
+by a series of ladders, and passing a succession of rapids and cascades
+of great beauty, we come to the last great fall of the Merced&mdash;the
+Nevada, which has a descent of 639 feet, and near its summit has a
+peculiar twist caused by the mass of water falling on a projecting ledge
+which throws it off to one side, adding greatly to the picturesque
+effect. It must be ranked as one of the finest cataracts in the world,
+taking into consideration its height, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> volume and purity of the
+water, and the whole character of the scenery which surrounds it."</p>
+
+<p>The fall from end to end of the valley proper is about fifty feet. "Its
+smooth and brilliant color, diversified as it is with groves of trees
+and carpeted with showy flowers, offers the most wonderful contrast to
+the towering masses of neutral and light purple-tinted rocks by which it
+is surrounded. Its elevation above the sea is estimated at 4,060 feet,
+and the cliffs and domes about it from 3,000 to 5,000 feet higher." It
+is a source of great satisfaction to the lover of nature that this
+famous and favored territory, so studded with grandeur and fretted with
+beauty, has wisely been set apart by Governmental authority to minister
+to the higher needs and better instincts of man.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp168.jpg" id="fp168.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp168.jpg" width='561' height='700' alt="Vernal Falls" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Vernal Falls</span></p>
+
+<p>The valley of the Yellowstone east of the Rocky Mountains in the north,
+like that of the Yosemite west of the sierras of the Pacific slope, is
+another wonder-land, presenting a bewildering variety of land and water
+formations which, in turn, awe, charm, fascinate, or amuse, but always
+astonish, the beholder.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most interesting objects in the Yellowstone Valley are the
+upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. "No language," says
+Professor Hayden, "can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty
+of these scenes, and it is only through the eye that the mind can gather
+anything like an adequate conception of them. The two falls are not more
+than a fourth of a mile apart. Above the upper fall the Yellowstone
+flows through a grassy, meadow-like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> valley with a calm, steady current,
+giving no warning until very near the fall that it is about to rush over
+a precipice 140 feet high, and then, within a quarter of a mile, again
+leap down a distance of 350 feet. After the waters roll over the upper
+descent they flow with great rapidity along the upper flat, rocky bottom
+which spreads out to near double the width above the falls, and
+continues thus until near the fall, when the channel again contracts and
+the waters seem, as it were, to gather into a compact mass and plunge
+over the descent of 350 feet in detached drops of foam as white as snow."</p>
+
+<p>On the Snake or Lewis River, the largest tributary of the Columbia
+River, are three falls, the greatest of which is the Shoshone in Idaho,
+where the river, with a width of six hundred yards, is said to be of so
+great a depth that it discharges nearly as much water as the Niagara,
+over a precipice about two hundred feet high. This grand fall is
+situated in the midst of magnificent scenery, and is surrounded by a fertile country.</p>
+
+<p>Another lesser Niagara is found in the north-east, in the river St.
+Maurice, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, which falls into it
+from the north below Three Rivers and about twenty-two miles above its
+mouth. The fall&mdash;the Shawenegan&mdash;is the same height as Niagara, and
+while the width and depth of the river are not given, the volume of
+water pouring over the precipice is said to be forty thousand feet per
+second, a supply sufficient to produce a grand and impressive cataract.</p>
+
+<p>Eight miles below Quebec the river Montmorency <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>discharges directly into
+the St. Lawrence, over a cliff two hundred and fifty feet high, with a
+width of one hundred and fifty feet. The falling foam-flecked sheet
+presents a beautiful and picturesque appearance. It is unique as being
+the only known instance in which a tributary falls perpendicularly into the main stream.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XX.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Tequendama&mdash;Kaiteeur&mdash;Paulo
+Affonso&mdash;Keel-fos&mdash;Riunkan-fos&mdash;Sarp-fos&mdash;Staubbach&mdash;Zambesi or
+Victoria&mdash;Murchison&mdash;Cavery&mdash;Schaffhausen.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In South America is the remarkable fall of Tequendama, on the river
+Bogota, which, at this point, is only one hundred and forty feet wide,
+and is divided into numerous narrow and deep channels which finally
+unite in two of nearly the same width, and make a perpendicular plunge
+of six hundred and fifty feet to the plain below. "The cataract," says
+Humboldt, "forms an assemblage of everything that is sublimely
+picturesque in beautiful scenery. It is not one of the highest falls,
+but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so lofty a height,
+precipitates so voluminous a mass of water. The body, when it first
+parts from its bed, forms a broad arch of glassy appearance; a little
+lower down it assumes a fleecy form, and ultimately, in its progress, it
+shoots forth in millions of smaller masses, which chase each other like
+sky-rockets. The attending noises are quite astounding, and dense clouds
+of vapor soar upward, presenting beautiful rainbows in their ascent.
+What gives a remarkable appearance to the scene is the great difference
+in the vegetation surrounding different parts of it." At the summit the
+traveler "finds himself surrounded, not only with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> begonias and the
+yellow bark tree (Sandal), but with oaks, elms, and other plants, the
+growth of which recall to mind the vegetation of Europe, when suddenly
+he discovers, as from a terrace and at his feet, a country producing the
+palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. The cause of the difference is not
+ascertained, the difference of altitude&mdash;one hundred and seventy-five
+metres&mdash;not being sufficient to exert much influence on the atmosphere."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp171.jpg" id="fp171.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp171.jpg" width='473' height='700' alt="Nevada Falls" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Nevada Falls</span></p>
+
+<p>Another and grander South American fall, of comparatively recent
+discovery, is the Kaiteeur, so called, in the river Potaro, a large
+affluent of the Essequibo, the largest river in British Guiana. The
+volume of water is greater than that in the Bogota, and falls in a
+single column of dazzling whiteness seven hundred and forty feet into a
+vast basin below. The ascending cloud of spray, the solemn monotone of
+the descending flood, the extreme wildness of the primitive forest, and
+the luxuriant and abundant growth of tropical vines and shrubs, and
+their gorgeous colors, make the scene impressive.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp172.jpg" id="fp172.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp172.jpg" width='700' height='493' alt="Lower Falls of the Yellowstone" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Lower Falls of the Yellowstone</span></p>
+
+<p>"There is in Brazil," says Elis&eacute;e Reclus, "not far from Bahia, the
+wonderful cataract of San Francisco, known by the name of Paulo Affonso.
+At the foot of a long slope over which it glides in rapids, the river,
+one of the most considerable of the South American continent, whirls
+round and round as it enters a kind of funnel-shaped cavity, roughened
+with rocks, and suddenly contracting its width, dashes against three
+rocky masses reared up like towers at the edge of the abyss; then
+dividing into four vast columns of water, it plunges down into a gulf
+two hundred and forty-six feet in depth. The principal column,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> being
+confined in a perpendicular passage, is scarcely sixty-six feet in
+width, but it must be of an enormous thickness (depth), as it forms
+almost the whole body of the river. Half way up, the channel which
+contains it bends to the left, and the falling mass, changing its
+direction, passes under a vertical column of water, which penetrates
+through it from one side to the other, and breaking it up into a chaos
+of surges, converts it into a sea of foam. Sometimes the white, misty
+vapor may be seen, and the thunder of the water may be heard at a
+distance of more than fifteen miles." The spray and roar of Niagara are
+often seen and heard at Toronto, forty miles away, across Lake Ontario.</p>
+
+<p>In Norway is found the highest perpendicular fall in the world that is
+constantly supplied with water. It is the Keel-fos, formed by a mountain
+stream that falls two thousand feet into the Nav&ouml;ens Fjord near
+Gudhaven, but the water becomes a mere billowy bank of mist before it
+reaches the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>The Riunkan-fos is another Norwegian cataract in the outlet of Lake
+Mj&ouml;svard, which pours through a wild, rock-studded slope until it
+reaches a precipice, on the brink of which it is divided by a huge mass
+of rock into two channels. Thence it falls eight hundred and eighty feet
+into a dark basin at its foot, from which water-rockets and sharp jets
+of foam shoot up and out in all directions. The intense whiteness of the
+fleecy column is indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>A still more famous Norwegian cataract is the Sarp-fos in the
+Stor-Elven, formed by the junction of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Lougen and Glommen, the
+largest of the Norwegian rivers. Like the Riunkan-fos the stream is
+greatly contracted in a rocky gorge, and at the edge of the cliff is
+divided into two channels which, however, soon unite in a fall of one
+hundred feet upon huge masses of rock, through and over which it rushes
+tumultuously for a short distance, and then flows quietly into the sea.
+The volume of water is unusually large for a purely mountain river,
+being in the gorge at the top of the fall one hundred and fifty feet
+wide and forty feet deep. The massive and intensely white column
+contrasted with the dark green foliage of the solemn pines, and the
+darker rocks about it, and the deep blue water into which it falls,
+produce a vivid impression on the mind of the beholder. The Stor-Elven
+here presents the curious phenomenon of a stream changing, not from a
+perpendicular fall to a rapid, but the reverse, from a rapid to a
+perpendicular fall. A great portion of the right bank of the river at
+the fall, and for a considerable distance below, is chiefly composed of
+a stiff blue clay, and the river once flowed past Sarpsborg, a mile
+below, in a succession of magnificent rapids. At that time a superb
+mansion with numerous out-buildings stood at the termination of the
+rapids. On the 5th of February, 1702, the mansion, together with
+everything in and about it, sunk into an abyss six hundred feet deep,
+and was entirely buried beneath the water. The walls of the house were
+of unusual strength and thickness, with several high towers, but the
+whole was buried out of sight. Fourteen persons and two hundred head of
+cattle were also engulfed. The catastrophe was caused by the washing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+out of the blue clay, and the undermining of the bank, which then
+toppled over into the watery chasm.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp174.jpg" id="fp174.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp174.jpg" width='506' height='700' alt="Upper Falls of the Yellowstone" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Upper Falls of the Yellowstone</span></p>
+
+<p>In Switzerland is the Staubbach&mdash;dust-stream&mdash;a well known fall in the
+canton of Berne. It has a sheer descent of nearly nine hundred feet, in
+which the water is converted into spray that is easily moved by the
+wind, thus giving it a singularly beautiful resemblance to a white
+curtain floating in the air.</p>
+
+<p>In South Africa, Livingstone has made the public acquainted with that
+extraordinary hiatus in the crust of the earth in which the great river
+Zambesi is swallowed up. A stream more than a thousand yards wide,
+dotted with islands, flowing between fertile banks clothed with the
+luxuriant and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, without the least
+preliminary break or rapid, suddenly drops into a dark chasm of unknown
+depth, which, repeatedly doubling on itself, pursues its tortuous course
+some forty miles through the hills before emerging again into the
+sunlight. "From Kalai," says Livingstone, "after some twenty minutes'
+sail we came in sight of the columns of vapor appropriately called
+smoke. * * * Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of
+the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees. The
+tops of the columns at this distance (six miles) appeared to mingle with
+the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful." At the brink of
+the chasm he found the river divided into two channels of unequal width
+by a large island called the "Garden," on account of its rich
+vegetation. "Creeping with awe to the verge I peered down into a large
+rent which had been made from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and
+saw that a stream a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and
+then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards.
+In looking down into this fissure on the right of the island one sees
+nothing but a dense, white cloud. From this cloud rushed up a great jet
+of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred
+feet high; then, condensing, it changed its hue into that of dark smoke,
+and came back in a constant shower. This shower fell chiefly on the
+opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the top there
+stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet.
+From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf, but as
+they flow down the steep wall the column of vapor in its ascent licks
+them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are
+constantly running down, but never reach the bottom."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp176.jpg" id="fp176.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp176.jpg" width='513' height='700' alt="The Staubbach, Switzerland" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">The Staubbach, Switzerland</span></p>
+
+<p>In Northern Africa the Murchison Falls in the White Nile, between lakes
+Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi, were discovered by Sir Samuel
+Baker, and are described by him. "Upon rounding the corner a magnificent
+sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were
+beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about three
+hundred feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage,
+and, rushing through a gap that cleft the river exactly before us, the
+river itself, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow
+gorge scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through the
+rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> about one hundred and twenty
+feet perpendicularly into a dark abyss below. The fall of water was
+snow-white, which had a superb effect, as it contrasted with the dark
+cliffs that walled the river, while graceful palms of the tropics and
+wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view."</p>
+
+<p>A writer in Hamilton's "East Indian Gazetteer" gives us an account of
+the cataract of Gungani Chuki in the northern branch of the river
+Cavery. "Much the larger stream is broken by projecting masses of rock
+into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller
+torrents. The first plunges into the river below from a height variously
+estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the
+others, impeded in their course by intervening rocks, work their way
+with many fantastic evolutions to a distance about two hundred feet from
+the base of the precipice, where they all unite to make a single final
+plunge, while the other branch of the river precipitates itself in two
+columns from a cliff of the same height, and standing nearly at right
+angles with the main fall. The surrounding scenery is wild in the
+extreme, and the whole presents a very imposing spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>"A second cataract is formed by the southern arm of the Cavery about a
+mile below. The channel here spreads out into a magnificent expanse,
+which is divided into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall
+with infinite variety of configuration over a precipice of more than one
+hundred feet, but presenting no single body equal to the Gungani Chuki,
+but the whole forming an amphitheatre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> of cataracts, meeting the eye in
+every direction along a sweep of perhaps 90&deg;, and combined with scenery
+of such sequestered wildness that for picturesque effect it is perhaps
+without parallel in the world." This branch of the stream is used to
+irrigate the province of Tanjore, and the coming of its floods is
+celebrated by the natives with special festivities, as they consider the
+river to be one of their most beneficent deities.</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful and picturesque fall of the Rhine below Schaffhausen,
+where the water falls sixty-five feet in a single column, is the
+admiration of all travelers.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="fp178.jpg" id="fp178.jpg"></a><img src="images/fp178.jpg" width='700' height='517' alt="Victoria Falls, Zambesi" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk bold"><span class="smcap">Victoria Falls, Zambesi</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><span>CHAPTER XXI.</span></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Famous Rapids and Cascades&mdash;Niagara&mdash;Amazon&mdash;Orinoco&mdash;Parana&mdash;Nile&mdash;Livingstone.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In all its features and characteristics the great water-course,
+including the great lakes, which feeds the Niagara, is peculiar and
+interesting. It is more than two thousand miles long; its utmost
+surface-sources are scarcely six hundred feet above tide-water; its
+bottom, at its greater depth, is more than four hundred feet below
+tide-water. In all its course it receives less than two score of
+affluents, and only two of these, the St. Maurice and the Saugeen, bring
+to it any considerable quantity of water, and no flood in any of them
+discolors its emerald surface from shore to shore. Only fierce gales of
+wind bring up from its own depths the sediment that can discolor its
+whole face. Far the greater portion of its water-supply is drawn from
+countless hidden springs, lying deep in the bosom of the earth. In all
+the elements of beautiful, picturesque, and enchanting scenery it is unrivaled.</p>
+
+<p>The rapids of the Niagara just above the Falls, from the Leaping Rock
+down through the Witches' Caldron to the edge of the precipice, are
+nearly a mile in width, and discharge ten million cubic feet of water
+each minute. But for a combination of grandeur and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> beauty, and for
+imparting a sense of almost infinite power, nothing can surpass the
+Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls, where the ten million cubic feet of
+water are compressed into a tortuous, tumultuous channel, less than four
+hundred feet wide.</p>
+
+<p>There are many lesser rapids in the St. Lawrence, from the Thousand
+Islands to Montreal, the passage of which in the large lake steamers is
+an exciting voyage. The constant changes of scenery at every turn and in
+every rood of progress is almost bewildering. Then the alternation of
+rapids and broad expanses of river, the bird-like motion as the steamer
+sinks and sails down through the rapids, and the sense of relief when it
+seems to rise and glide over the smooth river, vary and increase the
+excitement. There is developed in one of those expanses a peculiar
+geological feature called the Split Rock. The name is strictly accurate.
+The descending steamer finds but one narrow channel, a little more than
+its own width, through which it can pass in a stream more than half a
+mile wide. It lies between the sharp corners of a broad, wedge-shaped
+cleavage in an immense rock which, by some convulsion of nature&mdash;not by
+any abrading process of the elements&mdash;has been literally split downward
+more than eighty feet. The last crooked and turbulent rapid passed just
+before reaching Montreal is the terror of the river pilots, and they
+never attempt its passage except by daylight. From Montreal to the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence the constantly deepening channel flows with an unbroken current.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>It is a notable fact that the great river of rivers, which drains a
+larger territory than any other on the globe, the Amazon proper, has a
+fall of only two hundred and ten feet in a course of three thousand
+miles, and while it has a deep channel and a uniform current of three
+miles an hour for its whole length, it has no broken rapids. But in its
+many great affluents rapids are numerous, though not so famous as those
+found in other South American rivers.</p>
+
+<p>The river Orinoco, more remarkable in some respects than the Amazon,
+receives the waters of four hundred and thirty-six rivers, besides two
+thousand smaller streams. It is one thousand five hundred miles long, is
+navigable for seven hundred and eighty miles, and at Bolivar, two
+hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, it is four miles wide and three
+hundred and ninety feet deep. Its famous rapids of the Apure and Maypure
+were visited by Humboldt. At the latter, the river is two thousand eight
+hundred and forty yards wide, and plunges down an inclined plane about
+three miles long, making a fall equal to forty feet in vertical height.
+It is dotted with innumerable islands which furnish a striking contrast
+to the vast sheet of white water, presenting the singular appearance of
+an eruption of shrub-crowned rocks in a sea of foam. These islands, and
+its great width, constitute the peculiar characteristics of this chute.</p>
+
+<p>In the grandest of the South American rapids, those of the river Parana,
+a vast volume of water from a channel nearly two and a half miles in
+width is compressed into a gorge only sixty-six yards wide, through
+which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the flood dashes down a slope of sixty degrees inclination and
+fifty-six feet perpendicular fall. Its roar&mdash;a perpetual monotone&mdash;is
+heard thirty miles away.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly less remarkable than the rapids of the South American rivers are
+those of the two great African rivers, the Nile and the Congo, or, as
+Mr. Stanley has re-christened the latter, the Livingstone. The Nile may
+be compared to a vast tree with its huge delta-roots in the
+Mediterranean, its boll extending up through a rainless desert nearly
+one thousand five hundred miles to meet its numerous branches which
+stretch up into the mountains of Abyssinia, and the vast basin south of
+the equator that contains the great lakes of Victoria N'yanzi and Albert
+N'yanzi. From these branches in each year, at a fixed season, are poured
+down the sediment-charged waters which irrigate and fertilize an immense
+valley that would otherwise be only a parched and desert waste.</p>
+
+<p>Without specifying the data for his calculations, Mr. Stanley, who saw
+them both, states that the volume of the Livingstone is ten times
+greater than that of the Nile. Its course is interrupted by two series
+of cataracts, or rather a combination of cascades and rapids. The first
+series, seven in number, occurs within four hundred miles of its source,
+and consists of the Stanley Falls, occupying different points in a
+channel sixty-two miles long. Its banks are of moderate elevation above
+its bed, and in the long, bright, equatorial days the leaping,
+sparkling, foaming waters present a scene of dazzling brilliancy. In the
+second series, named by Mr. Stanley the Livingstone Falls, there are
+thirty-two cascades, more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> extensive and imposing than those of the
+first. The river, after a gentle descent of nearly one thousand miles,
+and after receiving many large affluents, reaches the first of these
+impetuous torrents where all its waters are compressed into a narrow
+gorge only four hundred and fifty feet wide, and at a single point near
+the right bank where a sounding was possible, Mr. Stanley found a depth
+of one hundred and thirty-eight feet.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining thirty-one cascades are distributed along a channel one
+hundred and fifty-five miles in length, between banks from fifty to six
+hundred feet high, and having a fall of one thousand one hundred feet.
+The dimensions here given indicate that these rapids are second, in
+power and impressiveness, only to those above the Whirlpool of Niagara.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
+
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous Cataracts
+
+Author: George W. Holley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35669]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALLS OF NIAGARA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NIAGARA.
+
+[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS FROM THE CANADIAN SIDE - FRONTISPIECE.]
+
+
+THE FALLS OF NIAGARA
+
+AND _OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS_.
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE W. HOLLEY.
+
+With Thirty Illustrations.
+
+London:
+HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
+27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+MDCCCLXXXII.
+
+
+Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+PREFACE                                                          xiii
+
+
+PART I.--HISTORY.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+First French expedition--Jacques Cartier--He first hears of the great
+Cataract--Champlain--Route to China--La Salle--Father Hennepin's
+first and second visits to the Falls                                1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls--M. Charlevoix's letter to
+Madame Maintenon--Number of the Falls--Geological indications--Great
+projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's time--Cave of the
+Winds--Rainbows                                                     9
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The name Niagara--The musical dialect of the Hurons--Niagara one
+of the oldest of Indian names--Description of the River, the Falls,
+and the surrounding country                                        15
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Niagara a tribal name--Other names given to the tribe--The Niagaras
+a superior race--The true pronunciation of Indian words            19
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The lower Niagara--Fort Niagara--Fort Mississauga--Niagara village--
+Lewiston--Portage around the Falls--The first railroad in the
+United States--Fort Schlosser--The ambuscade at Devil's Hole--La
+Salle's vessel, the _Griffin_--The Niagara frontier                25
+
+
+PART II.--GEOLOGY.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+America the old world--Geologically recent origin of the Falls--
+Evidence thereof--Captain Williams's surveys for a ship-canal--Former
+extent of Lake Michigan--Its outlet into the Illinois River--The
+Niagara Barrier--How broken through--The birth of Niagara          32
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Composition of the terrace cut through--Why retrocession is
+possible--Three sections from Lewiston to the Falls--Devil's Hole--
+The Medina group--Recession long checked--The Whirlpool--The
+narrowest part of the river--The mirror--Depth of the water in the
+Chasm--Former grand Fall                                           42
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Recession above the present position of the Falls--The Falls will be
+higher as they recede--Reason Why--Professor Tyndall's prediction--
+Present and former accumulations of rock--Terrific power of
+the elements--Ice and ice bridges--Remarkable geognosy of the lake
+region                                                             50
+
+
+PART III.
+
+LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Forty years since--Niagara in winter--Frozen spray--Ice foliage and
+ice apples--Ice moss--Frozen fog--Ice islands--Ice statues--
+Sleigh-riding on the American Rapids--Boys coasting on them--Ice
+gorges                                                             62
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Judge Porter--General Porter--Goat Island--Origin of its name--Early
+dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the rock--Professor
+Kalm's wonderful story--Bridges to the Island--Method of
+construction--Red Jacket--Anecdotes--Grand Island--Major Noah and the
+New Jerusalem--The Stone Tower--The Biddle stairs--Sam Patch--Depth
+of water on the Horseshoe--Ships sent over the Falls               71
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the Rapids--Rescue
+of Chapin--Rescue of Allen--He takes the _Maid of the Mist_ through
+the Whirlpool--His companions--Effect upon Robinson--Biographical
+notice--His grave unmarked                                         85
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A fisherman and a bear in a canoe--Frightful experience with floating
+ice--Early farming on the Niagara--Fruit-growing--The original
+forest--Testimony of the trees--The first hotel--General Whitney--
+Cataract House--Distinguished visitors--Carriage road down the
+Canadian bank--Ontario House--Clifton House--The Museum--Table and
+Termination Rocks--Burning Spring--Lundy's Lane--Battle Anecdotes  96
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Incidents--Fall of Table Rock--Remarkable phenomenon in the river--
+Driving and lumbering on the Rapids--Points of the compass at
+the Falls--A first view of the Falls commonly disappointing--Lunar
+bow--Golden spray--Gull Island and the gulls--The highest water
+ever known at the Falls--The Hermit of the Falls                  108
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Avery's descent of the Falls--The fatal practical joke--Death of Miss
+Rugg--Swans--Eagles--Crows--Ducks over the Falls--Why dogs have
+survived the descent                                              118
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Wedding tourists at the Falls--Bridges to the Moss Islands--Railway
+at the Ferry--List of persons who have been carried over the Falls--
+Other accidents                                                   125
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The first Suspension Bridge--The Railway Suspension Bridge--
+Extraordinary vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the fall of
+a mass of rock--De Veaux College--The Lewiston Suspension Bridge--
+The Suspension Bridge at the Falls                                137
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Blondin and his "ascensions"--Visit of the Prince of Wales--Grand
+illumination of the Falls--The steamer _Caroline_--The Water-power
+of Niagara--Lord Dufferin and the plan of an international park   144
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Poetry in the Table Rock albums--Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.
+Clark, Lord Morpeth, Jose Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs.
+Sigourney, and J. G. C. Brainard                                  153
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Yosemite--Vernal--Nevada--Yellowstone--Shoshone--St. Maurice--
+Montmorency                                                       164
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Tequendama--Kaiteeur--Paulo Affonso--Keel-fos--Riunkan-fos--
+Sarp-fos--Staubbach--Zambesi or Victoria--Murchison--Cavery--
+Schaffhausen                                                      171
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Famous rapids and cascades--Niagara--Amazon--Orinoco--Parana--
+Nile--Livingstone                                                 179
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+NIAGARA FALLS FROM THE CANADIAN SIDE           FRONTISPIECE.
+
+THE HORSESHOE FALL FROM GOAT ISLAND     Opposite page      6
+
+LUNA FALL AND ISLAND IN WINTER              "    "        11
+
+THE RAPIDS ABOVE THE FALLS                  "    "        17
+
+THE YOUNGEST INHABITANT                     "    "        22
+
+MOUTH OF THE CHASM AND BROCK'S MONUMENT     "    "        29
+
+NIAGARA FALLS FROM BELOW                    "    "        54
+
+GREAT ICICLES UNDER THE AMERICAN FALL       "    "        60
+
+WINTER FOLIAGE                              "    "        66
+
+ICE BRIDGE AND FROST FREAKS                 "    "        69
+
+COASTING BELOW THE AMERICAN FALL            "    "        70
+
+SECOND MOSS ISLAND BRIDGE                   "    "        76
+
+JOEL R. ROBINSON                            "    "        86
+
+THE _Maid of the Mist_ IN THE WHIRLPOOL     "    "        91
+
+FISHER AND THE BEAR                         "    "        97
+
+FALL OF TABLE ROCK                          "    "       109
+
+ROCK OF AGES AND WHIRLWIND BRIDGE           "    "       114
+
+THE THREE SISTERS OR MOSS ISLANDS           "    "       125
+
+HOW THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE WAS BEGUN         "    "       137
+
+BLONDIN CROSSING THE NIAGARA                "    "       145
+
+INDIAN WOMEN SELLING BEAD-WORK              "    "       148
+
+YOSEMITE FALLS                              "    "       164
+
+BRIDAL VEIL FALL                            "    "       166
+
+VERNAL FALLS                                "    "       168
+
+NEVADA FALLS                                "    "       171
+
+LOWER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE              "    "       172
+
+UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE              "    "       174
+
+THE STAUBBACH, SWITZERLAND                  "    "       176
+
+VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI                     "    "       178
+
+
+MAP OF THE NIAGARA REGION                   "    "         1
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The writer, having resided in the village of Niagara Falls for more than
+a third of a century, has had opportunity to become thoroughly
+acquainted with the locality, and to study it with constantly increasing
+interest and admiration. Long observation enables him to offer some new
+suggestions in regard to the geological age of the Falls, their
+retrocession, and the causes which have been potent in producing it; and
+also to demonstrate the existence of a barrier or dam that was once the
+shore of an immense fresh-water sea, which reached from Niagara to Lake
+Michigan, and emptied its waters into the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+Whoever undertakes to write comprehensively on this subject will soon
+become aware of the weakness of exclamation points and adjectives, and
+the almost irresistible temptation to indulge in a style of composition
+which he cannot maintain, and should not if he could. So far as the
+writer, yielding to the inspiration of his theme, and in opposition to
+all resolutions to the contrary, may have trespassed in this direction,
+he bares and bows his head to the severest treatment that the critic may
+adopt. His labor has been one of love, and in giving its results to the
+public he regrets that it is not more worthy of the subject.
+
+As it is hoped that the work may be useful to future visitors to the
+Falls, and also possess some interest for those who have visited them,
+it seemed desirable to avoid the introduction of notes and the citation
+of authorities. For this reason several paragraphs are placed in the
+text which would otherwise have been introduced in notes. This is
+especially true of the chapters of local history.
+
+The writer is especially indebted to the Hon. Orsamus H. Marshall, of
+Buffalo, for a copy of his admirable "Historical Sketches," and for
+access to his library of American history. The Documentary History and
+Colonial Documents of the State of New York, "The Relations of the
+Jesuits," the works of other early French missionaries, travelers, and
+adventurers, made familiar to the public by the indefatigable labors of
+Shea and Parkman, have all helped to make the writer's task
+comparatively an easy one.
+
+Several years ago, the body of this work, which has since been revised
+and considerably enlarged, was published in a small volume, that has
+long been out of print. Believing that the interest of the volume would
+be enhanced for the reader if he were able to contrast Niagara Falls
+with other famous falls, cataracts, and rapids, the writer has added
+chapters, describing the most noted of these in all parts of the world.
+
+G. W. H.
+
+NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y.
+
+September, 1882.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE NIAGARA REGION]
+
+
+
+
+PART I.--HISTORY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     First French expedition--Jacques Cartier--He first hears of the
+     great Cataract--Champlain--Route to China--La Salle--Father
+     Hennepin's first and second visits to the Falls.
+
+
+In 1534, Jacques Cartier, a shrewd, enterprising, and adventurous
+sailor, made his first voyage across the Atlantic, touching at
+Newfoundland, and exploring the coast to the west and south of it. The
+two vessels of Cartier, called ships by the historians of the period,
+were each of only forty tons burden.
+
+On the return of Cartier to France, so favorable was his report of the
+results of the expedition, that Francis I. commissioned him, the year
+following, for another voyage, and in May, 1535, after impressive
+religious ceremonies, he sailed with three vessels thoroughly equipped.
+The record of this second voyage of Cartier, by Lescarbot, contains the
+first historical notice of the cataract of Niagara. The navigator, in
+answer to his inquiries concerning the source of the St. Lawrence, "was
+told that, after ascending many leagues among rapids and water-falls,
+he would reach a lake one hundred and forty or fifty leagues broad, at
+the western extremity of which the waters were wholesome and the winters
+mild; that a river emptied into it from the south, which had its source
+in the country of the Iroquois; that beyond the lake he would find a
+cataract and portage, then another lake about equal to the former, which
+they had never explored."
+
+In 1603, a company of merchants in Rouen obtained the necessary
+authority for a new expedition to the St. Lawrence, which they placed
+under the direction of Samuel Champlain, an able, discreet, and resolute
+commander. On a map published in 1613 he indicated the position of the
+cataract, calling it merely a water-fall (_saut d'eau_), and describing
+it as being "so very high that many kinds of fish are stunned in its
+descent." It does not appear by the record that he ever saw the Falls.
+
+During the sixty years that elapsed between the establishment of the
+French settlements by Champlain and the expedition of La Salle and
+Hennepin, there can be little doubt that the great cataract was
+repeatedly visited by French traders and adventurers. Many of the
+earlier travelers to the region of the St. Lawrence believed that China
+could be reached by an overland journey across the northern part of the
+continent. Father Vimont informs us ("Relations of the Jesuits," 1642-3)
+that the Jesuit Raymbault "designed to go to China across the American
+wilderness, but God sent him on the road to heaven." As he died at the
+Saut Ste. Marie in 1641, he must have passed to the north of the Falls
+without seeing them. In 1648, the Jesuit father Ragueneau, in a letter
+to the Superior of the Mission, at Paris, says: "North of the Eries is a
+great lake, about two hundred leagues in circumference, called Erie,
+formed by the discharge of the _mer-douce_ or Lake Huron, and which
+falls into a third lake, called Ontario, over a cataract of frightful
+height."
+
+In some important manuscripts relating to the earliest expeditions of
+the French into Canada,--discovered a few years ago, and now in the
+possession of M. Pierre Margry, of Paris,--occurs a description of the
+Falls communicated by the Indians to Father Gallinee, one of the two
+Sulpician priests who accompanied La Salle in his first visit to the
+Senecas, in 1669. He seems to have been more indifferent to the charms
+of Nature than Father Raymbault, since he crossed the Niagara River near
+its mouth, and within hearing of its falling waters, yet did not turn
+aside to see the cataract. In his journal he says: "We found a river
+one-eighth of a league broad and extremely rapid, forming the outlet of
+Lake Erie and emptying into Lake Ontario. The depth of the river is, at
+this place, extraordinary, for, on sounding close by the shore, we found
+fifteen or sixteen fathoms of water. This outlet (the Niagara River) is
+forty leagues long, and has, from ten to twelve leagues above Lake
+Ontario, one of the finest cataracts in the world; for all the Indians
+of whom I have inquired about it say that the river falls at that place
+from a rock higher than the tallest pines--that is, about two hundred
+feet. In fact, we heard it from the place where we were, although from
+ten to twelve leagues distant, but the fall gives such a momentum to the
+water that its velocity prevented our ascending the current by rowing,
+except with great difficulty. At a quarter of a league from the outlet,
+where we were, it grows narrower, and its channel is confined between
+two very high, steep, rocky banks, inducing the belief that the
+navigation would be very difficult quite up to the cataract. As to the
+river above the Falls, the current very often sucks into this gulf, from
+a great distance above, deer and stags, elk and roebucks, which, in
+attempting to swim the river, suffer themselves to be drawn so far
+down-stream that they are compelled to descend the Falls, and are
+overwhelmed in its frightful abyss.
+
+"Our desire to reach the little village called Ganastoque Sonontona
+(between the west end of Lake Ontario and Grand River) prevented our
+going to view that wonder. * * * I will leave you to judge if that must
+not be a fine cataract, in which all the water of the large river (St.
+Lawrence) * * * falls from a height of two hundred feet, with a noise
+that is heard not only at the place where we were,--ten or twelve
+leagues distant,--but also from the other side of Lake Ontario, opposite
+its mouth" (Toronto, forty miles distant).
+
+Of the rattlesnakes on the mountain ridges he says: "There are many in
+this place as large as your arm, and six or seven feet long, and
+entirely black."
+
+From Ganastoque Sonontona the party separated, the two priests, with
+their guides and attendants, designing to move to the west, along the
+north shore of Lake Erie, and La Salle apparently to return to Montreal,
+but in reality, as is supposed, to prosecute by a more southerly route
+the grand ambition of his life--the discovery of the Mississippi
+River--a purpose which he executed with even more than the "bigot's
+zeal," and literally, as it proved in the end, with the "martyr's
+constancy," for he was assassinated on the plains of Texas, some few
+years after, while endeavoring to secure to France the benefits of his
+great discovery.
+
+After separating from his companions at the Indian village, he probably
+returned to Lake Ontario and the Niagara River, which he crossed, no
+doubt, on his way to some of the Iroquois villages, in search of a guide
+and attendants to assist him in his explorations. It may be assumed that
+he visited the Falls at this time, but his journal of this expedition
+has never been found.
+
+The first description of the Falls by an eye-witness is that of Father
+Hennepin, so well known to those conversant with our early history. He
+saw it for the first time in the winter of 1678-9, and his exaggerated
+account of it is accompanied by a sketch which in its principal features
+is undoubtedly correct, though its perspective and proportions are quite
+otherwise. He says: "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Erie there is a vast
+and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down in a surprising and
+astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its
+parallel. 'Tis true that Italy and Switzerland boast of some such
+things, but we may well say they are sorry patterns when compared with
+this of which we now speak. * * * it [the river] is so rapid above the
+descent, that it violently hurries down the wild beasts while
+endeavoring to pass it, * * * they not being able to withstand the force
+of its current, which inevitably casts them headlong above six hundred
+feet high. This wonderful downfall is composed of two great streams of
+water and two falls, with an isle sloping along the middle of it. The
+waters which fall from this horrible precipice do foam and boil after
+the most hideous manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more
+terrible than that of thunder; for, when the wind blows out of the
+south, their dismal roaring may be heard more than fifteen leagues off."
+
+[Illustration: THE HORSESHOE FALL FROM GOAT ISLAND]
+
+"The river Niagara having thrown itself down this incredible precipice,
+continues its impetuous course for two leagues together to the great
+rock, above mentioned [in another chapter as lying at the foot of the
+mountain at Lewiston], with inexpressible rapidity. * * * From the great
+Fall unto this rock, which is to the west of the river, the two brinks
+of it are so prodigiously high, that it would make one tremble to look
+steadily upon the water rolling along with a rapidity not to be
+imagined."
+
+On his return from the West, in the summer of 1681, the Father informs
+us that he "spent half a day in considering the wonders of that
+prodigious cascade." Referring to the spray, he says: "The rebounding of
+these waters is so great that a sort of cloud arises from the foam of
+it, which is seen hanging over this abyss even at noon-day." Of the
+river, he says: "From the mouth of Lake Erie to the Falls are reckoned
+six leagues. * * * The lands which lie on both sides of it to the east
+and west are all level from Lake Erie to the great Fall." At the end of
+the six leagues "it meets with a small sloping island, about half a
+quarter of a league long and near three hundred feet broad, as well as
+one can guess by the eye. From the end, then, of this island it is that
+these two great falls of water, as also the third, throw themselves,
+after a most surprising manner, down into the dreadful gulph, six
+hundred feet and more in depth." On the Canadian side, he says: "One may
+go down as far as the bottom of this terrible gulph. The author of this
+discovery was down there, the more narrowly to observe the fall of these
+prodigious cascades. From there we could discover a spot of ground which
+lay under the fall of water which is to the east [American Fall] big
+enough for four coaches to drive abreast without being wet; but because
+the ground * * * where the first fall empties itself into the gulph is
+very steep and almost perpendicular, it is impossible for a man to get
+down on that side, into the place where the four coaches may go abreast,
+or to make his way through such a quantity of water as falls toward the
+gulph, so that it is very probable that to this dry place it is that the
+rattlesnakes retire, by certain passages which they find under-ground."
+
+Finding no Indians living at the Falls, he suggests a probable reason
+therefor: "I have often heard talk of the Cataracts of the Nile, which
+make people deaf that live near them. I know not if the Iroquois who
+formerly lived near this fall * * * withdrew themselves from its
+neighborhood lest they should likewise become deaf, or out of the
+continual fear they were in of the rattlesnakes, which are very common
+in this place. * * * Be it as it will, these dangerous creatures are to
+be met with as far as the Lake Frontenac [Ontario], on the south side;
+and it is reasonable to presume that the horrid noise of the Fall and
+the fear of these poisonous serpents might oblige the savages to seek
+out a more commodious habitation." In the view of the Falls accompanying
+his description, a large rock is represented as standing on the edge of
+the Table Rock. This rock is mentioned by Kalm, a Swedish naturalist,
+who visited the Falls in 1750, as having disappeared a few years before
+that date. Father Hennepin's reference to the animals drawn into the
+current and going over the Falls, and to the rattlesnakes, indicates
+unmistakably his previous acquaintance with Father Gallinees's
+narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Baron La Hontan's description of the Falls--M. Charlevoix's letter
+     to Madame Maintenon--Number of the Falls--Geological
+     indications--Great projection of the rock in Father Hennepin's
+     time--Cave of the Winds--Rainbows.
+
+
+Even more exaggerated than Father Hennepin's is the next account of the
+Falls which has come down to us, and which was written by Baron La
+Hontan, in the autumn of 1687. Fear of an attack from the Iroquois, the
+relentless enemies of the French, made his visit short and
+unsatisfactory. He says: "As for the water-fall of Niagara, 'tis seven
+or eight hundred feet high, and half a league wide. Toward the middle of
+it we descry an island, that leans toward the precipice, as if it were
+ready to fall." Concerning the beasts and fish drawn over the precipice,
+he says they "serve for food" for the Iroquois, who "take 'em out of the
+water with their canoes"; and also that "between the surface of the
+water, that shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of the precipice,
+three men may cross in abreast, without further damage than a sprinkling
+of some few drops of water." Father Hennepin, it will be remembered,
+makes this space broad enough for four coaches, instead of three men.
+
+From the Baron's declaration as to the manner in which the Indians
+captured the game which went over the Falls, it would seem that the
+bark canoe of the Indian was the precursor of the white man's skiff and
+yawl, that serve as a ferry below the Falls. And the timid traveler of
+the present day, who hesitates about crossing in this latter craft, will
+probably pronounce the Indian foolhardy for venturing on those turbulent
+waters in his light canoe, whereas, in skillful hands, it is peculiarly
+fitted for such navigation.
+
+A more correct estimate of the cataract than either of the preceding is
+that of M. Charlevoix, sent to Madame Maintenon, in 1721. After
+referring to the inaccurate accounts of Hennepin and La Hontan, he says:
+"For my own part, after having examined it on all sides, where it could
+be viewed to the greatest advantage, I am inclined to think we cannot
+allow it [the height] less than one hundred and forty or fifty feet." As
+to its figure, "it is in the shape of a horseshoe, and it is about four
+hundred paces in circumference. It is divided in two exactly in the
+center by a very narrow island, half a quarter of a league long." In
+relation to the noise of the falling water, he says: "You can scarce
+hear it at M. de Joncaire's [Fort Schlosser], and what you hear in this
+place [Lewiston] may possibly be the whirlpools, caused by the rocks
+which fill up the bed of the river as far as this."
+
+Neither Baron La Hontan nor M. Charlevoix speaks of the number of
+water-falls. But Father Hennepin, it will be remembered, mentions three,
+two of which were to the south and west of Goat Island. And the Rev.
+Abbe Picquet, who visited the place in 1751, seventy years after Father
+Hennepin, says (Documentary History, I., p. 283): "This cascade is as
+prodigious by reason of its height and the quantity of water which falls
+there, as on account of the variety of its falls, which are to the
+number of six principal ones divided by a small island, leaving three to
+the north and three to the south. They produce of themselves a singular
+symmetry and wonderful effect."
+
+[Illustration: LUNA FALL AND ISLAND IN WINTER]
+
+The geological indications are that Goat Island once embraced all the
+small islands lying near it, and also that it covered the whole of the
+rocky bar which stretches up stream some hundred and fifty rods above
+the head of the present island. At that period, from the depressions now
+visible in the rocky bed of the river, it would seem probable that the
+water cut channels through the modern drift corresponding with these
+depressions. In that case there would then have been a third fall in the
+American channel, north of Goat Island, lying between Luna Island and a
+small island then lying just north of the Little Horseshoe, and
+stretching up toward Chapin's Island. On the south side of Goat Island,
+there would have been a fall between its southern shore and an island
+then situated about two hundred feet farther south.
+
+The highest point in the American Fall, the salient and beautiful
+projection near the shore at Prospect Park, is upheld by a more
+substantial foundation than is revealed at any other accessible portion
+of the face of the precipice. This is made manifest on entering the
+"Shadow-of-the-Rock," where the spectator sees a massive wall of
+thoroughly indurated limestone, disposed in regular layers more than two
+feet in thickness, with faces as smooth as if dressed with the chisel.
+Passing in front of this, across the American Fall, under the Horseshoe
+and Table Rock, there must have been formerly a broad cleft of soft,
+friable limestone, to the disintegration and removal of which was due
+the great overhanging of the upper strata noticed by Father Hennepin and
+Baron La Hontan.
+
+For three miles above the Falls, the course of the river is almost due
+west. But after leaving the precipice it makes an acute angle with its
+former direction, and thence runs north-east to the railway suspension
+bridge. The formation of the rapids--one of the most beautiful features
+of the scene--is due to this change of direction. At no point below its
+present position could there have been such a prelude--musical as well
+as motional--to the great cataract. And when these rapids shall have
+disappeared in the receding flood it is not probable that there will be
+other rapids that can equal them in length, breadth, beauty, and power.
+
+The declivity in the lower channel through the gorge is ninety feet; but
+on the surface of the upper banks there is a rise of more than one
+hundred feet in the same direction--that is, down the river. Hence, when
+the Falls were at Lewiston they were more than two hundred and fifty
+feet high. Now the greatest descent is one hundred and sixty-eight feet,
+the diminution being the result of retrocession in the line of the
+dip--from north-east to south-west--in the bed-rock. It is owing to
+this dip that the surface of the water on the American side is ten feet
+higher than it is on the Canadian. The continuous column of water,
+however, is longest in the center of the Horseshoe, because of the
+fallen rock and _debris_ lying at the foot of the other portions of the
+Fall. At this time the upward slope of the bed-rock is such that--if it
+shall prove to be sufficiently hard--the Falls, after receding four
+miles farther, will be two hundred and twenty feet high.
+
+It is evident from the descriptions of Father Hennepin and of Baron La
+Hontan, that the upper stratum of rock over which the water falls must
+have projected beyond the face of the rock below much farther than it
+now does. The large masses of fallen rock lying at the foot of the
+American and Horse-shoe Falls are evidence of this fact. Travelers still
+go behind the sheet on the Canadian side, and into and through the Cave
+of the Winds, on the American side. But they do not expect to keep dry
+in so doing, nor to sun themselves on the rocks below, like the
+"rattlesnakes" of former days. Nevertheless, there is no more exciting
+nor exhilarating excursion to be made at the Falls than that through the
+Cave of the Winds.
+
+Nowhere else are the prismatic hues exhibited in such wonderful variety,
+nor in such surpassing brilliancy and beauty. And although a rainbow is
+not a spraybow, it may be admitted that a spraybow is a rainbow, formed
+of drops of water, large or small. So here rainbow dust and shattered
+rainbows are scattered around; rainbow bars and arches, horizontal and
+perpendicular, are flashing and forming, breaking and reforming, around
+and above the visitor in the most fantastic and delightful confusion of
+form and effect. And if his fancy prompts him, he may arrange himself as
+a portrait, at half or full length, in an annular bow. The enamored
+Strephon may literally place his charming Delia in a living, sparkling
+rainbow-frame, flecked all over with diamonds and pearls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     The name Niagara--The musical dialect of the Hurons--Niagara one of
+     the oldest of Indian names--Description of the river, the Falls,
+     and the surrounding country.
+
+
+There is in some words a mystic power which it is not easy to analyze or
+define; they fascinate the ear even of those who do not understand their
+meaning. The very sound of them as they are enunciated by the human
+voice touches a chord to which the heart instinctively responds. So it
+is with the name of the great cataract. No one can hear it correctly
+pronounced without being charmed with its rhythmical beauty, or without
+feeling confident of its poetical aptness and significance in the
+dialect from which it was derived.
+
+And although we have no means of determining the correctness of any of
+the fanciful or poetical interpretations which have been given of the
+word, still we cannot doubt that it must have had a peculiar force and
+justness with those who first applied it. Baron La Hontan, who spent
+several years among the Indians, noticed the remarkable fact concerning
+their language that it had no labials. "Nevertheless," he says, "the
+language of the Hurons appears very beautiful, and the sound of it
+perfectly charming, although, in speaking it, they never close their
+lips."
+
+The most voluminous and among the earliest existing records connected
+with the River St. Lawrence, and the great lakes which it drains, are
+the well-known "Relations of the Jesuits," so called, comprising a
+yearly account of the labors of the Missionary Fathers sent out by the
+College at Paris to Christianize the Indians. In 1615, they established
+their mission at Quebec, and from thence extended their operations
+westward. In 1626, they reached the large and powerful tribe of Indians
+which occupied the splendid domain which may be described with proximate
+accuracy as bounded by a line commencing at a point on the southerly
+shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles west of the mouth of the
+Genesee River, and running thence parallel to that river to a point due
+west from Avon; thence nearly due west to Buffalo; thence along the
+north shore of Lake Erie to the Detroit River; thence up that river to a
+point directly west from the west end of Lake Ontario; thence east to
+that lake, and finally along the southern shore of it to the place of
+beginning.
+
+The oldest and most notable name in all this territory is NIAGARA, as
+would naturally be inferred, when we consider the varied and wonderful
+features of the mighty river which flows across this country. Taking
+leave of Lake Erie, its clear waters gradually spread themselves out in
+a broad, bright channel, over a plain, open country, having a slight
+declivity, just sufficient to make a gentle current, thereby adding the
+living beauty and force of motion to the broad expanse of a lake-like
+surface, that surface itself diversified and relieved by the pleasant
+islands, large and small, which are scattered over it. Eddying into
+every quiet bay, coquetting with every salient angle, moving to the
+melody of its own murmurs, it flows on serenely and musically.
+
+But after a time this holiday journey is interrupted. A fearful change
+takes place. The careless waters are hurried down a long and sharp
+descent, over the rough, denuded, bowlder-studded bed-rock of the
+stream. Breaking and bounding, surging and resurging, flashing and
+foaming, rushing fiercely upon some huge bowlder, recoiling an instant,
+then madly leaping entirely over it, rushing on to others huger still,
+then breaking wildly around them, the troubled waters hurry on until,
+culminating in their sublimest aspect, they plunge sheer downward in the
+grandest of cataracts.
+
+And now the scene and the effect it produces on the beholder both
+change. The rapids are beautiful; the falls are grand; those are
+exhilarating, these are inspiring; those are noisy, turbulent, fickle;
+these are calm, resistless, inexorable.
+
+After the water has made the final plunge over the precipice the
+cataract acquires its most impressive characteristics; the majestic
+monotone, the bow, the cloud, which is its veil by night, its crowning
+glory and beauty by day. The combinations of grandeur and beauty have
+reached their climax in the fall, the foam, the voice, the spray, the
+bow.
+
+[Illustration: THE RAPIDS ABOVE THE FALLS]
+
+The chasm of the river from the Falls to Lewiston will be sufficiently
+described in treating of the geology of the district. From Lewiston to
+Lake Ontario, seven miles, the waters of the river flow on through an
+elevated and fertile plain, in a strong, calm, majestic current, smiling
+with dimples and reversed in occasional eddies, but neither broken by
+rapids nor impeded by islands. Finally it is lost in the lake, after
+passing an immense bar formed by the enormous mass of sedimentary matter
+carried down by its own current. The landscape, as seen from the top of
+the terrace above Lewiston, is one of the finest and most extensive of
+its peculiar character which can be found on the continent, all its
+features being such as appertain to a broad, open country.
+
+The visitor at Niagara, as he looks at the Falls, will have a profounder
+appreciation of their magnitude by considering that it requires the
+water drainage of a quarter of a continent to sustain them, and that the
+remoter springs, which send to them their constant tribute, are more
+than twelve hundred miles distant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Niagara a tribal name--Other names given to the tribe--The Niagaras
+     a superior race--The true pronunciation of Indian words.
+
+
+The name Niagara has been so thoroughly identified with the river and
+the Falls that the question whether it was also the name of an Indian
+nation or tribe has been quite neglected. It is proposed now to give the
+question some consideration, assuming, at once, its affirmative to be
+true. This, it is believed, we shall be justified in doing by every
+principle of analogy. We know that it was a general practice of the
+Indians who occupied this region of country, so abounding in lakes and
+rivers, to give the name of the nation or tribe to, or to name them
+after, the most prominent bodies and courses of water found in their
+territory. Such was the fact with the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas,
+Onondagas, and Hurons, the tribal name of each being perpetuated both in
+a lake and a river. The Mohawks, the warrior tribe of the Six Nations,
+having no noted lake within their boundaries, left a perpetual memorial
+of themselves in the name of a beautiful river. The unwarlike Eries,
+too, though finally exterminated by their more powerful and aggressive
+neighbors, the Iroquois, are still remembered in the lake which bears
+their name.
+
+With the Niagaras the river and the cataract were the most notable and
+impressive features of their territory. Their principal village bore the
+same name; and when we recall the proverbial vanity of the race, we can
+hardly doubt that this must also have been their tribal name. That it
+should have been perpetuated in reference to the village, the river, and
+the falls, and that the use of it, in reference to the tribe, should
+have lapsed, can be readily understood when we recollect that they had
+two substitutes for the tribal name. One of these substitutes is
+explained at page 70 of the "Relations" of 1641, in a passage which we
+translate as follows: "Our Hurons call the Neuter Nation
+_Attouanderonks_, as though they would say a people of a little
+different language: for as to those nations that speak a language of
+which they understand nothing, they call them _Attouankes_, whatever
+nation they may be, or as though they spoke of strangers. They of the
+Neuter Nation in turn, and for the same reason, call our Hurons
+_Attouanderonks_."
+
+Thus it would seem that this was a mere title of convenience used to
+indicate a certain fact, namely, a difference of language. The other
+substitute by which the nation was best known among their white brethren
+will be understood by an extract from a letter contained in the same
+"Relations," and written from St. Mary's Mission on the river Severn, by
+Father Lalement. In it he gives an account of a journey made by the
+Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumont to the country of the
+_Neuter Nation_, as the Niagaras were called by the Hurons on the north
+and the Iroquois on the south of them, learning it, as they did, from
+the French. The letter says: "Our French, who first discovered this
+people, named them the _Neuter Nation_, and not without reason, for
+their country being the ordinary passage by land, between some of the
+Iroquois nations and the Hurons, who are sworn enemies, they remained at
+peace with both; so that in times past the Hurons and the Iroquois,
+meeting in the same wigwam or village of that nation, were both in
+safety while they remained. There are some things in which they differ
+from our Hurons. They are larger, stronger, and better formed. They also
+entertain a great affection for the dead. * * * The Sonontonheronons
+[Senecas], one of the Iroquois nations the nearest to and most dreaded
+by the Hurons, are not more than a day's journey distant from the
+easternmost village of the Neuter Nation, named Onguiaahra [Niagara], of
+the same name as the river."
+
+It would seem, then, that this name, Neuter Nation, as applied to this
+tribe, was an appellation used merely to indicate a peculiarity of its
+location, or of the relation in which it stood to the hostile tribes
+living to the north and south of it. The Indians, it is needless to say,
+were not philologists, and seem not to have objected to the names
+applied to them, nor to have criticised the erroneous pronunciation of
+words of their own dialects.
+
+In the extract given above, the name of our river first appears in type.
+Its orthography will be noted as peculiar. It is one of forty different
+ways of spelling the name, thirty-nine of which are given in the index
+volume of the Colonial History of New York, and the fortieth, the most
+pertinent to our present purpose, in Drake's "Book of the Indians,"
+seventh edition. Prefixed to "Book First" is a "Table of the Principal
+Tribes," in which we find the following:
+
+"Nicariagas, once about Michilimakinak; joined the Iroquois in 1723."
+
+M. Charlevoix, apparently using the facts stated in one of Lalement's
+letters and quoting also a portion of its language, says: "A people
+larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages, and who
+lived south of the Huron country, were visited by the Jesuits, who
+preached to them the Kingdom of God. They were called the Neuter Nation,
+because they took no part in the wars which desolated the country. But
+in the end they could not themselves escape entire destruction. To avoid
+the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined them against the Hurons,
+but gained nothing by the union." Later, he says they were destroyed
+about the year 1643. But we have before observed that Father Raugeneau
+states that their destruction occurred in 1651. The tribe mentioned by
+Drake was probably a remnant that escaped in the final overthrow of
+their nation in this last-named year, and sought refuge at Mackinaw,
+among the Hurons, who had previously retreated to this almost
+inaccessible locality, in order, also, to escape from the all-conquering
+Iroquois. After the lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, when
+the hostility of the latter had subsided, and they had themselves been
+weakened and subdued by the whites, the wretched remnant of the
+Niagaras, with that strong love of home so characteristic of the Indian,
+returned to their native hunting-grounds, where they remained for a few
+years, and then joined their conquerors in that mournful procession of
+their race toward the setting sun. If there were a Nemesis for nations
+as well as for individuals, it would be fearful to contemplate the time
+when the Anglo-Saxon should be called on to pay the "long arrears" of
+the Indians' "bloody debt."
+
+[Illustration: THE YOUNGEST INHABITANT]
+
+Returning to the orthography of our name, we find on Sanson's map of
+Canada, published in Paris in 1657, that it is shortened into "Oniagra,"
+and on Coronelli's map of the same region, published in Paris in 1688,
+it crystallizes into _Niagara_. There is also on this map a village
+located on or near the site of Buffalo, designated as follows:
+"_Kah-kou-a-go-gah, a destroyed nation_." This name bears a closer
+resemblance to the true one than several of the forty to which we have
+just referred, and if it be reduced to Kahkwa it would still be only a
+corrupt abbreviation of Niagara.
+
+More than fifty years ago, while leisurely traveling through western New
+York, the writer well remembers how his youthful ears were charmed with
+the flowing cadences of the better class of Indians, as they intoned
+rather than spoke the beautiful names which their ancestors had given to
+different localities. Every vowel was fully sounded.
+
+O-N-E-I-D-A was then Oh-ne-i-dah; C-A-Y-U-G-A was Kah-yu-gah;
+G-E-N-E-S-E-E was Gen-e-se-e; C-A-N-A-N-D-A-I-G-U-A was
+Kan-nan-dar-quah, and N-I-A-G-A-R-A was Ni-ah-gah-rah.
+
+In regard to the name, the pronunciation nearest to the original which
+it may be possible to perpetuate is Ni-ag-a-rah; the accent on the
+second syllable, the vowel in the first pronounced as in the word
+_nigh_; the _a_ in the third and fourth syllables but slightly
+abbreviated from the long _a_ in _far_, and that in the second syllable
+but slightly aspirated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     The lower Niagara--Fort Niagara--Fort Mississauga--Niagara
+     Village--Lewiston--Portage around the Falls--The first railroad in
+     the United States--Fort Schlosser--The ambuscade at Devil's
+     Hole--La Salle's vessel, the _Griffin_--The Niagara frontier.
+
+
+From the earliest visit of the French missionaries and _voyageurs_ to
+the lake region, the banks of the lower Niagara were to them a favorite
+locality. Very early they were cleared of the grand forest which covered
+them, and the genial, fertile, and easily worked soil, enriched by the
+deep vegetable mold that had been accumulating upon it for centuries,
+produced in lavish abundance wheat, maize, garden vegetables, and
+fruits, large and small. "On the 6th day of December, 1678," says
+Marshall, "La Salle, in his brigantine of ten tons, doubled the point
+where Fort Niagara now stands, and anchored in the sheltered waters of
+the river. The prosecution of his bold enterprise at that inclement
+season, involving the exploration of a vast and unknown country, in
+vessels built on the way, indicates the indomitable energy and
+self-reliance of the intrepid discoverer. His crew consisted of sixteen
+persons, under the immediate command of the Sieur de la Motte. The
+grateful Franciscans chanted '_Te Deum laudamus_' as they entered the
+noble river. The strains of that ancient hymn of the Church, as they
+rose from the deck of the adventurous bark, and echoed from shore and
+forest, must have startled the watchful Senecas with the unusual sound,
+as they gazed upon their strange visitors. Never before had white men,
+so far as history tells us, ascended the river."
+
+La Salle rested here for a time, but no defensive work was constructed
+until 1687, when the Marquis De Nonville, returning from his famous
+expedition against the Senecas, fortified it, after the fashion of the
+time, with palisades and ditches. The small garrison of one hundred men
+which he left were obliged to abandon it the following season, after
+partially destroying it. By consent of the Iroquois it was reconstructed
+in stone in 1725-6.
+
+Opposite to Fort Niagara, which is on the American side at the mouth of
+the river, are Fort Mississauga and the village of Niagara, formerly
+Newark, on the Canadian side. The village was captured by the English in
+1759, and occupied for a time by Sir William Johnson, who completed here
+his treaty with the Indians by which they released to him the land on
+both sides of the river. The first Provincial Parliament was held here
+in 1792, under the authority of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe. In the same
+year the place was visited by the father of Queen Victoria. The pioneer
+newspaper of the Province was published here in 1795, and although it
+ceased soon after to be the seat of government, which was removed to
+York (now Toronto), still it was a thriving village of about five
+thousand inhabitants until the completion of the Welland canal, which
+entirely diverted its trade and commerce, and left it to the
+uninterrupted quiet of a rural town. Several Americans have purchased
+dwellings in the place for summer occupation. A mile above was Fort
+George, now a ruin.
+
+Seven miles above the mouth of the river, at the head of navigation,
+nestling at the foot of the so-called mountain, is Lewiston, named in
+1805 in honor of Governor Lewis, of New York. Here, in 1678, La Salle
+"constructed a cabin of palisades to serve as a magazine or storehouse."
+And this was the commencement of the portage to the river above the
+Falls, which passed over nearly the same route as the present road from
+Lewiston, which is still called the Portage Road. Here, too, the first
+railway in the United States was constructed. True, it was built of
+wood, and was called a tram-way. But a car was run upon it to transport
+goods up and down the mountain The motion of the car was regulated by a
+windlass, and it was supported on runners instead of wheels. This was a
+very good arrangement for getting freight down the hill, but not so good
+for getting it up. But the wages of labor were low in every sense, since
+many of the Indians, demoralized by the use of those two most pestilent
+drugs, rum and tobacco, would do a day's work for a pint of the former
+and a plug of the latter.
+
+The upper terminus of this portage was for many years merely an open
+landing-place for canoes and boats. In 1750, the French constructed a
+strong stockade-work on the bank of the river, above their barracks and
+storehouses. This they called Fort du Portage. It was burnt, in 1759, by
+Chabert Joncaire, who was in command of it when the British commenced
+the formidable and fatal campaign of that year against the French. After
+Fort Niagara was surrendered to Sir William Johnson, Joncaire retired
+with his small garrison to the station on Chippewa Creek.
+
+In less than two years the work was rebuilt in a much more substantial
+manner by Captain Joseph Schlosser, a German who served in the British
+army in that campaign. It had the outline of a tolerably regular
+fortification, with rude bastions and connecting curtains, surrounded by
+a somewhat formidable ditch. The interior plateau was a little elevated
+and surrounded by an earth embankment piled against the inner side of
+the palisades, over which its defenders could fire with great effect.
+
+When the writer first saw its remains, the outlines and ditches of the
+work were distinct. Only some slight inequalities in the surface now
+indicate its site. Captain Schlosser was afterward promoted to the rank
+of colonel, and died in the fort. An oak slab, on which his name was
+cut, was standing at his grave just above the fort as late as the year
+1808.
+
+Some sixty rods below is still standing what is believed to be the first
+civilized chimney built in this part of the country. It is a large and
+most substantial stone structure, around which the French built their
+barracks. These were burnt by Joncaire on his retreat. A large
+dwelling-house was built to it by the English, which afforded shelter
+for many different occupants until it was burnt in 1813. Its last
+occupant, before it was destroyed, kept it as a tavern, which became a
+favorite place for festive and holiday gatherings. What hath been may be
+again. When the Falls shall have receded two miles, the brides and
+grooms of that age will find their Cataract House near the site of old
+Fort Schlosser.
+
+To the west of this old stone chimney stand the few surviving trees of
+the first apple orchard set out in this region. As early as 1796, it is
+described as being a "well-fenced orchard, containing 1200 trees." Not
+fifty are now standing.
+
+Across the river from Lewiston is Queenston, so named in honor of Queen
+Charlotte. The battle which bears its name was fought on the 13th of
+October, 1813, between the American and British armies. The former
+crossed the river, made the attack, and carried the heights. The
+commander of the British forces, General Brock, and one of his aids,
+Colonel McDonald, were killed. The British were reenforced, and the
+American militia refusing to cross over to aid the Americans, the latter
+were obliged to return across the river, leaving a number of prisoners
+in the hands of the enemy. Some years afterward, the Colonial Parliament
+caused a fine monument to be erected on the heights to the memory of
+General Brock. It presents a conspicuous and imposing appearance from
+the terrace below.
+
+[Illustration: MOUTH OF THE CHASM AND BROCK'S MONUMENT]
+
+Two miles and a quarter above Lewiston is the Devil's Hole, famous as
+the scene of a short supplementary campaign, made against the English,
+by the Seneca Indians, in 1763. Though doubtless instigated by French
+traders, it was a purely Indian enterprise, gotten up among themselves,
+and commanded by Farmer's Brother, one of the Seneca chiefs, who was a
+fighter as well as an orator. It was one of the best planned and most
+successfully executed military stratagems ever recorded. It was
+calculated upon the nicest balancing of facts and probabilities, and
+executed with unrivaled thoroughness and celerity.
+
+It was known to the Indians that the English were in the habit, almost
+daily, of sending supply trains, under escort, from Fort Niagara to Fort
+Schlosser. After unloading at the latter post, they returned to the
+former. They knew also that there was a smaller supporting force of one
+or two companies at Lewiston, which could join the escort from Fort
+Niagara, in case of an extra valuable train, and that the whole force at
+both places was not large enough to furnish an escort of more than four
+hundred men; they knew that the narrow pass at the Devil's Hole was the
+best point to place the ambuscade; also that when the train went up they
+could see whether its escort was large or small, and so they would know
+whether they should concentrate their force to attack the larger escort,
+or divide it and attack the train and small escort first and the
+relieving force afterward. They conjectured that the train would have a
+small escort; but if it should have a large one, so much the better, as
+there would be a larger number in a small space for their balls to
+riddle. They conjectured also that, if the escort were small, the firing
+on the first attack would be heard by the soldiers at Lewiston, and that
+they would hurry to the relief of their comrades, not dreaming of danger
+before they should reach them.
+
+The fatal result demonstrated the correctness of their reasoning. They
+made a double ambuscade: one for the train and escort, the other for the
+relieving force; and they destroyed them both, only three of the first
+escaping and eight of the latter. This event occurred on the 14th of
+September, 1773. John Stedman commanded the supply train. At the first
+fire of the Indians, seeing the fatal snare, he wheeled his horse at
+once, and, spurring him through a gauntlet of bullets, reached Schlosser
+in safety. A wounded soldier concealed himself in the bushes, and the
+drummer-boy lodged in a tree as he fell down the bank. Eight of the
+relieving force escaped to Fort Niagara to tell the story of their
+defeat.
+
+Three miles above Schlosser is Cayuga Creek, near the mouth of which La
+Salle built the _Griffin_, a vessel of sixty tons burden, the first
+civilized craft that floated on the upper lakes, and the pioneer of an
+inland commerce of unrivaled growth and value. She reached Green Bay
+safely, but on her return voyage foundered with all on board in Lake
+Huron.
+
+The French also built some small vessels on Navy Island. The
+reenforcements sent from Venango for the French, during the siege of
+Fort Niagara by Sir William Johnson, in 1759, were landed on this
+island. To the east of it there is a large deep basin, formed at the
+foot of the channel, between Grand and Buckhorn islands. The upper part
+of this channel being narrow, the basin appears like a bay. In this bay
+the French burnt and sunk the two vessels, as is supposed, which brought
+down the Venango reenforcements; hence the name "Burnt Ship Bay." The
+writer has seen the ribs and timbers of these vessels beneath the water,
+and caught many fine perch which had their haunts near them. The Niagara
+frontier was the theater of great activity during the War of 1812.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.--GEOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     America the old world--Geologically recent origin of the
+     Falls--Evidence thereof--Captain Williams's surveys for a ship
+     canal--Former extent of Lake Michigan--Its outlet into the Illinois
+     River--The Niagara barrier--How broken through--The birth of
+     Niagara.
+
+
+If Professor Agassiz and Elie De Beaumont are correct in their
+geological reading, America is the old world rather than the new, and
+the northern portion of it, stretching from Lake Huron eastward to
+Labrador and northward toward the Arctic, was the first to be lifted
+into the genial light of the sun. And Professor Lyell has recourse to
+the vast stellar spaces for a standard by which to estimate "the
+interval of time which divides the human epoch from the origin of the
+coralline limestone over which the Niagara is precipitated at the
+Falls." "The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas," he continues, "have not
+only begun to exist as lofty mountain chains, but the solid materials of
+which they are composed have been slowly elaborated beneath the sea
+within the stupendous interval of ages here alluded to."
+
+A little more than thirty years ago, Professor Agassiz made a tour to
+the Upper Lakes with a class of students, for the purpose of giving them
+practical lessons in geology and other branches of natural science. The
+day was devoted to outdoor examinations of different localities, and in
+the evening was given a familiar lecture expository of the day's work.
+One of the places thus visited was Niagara, and it was the writer's
+good-fortune to be able to listen to the instructive lecture which
+followed the examination. Professor Agassiz concurs with other
+geologists in the opinion that the Falls were once at Lewiston, and one
+of the most interesting portions of the lecture was his animated
+description of the retrocession of the Falls, traced step by step back
+to their present position. From this oral exposition, from other high
+geological authorities, and from personal observation extending through
+a quarter of a century, the writer has derived the facts herein
+presented.
+
+There can be no doubt that at a comparatively recent geological period
+the Falls of Niagara had no existence. It may suffice to mention two
+facts which are conclusive on this point. Dr. Houghton, geologist of the
+State of Michigan, stated in his report that the elevation of Lake
+Michigan above tide-water is five hundred and seventy-eight feet. That
+of Lake Erie, as shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal, is five hundred
+and sixty-eight feet, the difference of level between the two being ten
+feet. The fall or descent in the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Gill
+Creek, a few rods above the site of old Fort Schlosser, is twenty feet.
+Hence we learn that the surface of the water in Lake Michigan is thirty
+feet higher than that of the Niagara River near the mouth of Gill
+Creek. If, therefore, we find anywhere below the Falls a barrier drawn
+across this river that is more than thirty feet high, its water would
+thereby be set back to Lake Michigan. A moderate elevation above this
+thirty feet would serve as a safe shore-line for still water.
+
+The existence of this barrier has been demonstrated. In the year 1835,
+by direction of the War Department, Captain W. G. Williams, of the
+United States Topographical Engineers, surveyed three routes for a canal
+around Niagara Falls. The first of these routes was run from the river
+nearly in a straight line to the head of Bloody Run, and thence a
+portion of the way over the terrace laid bare by the rapid subsidence of
+the water after the barrier had been broken through. The second route,
+commencing at the same point with the first,--the old Schlosser
+Storehouse, just above Gill Creek,--was run up the valley of the creek,
+through the ridge above Lewiston, at a slight depression in the general
+line of the hill, and thence to Lake Ontario by two different routes.
+The highest point in the ridge was found to be sixty feet above the
+surface of the water in the river at the starting point. Here, then, is
+found the requisite barrier--a dam thirty feet higher than the water in
+Lake Michigan, and having a base, as will be seen by reference to the
+map, of two and a half miles in breadth. This was its breadth at the
+time of the survey. But a careful observance of the topography of the
+banks on both sides of the river will show that it must have been
+originally not less than twice that breadth, and that the depressions
+now existing are the results of the denudation caused by the removal of
+the barrier.
+
+While this barrier was unbroken, Lake Erie as extended would have
+covered all land that was not twenty-six feet higher than the present
+level of the river at old Schlosser landing, since the water there is
+sixteen feet below the level of Lake Erie. It is not difficult to trace
+this barrier on a good map. From old Fort Grey it stretches eastward a
+short distance past Batavia, and thence turns to the south through
+Wyoming into Cattaraugus County. In the latter county it forms the
+summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal. This summit is a swamp sixteen
+hundred and twenty-three feet above tide water, and the water runs from
+it northerly through the Genesee River into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
+and southerly, through the Alleghany, into the Gulf of Mexico, while
+within a short distance rises Cattaraugus Creek which flows west into
+Lake Erie.
+
+The gradual rise of the Niagara barrier as it extends to the east was
+demonstrated by the surveys of Captain Williams. By the Gill Creek line
+to Lewiston he found its elevation above the river, as has been stated,
+to be sixty feet. By the Cayuga Creek line to Pekin it was sixty-four
+feet, and by the Tonawanda Creek line to Lockport it was eighty-four
+feet, as is also shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal.
+
+To the west the barrier extends from Brock's Monument to the ridge which
+bounds the westerly side of the valley of the Chippewa Creek, and thence
+around the head of Lake Ontario into the Simcoe Hills.
+
+At that period all the islands in the Niagara River valley were
+submerged. The lower sections of the valleys of the Chippewa, Cayuga,
+Tonawanda, and Buffalo creeks were also submerged. The site of Buffalo
+was, probably, a small island, and many other similar islands were
+scattered over the broad expanse of water.
+
+And this brings us to our second cardinal fact. Lake Michigan, having
+absorbed or spread over all the vast water-links in the great chain
+between Superior and Ontario, was the most stupendous body of fresh
+water on the globe. Its drainage was to the south, through the valleys
+of the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers, into the
+Gulf of Mexico. The evidence of this fact is abundant. The survey of the
+Illinois Central Railroad shows that the surface of Lake Michigan is
+three hundred feet above the line of low water in the Ohio River at
+Cairo, where it joins the Mississippi. It also shows that the low-water
+line of the Kankakee, where the railroad crosses it, is eleven feet
+above the surface of the lake. This river, which forms the north-eastern
+branch of the Illinois, rises in the State of Indiana, near South Bend,
+two miles from the St. Joseph. From its very commencement at its
+head-springs it is a shallow channel in the middle of a swamp,--called
+on the maps the "Kankakee Pond,"--nearly a hundred miles long, and from
+two to five miles wide. On its north side, in Porter County, is a broad
+cove, with a small stream in the midst of it, which reaches up due north
+to within a stone's-throw of the south branch of the East Calumick
+River, which empties into the south-west corner of Lake Michigan.
+
+More than thirty years ago, while traveling by stage from Logansport,
+Indiana, to Chicago, the writer was told by a fellow-passenger that it
+was not an unusual thing, on the occurrence of a strong north wind
+during the spring floods, to cross with boats from this branch of the
+East Calumick into the Kankakee Pond through this cove. We have not been
+able to obtain any authentic topographical survey which shows the
+elevation that must be overcome in order to effect this meeting of the
+waters.
+
+Again: The river Des Plaines rises near the northern line of the State
+of Illinois, and running south parallel with the lake shore, at its
+junction with the Kankakee forms the Illinois. The Des Plaines is only
+ten miles west of Chicago. One of its eastern tributaries rises very
+near the head-waters of the south branch of the Chicago River, and
+often, when flooded by heavy rains, its waters flow over into the lake.
+At this point, also, the Jesuits and the early settlers were in the
+habit of crossing in their boats to the Des Plaines, and thence into the
+Illinois. The writer was informed by Colonel William A. Bird, the last
+Surveyor-in-Chief of the Boundary Commission, that when the party was at
+Mackinaw, in the spring of 1820, Mr. Ramsey Crooks, the adventurous and
+enterprising agent of John Jacob Astor, came up to that place from
+Joliet on the Illinois in one of the big canoes so generally used at
+that day for navigating the lakes, and that Mr. Crooks informed them
+that he crossed from the Des Plaines into Lake Michigan without taking
+his canoe out of the water. The deep cut in the Illinois and Michigan
+Canal, recently excavated by the city of Chicago in order to improve its
+sewer drainage, is quite uniform at its upper surface, and is sixteen to
+eighteen feet deep for a distance of twenty-six miles. The bottom of
+this cut is six feet below the lowest water-mark ever noted in the
+lake. At the point where the deep cut reaches the Des Plaines, it is ten
+feet lower than the bottom of the river. It is sixteen miles further
+down before the bottom of the cut and the river coincide with each
+other. Nearly the whole of this distance it is necessary to maintain a
+guard-bank, to protect the canal from the inundations of the river. Here
+we find there is a dam, only about twelve feet high, that once separated
+the waters of the lake from those of the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+There were, therefore, two courses through which the waters of Lake
+Michigan could once have passed into the Illinois--the first through the
+Des Plaines, and the second from the head-springs of the East Calumick
+into the great north cove of the Kankakee Pond. When we consider the
+immense drainage which must have been discharged through these channels
+into the valley of the Illinois, we can well understand the gigantic
+proportions of that valley when compared with the stream which now flows
+through it. The perpendicular and water-worn sides of Starved Rock,
+below Ottawa, attest the magnitude of the lake-like floods which must
+once have dashed around them.
+
+Having established the existence of the Niagara barrier, it remains to
+analyze its structure, and then to search out the agencies by which it
+was broken down. First, in regard to its organization. An examination of
+the locality reveals the fact that the portion of the ridge lying
+between old Fort Grey and Brock's Monument was of a peculiar character.
+At the former point the hard, compact clay had in it but a slight
+mixture of gray loam and sand. At the latter point, fine gravel was
+plentifully mingled with this loam. This latter mass, being quite
+porous, would rapidly become saturated with water, and its component
+parts be easily separated. The declivity of the high, hard, clay bank,
+down to the rock at the edge of the precipice, is abrupt on the American
+side, while on the opposite side the ascent toward Brock's Monument and
+above is gradual. This formation extends upward about one mile and a
+half, when the gravel and loam disappear, and the hard clay succeeds and
+continues upward with a gradual downward slope nearly to the Falls.
+
+This upper drift was about twenty feet thick, and rested on a laminated
+stratum of the Niagara limestone. This stratum, though quite compact,
+and having its seams closely jointed, was not so thoroughly indurated as
+the lower strata of the Niagara group, and its thin plates were more
+easily displaced and broken up. The depression marked in the sixth mile
+of the profile referred to was evidently cut out by the waters of Fish
+Creek, after the barrier had been removed, since the land near the
+head-waters of this stream is higher than at the point where the line
+runs through the ridge. It is also noticeable that the ridge, at this
+point, approaches the brink of the escarpment more nearly than at any
+other, and the sharp declivity of its northern face is clearly shown on
+the profile in the accompanying map.
+
+Within the last century there have been two, and perhaps more, large
+tidal waves on the Great Lakes. There have also been many severe gales,
+which have inundated the low lands around their shores, and attacked,
+with destructive effect, their higher banks. One of these gales is
+mentioned in another place. It came from about two points north of west,
+and, as noted, raised the water six feet on the rapids above the Falls.
+In the narrow portions of the river above, it must have elevated the
+water still more. Of course a much higher rise would have been produced
+by the force of such a gale acting upon the vastly increased surface of
+the larger lake.
+
+The first serious impression upon the Niagara barrier must have been
+made by these two mighty forces. By them, undoubtedly, was made the
+first breach over its top, thus commencing that slow but sure denudation
+which finally reached the rock below. And by their aid even the rock
+itself was removed.
+
+Here, then, is the composition and structure of our dam. It is thirty
+feet high, with a base two and a half miles certainly, and probably
+five, in width. How to break through it is the problem to be solved by
+the great inland sea which laves it, so that the water may flow onward
+and downward to the Atlantic.
+
+Fortunately we have, all along the shores of our inland lakes, an annual
+demonstration of the method by which such problems are solved. A
+constant abrasion of their banks is produced by the action of water,
+frost, and ice. And these are the resistless elements which, by their
+persistent and powerful action during the lapse of ages, excavated a
+channel for the waters of the Niagara. The gradual upward slope of the
+rock and the thick upper drift broke the force of the huge waves that
+were occasionally dashed upon them. Their position could not have been
+more favorable to resist attack. It was a Malakoff of earth on a
+foundation of rock. Little by little the refluent waves carried back
+portions of the crumbled mass, and deposited them in the neighboring
+depressions. Slowly, wearily, desultorily, the erosion and desquamation
+went on. At last the upper drift was broken down, and its crumbled
+remains were swept from the rock.
+
+Then the insidious forces of heat and cold, sun and frost became potent.
+The thin laminae of limestone were loosened by the frost, broken up and
+disintegrated. At last a thin sheet of water was driven through the
+gorge by some fierce gale. The steep declivity of the counterscarp was
+then fatally attacked, and after a time its perpendicular face was laid
+bare. Thenceforth the elements had the top and one end of the rocky mass
+to work on, and they worked at a tremendous advantage. The breaking up
+and disintegration of the rock went on. It was gradually crumbled into
+sand, which was washed off by the rains or swept away by the winds.
+Finally a channel was excavated, of which the bottom was lower than the
+surface of the great lake above; the sparkling waters rushed in, dashed
+over the precipice, and Niagara was born.
+
+As the water worked its way over the precipice gradually, so it would
+gradually excavate its channel to Lake Ontario, and it is not probable
+that any great inundation of the lower terrace could have occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Composition of the terrace cut through--Why retrocession is
+     possible--Three sections from Lewiston to the Falls--Devil's
+     Hole--The Medina group--Recession long checked--The Whirlpool--The
+     narrowest part of the river--The mirror--Depth of the water in the
+     chasm--Former grand Fall.
+
+
+The water having laid bare the face of the mountain barrier from top to
+bottom, we are enabled to examine the composition of the mass through
+which it slowly cut its way. After removing the thin plates of the upper
+stratum, as we descend, according to Professor Hall, we find:
+
+1. Niagara limestone--compact and geodiferous.
+
+2. Soft argillo-calcareous shale.
+
+3. Compact gray limestone.
+
+4. Thin layers of green shale.
+
+5. Gray and mottled sandstone, constituting with those below the Medina
+group.
+
+6. Red shale and marl, with thin courses of sandstone near the top.
+
+7. Gray quartzose sandstone.
+
+8. Red shaly sandstone and marl.
+
+Before reaching the Whirlpool the mass becomes, practically, resolved
+into numbers three, four, and five, the limestone, as a general rule,
+growing thicker and harder, and the shale also, as we follow up the
+stream.
+
+The reason why retrocession of the Falls is possible is found in the
+occurrence of the shale noted above as underlying the rock. It is a
+species of indurated clay, harder or softer according to the pressure to
+which it may have been subjected. When protected from the action of the
+elements it retains its hardness, but when exposed to them it gradually
+softens and crumbles away. After a time the superstratum of rock, which
+is full of cracks and seams, is undermined and precipitated into the
+chasm below. If the stratum of shale lies at or near the bottom of the
+channel below the Falls, it will be measurably protected from the action
+of the elements. In this case retrocession will necessarily be very
+gradual. If above the Falls the shale projects upward from the channel
+below, then in proportion to the elevation and thickness of its stratum
+will be the ease and rapidity of disintegration and retrocession. The
+shale furnishes, therefore, a good standard by which to determine the
+comparative rapidity with which the retrocession has been accomplished
+at different points.
+
+From the base of the escarpment at Lewiston up the narrow bend in the
+channel above Devil's Hole, a distance of four and a quarter miles, the
+shale varies in thickness above the water, from one hundred and thirty
+feet at the commencement of the gorge, to one hundred and ten feet at
+the upper extremity of the bend. Here, although there is very little
+upward curve in the limestone, there is yet a decided curve upward in
+the Medina group, noticed above, composed mainly of a hard, red
+sandstone. It projects across the chasm, and also extends upward to near
+the neck of the Whirlpool, where it dips suddenly downward. The two
+strata of shale, becoming apparently united, follow its dip and also
+extend upward until they reach their maximum elevation near the middle
+of the Whirlpool. Thence the shale gradually dips again to the Railway
+Suspension Bridge, three-quarters of a mile above. For the remaining one
+and a half miles from this bridge to the present site of the Falls the
+dip is downward. We may then divide this reach of the Niagara River into
+three sections:
+
+First. From Lewiston to the upper end of the Bend above Devil's Hole.
+
+Second. Thence to the head of the rapid above the Railway Suspension
+Bridge.
+
+Third. Thence to the present site of the Falls.
+
+We are now prepared to consider these sections with reference to the
+retrocession of the fall of water. Through the first section the shale,
+as before noted, lying much above the water surface, and the superposed
+limestone being rather soft and thinner than at any point above, the
+retreat was probably quite uniform and comparatively rapid, about the
+same progress being made in each of the many centuries required to
+accomplish its whole length. Professor James Hall, in his able and
+interesting Report on the Geology of the Fourth District of the State of
+New York, suggests the probability of there having been three distinct
+Falls, one below the other, for some distance up-stream, when the
+retrocession first began. The average width of this section between the
+banks is one thousand feet. About one mile below its upper extremity is
+"Devil's Hole," a side-chasm cut out of the American bank of the river
+by a small stream called "Bloody Run," which, in heavy rains, forms a
+torrent. The "Hole" has been made by the detrition and washing out of
+the shale and the fall of the overlying rock. A short distance above, on
+the Canadian side, lies Foster's Glen, a singular and extensive lateral
+excavation left dry by the receding flood. The cliff at its upper end is
+bare and water-worn, showing that the arc or curve of the Falls must
+have been greater here than at any point below.
+
+Near the upper end of this section there is a rocky cape, which juts out
+from the Canadian bank, and reaches nearly two-thirds of the distance
+across the chasm. At this point the great Fall met with a more obstinate
+and longer continued resistance than at any other, for the reason that
+the fine, firm sandstone belonging to the Medina group, as has been
+stated, here projects across the channel of the river, and, forming a
+part of its bed, rises upward several feet above the surface of the
+water. And here this hard, compact rock held the cataract for many
+centuries. The crooked channel which incessant friction and hammering
+finally cut through that rock is the narrowest in the river, being only
+two hundred and ninety-two feet wide, and the fierce rush of the water
+through the narrow, rock-ribbed gorge is almost appalling to the
+beholder. The average width between the banks of this section is about
+nine hundred feet.
+
+In the second section is found the Whirlpool, one of the most
+interesting and attractive portions of the river. The large basin in
+which it lies was cut out much more rapidly than any other part of the
+chasm. And this for the reason that, in addition to the thick stratum of
+shale, there was, underlying the channel, a large pocket, and probably,
+also, a broad seam or cleavage, filled with gravel and pebbles. Indeed,
+there is a broad and very ancient cleavage in the rock-wall on the
+Canadian side, extending from near the top of the bank to an unknown
+depth below. Its course can be traced from the north side of the pool
+some distance in a north-westerly direction. Of course the resistless
+power of the falling water was not long restrained by these feeble
+barriers, and here the broadest and deepest notch of any given century
+was made. The name, Whirlpool, is not quite accurate, since the body of
+water to which it is applied is rather a large eddy, in which small
+whirlpools are constantly forming and breaking. The spectator cannot
+realize the tremendous power exerted by these pools, unless there is
+some object floating upon the surface by which it may be demonstrated.
+Logs from broken rafts are frequently carried over the Falls, and, when
+they reach this eddy, tree-trunks from two to three feet in diameter and
+fifty feet long, after a few preliminary and stately gyrations, are
+drawn down end-wise, submerged for awhile and then ejected with great
+force, to resume again their devious way in the resistless current. And
+they will often be kept in this monotonous round from four to six weeks
+before escaping to the rapids below.
+
+The cleft in the bed-rock which forms the outlet of the basin is one of
+the narrowest parts of the river, being only four hundred feet in
+width. Standing on one side of this gorge, and considering that the
+whole volume of the water in the river is rushing through it, the
+spectator witnesses a manifestation of physical force which makes a more
+vivid impression upon his mind than even the great Fall itself. No
+extravagant attempt at fine writing, no studied and elaborate
+description, can exaggerate the wonderful beauty and fascination of this
+pool. It is separated from the habitations of men, at a distance from
+any highway, and lies secluded in the midst of a small tract of wood
+which has fortunately been preserved around it, in which the dark and
+pale greens of stately pines and cedars predominate. Within the basin
+the waters are rushing onward, plunging downward, leaping upward,
+combing over at the top in beautiful waves and ruffles of dazzling
+whiteness, shaded down through all the opalescent tints to the deep
+emerald at their base. It is ever varying, never presenting the same
+aspect in any two consecutive moments, and the beholder is lost in
+admiration as he comprehends more and more the many-sided and varied
+beauties of the matchless scene. No one visiting the Whirlpool should
+fail to go down the bank to the water's edge. On a bright summer
+morning, after a night shower has laid the dust, cleansed and brightened
+the foliage of shrub and tree, purified and glorified the atmosphere,
+there are few more inviting and charming views.
+
+The remaining portion of this section is the Whirlpool rapid, a
+beautiful curve, reaching up just above the Railway Suspension Bridge.
+It was the most tumultuous and dangerous portion of the voyage once made
+by the _Maid of the Mist_. The water is in a perpetual tumult, a
+perfect embodiment of the spirit of unrest. Owing to the rapidity of the
+descent and the narrowness of the curve, the water is forced into a
+broken ridge in the center of the channel. There, in its wild tumult, it
+is tossed up into fanciful cones and mounds, which are crowned with a
+flashing coronal of liquid gems by the isolated drops and delicate spray
+thrown off from the whirling mass, and rising sometimes to the height of
+thirty feet. Standing on the bridge and looking down-stream, the
+spectator will see near by, on the American shore, a very good
+illustration of the manner in which the shale, there cropping out above
+the surface of the water, is worn away, leaving the superposed rock
+projecting beyond it.
+
+In the third and last section the shale continues its downward dip, and
+at several places entirely disappears. The rock lying upon it is quite
+compact, and some of it very hard. The deep water into which the falling
+water was formerly received partially protected the shale, so that many
+centuries must have elapsed before the excavation of this section was
+completed. Its average width is eleven hundred feet.
+
+Sixty rods below the American Fall is the upper Suspension Bridge. From
+this bridge, looking downward, no one can fail to be impressed with the
+serene and quiet beauty of the mirror below, reflecting from the surface
+of its emerald and apparently unfathomable depths life-size and
+life-like images of surrounding objects. The calm, majestic, unbroken
+current is in striking contrast with the fall and foam and chopping sea
+above.
+
+The greatest depth of the water in mid-channel between the two
+Suspension Bridges, as ascertained by measuring, is two hundred feet.
+But it must be borne in mind that this is the depth of the water flowing
+above the immense mass of rock, stones, and gravel which has fallen into
+the channel. The bottom of the chasm, therefore, must be more than a
+hundred feet lower, since the fallen rocks, having tumbled down
+promiscuously, must occupy much more space than they did in their
+original bed. There are isolated points, as at the Whirlpool and Devil's
+Hole, where the river is wider than in any part of this section, but the
+depth is less. Taking into consideration both depth and width, this is
+the finest part of the chasm. And for this reason chiefly, when the
+great cataract was at a point about one hundred rods below the upper
+bridge, it must have presented its sublimest aspect. The secondary bank
+on each side of the river is here high and firm, whereby the whole mass
+of water must have been concentrated into a single channel of greater
+depth at the top of the Fall than it could have had at any other point.
+And here the mighty column exerted its most terrific force, rolling over
+the precipice in one broad, vertical curve, water falling into water,
+and lifting up, perpetually, that snowy veil of mist and spray which
+constitutes at any point its crowning beauty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     Recession above the present position of the Falls--The Falls will
+     be higher as they recede--Reason why--Professor Tyndall's
+     prediction--Present and former accumulations of rock--Terrific
+     power of the elements--Ice and ice bridges--Remarkable geognosy of
+     the lake region.
+
+
+There is probably little foundation for the apprehension which has been
+expressed that the recession of the chasm will ultimately reach Lake
+Erie and lower its level, or that the bed of the river will be worn into
+an inclined plane by gradual detrition, thus changing the perpendicular
+Fall into a tumultuous rapid. And for these reasons: The contour or arc
+of the Fall in its present location is much greater than it could have
+been at any point below. Consequently a much smaller body of water, less
+effective in force, is passed over any given portion of the precipice,
+the current being also divided by Goat and Luna islands. Also, the river
+bed increases in width above the Fall until it reaches Grand Island,
+which, being twelve miles in length by eight in width, divides the river
+into two broad channels, thus still further diminishing the weight and
+force of the falling water. The average width of the channel from
+Lewiston upward is one thousand feet. The present curve formed by the
+Falls and islands is four thousand two hundred feet. Of course the water
+concentrated in mass and force below the present Falls must have proved
+vastly more effective in disintegrating and breaking down the shale and
+limestone than it possibly can be at any point above. After receding
+half a mile further the curve will be more than a mile in extent, and
+hold this length for two additional miles, provided the water shall
+cover the bed-rock from shore to shore.
+
+In reference to this recession, Professor Tyndall, in the closing
+paragraph of a lecture on Niagara, delivered before the Royal Institute,
+after his return to England, says: "In conclusion, we may say a word
+regarding the proximate future of Niagara. At the rate of excavation
+assigned to it by Sir Charles Lyell, namely, a foot a year, five
+thousand years will carry the Horseshoe Fall far higher than Goat
+Island. As the gorge recedes * * * it will totally drain the American
+branch of the river, the channel of which will in due time become
+cultivatable land. * * * To those who visit Niagara five millenniums
+hence, I leave the verification of this prediction." In his "Travels in
+the United States," in 1841-2, vol. 1, page 27, Sir Charles Lyell says:
+"Mr. Bakewell calculated that, in the forty years preceding 1830, the
+Niagara had been going back at the rate of about a yard annually, but I
+conceive that one foot per year would be a more probable conjecture."
+
+Thus it appears that the rate suggested was the result of a conjecture
+founded on a guess. From certain oral and written statements which we
+have been able to collect, we have made an estimate of the time which
+was required to excavate the present chasm-channel from Lewiston upward.
+During the last hundred and seventy-five years certain masses of rock
+have been known to fall from the water-covered surface of the cataract,
+and a statement as to the surface-measure of each mass was made. In
+using these data it is supposed that each break extended to the bottom
+of the precipice, although the whole mass did not fall at once. Of
+course, the substructure must have worn out before the superstructure
+could have gone down. Father Hennepin says that the projection of the
+rock on the American side was so great that "four coaches" could "drive
+abreast" beneath it. Seven years later, Baron La Hontan, referring to
+the Canadian side, says "three men" could "cross in abreast." We cannot
+assign less than twenty-four feet to the four coaches moving abreast.
+The projection on the Canadian side has diminished but little, whereas
+the overhang on the American side has almost entirely fallen, as is
+abundantly shown by the huge pile of large bowlders now lying at the
+foot of the precipice. Authentic accounts of similar abrasions are the
+following: In 1818, a mass one hundred and sixty feet long by sixty feet
+wide; and later in the same year a huge mass, the top surface of which
+was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it would
+show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot of the whole surface of
+the Canadian Fall. In 1829 two other masses, equal to the first that
+fell in 1818, went down. In 1850 there fell a smaller mass, about fifty
+feet long and ten feet wide. In 1852, a triangular mass fell, which was
+about six hundred feet long, extending south from Goat Island beyond the
+Terrapin Tower, and having an average width of twenty feet. Here we have
+approximate data on which to base our calculations. In addition to
+these, it is supposed that there have been unobserved abrasions by
+piecemeal that equaled all the others. Combining these minor masses into
+one grand mass and omitting fractions, the result is a bowlder
+containing something more than twelve million cubic feet of rock. If
+this were spread over a surface one thousand feet wide and one hundred
+and sixty feet deep--about the average width and depth of the Falls
+below the ferry--it would make a block about seventy-eight feet thick.
+This, for one hundred and seventy-five years, is a little over five
+inches a year. At this rate, to cut back six miles--the present length
+of the chasm--would require nearly sixty thousand years, or ten thousand
+years for a single mile, a mere shadow of time compared with the age of
+the coralline limestone over which the water flows. So, if this estimate
+is reasonably correct, two millenniums will be exhausted before
+Professor Tyndall's prophecy can be fulfilled.
+
+As to the "entire drainage of the American branch" of the river, we must
+be incredulous when we consider the fact that the bottom of that branch,
+two and a half miles above the Falls, is thirty-two feet higher than the
+upper surface of the water where it goes over the cliff, and that there
+is a continuous channel the whole distance varying from twelve to twenty
+feet in depth; and the further fact that, in the great syncope of the
+water which occurred in 1848, the topography, so to speak, of the river
+bottom was clearly revealed. It showed that the water was so divided,
+half a mile above the rapids, as to form a huge Y, through both branches
+of which it flowed over the precipice below, thus showing that nothing
+but an entire stoppage of the water can leave the American channel dry.
+But even if this part of Professor Tyndall's prediction should be
+verified, it is to be feared that his "vision" of "cultivatable land" in
+the case supposed will prove to be visionary. "To complete my
+knowledge," says Professor Tyndall, "it was necessary to see the Fall
+from the river below it, and long negotiations were necessary to secure
+the means of doing so. The only boat fit for the undertaking had been
+laid up for the winter, but this difficulty * * * was overcome." Two
+oarsmen were obtained. The elder assumed command, and "hugged" the
+cross-freshets instead of striking out into the smoother water. I asked
+him why he did so; he replied that they were directed outward and not
+downward. If Professor Tyndall had been at Niagara during the summer
+season, he would have had the opportunity, daily, of seeing the Fall
+"from below," and of going up or down the river on any day in a boat.
+All the boats (four) at the ferry are "fit for the undertaking," and all
+of them are, very properly, "laid up in the winter," since they would be
+crushed by the ice if left in the water. The oarsmen do not consider
+themselves very shrewd because they have discovered that it is easier to
+row across a current than to row against it. The party had an exciting
+and, according to Professor Tyndall's account, a perilous trip. It is
+an exciting trip to a stranger, but the writer has made it so frequently
+that it has ceased to be a novelty.
+
+[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS FROM BELOW]
+
+"We reached," he says, "the Cave [of the Winds] and entered it, first by
+a wooden way carried over the bowlders, and then along a narrow ledge to
+the point eaten deepest into the shale." He also speaks of the "blinding
+hurricane of spray hurled against" him. This last circumstance,
+probably, prevented him from noticing the fact that no shale is visible
+in the Cave of the Winds. Its wall from the top downward, some distance
+beneath the place where he stood, is formed entirely of the Niagara
+limestone. But it is checkered by many seams, and is easily abraded by
+the elements.
+
+Long-continued observation of the locality enables the writer to offer
+still other reasons why the Fall will never dwindle down to a rapid. As
+has already been noticed, the course of the river above the present
+Falls is a little south of west, so that it flows across the trend of
+the bed-rock. Hence, as the Falls recede there can be no diminution in
+their altitude resulting from the dip of this rock. On the contrary,
+there is a rise of fifty feet to the head of the present rapids, and a
+further rise of twenty feet to the level of Lake Erie. During 1871-2,
+the bed of the river from Buffalo to Cayuga Creek was thoroughly
+examined for the purpose of locating piers for railway bridges over the
+stream. The greatest depth at which they found the rock--just below
+Black Rock dam--was forty-five feet. Generally the rock was found to be
+only twenty to twenty-five feet below the surface of the water.
+
+About five miles above the present Falls there is, in the bottom of the
+river, a shelf of rock stretching, in nearly a straight line, across the
+channel to Grand Island, and having, apparently, a perpendicular face
+about sixteen inches deep. Its presence is indicated by a short but
+decided curve in the surface of the water above it, the water itself
+varying in depth from eleven to sixteen feet. The shelf above referred
+to extends under Grand Island and across the Canadian channel of the
+river, under which, however, its face is no longer perpendicular. If the
+Falls were at this point, they would be fifty-five feet higher than they
+are now, supposing the bed-rock to be firm. Now, by excavations made
+during the year 1870 for the new railway from the Suspension Bridge to
+Buffalo, the surface rock was found to be compact and hard, much of it
+unusually so. As a general rule it is well known that the greater the
+depth at which any given kind of rock lies below the surface, and the
+greater the depth to which it is penetrated, the more compact and hard
+it will be found to be. The rock which was found to be so hard, in
+excavating for the railway, lies within six feet of the surface. The
+deepest water in the Niagara River, between the Falls and Buffalo, is
+twenty-five feet. At this point, then, it would seem that the shale of
+the Niagara group must be at such a depth that the top of it is below
+the surface of the water at the bottom of the present fall. Hence, being
+protected from the disintegrating action of the atmosphere, and the
+incessant chiseling of the dashing spray, it would make a firm
+foundation for the hard limestone which would form the perpendicular
+ledge over which the water would fall. Supposing the bottom of the
+channel below this fall to have the same declivity as that for a mile
+below the present fall, the then cataract would be, as has been before
+stated, fifty-five feet higher than the present one. If we should allow
+fifty feet for a soft-surface limestone, full of cleavages and seams
+which might be easily broken down, still the new fall would be five feet
+higher than the old one. But, so far as can now be discovered, there is
+no geological necessity, so to speak, for making any such allowance. In
+the new cataract the American Fall would still be the higher, and its
+line across the channel nearly straight. The Canadian Fall would
+undoubtedly present a curve, but more gradual and uniform than the
+present horseshoe.
+
+But there might possibly occur one new feature in the chasm-channel of
+the river as the result of future recession. That would be the presence
+in that channel of rocky islands, similar to that which has already
+formed just below the American Fall. The points at which these islands
+would be likely to form are those where the indurated rock of either the
+Medina or the Niagara group lies near the surface of the water. This
+probably was the case at the narrow bend below the Whirlpool, before
+noticed, and from thence up to the outlet of the pool. After considering
+what must have occurred in the last case, we may form some opinion
+concerning the probabilities in reference to the first.
+
+We can hardly resist the conclusion that masses of fallen rock must have
+accumulated below the Whirlpool as we now see them under the American
+Fall. But if so, where are they? The answer to this question brings us
+to the consideration of the most remarkable phenomenon connected with
+this wonderful river. To the beholder it is matter of astonishment what
+can have become of the great mass of earth, rock, gravel, and bowlders,
+large and small, which once filled the immense chasm that lies below
+him. He learns that the water for a mile below the Falls is two hundred
+feet deep, and flows over a mass of fallen rock and stone of great depth
+lying below it; he sees a chasm of nearly double these dimensions, more
+than half of which was once filled with solid rock; he beholds the large
+quantities which have already fallen, which are still defiant, still
+breasting the ceaseless hammering of the descending flood. For centuries
+past this process has been going on, until a chasm seven miles long, a
+thousand feet wide, and, including the secondary banks, more than four
+hundred feet deep, has been excavated, and the material which filled it
+entirely removed. How? By what? Frost was the agent, ice was his delver,
+water his carrier, and the basin of Lake Ontario his dumping-ground.
+Although there is little likelihood that islands similar to Goat Island
+have existed in the channel from Lewiston upward, still it is probable
+that, when the Fall receded from the rocky cape below the Whirlpool up
+to the pool, it left masses of rock, large and small, lying on the rocky
+floor and projecting above the surface of the water. As there were no
+islands above, there were no broken, tumultuous rapids. As has been
+before remarked, the water poured over in one broad, deep, resistless
+flood. When frozen by the intense cold of winter, the great cakes of
+ice would descend with crushing force on these rocks. The smaller ones
+would be broken, pulverized, and swept down-stream, the channel for the
+water would be enlarged gradually, and the larger masses thus partially
+undermined. Then the spray and dashing water would freeze and the ice
+accumulate upon them until they were toppled over. Then the falling ice
+would recommence its chipping labors, and with every piece of ice
+knocked off, a portion of the rock would go with it. Finally, as the
+cold continued, the master force, the mightiest of mechanical powers,
+would be brought into action. The vast quantities of ice pouring over
+the precipice would freeze together, agglomerate, and form an
+ice-bridge. The roof being formed, the succeeding cakes of ice would be
+drawn under, and, raising it, be frozen to it. This process goes on.
+Every piece of rock above and below the surface is embraced in a
+relentless icy grip. Millions of tons are frozen fast together. The
+water and ice continue to plunge over the precipice. The principle of
+the hydrostatic press is made effective. Then commences a crushing and
+grinding process which is perfectly terrific. Under the resistless
+pressure brought to bear upon it, the huge mass moves half an inch in
+one direction, and an hundred cubic feet of rock are crushed to powder.
+There is a pause. Then again the immense structure moves half an inch
+another way, and once more the crumbling atoms attest its awful power.
+This goes on for weeks continuously. Finally the temperature changes.
+The sunlight becomes potent; the ice ceases to form; the warm rays
+loosen the grip of the ice-bridge along the borders of the chasm below.
+The water becomes more abundant; the bridge rises, bringing in its icy
+grasp whatever it had attached itself to beneath; it breaks up into
+masses of different dimensions: each mass starts downward with the
+growing current, breaking down or filing off everything with which it
+comes in contact. Fearful sounds come up from the hidden depths, from
+the mills which are slowly pulverizing the massive rock. The smaller
+bits and finer particles, after filling the interstices between the
+larger rocks in the bottom of the chasm, are borne lakeward. The heavier
+portions make a part of the journey this year; they will make another
+part next year, and another the next, being constantly disintegrated and
+pulverized.
+
+This work has been going on for many centuries. The result is seen in
+the vast bar of unknown depth which is spread over the bottom of Lake
+Ontario around the mouth of the river. On the inner side of the bar the
+water is from sixty to eighty feet deep, on the bar it is twenty-five
+feet deep, and outside of it in the lake it reaches a depth of six
+hundred feet.
+
+[Illustration: GREAT ICICLES UNDER THE AMERICAN FALL]
+
+And finally, to the force we have been considering, more than to any
+other, it is probable that all the coming generations of men will be
+indebted for a grand and perpendicular Fall somewhere between its
+present location and Lake St. Clair; for it must be remembered that the
+bottom of Lake Erie is only fourteen feet lower than the crest of the
+present Fall, and the bottom of Lake St. Clair is sixty-two feet higher.
+It may also be considered that the corniferous limestone of the Onondaga
+group--which succeeds the Niagara group as we approach Lake Erie--is
+more competent to maintain a perpendicular face than is the limestone of
+the latter group.
+
+We may here appropriately notice a remarkable feature in the geognosy of
+the earth's surface from Lake Huron to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have
+before stated that the elevation of that lake above tide-water is five
+hundred and seventy-eight feet. But its depth, according to Dr.
+Houghton, is one thousand feet. If this statement is correct, the bottom
+of it is four hundred and twenty-two feet below the sea-level. The
+elevation of Lake St. Clair is five hundred and seventy feet. But its
+depth is only twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty
+feet above the sea-level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five hundred and
+sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four feet deep, making it four
+hundred and eighty-four feet above the sea-level. From Lake Erie to Lake
+Ontario there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. But the
+latter lake is six hundred feet deep, and its elevation two hundred and
+thirty-two feet. Hence the bottom of it is three hundred and sixty-eight
+feet below the sea-level. From the outlet of Lake Ontario the St.
+Lawrence River flows eight hundred and twenty miles to tide-water,
+falling two hundred and thirty-two feet in this distance. The water from
+the springs at the bottom of Lake Huron is compelled to climb a mountain
+nine hundred and eighty feet high before it can start on this long
+oceanward journey.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     Forty years since--Niagara in winter--Frozen spray--Ice foliage and
+     ice apples--Ice moss--Frozen fog--Ice islands--Ice
+     statues--Sleigh-riding on the American rapids--Boys coasting on
+     them--Ice gorges.
+
+
+If the first white man who saw Niagara could have been certain that he
+was the first to see it, and had simply recorded the fact with whatever
+note or comment, he would have secured for himself that species of
+immortality which accrues to such as are connected with those first and
+last events and things in which all men feel a certain interest. But he
+failed to improve his opportunity, and Father Hennepin was the first, so
+far as known, to profit by such neglect, and his somewhat crude and
+exaggerated description of the Falls has been often quoted and is well
+known. So long as "waters flow and trees grow" it will continue to be
+read by successive generations. The French missionaries and traders who
+followed him seem to have been too much occupied in saving souls or in
+seeking for gold to spend much time in contemplating the cataract, or to
+waste much sentiment in writing about it. And so it happens that,
+considering its fame, very little has been written, or rather published,
+concerning it.
+
+Seventy years ago, the few travelers who were drawn to the vicinity by
+interest or curiosity were obliged to approach it by Indian trails, or
+rude corduroy roads, through dense and dark forests. Within the solitude
+of their deep shadows, beneath their protecting arms, was hidden one of
+the sublimest works of the physical creation. The scene was grand,
+impressive, almost oppressive, not less sublime than the Alps or the
+ocean, but more fascinating, more companionable, than either.
+
+Niagara we can take to our hearts. We realize its majesty and its
+beauty, but we are never obliged to challenge its power. Its
+surroundings and accessories are calm and peaceful. Even in all the
+treacherous and bloody warfare of savage Indians it was neutral ground.
+It was a forest city of refuge for contending tribes. The generous,
+noble, and peaceful Niagaras--a people, according to M. Charlevoix,
+"larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages," and who
+lived upon its borders--were called by the whites and the neighboring
+tribes the Neuter Nation.
+
+The crafty Hurons, the unwarlike Eries, the invincible league formed by
+the six aggressive and conquering tribes composing the Iroquois
+confederacy,--the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the
+Senecas, and the Tuscaroras,--all extinguished the torch, buried the
+tomahawk, and smoked the calumet when they came to the shores of the
+Niagara, and sat down within sight of its incense cloud, and listened to
+its perpetual anthem. In succeeding contests between the whites, on two
+occasions only was nature's repose here disturbed by the din of
+battle--first, in the running fight at Chippewa, and again at the
+obstinate and bloody struggle of Lundy's Lane.
+
+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.
+
+There is something marvelous in the purity and whiteness of congealed
+spray. One might think it to be frozen sunlight. And when, by reason of
+an angle or a curve, it is thrown into shadow, one sees where the
+rainbow has been caught and frozen in. After a day of sunshine which has
+been sufficiently warm to fill the atmosphere with aqueous vapor, if a
+sharp, still, cold night succeed, and if on this there break a clear,
+calm morning, the scene presented is one of unique and enchanting
+beauty.
+
+[Illustration: WINTER FOLIAGE]
+
+The frozen spray on every boll, limb, and twig of tree and shrub, on
+every stiffened blade of grass, on every rigid stem and tendril of the
+vines, is covered over with a fine white powder, a frosty bloom, from
+which there springs a line of delicate frost-spines, forming a perfect
+fringe of ice-moss, than which nothing more fanciful nor more beautiful
+can be imagined.
+
+Then, as the day advances, the increasing warmth of the sun's rays
+dissolves this fairy frost-work and spreads it like a delicate varnish
+over the solid spray, giving it a brilliant polish rivaling the luster
+of the rarest gems; the mid-morning breeze sets in motion this flashing,
+dazzling forest, which varies its color as the sunlight-angle varies;
+and finally, when the waxing warmth and growing breeze loosen the hold
+of the icy covering in the tree-tops, and it drops to the still solid
+surface in the shade beneath,--the tiny particles with a silver tinkle
+and the larger pieces with the sharp, rattling sound of the
+castanet,--the ear is charmed with a wild, dashing rataplan, while a
+scene of strange enchantment challenges the admiration of the spectator.
+
+Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the garment of
+frozen fog with which all external objects are adorned and etherealized
+when the spring advances and the temperature of the water is raised. As
+the sharp, still night wears on, the light mists begin to rise, and when
+the morning breaks, the river is buried in a deep, dense bank of fog. A
+gentle wave of air bears it landward; its progress is stayed by
+everything with which it comes in contact, and as soon as its motion is
+arrested it freezes sufficiently to adhere to whatever it touches. So it
+grows upon itself, and all things are soon covered half an inch in depth
+with a most delicate and fragile white fringe of frozen fog. The morning
+sun dispels the mist, and in an hour the gay frost-work vanishes.
+
+The ice islands are sometimes extensive. In the year 1856 the whole of
+the rocky bar above Goat Island was covered with ice, piled together in
+a rough heap, the lower end of which rested on Goat Island and the three
+Moss Islands lying outside of it, all of which were visited by different
+persons passing over this new route.
+
+The ice formed on the rocks below the American Fall, stretched upward,
+reached the edge of the precipice just north of the Little Horseshoe,
+continued up-stream above Chapin's Island, spread out laterally from
+that to Goat Island on the south, and over nearly half of the American
+rapids to the north. At the brow of the precipice it accumulated upward
+until it formed a ridge some forty feet high. About fifteen rods
+up-stream another ridge was formed of half the height of the first.
+Every rock projecting upward bore an immense ice-cap. Around and between
+these mounds and caps horses were driven to sleighs, albeit the course
+was not favorable for quick time. The boys drew their sleds to the top
+of the large mound, slid down it, up-stream, and nearly to the top of
+the smaller hill.
+
+On the lower or down-stream side, they would have had a clear course to
+the water below, at the brink of the Falls, and might have made "time"
+compared with which Dexter's minimum would have seemed only a funeral
+march. But with all Young America's passion for speed, he declined to
+try this route. The writer walked over the south end of Luna Island,
+above the tops of the trees.
+
+The ice-bridge of that year filled the whole chasm from the Railway
+Suspension Bridge up past the American Fall. When the ice broke up in
+the spring, such immense quantities were carried down that a strong
+northerly wind across Lake Ontario caused an ice-jam at Fort Niagara.
+The ice accumulated and set back until it reached the Whirlpool, and
+could be crossed at any point between the Whirlpool and the Fort. It was
+lifted up about sixty feet above the surface, and spread out over both
+shores, crushing and destroying everything with which it came in
+contact. Many persons from different parts of the country visited the
+extraordinary scene.
+
+At Lewiston the writer, with many others, saw a most remarkable
+illustration of the terrific power of this hydrostatic press. Just below
+the village, on the American side, there stood, about two rods from
+high-water mark, a sound, thrifty, tough white-oak tree, perhaps a
+hundred years old, and two feet in diameter. The ice, moved by the
+water, struck it near the ground and pressed it outward and upward,
+until it was actually pulled up by the roots--or rather some of the
+roots were broken and others were pulled out--and landed twenty feet
+farther away from the chasm.
+
+Those who watched the operation stated that, from the time the ice
+touched the tree until it was landed on the bank above, the motion of
+the ice could not be detected by the eye.
+
+[Illustration: ICE BRIDGE AND FROST FREAKS]
+
+Slowly, steadily, surely it pressed on. Suddenly there would be an
+explosion, sharp and loud, when a root gave way. No motion in the ice or
+tree could be discovered. After a lapse of two or three hours another
+sharp crack would give notice of another fracture. Thus the ice pressed
+gradually on, and in ten hours the work was done. A thousandth part of
+this force would pulverize a bowlder of adamant. We need not wonder,
+therefore, that the river Niagara keeps its channel clear.
+
+In the ice-gorge of 1866 the ice was set back to the upper end of the
+Whirlpool, over which it was twenty feet deep. The Whirlpool rapid was
+subdued nearly to an unbroken current, which all the way below to Lake
+Ontario was reduced to a gentle flow of quiet waters. Never was there a
+sublimer contest of the great forces of nature. The frost laid its hand
+upon the raging torrent and it was still.
+
+The winter of 1875 was intensely cold. The singular figures represented
+in the illustrations--the eagle, dog, baboon, and others--are exact
+reproductions of the real chance-work of the frost of that season. The
+long-continued prevalence of the south-west wind fastened to every
+object facing it a border or apron of dazzling whiteness, and more than
+five feet thick. The ice mountain below the American Fall, reaching
+nearly to the top of the precipice, was appropriated as a "coasting"
+course, and furnished most exhilarating sport to the people who used it.
+A large number of visitors came from all directions, and, on the 22d of
+February, fifteen hundred were assembled to see the extraordinary
+exhibition.
+
+In the coldest winters, the ice-bridges cannot be less than two hundred
+and fifty feet thick. The ice-bridge of 1875 formed on the 6th and 7th
+of May, was crossed on the 8th, and broke up on the 14th--the only one
+ever known in the river so late in the spring.
+
+[Illustration: COASTING BELOW THE AMERICAN FALL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Judge Porter--General Porter--Goat Island--Origin of its
+     name--Early dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the
+     rock--Professor Kalm's wonderful story--Bridges to the
+     Island--Method of construction--Red Jacket--Anecdotes--Grand
+     Island--Major Noah and the New Jerusalem--The Stone Tower--The
+     Biddle Stairs--Sam Patch--Depth of water on the Horseshoe--Ships
+     sent over the Falls.
+
+
+In preparing this narrative, the writer has had the good fortune to
+listen to many recitals of facts and incidents by the late Judge
+Augustus Porter and the late General Peter B. Porter, whose names are
+intimately and honorably connected with the more recent history, not
+only of this particular locality but of the Empire State.
+
+Judge Porter, after having spent several years in surveying and lotting
+large portions of the territory of Western New York and the Western
+Reserve in Ohio, came from Canandaigua to Niagara Falls with his family
+in June, 1806, where he continued to live until his death, nearly fifty
+years afterward.
+
+General Porter settled as a lawyer at Canandaigua in 1795, removed to
+Black Rock in 1810, and to Niagara Falls in 1838.
+
+In 1805, the two brothers became interested with others in the purchase
+from the State of New York of four lots in the Mile Strip lying both
+above and below the Falls.
+
+A few years later, they purchased not only the interest of their
+partners in these lots, but other lands at different points along this
+strip. In 1814, they bought of Samuel Sherwood a paper since named a
+_float_--an instrument given by the State authorizing the bearer to
+locate two hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated lands
+belonging to the State. This float they fortunately anchored on Goat
+Island and the islands adjacent thereto lying "immediately above and
+adjoining the Great Falls."
+
+The origin of the name of Goat Island is as follows: Mr. John Stedman,
+who came into the country in 1760, had cleared a portion of the upper
+end of the island, and in the summer of 1779 he placed on it an aged and
+dignified male goat. The following winter was very severe, navigation to
+the island was impracticable, and the goat fell a victim to the intense
+cold. Since which the scene of his exile and death has been called Goat
+Island.
+
+By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, the boundary
+line between Great Britain and the United States, on the Niagara
+frontier, was to run through the deepest water along the river-courses
+and through the center of the Great Lakes. As the deepest water, at this
+point, is in the center of the Horseshoe Fall, the islands in the river
+fell to the Americans. General Porter, acting as Commissioner for the
+United States, proposed to call the largest one Iris Island, and it was
+so printed on the boundary maps. But the public adhered to the old name
+of Goat Island.
+
+One of the early chronicles states that the island contained two hundred
+and fifty acres of land. At the present time there are in it less than
+seventy. A strip some ten rods wide by eighty rods long has been worn
+away from the southern side of it since 1818, when Judge Porter made the
+first road around it.
+
+The earliest date he found on the island was 1765, carved on a
+beech-tree. The earliest date cut in the rock on the main-land was 1645.
+Human bones and arrowheads were found on the island. The Indians went to
+it with their canoes, which they paddled up and down in the
+comparatively quiet water lying on the rocky bar which extends upward
+nearly a mile above the head of the island.
+
+Notwithstanding this fact, the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, who visited the
+place in 1750, relates a fabulous story of two Indians who, on a hunting
+excursion above the Falls, drank too freely from "two bottles of French
+brandy" which they brought from Fort Niagara; becoming drowsy, they laid
+themselves down in the bottom of their canoe for a nap.
+
+The canoe swung off shore and floated down-stream. Nearing the rapids,
+the noise awakened one of them, who had apparently been more fortunate
+in learning the English language from the French than most of his tribe,
+for, seeing their perilous situation, he exclaimed: "We are gone!" But
+the two plied their paddles with such aboriginal vigor that they
+succeeded in landing on Goat Island. From the sequel it would seem that
+they must have destroyed or lost their canoe. Finding no houses of
+refreshment, nor cairns of stores left by former explorers, and most
+naturally getting hungry, they concluded it would be desirable to get
+back to the fort--a wish more easily expressed than accomplished.
+
+But it was necessary for them to "do or die." So, as the story runs,
+they stripped the bark from the basswood trees, and with it made a
+ladder long enough to reach from a tree standing on the edge of the
+precipice at the foot of the island down to the water below.
+
+After dropping their ladder they followed it downward. Reaching the
+water, and being good swimmers, they plunged in with great glee,
+expecting to be able to swim across to the opposite shore, which they
+could easily climb. But the counter current forced them back to the
+island.
+
+After being a good deal bruised on the rocks, they were compelled to
+abandon the attempt to cross, and then returned up their ladder to the
+island. There, after much whooping, they attracted the notice of other
+Indians on the shore. These reported the situation at the fort, and the
+commandant sent up a party of whites and Indians to rescue them. They
+brought with them four light pike-poles. Going to a point opposite the
+head of the island, they exchanged salutations with the new Crusoes, and
+began preparations for their rescue. Two Indians volunteered to
+undertake the task. "They took leave of all their friends as if they
+were going to their death." Each Indian rescuer, according to the
+wondrous fable, took two pike-poles and _waded_ across the channel to
+the island, gave each of the Crusoes a pike-pole, and then the four
+waded back to the main-land, where they were joyfully received by their
+anxious, waiting friends, after having been "nine days on the island."
+
+Remembering that the water in mid-channel is twelve feet deep, with a
+twelve-mile current, we must concede this to be the most marvelous of
+all aquatic achievements.
+
+In 1817 Judge Porter built the first bridge to Goat Island, about forty
+rods above the present bridge. In the following spring the large cakes
+of ice from the river above, not being sufficiently broken up by the
+short stretch of rapids over which they passed, struck the bridge with
+terrific force, and carried away the greater part of it. With the
+courage and enterprise of a New-Englander, the next season he
+constructed another bridge farther down, on the present site, rightly
+judging that the ice would be so much broken up before reaching it as to
+be harmless.
+
+That bridge, with constant repairs and one almost entire renewal, stood
+firm in its place until the year 1856, when it was removed to make room
+for the present iron bridge. The old piers were much enlarged and
+strengthened, and also raised about three feet higher to receive the new
+bridge. As nearly every stranger inquires how the first bridge was
+carried over the turbulent waters, a brief description of the process
+may be acceptable. First, a strong bulkhead was built in the shallow
+water next to the shore; a solid backing was put in behind this, and
+the upper surface properly graded and well floored with plank. Strong
+rollers were placed parallel with the stream and fastened to the floor.
+In the old forest then standing near by were many noble oaks, of
+different sizes and great length. A number of these were felled and
+hewed "tapering," as it was termed, so that, when finished, they were
+about eighteen inches square at the butt, fifteen at the top, and eighty
+feet long. Through the small ends were bored large auger-holes. These
+sticks were placed, as required, on the rollers, at right angles to the
+stream, the small ends over the water, and the shore ends heavily
+weighted down.
+
+[Illustration: SECOND MOSS ISLAND BRIDGE]
+
+The first stick being properly placed, levers were applied to the
+rollers and the stick was run out until the small end reached an eddy in
+the water. Then another similar stick was run out in like manner,
+parallel to the first, and about six feet from it. A few light, strong
+planks were placed across and made fast. Two men were provided each with
+strong, iron-pointed pike-staffs, each staff having in its upper end a
+hole, through which was drawn some ten feet of new rope. Thus provided,
+they walked out on the timbers, drove their iron pikes down among the
+stones, and tied them fast to the timbers. Thus the whole problem was
+solved. Around these pike-staffs the first pier was built and filled
+with stone. Then other timbers were run out, all were planked over, and
+the first span was completed. The other spans were laid in the same way.
+
+The great Indian chief and orator, Red Jacket, occasionally visited
+Judge and General Porter--the latter then living at Black Rock. Judge
+Porter told this anecdote of the chief: He visited the Falls while the
+mechanics were stretching the timbers across the rapids for the second
+bridge. He sat for a long time on a pile of plank, watching their
+operations. His mind seemed to be busy both with the past and the
+present, reflecting upon the vast territory his race once possessed, and
+intensely conscious of the fact that it was theirs no longer. Apparently
+mortified, and vexed that its paleface owners should so successfully
+develop and improve it, he rose from his seat, and, uttering the
+well-known Indian guttural "Ugh, ugh!" he exclaimed: "D----n Yankee!
+d----n Yankee!" Then, gathering his blanket-cloak around him, with his
+usual dignity and downcast eyes, he slowly walked away, and never
+returned to the spot.
+
+Before parting with the distinguished chief, we will repeat after
+General Porter two other anecdotes characteristic of him. He lived not
+far from Buffalo, on the Seneca Reservation, and frequently visited the
+late General Wadsworth, at Geneseo. Indeed, his visits grew to be
+somewhat perplexing, for the great chief must be entertained personally
+by the host of the establishment.
+
+Of course he was a "teetotaler"--only in one way. When he got a glass of
+good liquor he drank the whole of it. He was very fond of the rich
+apple-juice of the Geneseo orchards. Having repeated his visits to
+General Wadsworth, at one time, with rather inconvenient frequency, and
+coming one day when the General saw that he had been drinking pretty
+freely somewhere else, his host concluded he would not offer him the
+usual refreshments. In due time, therefore, Red Jacket rose and excused
+himself. As he was leaving the room the orator said, "General, hear!"
+"Well, what, Red Jacket?" To which he replied with great gravity:
+"General, when I get home to my people, and they ask me how your cider
+tasted, what shall I tell them?" Of course he got the cider.
+
+His determined and constant opposition to the sale of the lands
+belonging to the Indians is well known. At the council held at Buffalo
+Creek, in 1811, he was selected by the Indians to answer the proposition
+of a New York land company to buy more land. The Indians refused to
+sell, although, as usual, the company only wanted "a small tract." To
+illustrate the system, after the speech-making was over, Red Jacket
+placed half a dozen Indians on a log, which lay near by. They did not
+sit very close together, but had plenty of room. He then took a white
+man who wanted "a small tract," and making the Indians at one end "move
+up," he put the white man beside them. Then he brought another
+"small-tract" white man, and making the aborigines "move up" once more,
+the Indian on the end was obliged to rise from the log. He repeated this
+process until but one of the original occupants was left on the log.
+Then suddenly he shoved him off, put a white man in his place, and
+turning to the land agent said: "See what one _small tract_ means; white
+man _all_, Indian _nothing_."
+
+Colonel William L. Stone, in his "Life of Red Jacket," relates the
+following: In 1816, after Red Jacket took up his residence on Buffalo
+Creek, east of the city, a young French count traveling through the
+country made a brief stay at Buffalo, whence he sent a request to the
+sachem to visit him at his hotel.
+
+Red Jacket, in reply, informed the young nobleman that if he wished to
+see the old chief he would give him a welcome greeting at his cabin. The
+count sent again to say that he was much fatigued by his journey of four
+thousand miles, which he had made for the purpose of seeing the
+celebrated Indian orator, Red Jacket, and thought it strange that he
+should not be willing to come four miles to meet him. But the proud and
+shrewd old chief replied that he thought it still more strange, after
+the count had traveled so great a distance for that purpose, that he
+should halt only a few miles from the home of the man he had come so far
+to see. The count finally visited the sachem at his house, and was much
+pleased with the dignity and wisdom of his savage host. The point of
+etiquette having been satisfactorily settled, the chief accepted an
+invitation to dinner, and was no doubt able to tell his people how the
+count's "cider" tasted.
+
+In 1819, when the boundary commissioners ran the line through the
+Niagara River, Grand Island fell to the United States, under the rule
+that that line should be in the center of the main channel. To ascertain
+this, accurate measurements were made, by which it was found that
+12,802,750 cubic feet of water passed through the Canadian channel, and
+8,540,080 through the American channel. To test the accuracy of these
+measurements, the quantity passing in the narrow channel at Black Rock
+was determined by the same method, and was found to be 21,549,590 cubic
+feet, thus substantially corroborating the first two measurements.
+
+The Indian name of Grand Island is Owanunga. In 1825, Mr. M. M. Noah, a
+politician of the last generation, took some preliminary steps for
+reestablishing the lost nationality of the Jews upon this island, where
+a New Jerusalem was to be founded. Assuming the title of "Judge of
+Israel," he appeared at Buffalo in September for the purpose of founding
+the new nation and city. A meeting was held in old St. Paul's Church, at
+which, with the aid of a militia company, martial music, and masonic
+rites, the remarkable initiatory proceedings took place.
+
+The self-constituted judge presented himself arrayed in gorgeous robes
+of office, consisting of a rich black cloth tunic, covered by a
+capacious mantle of crimson silk trimmed with ermine, and having a
+richly embossed golden medal hanging from his neck. After what, in the
+account published in his own paper of the day's proceedings, he called
+"impressive and unique ceremonies," he read a proclamation to "all the
+Jews throughout the world," informing them "that an Asylum was prepared
+and offered to them," and that he did "revive, renew, and establish (in
+the Lord's name), the government of the Jewish nation, * * * confirming
+and perpetuating all our rights and privileges, our rank and power,
+among the nations of the earth as they existed and were recognized under
+the government of the Judges." He also ordered a census to be taken of
+all the Hebrews in the world, and levied a capitation tax of three
+shekels--about one dollar and sixty cents--"to pay the expenses of
+re-organizing the government and assisting emigrants." He had prepared a
+"foundation stone," which was afterward erected on the site of the new
+city, and which bore the following inscription:
+
+
+          "Hear, O Israel, the Lord
+          is our God--the Lord is one."
+
+                   "ARARAT,
+          A CITY OF REFUGE FOR THE JEWS,
+         FOUNDED BY MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH,
+     IN THE MONTH OF TISRI 5586--SEPT. 1825,
+            IN THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF
+            AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE."
+
+
+After the meeting at St. Paul's, the "Judge" returned at once to New
+York, and, like the great early ruler of his nation, he only saw the
+land of promise, as he never crossed to the island.
+
+The strong round tower, called the Terrapin Tower, which stood near Goat
+Island, not far from the precipice, was built in 1833, of stones
+gathered in the vicinity. It was forty-five feet high, and twelve feet
+in diameter at the base. So much was said in 1873 about the growing
+insecurity of the tower that it was taken down.
+
+The Biddle Staircase was named for Mr. Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia,
+who contributed a sum of money toward its construction. It was erected
+in 1829. The shaft is eighty feet high and firmly fastened to the rock.
+The stairs are spiral, winding round it from top to bottom. Near the
+foot of these stairs, at the water's edge, Samuel Patch, who wished to
+demonstrate to the world that "some things could be done as well as
+others," set up a ladder one hundred feet high, from which he made two
+leaps into the water below. Going thence to Rochester, he took another
+leap near the Genesee Falls, which proved to be his last.
+
+The depth of water on the Horseshoe Fall is a subject of speculation
+with every visitor. It was correctly determined in 1827. In the autumn
+of that year, the ship _Michigan_, having been condemned as unseaworthy,
+was purchased by a few persons, and sent over the Falls. Her hull was
+eighteen feet deep. It filled going down the rapids, and went over the
+Horseshoe Fall with some water above the deck, indicating that there
+must have been at least twenty feet of water above the rock. This voyage
+of the _Michigan_ was an event of the day. A glowing hand-bill, charged
+with bold type and sensational tropes, announced that "The Pirate
+_Michigan_, with a cargo of furious animals," would "pass the great
+rapids and the Falls of Niagara," on the "eighth of September, 1827."
+She would sail "through the white-tossing and deep-rolling rapids of
+Niagara, and down its grand precipice into the basin below."
+Entertainment was promised "for all who may visit the Falls on the
+present occasion, which will, for its novelty and the remarkable
+spectacle it will present, be unequaled in the annals of _infernal_
+navigation." Considering that the Falls could be reached only by road
+conveyances, the gathering of people was very large. The voyage was
+successfully made, and the "cargo of live animals" duly deposited in the
+"basin below," except a bear which left the ship near the center of the
+rapids and swam ashore, but was recaptured.
+
+Two enterprising individuals made arrangements to supply the people
+assembled on the island with refreshments. They had an ample spread of
+tables and an abundant supply of provisions. As there was much delay in
+getting the vessel down the river, the people got impatient and hungry.
+They took their places at the tables. When their appetites were nearly
+satisfied, notice was given that the ship was coming, whereupon they
+departed hurriedly, forgetting to leave the equivalent half-dollar for
+the benefit of the purveyors.
+
+In after years, one of the proprietors of this unexpected "free
+lunch"--the late General Whitney--established here one of the best
+hotels in the country, and left his heirs an ample fortune.
+
+A few geese in the cargo were only badly confused by their unusual
+plunge, and were afterward picked up from boats. It was noticed as being
+a little singular that geese which went over the Falls in the Pirate
+_Michigan_ were for sale at extravagant prices all the next season.
+
+Another condemned vessel of about five hundred tons burden, the
+_Detroit_, which had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was
+sent down the rapids in 1841. A large concourse of people assembled from
+all parts of the country to witness the spectacle. Her rolling and
+plunging in the rapids were fearful, until about midway of them she
+stuck fast on a bar, where she lay until knocked to pieces by the ice.
+From Baron La Hontan we know that the Indians went on the water, just
+below the Falls, in their canoes, to gather the game which had been
+swept over them. For more than a hundred years there has been a ferry of
+skiff and yawl boats at this point, and in all that time not one serious
+accident has happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the
+     Rapids--Rescue of Chapin--Rescue of Allen--He takes the _Maid of
+     the Mist_ through the Whirlpool--His companions--Effect upon
+     Robinson--Biographical notice--His grave unmarked.
+
+
+The history of the navigation of the Rapids of Niagara may be
+appropriately concluded in this chapter, which is devoted to a notice of
+the remarkable man who began it, who had no rival and has left no
+successor in it--Joel R. Robinson.
+
+In the summer of 1838, while some extensive repairs were being made on
+the main bridge to Goat Island, a mechanic named Chapin fell from the
+lower side of it into the rapids, about ten rods from the Bath Island
+shore. The swift current bore him toward the first small island lying
+below the bridge. Knowing how to swim, he made a desperate and
+successful effort to reach it. It is hardly more than thirty feet
+square, and is covered with cedars and hemlocks. Saved from drowning, he
+seemed likely to fall a victim to starvation. All thoughts were then
+turned to Robinson, and not in vain. He launched his light red skiff
+from the foot of Bath Island, picked his way cautiously and skillfully
+through the rapids to the little island, took Chapin in and brought him
+safely to the shore, much to the relief of the spectators, who gave
+expression to their appreciation of Robinson's service by a moderate
+contribution.
+
+[Illustration: JOEL R. ROBINSON]
+
+In the summer of 1841, a Mr. Allen started for Chippewa in a boat just
+before sunset. Being anxious to get across before dark, he plied his
+oars with such vigor that one of them broke when he was about opposite
+the middle Sister. With the remaining oar he tried to make the head of
+Goat Island. The current, however, set too strongly toward the great
+Canadian Rapids, and his only hope was to reach the outer Sister.
+Nearing this, and not being able to run his boat upon it, he sprang out,
+and, being a good swimmer, by a vigorous effort succeeded in getting
+ashore. Certain of having a lonely if not an unpleasant night, and being
+the fortunate possessor of two stray matches, he lighted a fire and
+solaced himself with his thoughts and his pipe. Next morning, taking off
+his red flannel shirt, he raised a signal of distress. Toward noon the
+unusual smoke and the red flag attracted attention. The situation was
+soon ascertained, and Robinson informed of it. Not long after noon, the
+little red skiff was carried across Goat Island and launched in the
+channel just below the Moss Islands. Robinson then pulled himself across
+to the foot of the middle Sister, and tried in vain to find a point
+where he could cross to the outer one. Approaching darkness compelled
+him to suspend operations. He rowed back to Goat Island, got some
+refreshments, returned to the middle Sister, threw the food across to
+Allen, and then left him to his second night of solitude. The next day
+Robinson took with him two long, light, strong cords, with a properly
+shaped piece of lead weighing about a pound. Tying the lead to one of
+the cords he threw it across to Allen. Robinson fastened the other end
+of Allen's cord to the bow of the skiff; then attaching his own cord to
+the skiff also, he shoved it off. Allen drew it to himself, got into it,
+pushed off, and Robinson drew him to where he stood on the middle
+island. Then seating Allen in the stern of the skiff he returned across
+the rapids to Goat Island, where both were assisted up the bank by the
+spectators, and the little craft, too, which seemed to be almost as much
+an object of curiosity with the crowd as Robinson himself.
+
+This was the second person rescued by Robinson from islands which had
+been considered wholly inaccessible. It is no exaggeration to say that
+there was not another man in the country who could have saved Chapin and
+Allen as he did.
+
+In the summer of 1855 a canal-boat, with two men and a dog in it, was
+discovered in the strong current near Grass Island. The men, finding
+they could not save the large boat, took to their small one and got
+ashore, leaving the dog to his fate. The abandoned craft floated down
+and lodged on the rocks on the south side of Goat Island, and about
+twenty rods above the ledge over which the rapids make the first
+perpendicular break. There were left in the boat a watch, a gun, and
+some articles of clothing. The owner offered Robinson a liberal salvage
+if he would recover the property. Taking one of his sons with him, he
+started the little red skiff from the head of the hydraulic canal, half
+a mile above the island, shot across the American channel, and ran
+directly to the boat. Holding the skiff to it himself, the young man got
+on board and secured the valuables. The dog had escaped during the
+night. Leaving the canal-boat, Robinson ran down the ledge between the
+second and third Moss Islands, and thence to Goat Island. On going over
+the ledge he had occasion to exercise that quickness of apprehension and
+presence of mind for which he was so noted. The water was rather lower
+than he had calculated, and on reaching the top of the ledge the bottom
+of the skiff near the bow struck the rock. Instantly he sprang to the
+stern, freed the skiff, and made the descent safely. If the stern had
+swung athwart the current, the skiff would certainly have been wrecked.
+
+In the year 1846, a small steamer was built in the eddy just above the
+Railway Suspension Bridge, to run up to the Falls. She was very
+appropriately named _The Maid of the Mist_. Her engine was rather weak,
+but she safely accomplished the trip. As, however, she took passengers
+aboard only from the Canadian side, she could pay little more than
+expenses. In 1854 a larger, better boat, with a more powerful engine,
+the new _Maid of the Mist_, was put on the route, and as she took
+passengers from both sides of the river, many thousands of persons made
+the exciting and impressive voyage up to the Falls. The admiration which
+the visitor felt as he passed quietly along near the American Fall was
+changed into awe when he began to feel the mighty pulse of the great
+deep just below the tower, then swung round into the white foam
+directly in front of the Horseshoe, and saw the sky of waters falling
+toward him. And he seemed to be lifted on wings as he sailed swiftly
+down on the rushing stream through a baptism of spray. To many persons
+there was a fascination about it that induced them to make the trip
+every time they had an opportunity to do so. Owing to some change in her
+appointments, which confined her to the Canadian shore for the reception
+of passengers, she became unprofitable. Her owner, having decided to
+leave the neighborhood, wished to sell her as she lay at her dock. This
+he could not do, but he received an offer of something more than half of
+her cost, if he would deliver her at Niagara, opposite the fort. This he
+decided to do, after consultation with Robinson, who had acted as her
+captain and pilot on her trips below the Falls. The boat required for
+her navigation an engineer, who also acted as fireman, and a pilot.
+
+Mr. Robinson agreed to act as pilot for the fearful voyage, and the
+engineer, Mr. Jones, consented to go with him. A courageous machinist,
+Mr. McIntyre, volunteered to share the risk with them. They put her in
+complete trim, removing from deck and hold all superfluous articles.
+Notice was given of the time for starting, and a large number of people
+assembled to see the fearful plunge, no one expecting to see the crew
+again alive after they should leave the dock. This dock, as has been
+before stated, was just above the Railway Suspension Bridge, at the
+place where she was built, and where she was laid up in the
+winter--that, too, being the only place where she could lie without
+danger of being crushed by the ice. Twenty rods below this eddy the
+water plunges sharply down into the head of the crooked, tumultuous
+rapid which we have before noticed as reaching from the bridge to the
+Whirlpool. At the Whirlpool, the danger of being drawn under was most to
+be apprehended; in the rapids, of being turned over or knocked to
+pieces. From the Whirlpool to Lewiston is one wild, turbulent rush and
+whirl of water, without a square foot of smooth surface in the whole
+distance.
+
+About three o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, 1861, the engineer took
+his place in the hold, and, knowing that their flitting would be short
+at the best, and might be only the preface to swift destruction, set his
+steam-valve at the proper gauge, and awaited--not without anxiety--the
+tinkling signal that should start them on their flying voyage. McIntyre
+joined Robinson at the wheel on the upper deck. Self-possessed, and with
+the calmness which results from undoubting courage and confidence, yet
+with the humility which recognizes all possibilities, with downcast eyes
+and firm hands, Robinson took his place at the wheel and pulled the
+starting bell. With a shriek from her whistle and a white puff from her
+escape-pipe, to take leave, as it were, of the multitude gathered on the
+shores and on the bridge, the boat ran up the eddy a short distance,
+then swung round to the right, cleared the smooth water, and shot like
+an arrow into the rapid under the bridge. Robinson intended to take the
+inside curve of the rapid, but a fierce cross-current carried him to
+the outer curve, and when a third of the way down it a jet of water
+struck against her rudder, a column dashed up under her starboard side,
+heeled her over, carried away her smokestack, started her overhang on
+that side, threw Robinson flat on his back, and thrust McIntyre against
+her starboard wheel-house with such force as to break it through. Every
+eye was fixed, every tongue was silent, and every looker-on breathed
+freer as she emerged from the fearful baptism, shook her wounded sides,
+slid into the Whirlpool, and for a moment rode again on an even keel.
+Robinson rose at once, seized the helm, set her to the right of the
+large pot in the pool, then turned her directly through the neck of it.
+Thence, after receiving another drenching from its combing waves, she
+dashed on without further accident to the quiet bosom of the river below
+Lewiston.
+
+[Illustration: THE _Maid of the Mist_ IN THE WHIRLPOOL]
+
+Thus was accomplished one of the most remarkable and perilous voyages
+ever made by men. The boat was seventy-two feet long, with seventeen
+feet breadth of beam and eight feet depth of hold, and carried an engine
+of one hundred horse-power. In conversation with Robinson after the
+voyage, he stated that the greater part of it was like what he had
+always imagined must be the swift sailing of a large bird in a downward
+flight; that when the accident occurred the boat seemed to be struck
+from all directions at once; that she trembled like a fiddle-string, and
+felt as if she would crumble away and drop into atoms; that both he and
+McIntyre were holding to the wheel with all their strength, but produced
+no more effect than they would if they had been two flies; that he had
+no fear of striking the rocks, for he knew that the strongest suction
+must be in the deepest channel, and that the boat must remain in that.
+Finding that McIntyre was somewhat bewildered by excitement or by his
+fall, as he rolled up by his side but did not rise, he quietly put his
+foot on his breast, to keep him from rolling around the deck, and thus
+finished the voyage.
+
+Poor Jones, imprisoned beneath the hatches before the glowing furnace,
+went down on his knees, as he related afterward, and although a more
+earnest prayer was never uttered and few that were shorter, still it
+seemed to him prodigiously long. To that prayer he thought they owed
+their salvation.
+
+The effect of this trip upon Robinson was decidedly marked. As he lived
+only a few years afterward, his death was commonly attributed to it. But
+this was incorrect, since the disease which terminated his life was
+contracted at New Orleans at a later day. "He was," said Mrs. Robinson
+to the writer, "twenty years older when he came home that day than when
+he went out." He sank into his chair like a person overcome with
+weariness. He decided to abandon the water, and advised his sons to
+venture no more about the rapids. Both his manner and appearance were
+changed. Calm and deliberate before, he became thoughtful and serious
+afterward. He had been borne, as it were, in the arms of a power so
+mighty that its impress was stamped on his features and on his mind.
+Through a slightly opened door he had seen a vision which awed and
+subdued him. He became reverent in a moment. He grew venerable in an
+hour.
+
+Yet he had a strange, almost irrepressible, desire to make this voyage
+immediately after the steamer was put on below the Falls. The wish was
+only increased when the first _Maid of the Mist_ was superseded by the
+new and stancher one. He insisted that the voyage could be made with
+safety, and that it might be made a good pecuniary speculation.
+
+He was a character--an original. Born on the banks of the Connecticut,
+in the town of Springfield, Massachusetts, it was in the beautiful reach
+of water which skirts that city that he acquired his love of aquatic
+sports and exercises and his skill in them. He was nearly six feet in
+stature, with light chestnut hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. He
+was a kind-hearted man, of equable temper, few words, cool, deliberate,
+decided; lithe as a Gaul and gentle as a girl. It goes without saying
+that he was a man of "undaunted courage." He had that calm, serene,
+supreme equanimity of temperament which fear could not reach nor
+disturb. He might have been, under right conditions, a quiet, willing
+martyr, and at last he bore patiently the wearying hours of slow decay
+which ended his life. His love of nature and adventure was paramount to
+his love of money, and although he was never pinched with poverty, he
+never had abundance.
+
+He loved the water, and was at home in it or on it, as he was a capital
+swimmer and a skillful oarsman. Especially he delighted in the rapids of
+the Niagara. Kind and compassionate as he was by nature, he was almost
+glad when he heard that a fellow-creature was, in some way, entangled in
+the rapids, since it would give him an excuse, an opportunity, to work
+in them and to help him. As he was not a boaster, he made no superfluous
+exhibitions of his skill or courage, albeit he might occasionally
+indulge--and be indulged--in some mirthful manifestation of his
+good-nature; as when, on reaching Chapin's refuge for his rescue, he
+waved from one of its tallest cedars a green branch to the anxious
+spectators, as if to assure and encourage them; and when he returned
+with his skiff half filled with cedar-sprigs, which he distributed to
+the multitude, they raised his pet craft to their shoulders, with both
+Chapin and himself in it, and bore them in triumph through the village,
+while money tokens were thrown into the boat to replace the green ones.
+
+He never foolishly challenged the admiration of his fellow-men. But when
+the emergency arose for the proper exercise of his powers, when news
+came that some one was in trouble in the river, then he went to work
+with a calm and cheerful will which gave assurance of the best results.
+Beneath his quiet deliberation of manner there was concealed a wonderful
+vigor both of resolution and nerve, as was amply shown by the dangers
+which he faced, and by the bend in his withy oar as he forced it through
+the water, and the feathery spray which flashed from its blade when he
+lifted it to the surface.
+
+In all fishing and sailing parties his presence was indispensable for
+those who knew him. The most timid child or woman no longer hesitated if
+Robinson was to go with the party. His quick eye saw everything, and his
+willing hand did all that it was necessary to do, to secure the comfort
+and safety of the company.
+
+It is doubtful whether more than a very few of his neighbors know where
+he lies, in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery, near the rapids.
+Robinson went forth on a turbulent, unreturning flood, where the
+slightest hesitancy in thought or act would have proved instantly fatal.
+Benevolent associations in different cities and countries bestow honor
+and rewards on those who, by unselfish effort and a noble courage, save
+the life of a fellow-being. This Robinson did repeatedly, yet no
+monument commemorates his worthy deeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     A fisherman and a bear in a canoe--Frightful experience with
+     floating ice--Early farming on the Niagara--Fruit growing--The
+     original forest--Testimony of the trees--The first hotel--General
+     Whitney--Cataract House--Distinguished visitors--Carriage road down
+     the Canadian bank--Ontario House--Clifton House--The Museum--Table
+     and Termination Rocks--Burning Spring--Lundy's Lane--Battle
+     Anecdotes.
+
+
+Soon after the War of 1812, a fisherman--whose name we will call
+Fisher--on a certain day went out upon the river, about three miles
+above the Fall; and while anchored and fishing from his canoe, he saw a
+bear in the water making, very leisurely, for Navy Island. Not
+understanding thoroughly the nature and habits of the animal, thinking
+he would be a capital prize, and having a spear in the canoe, he hoisted
+anchor and started in pursuit. As the canoe drew near, the bear turned
+to pay his respects to its occupant. Fisher, with his spear, made a
+desperate thrust at him. Quicker and more deftly than the most expert
+fencer could have done it, the quadruped parried the blow, and,
+disarming his assailant, knocked the spear more than ten feet from the
+canoe. Fisher then seized a paddle and belabored the bear over his head
+and on his paws, as he placed the latter on the side of the canoe and
+drew himself in. The now frightened fisherman, not knowing how to swim,
+was in a most uncomfortable predicament. He felt greatly relieved,
+therefore, when the animal deliberately sat himself down, facing him, in
+the bow of the canoe. Resolving in his own mind that he would generously
+resign the whole canoe to the creature as soon as he should reach the
+land, he raised his paddle and began to pull vigorously shoreward,
+especially as the rapids lay just below him, and the Falls were roaring
+most ominously.
+
+Much to his surprise, as soon as he began to paddle Bruin began to
+growl, and, as he repeated his stroke, the occupant of the bow raised
+his note of disapproval an octave higher, and at the same time made a
+motion as if he would attack him. Fisher had no desire to cultivate a
+closer intimacy, and so stopped paddling.
+
+[Illustration: FISHER AND THE BEAR]
+
+Bruin serenely contemplated the landscape in the direction of the
+island. Fisher was also intensely interested in the same scene, and
+still more intensely impressed with their gradual approach to the
+rapids. He tried the paddle again. But the tyrant of the quarter-deck
+again emphatically objected, and as _he_ was master of the situation,
+and fully resolved not to resign the command of the craft until the
+termination of the voyage, there was no alternative but submission.
+Still, the rapids were frightfully near and something must be done. He
+gave a tremendous shout. But Bruin was not in a musical mood, and vetoed
+that with as much emphasis as he had done the paddling. Then he turned
+his eyes on Fisher quite interestedly, as if he were calculating the
+best method of dissecting him. The situation was fast becoming
+something more than painful. Man and bear in opposite ends of the canoe
+floating--not exactly double--but together to inevitable destruction.
+But every suspense has an end. The single shout, or something else, had
+called the attention of the neighbors to the canoe. They came to the
+rescue, and an old settler, with a musket which he had used in the War
+of 1812, fired a charge of buck-shot into Bruin which induced him to
+take to the water, after which he was soon taken, captive and dead, to
+the shore. He weighed over three hundred pounds.
+
+A son of the settler who shot the bear had a frightful experience in the
+river many years afterward. He was engaged in Canada in the business of
+buying saw-logs for the American market. Coming from the woods down to
+Chippewa one cold day in December, at a time when considerable
+quantities of strong, thin cakes of ice were floating in the river, he
+took a flat-bottom skiff to row across to his home. This he did without
+apprehension, as he had been born and brought up on the banks of the
+Niagara, understood it well, and was also a strong, resolute man.
+
+As he drew near the foot of Navy Island, intending to take the chute
+between it and Buckhorn Island, two large cakes between which he was
+sailing suddenly closed together and cut the bottom of his skiff square
+off. Just above the cake on which his bottomless skiff was then floating
+there was a second large cake, at a little distance from it, and beyond
+this a strip of water which washed the shore of Navy Island. In less
+time than it has taken to write this, he sprang upon the first piece of
+ice, ran across it with desperate speed, cleared the first space of
+water at a single leap, ran across the next cake of ice, jumped with all
+his might, and landed in the icy water within a rod of the shore, to
+which he swam. He was soon after warming and drying himself before the
+rousing fire of the only occupant of the island.
+
+His father had a fine farm on the bank of the river, which he cultivated
+with much care. But before the drainage of the country was completed the
+land was decidedly wet. A friend from the East who made him a call found
+him plowing. The water stood in the bottom of the furrows. But
+agriculture has been progressive since those days. It is now almost a
+fine art instead of a mere pursuit. And nowhere north of the equator is
+there a climate and soil so genial and favorable for the growth of
+certain kinds of fruit, especially the apple and the peach, as are those
+of Niagara County. Many persons claim that they can tell from the
+peculiar consistency of the pulp, and by its flavor and _bouquet_, on
+which side of the Genesee River an apple is grown.
+
+It is said that the winter apples of Niagara are as well known and as
+greatly prized above all others of their kind on the docks of Liverpool,
+as is Sea Island cotton above all other grades of that plant. The
+delicious little russet known as the _Pomme Gris_, with its fine
+aromatic flavor when ripe, grows nowhere else to such perfection as
+along the Niagara River. In 1825, at the grand celebration held to
+commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal, the late Judge Porter
+made the first shipment east of apples raised in Niagara County. It
+consisted of two barrels, one of which was sent to the corporation of
+the city of Troy, and the other to that of New York. They were duly
+received and honored. From this small beginning the fruit trade has
+grown to the yearly value of more than a million of dollars for Niagara
+County alone.
+
+With reference to the forest which once covered this country, an
+erroneous impression prevails as to its age. Poets and romancers have
+been in the habit of speaking of these "primeval forests" as though they
+might have been bushes when Nahor and Abraham were infants. But this is
+a great error. Since the discovery of the country only one tree has been
+found that was eight hundred years old. This is mentioned by Sir Charles
+Lyell as having grown out of one of the ancient mounds near Marietta,
+Ohio. But the great majority of them were not over three hundred years
+old. The testimony of the trees concerning the past is not quite so
+abundant as that of the rocks, but that of one tree grown in central New
+York is of a remarkable character. It was a white oak, which grew in the
+rich valley of the Clyde River, about one mile west of Lyons' Court
+House, and was cut down in the year 1837. The body made a stick of
+timber eighty feet long, which before sawing was about five feet in
+diameter. It was cut into short logs and sawed up. From the center of
+the butt-log was sawed a piece about eight by twelve inches. At the butt
+end of this piece the saw laid bare, without marring them, some old
+scars made by an ax or some other sharp instrument. These scars were
+perfectly distinct and their character equally unmistakable. They were
+made, apparently, when the young tree was about six inches in diameter.
+Outside of these scars there were counted four hundred and sixty
+distinct rings, each ring marking with unerring certainty one year's
+growth of the tree. It follows that this chopping was done in 1374, or
+one hundred and eighteen years before the first voyage of Columbus
+across the Atlantic.
+
+It has been questioned whether the rings shown in a cross-section of a
+tree can be relied upon to determine truly the number of years it has
+been growing. A singular confirmation of the correctness of this method
+of counting was furnished some years since.
+
+In the latter part of the last century the late Judge Porter surveyed a
+large tract of land lying east of the Genesee River, known as "The
+Gore." Some thirty-five years afterward it became necessary to resurvey
+one of its lines, and recourse was had to the original surveys. Most of
+the forest through which the first line had been run was cleared off,
+and such trees as had been "blazed" as line-trees had overgrown the
+scars. One tree was found which was declared to be an original
+line-tree. On cutting into it carefully the old "blaze" was brought to
+light, and on counting the rings outside of it, they were found to
+correspond with the number of years which had elapsed since the first
+survey.
+
+One of the three small buildings at Niagara which escaped the flames of
+1814 was a log-cabin, about thirty by forty feet in its dimensions,
+that stood in the center of the front of the International block. In the
+latter part of 1815 the inhabitants returned, and the late General P.
+Whitney put a board addition to the log-house, and opened the first
+hotel. From that has grown up the present International. The immediate
+predecessor of the International was the Eagle Tavern, which was, for
+some years, in charge of a genial and popular landlord, the late Mr.
+Hollis White. It was formed by the addition to the old frame structure
+of a three-story brick building, of moderate dimensions. Across the
+front of this addition was a long, wide, old-fashioned stoop. This was
+well supplied with comfortable arm-chairs, which furnished easy rests
+for guests or neighbors, and were well patronized by both, and
+especially during the summer season by the genial humorists of the
+place. On the opposite side of the street was a small house, a story and
+a half high, belonging to Judge Porter, and to which he built an
+addition. Then, as now, there were occasionally more visitors than the
+hotel could accommodate, and the neighbors assisted in entertaining
+them. Judge Porter, did this frequently, and among his guests were
+President Monroe, Marshal Grouchy, General La Fayette, General Brown,
+General Scott, Judge Spencer, and other distinguished strangers.
+
+The first building erected on the ground where the Cataract House now
+stands was of a later date--1824--a frame house about fifty feet square.
+It was purchased by General Whitney in 1826, and formed the nucleus of
+the great pile which constitutes the present Cataract House.
+
+In 1829, the carriage road down the bank to the ferry on the Canadian
+side was made. For several years previous the principal hotel at the
+Falls was also on that side. It was called the Pavilion, and stood on
+the high bank just above the Horseshoe Fall. It commanded a grand view
+of the river above, and almost a bird's-eye view of the Falls and the
+head of the chasm below. The principal stage-route from Buffalo was
+likewise on that side, and the register of the Pavilion contained the
+names of most of the noted visitors of the period. But the erection of
+the Cataract House and the establishing of stage-routes on the American
+side drew away much of its patronage, and finally, on the completion of
+the first half of the Clifton House, in 1833, it was quite abandoned. A
+few years later the Ontario House was built, about half-way between the
+Clifton and the Horseshoe Fall, toward which it fronted. There was not
+sufficient business to support it, and after standing unoccupied for
+several years, it took fire and was burned to the ground.
+
+The Clifton was greatly enlarged and improved by Mr. S. Zimmerman in
+1865. The Amusement Hall and several cottages were built and gas-works
+erected. The grounds were handsomely graded and adorned.
+
+Near the site of Table Rock is the Museum, its valuable collection being
+the result of several years' labor by its proprietor, Mr. Thomas
+Barnett. It contains several thousand specimens from the animal and
+mineral kingdoms, and the galleries are arranged to represent a forest
+scene.
+
+Just above the Museum the visitor steps upon what remains of the famous
+Table Rock. It was once a bare rock pavement, about fifteen rods long
+and about five rods wide, about fifty feet of its width projecting
+beyond its base at the bottom of the limestone stratum nearly one
+hundred feet below. Remembering this fact, we can more readily credit
+the probable truth of the statement made by Father Hennepin--which we
+have before noticed--that the projection on the American side in 1682,
+when he returned from his first tour to the West, was so great that four
+coaches could drive abreast under it. On top of the _debris_ below the
+bank lies the path by which Termination Rock, under the western end of
+the Horseshoe, is reached. It is a path which few neglect to follow.
+
+The Table itself has always been, and must continue to be, a favorite
+resort for visitors. The combined view of the Falls and the chasm below,
+as well as the rapids above, is finer, more extensive, here than from
+any other point. Moreover, the nearness to the great cataract is more
+sensibly felt, the communion with it is deeper and more intimate than it
+can be anywhere else. The view from this point can be most pleasantly
+and satisfactorily taken in the afternoon, when the spectator has the
+sun behind him, and can look at his leisure and with unvexed eyes at the
+brilliant scene before him. However long he may tarry he will find new
+pleasure in each return to it.
+
+Two miles above, following round the bend of the Oxbow toward Chippewa,
+and down near the water's edge, is the Burning Spring. The water is
+impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen gas, and is in a constant state
+of mild ebullition. The gas is perpetually rising to the surface of the
+water, and when a lighted match is applied it burns with an intermittent
+flame. If, however, a tub with an iron tube in the center of its bottom
+is placed over the spring, a constant stream of gas passes through it.
+On being lighted it burns constantly, with a pale blue, wavering flame,
+which possesses but little illuminating or heating power. The drive is a
+pleasant one, affording a fine view of the Oxbow Rapids and islands and
+the noble river above.
+
+A mile and a quarter west of Table Rock is the Lundy's Lane
+battle-ground. On the crown of the hill, where the severest struggle
+occurred, are two rival pagodas challenging the tourist's attention.
+From the top of each he has a rare outlook over a broad level plain,
+relieved on its northern horizon by the top of Brock's Monument, and to
+the south-east by the city of Buffalo and Lake Erie.
+
+The obliging custodian of either tower will enlighten his hearers with
+dextrous volubility, and, according as he is certain of the nationality
+of his listeners, will the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph, or the
+Cross of Saint George float in glory, over the bloody and hard-fought
+field. If he cannot feel sure of his listeners' habitat, like Justice,
+he will hold an even balance and be blind withal.
+
+It was the writer's privilege to go over the field on a pleasant June
+day with Generals Scott and Porter, and to learn from them its stirring
+incidents. General Scott pointed out the location of the famous battery
+on the British left which made such havoc with his brave brigade, and
+in taking which the gallant Miller converted his modest "I'll try, sir,"
+into a triumphant "It is done." The General also found the tree under
+which, faint from his bleeding wound, he sat down to rest, placing its
+protecting boll between his back and the British bullets, as he leaned
+against it. Plucking a small wild flower growing near it, he presented
+it to one of the ladies of the party, telling her that "it grew in soil
+once nourished by his blood."
+
+General Porter showed us where, with his volunteers and Indians, he
+broke through the woods on the British right, just as Miller had
+captured the troublesome battery, thus aiding to win the most obstinate
+and bloody fight of the war. Its hard-won trophies, however, were too
+easily lost, as, by some misunderstanding or neglect of orders, the
+proper guard around the field was not maintained, and, in the darkness
+proverbially intense just before day, the British returned to the field
+and quietly removed most of the guns. So our English friends claim it
+was a drawn battle.
+
+Nearly half a century later a dinner was given at Queenston by our
+Canadian friends, to signalize the completion of the Lewiston Suspension
+Bridge. On this occasion a British-Canadian officer, the late Major
+Woodruff, of St. David's, who served with his regiment during the war,
+was called upon by the chairman, the late Sir Allan McNabb, to follow,
+in response to a toast, the late Colonel Porter, only son of General
+Porter. In a mirthful reference to the stirring events of the war he
+alluded to the British retreat after the battle of Chippewa, and
+condensing the opposing forces into two personal pronouns, one
+representing General Porter and the other himself, he turned to Colonel
+Porter and said: "Yes, sir, I remember well the _moving_ events of that
+day, and how sharp he was after me. But, sir, he was balked in his
+purpose, for although he won the _victory_ I won the _race_, and so we
+were even."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Incidents--Fall of Table Rock--Remarkable phenomenon in the
+     river--Driving and lumbering on the Rapids--Points of the compass
+     at the Falls--A first view of the Falls commonly
+     disappointing--Lunar bow--Golden spray--Gull Island and the
+     gulls--The highest water ever known at the Falls--The Hermit of the
+     Falls.
+
+
+Of incidents, curious, comic, and tragic, connected with the locality
+the catalogue is long, but we must make our recital of them brief.
+
+We have before referred to Professor Kalm's notice of the fall of a
+portion of Table Rock previous to 1750. Authentic accounts of like
+events are the following: In 1818 a mass one hundred and sixty feet long
+by thirty wide; in 1828 and '29 two smaller masses; also in 1828 there
+went down in the center of the Horseshoe a huge mass, of which the top
+area was estimated at half an acre. If this estimate was correct, it
+would show an abrasion equivalent to nearly one foot from the whole
+surface of the Canadian Fall. In April, 1843, a mass of rock and earth
+about thirty-five feet long and six feet wide fell from the middle of
+Goat Island. In 1847, just north of the Biddle Stairs, there was a slide
+of bowlders, earth, and gravel, with a small portion of the bed-rock,
+the whole mass being about forty feet long and ten feet wide. About
+every third return of spring has increased the abrasion at these two
+points. At the first-named point more than twenty feet in width has
+disappeared, with the whole of the road crossing the island. From the
+latter point, near the Biddle Stairs, which was a favorite one for
+viewing the Horseshoe Fall, the seats provided for visitors and the
+trees which shaded them have fallen.
+
+[Illustration: FALL OF TABLE ROCK]
+
+On the 25th of June, 1850, occurred the great downfall which reduced
+Table Rock to a narrow bench along the bank. The portion which fell was
+one immense solid rock two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide, and one
+hundred feet deep where it separated from the bank. The noise of the
+crash was heard like muffled thunder for miles around. Fortunately it
+fell at noonday, when but few people were out, and no lives were lost.
+The driver of an omnibus, who had taken off his horses for their midday
+feed, and was washing his vehicle, felt the preliminary cracking and
+escaped, the vehicle itself being plunged into the gulf below.
+
+In 1850, a canal-boat that became detached from a raft, went down the
+Canadian Rapids, turned broadside across the river before reaching the
+Falls, struck amidships against a rock projecting up from the bottom and
+lodged. It remained there more than a year, and when it went down took
+with it a piece of the rock apparently about ten feet wide and forty
+feet long. At the foot of Goat Island some smaller masses have fallen,
+and three extensive earth-slides have occurred.
+
+In the spring of 1852 a triangular mass, the vertex of which was just
+beyond or south of the Terrapin Tower, while its altitude of more than
+forty feet lay along the shore of the south corner of Goat Island, fell
+in the night with the usual grinding crash. And with it fell some
+isolated rocks which lay on the brink of the precipice in front of the
+tower, and from which the tower derived its name. Before the tower was
+built, some person looking at the rocks from the shore suggested that
+they looked like huge terrapins sunning themselves on the edge of the
+Fall. A few days after the fall of the triangular mass, a huge column of
+rock a hundred feet high, about fourteen feet by twelve, and flat on the
+top, became separated from the bank and settled down perpendicularly
+until its top was about ten feet below the surface rock. It stood thus
+about four years, when it began gradually to settle, as the shale and
+stone were disintegrated beneath it, and finally it tumbled over upon
+the rocks below, furnishing an illustration of the manner in which we
+suppose the rocks which once accumulated below the Whirlpool must have
+been broken down. In the spring of 1871 a portion of the west side of
+the sharp angle of the Horseshoe, apparently about ten by thirty feet,
+went down, producing a decided change in the curve.
+
+On the 7th day of February, 1877, about eleven o'clock of a cold, cloudy
+day, there occurred the most extensive abrasion of the Horseshoe Fall
+ever noted. It extended from near the water's edge at Table Rock, more
+than half the distance round the curve, some fifteen hundred feet, and
+at the most salient angle the mass that fell was from fifty to one
+hundred feet wide. By this downfall the contour of the Horseshoe was
+decidedly changed, the reentering angle being made acute and very
+ragged. Less than three months afterward the abrasion was continued some
+two hundred feet toward Goat Island.
+
+The trembling earth and muffled thunder gave evidence of the immensity
+of the mass of fallen rock, but no one saw it go down. For several
+months after the fall, until the mass of rock got thoroughly settled in
+the bed of the Falls, the exhibition of water-rockets, sent up a hundred
+feet above the top of the precipice, was unique and beautiful. The
+greatest angle of retrocession, which had previously been wearing toward
+Goat Island, is again turning toward the center of the stream.
+
+On the 29th of March, 1848, the river presented a remarkable phenomenon.
+There is no record of a similar one, nor has it been observed since. The
+winter had been intensely cold, and the ice formed on Lake Erie was very
+thick. This was loosened around the shores by the warm days of the early
+spring. During the day, a stiff easterly wind moved the whole field up
+the lake. About sundown, the wind chopped suddenly round and blew a gale
+from the west. This brought the vast tract of ice down again with such
+tremendous force that it filled in the neck of the lake and the outlet,
+so that the outflow of the water was very greatly impeded. Of course, it
+only needed a short space of time for the Falls to drain off the water
+below Black Rock.
+
+The consequence was that, when we arose in the morning at Niagara, we
+found our river was nearly half gone. The American channel had dwindled
+to a respectable creek. The British channel looked as though it had been
+smitten with a quick consumption, and was fast passing away. Far up from
+the head of Goat Island and out into the Canadian rapids the water was
+gone, as it was also from the lower end of Goat Island, out beyond the
+tower. The rocks were bare, black, and forbidding. The roar of Niagara
+had subsided almost to a moan. The scene was desolate, and but for its
+novelty and the certainty that it would change before many hours, would
+have been gloomy and saddening. Every person who has visited Niagara
+will remember a beautiful jet of water which shoots up into the air
+about forty rods south of the outer Sister in the great rapids, called,
+with a singular contradiction of terms, the "Leaping Rock." The writer
+drove a horse and buggy from near the head of Goat Island out to a point
+above and near to that jet. With a log-cart and four horses, he drew
+from the outside of the outer island a stick of pine timber hewed twelve
+inches square and forty feet long. From the top of the middle island was
+drawn a still larger stick, hewed on one side and sixty feet long.
+
+There are few places on the globe where a person would be less likely to
+go lumbering than in the rapids of Niagara, just above the brink of the
+Horseshoe Fall. All the people of the neighborhood were abroad,
+exploring recesses and cavities that had never before been exposed to
+mortal eyes. The writer went some distance up the shore of the river.
+Large fields of the muddy bottom were laid bare. The shell-fish, the
+uni-valves, and the bi-valves were in despair. Their housekeeping and
+domestic arrangements were most unceremoniously exposed. The clams, with
+their backs up and their open mouths down in the mud, were making their
+sinuous courses toward the shrunken stream. The small-fry of fishes were
+wriggling in wonder to find themselves impounded in small pools.
+
+This singular syncope of the waters lasted all the day, and night closed
+over the strange scene. But in the morning our river was restored in all
+its strength and beauty and majesty, and we were glad to welcome its
+swelling tide once more.
+
+It is a curious fact that nine out of every ten persons who visit the
+Falls for the first time, are on their arrival completely bewildered as
+to the points of the compass; and this without reference to the
+direction from which they may approach them. All understand the general
+geographical fact that Canada lies north of the United States. Hence
+they naturally suppose, when they arrive at the frontier, that they must
+see Canada to the north of them. But when they reach Niagara Falls they
+look across the river into Canada, in one direction directly south, and
+in another directly west. Only a reference to the map will rectify the
+erroneous impression. It is corrected at once by remembering that the
+Niagara River empties into the south side of Lake Ontario.
+
+One other fact may be regarded as well-established, namely, that most
+visitors are disappointed when they first look upon the Falls. They are
+not immediately and forcibly impressed by the scene, as they had
+expected to be. The reasons for this are easily explained. The chief
+one is that the visitor first sees the Falls from a point above them.
+Before seeing them, he reads of their great height; he expects to look
+up at them and behold the great mass of water falling, as it were, from
+the sky. He reads of the trembling earth; of the cloud of spray, that
+may be seen a hundred miles away; of the thunder of the torrent, and of
+the rainbows. He does not consider that these are occasional facts. He
+may not know he is near the Falls until he gets just over them. At
+certain times he feels no trembling of the earth; he hears no stunning
+roar; he may see the spray scattered in all directions by the wind, and
+of course he will see no bow. Naturally, he is disappointed. But it is
+not long before the grand reality begins to break upon him, and every
+succeeding day and hour of observation impresses him more and more
+deeply with the vastness, the power, the sublimity of the scene, and the
+wonderful and varied beauty of its surroundings. Those who spend one or
+more seasons at Niagara know how very little can be seen or comprehended
+by those who "stop over one train."
+
+[Illustration: ROCK OF AGES AND WHIRLWIND BRIDGE]
+
+They are fortunate who can see the Falls first from the ferry-boat on
+the river below, and about one-third of the way across from the American
+shore. The writer has frequently tried the experiment with friends who
+were willing to trust themselves, with closed eyes, to his guidance, and
+wait until he had given them the signal to look upward.
+
+Those who may be at Niagara a few nights before and after a full moon
+should not fail to go to Goat Island to see the lunar bow. It is the
+most unreal of all real things--a thing of weird and shadowy beauty.
+
+Another striking scene peculiar to the locality is witnessed in the
+autumn, when the sun in making its annual southing reaches a point
+which, at the sunset hour, is directly west from the Falls. Then those
+who are east of them see the spray illuminated by the slant rays of the
+sinking sun. In the calm of the hour and the peculiar atmosphere of the
+season, the majestic cloud looks like the spray of molten gold.
+
+In 1840 there was a small patch of stones, gravel, sand, and earth,
+called Gull Island, lying near the center of the Canadian rapid and
+about one hundred rods above the Horseshoe Fall. It was apparently
+twenty rods long by two rods wide, and was covered with a growth of
+willow bushes. It was so named because it was a favorite resort of that
+singular combination of the most delicate bones and lightest feathers
+called a gull.
+
+The birds seem large and awkward on the wing, but as they sit upon the
+water nothing can appear more graceful. They are far-sighted and
+keen-scented. Their eyes are marvels of beauty. They are eccentric in
+their habits, the very Arabs of their race--here to-day and gone
+to-morrow. They are gregarious and often assemble in large numbers. At
+times in a series of wild, rapid, devious gyrations, and uttering a low,
+mournful murmur, they seem to be engaged, as it were, in some solemn
+festival commemorative of their departed kindred. One moment the air
+will be filled with them and their sad refrain; the next moment the cry
+will have ceased and not a gull will be seen. They come as they go,
+summer and winter alike. In thirty years the writer has never been able
+to discover when nor whence they came. In winter they generally appear
+in the milder days, and their disappearance is followed by cooler
+weather.
+
+In the spring of 1847 a long and fierce gale from the west, which drove
+the water down Lake Erie, caused the highest rise ever known in the
+river. It rose six feet on the rapids, and for the first time reached
+the floor-planking of the old bridge. The greater part of Gull Island
+was washed down in this flood, and ten years later it had wholly
+disappeared.
+
+The vague tradition--the origin of which cannot be traced--that there is
+a flux and reflux of the waters in the Great Lakes, which embraces a
+period of about seven years, is not confirmed by our observation, if it
+be intended to affirm that the ebb and flow are both completed in seven
+years. Our observation shows that there is a flow of about seven years,
+and a reflux, which is accomplished in the same period. The water in the
+Niagara was very low in 1843-4, again in 1857-8, and again in 1871-2.
+This last is the lowest long continued shrinkage ever known. It is,
+however, altogether probable that the general level of the lakes will
+fall hereafter, owing to the destruction of the forests and the
+cultivation of the land along their shores. In this case the waters of
+the Niagara and Detroit rivers may, in the far future, meet in the bed
+of Lake Erie, and their margins be covered with orchards and vineyards
+more extensive and productive than those along the Rhine.
+
+The Hermit of the Falls, so called, Mr. Francis Abbott, came to the
+village in June, 1829. He was a rather good-looking, respectable young
+man, of moderate attainments, who was subject, apparently, to a mild
+form of intermittent derangement. Though his manner was eccentric, his
+conduct was harmless, and it is probable that his parents, who, it was
+afterward ascertained, were respectable members of the Society of
+Friends in England, encouraged his desire to travel, and furnished him
+the means to do so. He seems to have had some taste for music, and to
+have been a tolerable performer on the flute. He wandered much about the
+island, both night and day, and often bathed below the little fall on
+the south side of Goat Island, near its head. He lived alone in an
+unoccupied log-hut, directly across the island from this fall, until
+about the first of April, 1831, when he removed to a little cabin of his
+own building, on Point View. In June of that year, just two years after
+his arrival, he was drowned while bathing below the ferry. Ten days
+after, his body was found at Fort Niagara, brought back, and buried in
+the God's-acre at the Falls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     Avery's descent of the Falls--The fatal practical joke--Death of
+     Miss Rugg--Swans--Eagles--Crows--Ducks over the Falls--Why dogs
+     have survived the descent.
+
+
+On the morning of the 19th of July, 1853, a man was discovered in the
+middle of the American rapid, about thirty rods below the bridge. He was
+clinging to a log, which the previous spring had lodged against a rock.
+He proved to be a Mr. Avery, who had undertaken to cross the river above
+the night before, but, getting bewildered in the current, was drawn into
+the rapids. His boat struck the log, and was overturned, yet, by some
+extraordinary good fortune, he was able to hold to the timber. A large
+crowd soon gathered on the shore and bridge. A sign, painted in large
+letters, "We will save you," was fastened to a building, that the
+reading of it might cheer and encourage him. Boats and ropes were
+provided, with willing hands to use them. The first boat lowered into
+the rapids filled and sank just before reaching Avery. The next, a
+life-boat, which had been procured from Buffalo, was let down, reached
+the log, was dashed off by the reacting waters, upset, and sank beside
+him. Another light, clinker-built boat was launched, and reached him
+just right. But, in some unaccountable manner, the rope got caught
+between the rock and the log. It was impossible to loosen it. Poor
+Avery tugged and worked at it with almost superhuman energy for hours.
+The citizens above pulled at the rope until it broke.
+
+By this time a raft had been constructed, with a strong cask fastened to
+each corner, and ropes attached so that Avery could tie himself to it.
+It was lowered, and reached him safely. He got on it and seized the
+ropes. Every heart grew lighter as the rescuers moved across the lower
+part of Bath Island, drawing in the rope, while the raft swung easily
+toward Goat Island. But when it reached the head of Chapin's Island, all
+hopes were dashed again. The rope attached to the raft got caught in the
+rocks as it was passing below a ledge in a swift chute of water. All
+efforts to loosen it were ineffectual. Another boat was launched and let
+down-stream. It reached the raft all right, and Avery, in his eagerness
+to seize it, dropped the ropes he had been holding, stepped to the edge
+of the raft, with his hands extended to catch the boat, when the raft,
+under his weight, settled in the water, and, just missing his hold, he
+was swept into the rapids, went down the north side of Chapin's Island,
+and, almost in reach of it, in water so shallow that he regained his
+feet for an instant, threw up his hands in despair, fell backward, and
+went over the Fall. The tragedy lasted eighteen hours.
+
+The names connected with the next incident are suppressed, out of regard
+for the feelings of surviving friends. It is given as a warning to
+future visitors to Niagara not to attempt any mirthful experiments
+around the Falls. A party of ladies, gentlemen, and children were on
+Luna Island, near a small beech tree, since destroyed, called "the
+Parasol." A young girl of ten was standing near her mother, just on the
+brink of the water, when a young man of twenty-two stepped up beside her
+and seized her playfully by the arms, saying, "Now, Nannie, I am going
+to throw you in," and swung her out over the water. Taken by surprise
+and frightened, she struggled, twisted herself out of his grasp, and
+fell into the rapid within twenty feet of the brink of the precipice.
+Instantly the young man plunged in after her, seized hold of her dress,
+and swung her around toward her half-distracted mother, who almost
+reached her as she slipped by and went over the Fall, immediately
+followed by the young man. The young girl was found some days afterward,
+lying on her back, on a large rock, holding her open parasol above her
+head, as though she had lain down to rest. A few weeks afterward the
+father of the young man was coming up the river, on the _Maid of the
+Mist_, from the lower landing. A body was discovered floating in the
+water, and, by the aid of a small boat, was brought on board the
+steamer. It was that of his son.
+
+On the 23d of August, 1844, Miss Martha K. Rugg was walking to Table
+Rock with a friend. Seeing a bunch of cedar-berries on a low tree, which
+grew out from the edge of the bank, she left her companion, reached out
+to pick it, lost her footing, and fell one hundred and fifteen feet upon
+the rocks below. She survived about three hours. Pilgrims to Table Rock
+used to inquire for the spot where this accident happened. The following
+spring, an enterprising Irishman brought out a table of suitable
+dimensions, set it down on the bank of the river, and covered it with
+different articles, which he offered for sale. In order to enlighten
+strangers about the spot, he provided a remarkable sign, which he set up
+near one end of the table. This sign was a monumental obelisk, about
+five feet high, made of pine boards, and painted white. On the base he
+painted, in black letters, the following inscription:
+
+
+     "Ladies fair, most beauteous of the race,
+     Beware and shun a dangerous place.
+     Miss Martha Rugg here lost a life,
+     Who might now have been a happy wife."
+
+
+An envious competitor, one of his own countrymen, brought his own table
+of wares, and placed it just above the original mourner. Thereupon, the
+latter, determining that his rival should not have the benefit of his
+sign, removed it below his own table, having first removed the table
+itself as far down as circumstances would permit. Then he added his
+master-stroke of policy. Up to that time the monument had been
+stationary. Thenceforward, every day on quitting business he put it on a
+wheelbarrow and took it home, bringing it out again on resuming
+operations in the morning.
+
+Previous to the War of 1812, the Niagara River abounded in swans, wild
+geese, and ducks. Since that war none of the swans have been seen here,
+except two pair which came at different times. One of each pair went
+over the Falls, and was taken out alive but stunned. Their mates,
+faithful unto death, were shot while watching and waiting for their
+return.
+
+Eagles have always been seen in the vicinity, and a few have been
+captured. A single pair for many years had their aerie in the top of a
+huge dead sycamore tree, near the head of Burnt Ship Bay. It was
+interesting to watch the flight of the male bird when he left his
+brooding mate to go on a foraging expedition. Leaving the topmost limb
+that served as his home observatory, he would sweep round in a circle,
+forming the base of a regular spiral curve, in which he rose to any
+desired height. Then, having apparently determined by scent or sight, or
+by both, the direction he would take, he sailed grandly off. How
+grandly, too, on his return, he floated to his lofty perch with a single
+fold of his great wings, and sat for a few moments, motionless as a
+statue, before greeting his mate. When the young eaglets had but
+recently chipped their shells, passing sportsmen were content to view
+the majestic pair at a respectful distance. A pair of eagles, each
+carrying ten talons, a hooked beak, a strong pair of wings, and an
+unerring eye, all backed and propelled by an indomitable will and
+courage, are not to be recklessly trifled with.
+
+Early in July, 1877, two farmers riding in a buggy from Bergholtz, in
+the easterly part of the town of Niagara, toward the town of Wilson on
+Lake Ontario, saw a large gray eagle sitting on a fence by the roadside,
+and watching with much interest some object in a field beyond. Leaving
+their buggy, they ascertained that the object of its solicitude was an
+eaglet sitting on the ground, unable to fly, his wings and feathers
+having been drenched by a heavy shower. One of the men who first reached
+the young bird found it rather bellicose, and while attempting to
+secure it was surprised by a vigorous thump on the head from the old
+bird, accompanied with a sensation of sharp claws in his hair which
+nearly prostrated him. His assailant then rose quickly some forty feet
+in the air, and, turning again, descended upon the man with such force
+as to compel him to relinquish his game. His friend joined him, and for
+nearly half an hour the two were engaged in a fierce fight with the
+resolute bird, which they estimated would measure eight feet across the
+extended wings. The eagle would soar quickly upward as at first until it
+reached the desired range, when it would turn upon them with great
+fierceness, thumping with its wings and striking with its talons at
+their very faces. Finally, securing a number of good-sized
+cobble-stones, they advanced again upon the eaglet, and were at once
+attacked by the parent. But they used their stone artillery with vigor,
+and succeeded in getting the eaglet to their buggy, leaving its gallant
+defender still unconquered and soaring in the air with a slightly
+injured wing.
+
+Before the War of the Rebellion, Niagara was a favorite resort of that
+winged scavenger, the crow, and, at times, they were very numerous. But
+after the first year of the war they entirely disappeared. Snuffing the
+battle from afar, they turned instinctively to the South, and did not
+re-appear among us until several years after the war had ended.
+
+Large numbers of ducks formerly went over the Falls, but not for the
+reason generally assigned, namely, that they cannot rise out of the
+rapids. It is true that they cannot rise from the water while heading
+up-stream. When they wish to do so, they turn down the current, and
+sail out without difficulty. No sound and living duck ever went over the
+precipice by daylight. Dark and especially foggy nights are most fatal
+to them. In the month of September, 1841, four hundred ducks were picked
+up below the Falls, that had gone over in the fog of the previous night.
+In two instances, dogs have been sent over the Falls and have survived
+the plunge. In 1858 a bull-terrier was thrown into the rapids, also near
+the middle of the bridge. In less than an hour he came up the
+ferry-stairs, very wet and not at all gay.
+
+The reason why the dogs were not killed may be thus explained. From the
+top of the Rapids Tower, before its destruction, the spectator could get
+a perfect view of the Canadian Fall. On a bright day, by looking
+steadily at the bottom of the Horseshoe, where water falls into water,
+he could see, as the spray was occasionally removed, a beautiful
+exhibition of water-cones, apparently ten or twelve feet high. These are
+formed by the rapid accumulation and condensation of the falling water.
+It pours down so rapidly and in such quantities that the water below, so
+to speak, cannot run off fast enough, and it piles up as though it were
+in a state of violent ebullition. These cones are constantly forming and
+breaking. If any strong animal should fall upon one of these cones, as
+upon a soft cushion, it might slide safely into the current below. The
+dogs were, doubtless, fortunate enough to fall in this way, aided also
+by the repulsion of the water from the rocks in the swift channel
+through which they passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     Wedding tourists at the Falls--Bridges to the Moss Islands--Railway
+     at the ferry--List of persons who have been carried over the
+     Falls--Other accidents.
+
+
+For many years Niagara has been a favorite resort for bridal tourists,
+who in a crowd of strangers can be so excessively proper that every one
+else can see how charmingly improper they are.
+
+The three fine, graceful bridges which unite Goat Island with the three
+smaller islands--the Moss Islands, or the Three Sisters--lying south of
+it were built in 1858. They opened up a new and attractive feature of
+the locality, with which all visitors are charmed. Those who have been
+on them will remember what a broken, wild, tangled mass of rocks, wood,
+and vines they are. Nothing on Onalaska's wildest shore could be more
+thoroughly primitive.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE SISTERS OR MOSS ISLANDS]
+
+A rude path with steps cut in the slope of the bank was for several
+years the only way of getting down to the water's edge at the ferry. In
+1825 several flights of stairs were erected, with good paths between,
+which made the task quite safe and easy. The double railway-track at the
+ferry was completed in 1845. When the necessary excavations were nearly
+finished, and people were told the object of it, the scheme met no
+approval from those conservative persons who have no faith in new
+things. The idea of a railway "to go by water" was not considered a
+brilliant one. Indeed, the greater number shrugged their shoulders at
+the thought of riding down _that_ hill. But as soon as the lumber cars
+were started for the convenience of the workmen, and people saw how
+expeditious and easy was the trip, it was difficult to keep them off the
+cars. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have ridden in them without
+accident or injury. The motive power is a reaction waterwheel set in a
+deep pit, and as all the machinery is concealed, it has quite the
+appearance of a self-working apparatus. There is alongside of the
+railroad a straight stair-way of two hundred and ninety steps, for those
+who prefer to use it.
+
+The number of victims whom carelessness or folly has sent over the Falls
+is large, and, it may be believed, is quite independent of the Indian
+tradition that the great cataract demands a yearly sacrifice of two
+human victims.
+
+
+OVER THE FALLS.
+
+In 1810 the boat _Independence_, laden with salt, filled and sunk while
+crossing to Chippewa. The captain and two of the crew went over the
+Falls. One of the crew clung to a large oar, and was saved by a small
+boat from Chippewa.
+
+1821 Two men in a scow were driven down the current by the wind, and
+went over the Falls.
+
+1825 Two men in a boat from Grand Island went over.
+
+--Three men went over in three different canoes.
+
+1841 Two men, engaged in smuggling, were upset in the current; one went
+over. One was found dead on Grass Island.
+
+--Two men who were carrying sand in a scow were drawn into the current
+and went over.
+
+1847 A lad of fourteen undertook to row across on a Sunday morning, and
+went over.
+
+1848 In August, a man in a boat passed under the Goat Island Bridge,
+within ten feet of the shore; he asked of persons on the bridge, "Can I
+be saved?" Soon after the boat upset, and he went over, feet foremost,
+struck on the rocks below, and was never seen afterward.
+
+--A little boy and girl were playing in a skiff, which swung off the
+shore; the mother waded into the water and rescued the girl. The boy,
+sitting in the bottom of the skiff, with a hand on each side, went over.
+
+1870 A lady from Chicago, said to be deranged, threw herself from Goat
+Island Bridge, and went over.
+
+1871 In June three men, unacquainted with the river, hired a boat to
+cross, were drawn into the rapids and went over.
+
+--In July two men in a boat went over.
+
+1873 Friday, July 4th, a young man and woman, and a boy twelve years of
+age, brother of the latter, hired a boat in Chippewa, ostensibly for a
+sail on the river. Not understanding the currents, they were drawn into
+the rapids and carried over the Horseshoe Fall. The bodies were not
+recovered. It was afterward ascertained that the young man had taken
+$500 from his father, in Ohio; had come to Chippewa to meet the young
+woman, who was from Toronto, to whom he was married on the day preceding
+their death.
+
+1874 September 19th, a young man connected with the Mohawk Institute, at
+Brantford, Canada--whether as student or instructor was not
+known--walked deliberately into the rapids above Table Rock, and was
+carried over the precipice, never to be seen again.
+
+1875 September 8th, Captain John Jones--at that time marine surveyor for
+a New York insurance company--jumped into the rapids below Goat Island
+Bridge, and went over the cliff, before the eyes of many excursionists.
+Ill-health was supposed to be the cause. The body was not found.
+
+1877 March 5th, Mr. G. Homer Stone, aged twenty-four, a school-teacher,
+living near Geneva, N. Y., leaped into the rapids, near the upper end of
+Prospect Park, and was carried over the Falls. The body was not
+recovered.
+
+--July 1st, three men went out in a sail-boat from Connor's Island,
+during a high wind and very rough water. Attempting a starboard tack, in
+order to reach Gill Creek Island, the boat was upset, and two of
+them--after the three had tried in vain to right the boat, and found it
+difficult to keep their hold--abandoned it and tried to swim ashore;
+but, owing to the rough sea and their wet and heavy clothing, they were
+soon exhausted, and went to the bottom. The third man, divesting himself
+of everything except his pantaloons, determined to swim for the nearest
+land the down-floating boat should pass. Fortunately, a large boat,
+manned by three sturdy oarsmen, coming up the river, rescued him, after
+he had become nearly exhausted. Three days after the accident one of the
+bodies was found near Grass Island, above the Falls, and the other, two
+days later, in the Whirlpool below.
+
+1877 October 16th, the discovery in the morning of several articles of
+female apparel on a flat rock, near the site of the old stone tower, and
+close to the brink of the Falls, led to investigation, which developed
+the fact that Miss Schofield, a young woman from Woodstock, in Canada,
+while suffering from a sudden attack of brain fever, had thrown herself
+into the rapids, and gone over the Horseshoe Fall. She was a skillful
+telegrapher, and had some local literary reputation. Her body was never
+recovered.
+
+1878 April 1st, John and Patrick Reilley, brothers, started from Port
+Day, above the Falls, to row across to Chippewa. One of them, being
+under the influence of liquor, refused to row steadily and quarreled
+with his brother, thus preventing him from rowing. They were drawn over
+the Canadian side of the Horseshoe Fall about four o'clock in the
+afternoon. They were both skillful rowers, and well acquainted with the
+river, which they had crossed and recrossed many times. Their bodies
+were recovered several weeks later.
+
+1878 April 6th, a young man, nineteen years of age, from Woodstock,
+Canada, a member of the Queen's Own, a volunteer regiment, which had
+attended a recent military review at Montreal, was on his return home,
+and crossed from Chippewa to Navy Island to visit friends who kept small
+boats on both sides of the river. After finishing his visit, he declined
+to accept the assistance of a young relative in recrossing the river,
+and started alone. The result was that, not understanding the force of
+the treacherous current, he was carried into the great rapids and went
+over the Horseshoe Fall. His body was found, two days afterward, below
+the ferry.
+
+1879 June 21st, the names of Monsieur and Madame Rolland were registered
+at one of the hotels, where they spent a night, but took their meals at
+a restaurant kept by a Frenchman, because Monsieur R. could not, as he
+said, speak English. The following morning they went to the Moss
+Islands. While near the lower end of the outer island, so the husband
+claimed, madame took a cup from him to get a drink of water from the
+rapids, and, while his attention was diverted for a moment, he heard a
+splash in the water, and on looking round, saw that his wife had fallen
+into the rapids. She went over the Horseshoe Fall. He showed great
+distress and every demonstration of sorrow. Nevertheless, he left the
+next day for New York, after giving his address to the
+restaurant-keeper, who, a few days afterward, sent word to him that the
+body had been recovered. Monsieur R. sent thirty dollars to pay expenses
+of burial, and sailed for France. Those who have seen the place where,
+according to his story, madame fell in, are skeptical on that point.
+
+1881 February 23d, a stranger named Doyle threw himself into the rapids
+from Prospect Park, and was carried over the American Fall. A body found
+some days after in the river below, claimed by friends to be his, was
+identified by a coroner's jury as that of a man named Rowell, whose body
+had been found some days before in the river, near the ferry, with a
+bullet through the head. It was never ascertained whether it was a
+suicide or an assassination.
+
+--July 12th, the body of a woman was found floating below the Falls,
+having evidently come from the river above. Some female wearing apparel
+found on the shore of the rapids, below Goat Island Bridge, it was
+supposed belonged to the suicide.
+
+1881 Dr. H. and Mrs. S., of good birth, education, and social position,
+loved not wisely but too well. Exposure was certain and near. They met
+at Niagara, July 14th, and went over the Falls together.
+
+--September 5th, a man from Toronto plunged into the rapids at Table
+Rock, and went over. In a letter to a Toronto paper, he stated that
+domestic trouble was the impelling motive.
+
+
+BELOW THE FALLS.
+
+In 1841 A number of British soldiers, stationed at Drummondville,
+attempted to swim across the rapids at the ferry at different times.
+None succeeded, and two were drowned.
+
+1842 A British soldier attempted to lower himself down the bank,
+opposite Barnett's Museum, in order to escape to the American shore. The
+rope broke, and he was killed by the fall.
+
+1844 In August, a gentleman was washed under the great Fall, from a rock
+on which he had stepped, against the remonstrances of the guide. He was
+drowned.
+
+1846 In August, a gentleman fell forty feet from a rock near the Cave of
+the Winds, and was instantly killed.
+
+1875 August 9th, two young women and three young men, residents of the
+village, went through the Cave of the Winds, as they had often done
+before, to enjoy the exhilarating bath. One of the young women, Miss P.,
+stepped into one of the eddying pools lying a little outside of the
+usual track, and one of the young men, Mr. P., thinking she might find
+the current stronger than she anticipated, followed her, and while
+seeking a sure footing for himself to guard against accident, the young
+lady lost her balance and fell into the current. Mr. P. endeavored to
+seize her bathing-dress, but not succeeding, sprang at once into the
+current, and both went over a ledge some eight feet high, at the foot of
+which Miss P. rose to her feet in an eddy, and sought support by leaning
+against a large rock lying adjacent to it. When Mr. P. rose to the
+surface he swam to her, and thinking they would be safer in an opening
+among smaller rocks on the opposite side of the eddy, he put his arm
+round her, and both made a desperate effort to reach the desired
+shelter. But the current proved too strong, and bore them both out into
+the river; Mr. P. swimming on his back, and supporting Miss P. with his
+right arm, while her right hand rested upon his shoulder. Suddenly they
+became separated. Miss P., apparently concluding that both could not be
+saved, disengaged herself from him, and immediately sank below the
+surface. Instantly her heroic friend plunged after her. A cloud of spray
+covered the troubled waters for a moment, and when it passed nothing
+could be seen of the unfortunate pair. The treacherous under-currents
+bore them to their doom. Both bodies were recovered a few days afterward
+from the Whirlpool.
+
+1877 August 31st, Dr. Louis M. Stein registered at the International
+Hotel. The following day, after riding to different points on the
+American side of the Falls, he alighted at the upper Suspension Bridge,
+and inviting a young bootblack to accompany him, he started across the
+bridge, talking rather incoherently on the way. When near the Canadian
+end he stopped, took from his pocket a roll of bills, gave the boy a
+dollar note, and returned the others to his pocket. He then started
+back, and when near the center of the bridge dropped his hand-bag and
+shawl, seized the boy, saying with an oath, "You have got to come, too!"
+and attempted to climb over the railing. The boy successfully resisted,
+but the man got over and dropped from one of the wire stays into the
+river, one hundred and ninety feet below. He was probably killed
+instantly, and the body floated down the river, from which it was taken
+some ten days afterward and delivered to a son, who arrived from New
+York city.
+
+--December 25th, a man from Chatauqua County, N. Y., suffering from
+ill-health and misfortune, jumped from the new Suspension Bridge, and
+was never seen again.
+
+The narrowest escape at the Falls was that of the man who, in January,
+1852, fell from the Tower Bridge into the rapids, and was caught between
+two rocks just on the brink of the precipice, whence he was rescued,
+nearly exhausted, by means of a rope.
+
+In 1874, Mr. William McCullough, while at work painting the small bridge
+between the first and second Moss Islands, missed his footing and fell
+into the middle of the channel; he was carried down about fifty rods,
+and, going over a ledge into more quiet water, got on his feet and waded
+to a small rock projecting above the water, upon which he seated himself
+to collect his senses and await results. After several vain efforts to
+get a rope to him, Mr. Thomas Conroy, a guide, then connected with the
+Cave of the Winds, who had in the previous autumn conducted Professor
+Tyndall up to Tyndall's Rock, put on a pair of felt shoes, and, holding
+to an inch rope, picked his way with an alpen-stock, from a point a
+short distance up-stream, through favoring eddies and pools to
+McCullough. After a short rest, he put the rope around McCullough, under
+his arms, and winding the end around his own right arm, the two started
+shoreward. On reaching the deep water near the shore, both were taken
+off their feet, and, as the people pulled vigorously at the rope, their
+heads went under for a short distance, but they were safely landed. A
+contribution was taken up for Conroy's benefit, and Professor Tyndall,
+on hearing of the rescue, sent him a five-pound note.
+
+In view of the fact that nearly every year persons are drawn into the
+rapids and carried over the Falls, a New York journalist suggested a
+most extraordinary method of saving them. He proposed that a cable
+should be stretched across the rapids, above the Falls, strong enough to
+arrest boats, and to which persons in danger might cling until rescued.
+But this kind and ingenious person forgot that old canal-boats, rafts of
+logs, and large trunks of trees, with roots attached, would be
+troublesome things to hold at anchor. As well hope to stay an Alpine
+avalanche with pipe-stems.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     The first Suspension Bridge--The Railway Suspension
+     Bridge--Extraordinary vibration given to the Railway Bridge by the
+     fall of a mass of rock--De Veaux College--The Lewiston Suspension
+     Bridge--The Suspension Bridge at the Falls.
+
+
+On the partial completion of the Hydraulic Canal, the principal
+stockholders, with a number of invited guests, celebrated the event on
+July 4, 1857, by an excursion from Buffalo in the _Cygnet_, the first
+steamer that ever landed within the limits of the village of Niagara.
+The same route is followed during the season of navigation by tugs
+towing canal-boats and rafts out and in. No passenger boat, however, has
+been placed on the route, although the sail on the river is a charming
+one.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE WAS BEGUN]
+
+Mr. Charles Ellet, in 1840, built the first suspension bridge over the
+chasm. He offered a reward of five dollars to any one who would get a
+string across it. The next windy day all the boys in the neighborhood
+were kiting, and before night a youth landed his kite in Canada and
+received the reward. The first iron successor of the string was a small
+wire cable, seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. To this was suspended
+a wire basket in which two persons could cross the chasm. The basket was
+attached to an endless rope, worked by a windlass on each bank. At an
+entertainment given on the occasion of the completion of the bridge,
+the good people of the embryo village at the bridge, elated with their
+new acquisition, were inclined to regard their neighbors at the Falls
+with patronizing sympathy. One of the latter said to Mr. Ellet, "This
+bridge is a very clever affair, and you only need the Falls here to
+build up a respectable village." "Well," he replied, "give me money
+enough and I will put them here." He had great faith in dollar-power.
+
+This bridge was an excellent auxiliary in the construction of the
+present Railway Suspension Bridge, built by Mr. John A. Roebling. It was
+begun in 1852, and the first locomotive crossed it in March, 1855. It is
+one of the most brilliant examples of modern engineering, and stands
+unrivaled for its grace, beauty, and strength. Seizing at once upon the
+natural advantages of the location, the engineer resolved to combine the
+tubular system with that of the suspension bridge. The carriage way was
+placed level with the banks of the river at the edges of the chasm. The
+railway track was placed eighteen feet above, on a level with the top of
+the secondary banks across which the two railroads were to approach it.
+The plan was perfect, and perfectly and faithfully executed in all its
+details. It is practically a skeleton tube. As the traveler passes over
+it in a carriage or a railway car, from the almost total absence of any
+vibratory motion he feels at once that he is on a safe basis, and his
+sense of security is complete.
+
+One feature of the construction of the bridge may be noticed as having a
+bearing on the question of its durability. It is well known that when
+wrought-iron is exposed to long continued or oft repeated and rapid
+concussions, its fibers after a time become granulated, whereby its
+strength is greatly impaired and finally exhausted. It is also known
+that the effect of rhythmical or regular vibrations is more destructive
+than the effect of those which are inharmonious or irregular. Because of
+this, a body of men is never allowed to march to music across a bridge,
+nor is a large number of cattle ever driven across at one time, lest
+they should, by accident, fall into a common step and so overstrain or
+break down the bridge. It is the difference between a single heavy blow
+and an irregular succession of light ones. Hence, when harmonious,
+regular vibrations can be broken up, the destructive influence is
+greatly modified and retarded.
+
+The bridge is supported by two large cables on each side, one pair above
+the other, the lower pair being nearer together horizontally than the
+upper pair, so that a cross section of the skeleton tube would be shaped
+somewhat like the keystone of an arch. Each of these large cables is ten
+inches in diameter, and is composed of seven smaller ones, called
+strands. These smaller strands are made of number nine wire, and each
+one contains five hundred and twenty wires. Each of these wires was
+boiled three several times in linseed oil, giving it an oleaginous
+coating of considerable thickness and great adhesive power. Each wire
+was carried across the river separately, from tower to tower, by a
+contrivance of the engineers, the chief feature of which was a light
+iron pulley about twenty inches in diameter, suspended on what might be
+called a wire cord. This apparatus was called a traveler, and curious
+and interesting was its performance as seen from below. It looked like a
+huge spider weaving an iron web.
+
+Six of the seven strands forming each of the cables were laid around the
+seventh as a center, and when all were properly placed they were again
+saturated with oil and paint. After this, by another contrivance of the
+engineers, they were wound or wrapped with wire, like winding a rope
+cable with marlin, and thus the whole cable was made into a thoroughly
+compact, huge, round, iron rope. This was covered with numerous coats of
+paint to prevent the oxidation of the inner wires. The oleaginous
+coating of the wires, together with the small triangular spaces between
+them, would seem to reduce the destructive power of the vibrations to
+zero. But the vibrations are very greatly reduced and the stiffness of
+the structure is greatly increased by the use of a series of triangular
+stays, the triangle being the only geometrical figure whose angles
+cannot be shifted. There are sixty-four of these triangles. Their
+hypothenuses are formed by over-floor stays of wire rope reaching from
+the tops of the towers to different points in the lower floor, this
+latter, of course, forming their common base and the towers their
+altitude. The stays are fastened to the suspenders so as to form
+straight lines. As the towers and the floor are rigid and solid in the
+direction of the lines they represent, it follows that the intersections
+of the hypothenuses with the common base form so many stationary points
+in the latter. These stationary points present a powerful resistance to
+vibrations. The side trusses, with their system of diamond-work braces
+and the weight of the railway track on the upper bridge, also help to
+stiffen the structure. There are likewise fifty-six under stays or guys
+of wire rope fastened to the rocks below, designed to prevent upward and
+lateral vibrations. A heavy locomotive with twenty loaded cars produced
+a depression of the upward curvature of the track of nearly ten inches.
+The ordinary loads make a depression of only five inches.
+
+In Part II., attention was directed to a point on the American side of
+the river, just below this bridge, where the disintegration of the shale
+and abrasion of the superposed rock is strikingly exhibited. A singular
+phenomenon was witnessed here in 1863. A mass of rock and shale, about
+fifty feet long, twenty feet wide, and sixty feet deep, fell with a
+great crash. Directly following the fall a remarkable motion was
+developed in the bridge itself. A strong wave of motion passed through
+the whole structure from the American side to the opposite shore, and
+returned again to the same side.
+
+Some twelve or fifteen mechanics, who were at work on the upper or
+railway track, were so alarmed that they fled with all speed to the
+shore. The motion imparted to the bridge was incalculably greater than,
+and of a different character from, any motion imparted by the crossing
+of the heaviest trains. The rocky mass which fell was forty rods below
+the bridge, and the hard floor on which it struck was more than two
+hundred and thirty feet beneath it. The mass itself fell about sixty
+feet average distance, and might have weighed five thousand tons. The
+extraordinary motion imparted to the bridge by the concussion must have
+been transmitted along the bed-rock to the anchorages on the American
+side, thence through the cables and the bridge across to the anchorages
+on the Canadian side, whence it returned to the American side.
+
+Mr. Donald McKenzie, master carpenter and superintendent of repairs, who
+has been connected with the bridge constantly since its erection, and
+all the men under him at the time, confirm this statement, and declare
+it is impossible to exaggerate or describe the wave-like motion which
+they experienced while escaping to the shore.
+
+Half a mile further down is De Veaux College, a noble charity endowed by
+the late Mr. Samuel De Veaux. He was for many years an active business
+man at Niagara, and by his integrity, industry, and wise enterprise
+accumulated a handsome fortune. His death occurred in 1852, and by his
+will he left nearly the whole of his estate to certain trustees to
+establish an institution for the care, training, and education of orphan
+boys. In addition to these, other pupils are received who pay a fixed
+price for their tuition, board, and incidentals. The institution has
+gained a high reputation for the thoroughness of its instruction and the
+excellence of its discipline. One of its sources of income is the amount
+received annually for admissions to the Whirlpool. Every visitor to that
+interesting locality will cheerfully pay the fee charged when he
+understands this fact.
+
+The suspension bridge below the mountain near Lewiston, spanning the
+river where the water emerges from the fearful abyss through which it
+dashes for five miles, was built in 1856, by Mr. T. E. Serrel. The guys
+designed to protect it from the effect of the wind were fastened in the
+rocks on either side at the water's edge. The great ice jam of 1866
+tore from their fastenings, or broke off, many of these guys. Before
+they were replaced a terrific gale in the following autumn broke up the
+road-way, severed some of the suspenders, and left the structure a
+melancholy wreck dangling in the air.
+
+The New Suspension Bridge, as it is called, just below the ferry at the
+Falls, was built in 1868. It is a light, graceful structure, standing
+one hundred and ninety feet above the water. Its length is twelve
+hundred feet, after the Brooklyn bridge the longest structure of the
+kind in the world, and it is the narrowest of those designed for
+carriage travel. To its narrowness it probably owed its safety from
+destruction during a fierce gale which occurred in the fall of 1869. The
+fastenings or dowels of several of the guys on the Canadian side were
+torn out, and the bridge at its center deflected down-stream more than
+its width, so that the surface of its road-way could not be seen half
+its length. Then its undulations from end to end--like a stair-carpet
+being shaken between two persons--were frightful, and for a time it was
+feared that either cables or towers must give way. After the gale
+subsided the old guys were made fast again, new ones were added, and two
+two-inch steel wire cables were stretched from bank to bank, and
+connected with the bridge by wire stays. Wrought-iron beams were
+afterward placed on the bottom stringers, and channel irons on the top
+beams of the side trestles, all of which were strongly bolted together.
+These improvements added much to the strength of the whole structure,
+and greatly increased its ability to resist horizontal deflection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     Blondin and his "ascensions"--Visit of the Prince of Wales--Grand
+     illumination of the Falls--The steamer _Caroline_--The water-power
+     of Niagara--Lord Dufferin and the plan of an International Park.
+
+
+In the year 1858, a short, well-rounded, fair-complexioned, light-haired
+Frenchman made his appearance at the Falls, and expressed a wish to put
+a tight-rope across the chasm below them, for the purpose of crossing on
+the rope and exhibiting athletic feats. He received little
+encouragement, but, having a Napoleonic faith in his star, he
+persevered, and finally obtained the necessary authority to place his
+rope just below the Railway Suspension Bridge. It was a well and evenly
+twisted rope, about two inches in diameter; and after stretching it as
+taut as it could be drawn, it hung in a moderate catenary curve.
+Commencing at the shore ends he secured stays of small rope to the large
+one, placing them about eight feet apart. These were made fast to the
+shore in such a manner that all the stays on one side of the main rope
+were parallel to each other from the center outward to the ends. They
+were made tight somewhat in the manner that tent-cords are tightened,
+and when the structure was complete it looked like the opposite sections
+of a gigantic spider-web.
+
+At each end was a spacious inclosure, formed by a rough board fence,
+for the use of spectators. M. Blondin--for this was the name of the new
+aspirant for acrobatic honors--also made an arrangement with the
+superintendent of the railway bridge for its occupation during what,
+with a shade of irony, he called his "ascensions." Those who went within
+the inclosures and upon the bridge paid a certain sum. A contribution
+was asked of all outsiders. He selected Saturday as the day for
+fortnightly ascensions, and advertised his intentions very liberally.
+The speculation was successful and gave great satisfaction to the
+spectators. He exhibited a variety of rope-walking feats, balancing on
+the cable, hanging from it by his hands and feet, standing on his head,
+and lowering himself down to the surface of the water. He also carried a
+man across on his back, trundled over a loaded wheelbarrow, and did
+divers other things, and also walked over in a sack. He sprinkled in a
+few extras to heighten the effect, as the knowing ones declared, such as
+slipping astride the cable, falling across a stay-rope, or dropping
+something into the water. In 1860, he gave a special ascension in honor
+of the Prince of Wales. The Prince and his party occupied a sheltered
+space on the Canadian side, and Blondin walked to it from the opposite
+side, performing various feats on the way over. The Prince shook hands
+with him as he stepped into the shed, and commended his courage and
+nerve.
+
+[Illustration: BLONDIN CROSSING THE NIAGARA]
+
+As illustrating the power of the imagination over the nerves it may be
+noted that, if the great spider's-web had been stretched out anywhere on
+a level surface, and not more than three feet above the ground, a dozen
+men in any large community could have been found to walk it as
+unconcernedly, if not as gracefully, as the famous "ascensionist." After
+three years of successful labor at Niagara, he sought other air-spaces.
+
+The most notable occurrence, however, which emphasized the visit of the
+Prince of Wales in that year was the illumination of the Falls late in
+the evening of a moonless night. On the banks above and all about on the
+rocks below, on the lower side of the road down the Canadian bank, and
+along the water's edge, were placed numerous colored and white calcium,
+volcanic, and torpedo lights. At a signal they were set aflame all at
+once. At the same time rockets and wheels and flying artillery were set
+off in great abundance. The shores were crowded with spectators, and the
+scene was a most remarkable one. The steady, lurid light below and the
+intermittent flashes and explosions overhead, the seething, hissing
+volumes of flame and smoke rolling up from the deep abyss, the ghostly
+appearance of the descending stream, the ghastly swift current of white
+foam, the weird appearance of the cloud of spray with a faint and
+fantastic illumination at its base, which faded out in the dim light of
+the stars as it ascended, the peculiarly deep but muffled and solemn
+monotone of the falling water, the livid hue imparted to the faces of
+the quiet but deeply interested spectators, all made the scene memorable
+and impressive. When the Marquis of Lorne and the Princess Louise
+visited the Falls in January, 1879, they saw them illuminated by
+electricity, the light having the illuminating power of 32,000 candles.
+
+In December, 1837, the steamer _Caroline_ came down from Buffalo to
+aid, it was said, the so-called Patriots, then engaged in an
+insurrection against the Canadian Government. A motley collection of
+adventurers on Navy Island constituted the disturbing, not to say
+attacking, force. At Chippewa was stationed a body of Canadian militia,
+under the command of Colonel--afterward Sir--Allan McNabb, who had the
+good fortune to win his spurs in a single almost bloodless campaign. By
+his direction a boat expedition was sent to attack the _Caroline_, as
+she lay at the old Schlosser dock. In the _melee_ one American was
+killed. The steamer was set on fire, and her fastenings must have been
+burnt away, as also a part of her upper works, since the writer, ten
+years later, while returning from a fishing expedition, discovered her
+smoke-pipe lying at the bottom of the river, in a quiet basin not thirty
+rods below the dock. A cat-fish of moderate dimensions appeared to be
+keeping house in it, and, with his head barely projecting from one end,
+was serenely watching the current for whatever game it might bring to
+his iron parlor. After the new bridges were built connecting the Three
+Sisters with Goat Island, the guides and drivers, in their desire to
+enhance the interest of the scene, astonished travelers by informing
+them that it was the boiler of the _Caroline_ which caused the
+extraordinary elevation of the water which we have before referred to as
+the Leaping Rock.
+
+Nine miles from the Falls is the Tuscarora Reservation of four thousand
+acres. On this there are about three hundred and fifty Indians, mostly
+half-breeds, engaged in agricultural pursuits, which supply a portion
+of their necessities. The Indian women who are seen at the Falls in the
+summer season working and vending different articles of bead-work belong
+to this community. The Tuscaroras have not been more fortunate than
+others of their race in bargaining with their white brothers, and their
+lands are now stripped of the fine oak timber and valuable wood which
+stood upon it a few years since, and which was sold in large quantities
+at small prices.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN WOMEN SELLING BEAD-WORK]
+
+As a compensation for this system of robbery we maintained a Christian
+missionary among them for a few years, and we boast that they are all
+Protestants. The resident missionary, a very worthy man, but a rather
+prosy preacher, always addressed his dusky audience in the English
+language, his thoughts being conveyed to them by an interpreter. For
+many years the interpreter was a native Tuscarora, a fine specimen of
+his race, six feet tall, with a tawny complexion, dark, flashing eyes,
+and a musical voice. It was interesting to note his manner while acting
+as interpreter for different clergymen. When interpreting the pious but
+humdrum utterances of the passionless missionary, he stood at the right
+side of the preacher, with his left elbow resting on one end of the
+modest pulpit, and delivered himself with an air that seemed to say, "It
+does not amount to much, but I give it to you as it is." But the change
+was magical when, as sometimes happened during the summer season, some
+eloquent preacher addressed the congregation. The natural courtesy of
+the interpreter led him, instead of putting his elbow on the pulpit, to
+stand a little to the rear of the strange preacher, respectfully waiting
+for his words. As the priest warmed into his subject the interpreter
+caught his spirit, straightened his fine figure to its full height,
+advanced to a line with the speaker, and as the theme was developed and
+the orator grew more and more eloquent, the excitement became
+contagious; the Indian entered fully into its spirit, his face glowed
+with animation, his eyes shone with a warmer light, his long arms were
+stretched forth, and with gestures energetic or subdued, but always
+graceful, and the varied inflections of his voice in harmony with the
+theme, he followed the discourse to the end. His audience, too, would
+become thoroughly aroused, and a little more animation would be infused
+into the plaintive tones of the closing hymn.
+
+One of the future attractions of Niagara, to sportsmen at least, may be
+the catching of California trout, twenty thousand of the fry having been
+put into the rapids by the writer in June, 1881.
+
+Concerning the manufactories, shops, rubbish, and litter along the race
+near the brink of the American Falls, which appear so uncouth and
+inharmonious, and which are noticed by strangers as being a desecration
+of the scene, it is only just to remark that the utilization of the
+water-power here, in the easiest and most economical manner, was one of
+the imperative necessities of the early settlement of the country. For
+many years a large territory, lying on both sides of the river, was
+dependent upon the manufacturing, repairing, and milling facilities of
+this place. For furnishing these in those days, water-power was the
+only agent. And the name--Manchester--given to the place by its early
+settlers only foreshadowed their hope that it would one day rival its
+great English namesake.
+
+There are fewer manufactories on the old race-ways now than there were
+forty years ago, but many new ones have been located on the hydraulic
+canal that has been excavated at great expense, which leaves the river a
+mile above the Falls, and empties into the chasm half a mile below. The
+three years of unusual drought in the northern half of the United
+States, from 1876 forward, demonstrated how little dependence can be
+placed during the summer season on the ordinary water-powers of that
+region, and the attention of manufacturers has been newly drawn to
+Niagara.
+
+The early dream of growth in population and wealth at Niagara seems
+likely to be realized. Already extensive milling and manufacturing
+establishments have been put in operation, and others are in
+contemplation. When it is considered that engineers estimate the
+sum-total of all the water-power in the northern portion of the United
+States at less than 500,000 horse-power, and that, according to data
+furnished by the United States Lake Survey Bureau, the water-power of
+Niagara is equal to 1,500,000 horse-power, we can form some idea of the
+vastness of the force which awaits the enterprise of American
+manufacturers.
+
+"I understand, Mr. President," said Daniel Webster, in a speech
+prefacing a toast complimentary to the citizens of Rochester for their
+generous hospitality at the New York State Fair in 1844, "that the
+Genesee River has a fall of 250 feet within the limits of the city of
+Rochester. Sir, if the Thames had a fall of 250 feet within the limits
+of the city of London, London would not be a town--it would be a-l-l
+t-h-e w-o-r-l-d!" and as he deliberately stretched out his great arms,
+and expanded his broad chest, while slowly pronouncing the last three
+words, one could almost see London gradually enlarging its ample borders
+in all directions. When the 1,500,000 horse-power of Niagara is utilized
+for the economic wants of men, Niagara will not be a town--it will be a
+large part of all the world.
+
+On the 25th of September, 1878, in an after-luncheon speech before the
+Ontario Society of Artists at Toronto, Lord Dufferin, Governor-General
+of Canada, first publicly suggested the idea of creating an
+International Park from lands to be taken from both sides of the river
+adjacent to and including the Falls. He stated that he had conferred
+with Governor Robinson of New York upon the subject, and that the
+project was cordially approved by him. Governor Robinson, in his annual
+message the following winter, commended the project to the consideration
+of the Legislature, by whom a commission of distinguished gentlemen was
+appointed to investigate the subject and report thereon. After a full
+examination this commission reported warmly in favor of the plan, and
+their recommendation was cordially indorsed by a great many prominent
+citizens residing in different sections of the country. The press, too,
+was almost unanimously for it. A majority of the members of the
+Legislature to whom the report was made would have passed a bill for
+the further prosecution of the scheme, but, unfortunately, it was
+ascertained that any bill they might pass for this purpose would be
+vetoed for economical reasons. It is hoped that better counsels may
+ultimately prevail, and the plan be perfected. Nothing else can save
+Niagara from total desecration and disgrace. The fact that there is not
+a square foot of land in the United States from which an untaxed view of
+the great cataract can be obtained is a disgrace to the State, the
+nation, and the civilization of the age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     Poetry in the Table Rock albums--Poems by Colonel Porter, Willis G.
+     Clark, Lord Morpeth, Jose Maria Heredia, A. S. Ridgely, Mrs.
+     Sigourney, and J. G. C. Brainard.
+
+
+Before the last fall of Table Rock, there stood upon it for many years a
+comfortable summer-house, where people could take refuge from the spray,
+look at the Falls, partake of luncheon, and procure guides and dresses
+to go under the sheet. In the sitting-room was a large round table, on
+which were placed a number of albums, as they were called. In these
+visitors could write whatever thoughts or sentiments might be suggested
+by the scene. With the grand reality before them but few persons
+attempted anything serious, by far the greater number adopting the
+facetious vein. It was emphatically light literature. One or two
+collections of it have been published, furnishing the reader with only a
+modicum of sense to an intolerable quantity of nonsense.
+
+The following specimens are better than the average:
+
+
+     "To view Niagara Falls, one day,
+     A Parson and a Tailor took their way.
+     The Parson cried, while rapt in wonder
+     And list'ning to the cataract's thunder:
+     'Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes,
+     And fill our hearts with vast surprise!'
+     The Tailor merely made this note:
+     'Lord! what a place to sponge a coat!'"
+
+
+         "THOUGHTS ON VISITING NIAGARA.
+
+     "I wonder how long you've been a roarin'
+       At this infernal rate:
+     I wonder if all you've been a pourin'
+       Could be ciphered on a slate.
+
+     "I wonder how such a thund'rin' sounded
+       When all New York was woods;
+     I suppose some Indians have been drownded
+       When rains have raised your floods.
+
+     "I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes
+       Hav'nt stood where now I stand;
+     Well, 'spose--bein' scared at first--they stub'd their toes,
+       I wonder where they'd land!
+
+     "I wonder if the rainbow's been a shinin'
+       Since sunrise at creation;
+     And this waterfall been underminin'
+       With constant spatteration!
+
+     "That Moses never mentioned ye, I've wonder'd.
+       While other things describin';
+     My conscience! how loud you must have thunder'd
+       While the deluge was subsidin'!
+
+     "My thoughts are strange, magnificent, and deep
+       While I look down on thee.
+     Oh! what a splendid place for washing sheep
+       Niagara would be!
+
+     "And oh! what a tremendous water power
+       Is wasted o'er its edge!
+     One man might furnish all the world with flour
+       With a single privilege.
+
+     "I wonder how many times the lakes have all
+       Been emptied over here?
+     Why Clinton didn't feed the Grand Canal
+       From hence, I think is queer."
+
+
+The most graceful verses on Niagara ever written by a resident are the
+following by the late Colonel Porter, who was an artist both with the
+pencil and the pen. They were written for a young relative in playful
+explanation of a sketch he had drawn at the top of a page in her album,
+representing the Falls in the distance, and an Indian chief and two
+Europeans in the foreground:
+
+
+     "An Artist, underneath his sign (a masterpiece, of course)
+     Had written, to prevent mistakes, 'This represents a horse':
+     So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err,
+     I think it well my Pen should be my Art's interpreter.
+
+     "A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin,
+     Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and Hennepin.
+     He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless flow
+     Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or loss--
+     The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross.
+     One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe;
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Ah, me! what myriads of men, since then, have come and gone;
+     What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and won;
+     What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all below:
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river's brink;
+     What poets shed from countless quills Niagaras of ink;
+     What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bow
+     Of the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished larder,
+     And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain harder;
+     And screaming locomotives rush in anger to and fro:
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's bower,
+     And gaze from off the stone-built perch--hence called the
+       Bridal Tower--
+     And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau,
+     By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "And bridges bind thy breast, O stream! and buzzing mill-wheels turn,
+     To show, like Samson, thou art forced thy daily bread to earn:
+     And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as they go,
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers found them,
+     But break and crumble now and then like other banks around them;
+     And on their verge our life sweeps on--alternate joy and woe;
+     But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago.
+
+     "Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray,
+     And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day:
+     But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless flow
+     Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago."
+
+
+On turning to the more serious poems that have been written on the
+theme, the reader naturally experiences a feeling of disappointment that
+a scene which has filled and charmed so many eyes should have found so
+few interpreters. Only those who see Niagara know how fast the tongue
+is bound when the thought struggles most for utterance. One who seems to
+have experienced this feeling thus expresses it:
+
+
+     "I came to see;
+     I thought to write;
+     I am but----dumb."
+
+
+The late Mr. Willis G. Clark thus expands the same sentiment:
+
+
+     "Here speaks the voice of God--let man be dumb,
+     Nor with his vain aspiring hither come.
+     That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,
+     And like a Presence fills the distant woods.
+     These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;
+     For ages here his painted bow has smiled,
+     Mocking the changes and the chance of time--
+     Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!"
+
+
+The following from the Table Rock Album was written by the late Lord
+Morpeth:
+
+
+            NIAGARA FALLS.--BY LORD MORPETH.
+
+     "There's nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!
+     Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall.
+     The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning's leap,
+     The stirring of the chambers of the deep;
+     Earth's emerald green and many tinted dyes,
+     The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies;
+     The tread of armies thickening as they come.
+     The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;
+     The brow of beauty and the form of grace,
+     The passion and the prowess of our race;
+     The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,
+     The unresisted sweep of human power;
+     Britannia's trident on the azure sea,
+     America's young shout of Liberty!
+     Oh! may the waves which madden in thy deep
+     _There_ spend their rage nor climb the encircling steep;
+     And till the conflict of thy surges cease
+     The nations on thy banks repose in peace."
+
+
+The extracts below are from a poem written after a visit to the Falls by
+Jose Maria Heredia, and translated from the Spanish by William Cullen
+Bryant:
+
+
+                    "NIAGARA.
+
+     "Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush
+     The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside
+     Those wide involving shadows, that my eyes
+     May see the fearful beauty of thy face!
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves
+     Grow broken 'midst the rocks; thy current then
+     Shoots onward like the irresistible course
+     Of destiny. Ah, terribly they rage,--
+     The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there! My brain
+     Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze
+     Upon the hurrying waters; and my sight
+     Vainly would follow, as toward the verge
+     Sweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerable
+     Meet there and madden,--waves innumerable
+     Urge on and overtake the waves before,
+     And disappear in thunder and in foam.
+
+     "They reach, they leap the barrier,--the abyss
+     Swallows insatiable the sinking waves.
+     A thousand rainbows arch them, and woods
+     Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock
+     Shatters to vapor the descending sheets.
+     A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heaves
+     The mighty pyramid of circling mist
+     To heaven. * * * *
+     What seeks my restless eye? Why are not here,
+     About the jaws of this abyss, the palms,--
+     Ah, the delicious palms,--that on the plains
+     Of my own native Cuba spring and spread
+     Their thickly foliaged summits to the sun,
+     And, in the breathings of the ocean air
+     Wave soft beneath the heaven's unspotted blue?
+
+     "But no, Niagara,--thy forest pines
+     Are fitter coronal for thee. The palm,
+     The effeminate myrtle and pale rose may grow
+     In gardens and give out their fragrance there,
+     Unmanning him who breathes it. Thine it is
+     To do a nobler office. Generous minds
+     Behold thee, and are moved and learn to rise
+     Above earth's frivolous pleasures; they partake
+     Thy grandeur at the utterance of thy name.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "Dread torrent, that with wonder and with fear
+     Dost overwhelm the soul of him who looks
+     Upon thee, and dost bear it from itself,--
+     Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies,
+     Age after age, thy unexhausted springs?
+     What power hath ordered that, when all thy weight
+     Descends into the deep, the swollen waves
+     Rise not and roll to overwhelm the earth?
+
+     "The Lord hath opened his omnipotent hand,
+     Covered thy face with clouds and given his voice
+     To thy down-rushing waters: he hath girt
+     Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow.
+     I see thy never-resting waters run,
+     And I bethink me how the tide of time
+     Sweeps to eternity."
+
+
+The lyric from which the following extracts are taken was written by Mr.
+A. S. Ridgely, of Baltimore, Md.:
+
+
+     "Man lays his scepter on the ocean waste,
+     His footprints stiffen in the Alpine snows,
+     But only God moves visibly in thee,
+     O King of Floods! that with resistless fate
+     Down plungest in thy mighty width and depth.
+     * * * Amazement, terror, fill,
+     Impress and overcome the gazer's soul.
+     Man's schemes and dreams and petty littleness
+     Lie open and revealed. Himself far less--
+     Kneeling before thy great confessional--
+     Than are the bubbles of the passing tides.
+     Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paint
+     Thy might of waters, volumed vast and deep;
+     Thy many-toned and all-pervading voice;
+     Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchor'd on the brink
+     Of the dread precipice; thy double stream,
+     Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired;
+     Thy wat'ry caverns and thy crystal walls;
+     Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade,
+     Boiling and seething like a Phlegethon
+     Amid the wind-swept and convolving spray,
+     Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope.
+     There, of beam and cloud the fair creation,
+     The rainbow arches its ethereal hues.
+     From flint and granite in compacture strong,
+     Not with steel thrice harden'd--but with the wave
+     Soft and translucent--did the new-born Time
+     Chisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever poured
+     Earth's grand libation to Eternity;
+     Thy misty incense rising unto God--
+     The God that was and is and is to be."
+
+
+Mrs. Sigourney wrote the following poem, it is said, during a visit to
+Table Rock:
+
+
+             "APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA.
+
+     "Flow on, forever, in thy glorious robe
+     Of terror and of beauty. God has set
+     His rainbow on thy forehead, and the clouds
+     Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give
+     Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him
+     Eternally, bidding the lip of man
+     Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour
+     Incense of awe-struck praise.
+                             And who can dare
+     To lift the insect trump of earthly hope,
+     Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime
+     Of thy tremendous hymn! Even ocean shrinks
+     Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves
+     Retire abashed; for he doth sometimes seem
+     To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall
+     His wearied billows from their vieing play,
+     And lull them to a cradle calm: but thou,
+     With everlasting, undecaying tide
+     Dost rest not night nor day.
+                             The morning stars,
+     When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,
+     Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires
+     That wait the archangel's signal, to dissolve
+     The solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name
+     Graven, as with a thousand spears,
+     On thine unfathomed page. Each leafy bough
+     That lifts itself within thy proud domain
+     Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,
+     And tremble at the baptism. Lo! yon birds
+     Do venture boldly near, bathing their wings
+     Amid thy foam and mist. 'Tis meet for them
+     To touch thy garment here, or lightly stir
+     The snowy leaflets of this vapor wreath,
+     Who sport unharmed on the fleecy cloud,
+     And listen to the echoing gate of heaven
+     Without reproof. But as for us, it seems
+     Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak
+     Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint
+     Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,
+     Or woo thee with the tablet of a song,
+     Were profanation.
+                             Thou dost make the soul
+     A wondering witness of thy majesty;
+     And while it rushes with delirious joy
+     To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,
+     And check its rapture, with the humbling view
+     Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand
+     In the dread presence of the Invisible,
+     As if to answer to its God through thee."
+
+
+The following lines were written by the late John G. C. Brainard, who
+never saw the Falls. They were dashed off at a single short sitting, for
+the head of the literary column of the _Connecticut Mirror_, of
+Hartford, which he then edited:
+
+
+                  "THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
+
+     "The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain
+     While I look upward to thee. It would seem
+     As if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand'
+     And hung his bow upon thine awful front,
+     And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him
+     Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,
+     'The sound of many waters,' and had bade
+     Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,
+     And notch his cen'tries in the eternal rocks.
+
+     "Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we
+     That hear the question of that voice sublime?
+     Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung
+     From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side!
+     Yea, what is all the riot man can make
+     In his short life to thy unceasing roar!
+     And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to HIM
+     Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far
+     Above its loftiest mountains?--a light wave
+     That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     Yosemite--Vernal--Nevada--Yellowstone--Shoshone--St.
+     Maurice--Montmorency.
+
+
+For the purpose of comparison it may be interesting to note other
+cataracts in the United States, and in other parts of the world, and
+also some of the remarkable rapids, which may be successors to what were
+once perpendicular falls. For descriptions of those in foreign countries
+we are chiefly indebted to the geographical gazetteers and the journals
+of Humboldt, Livingstone, Bohle, and Stanley; for information regarding
+the cataracts of Norway we are indebted to Murray's "Norway, Denmark and
+Sweden."
+
+[Illustration: YOSEMITE FALLS]
+
+In the United States, after Niagara, the first to claim our attention
+are the Falls of the Yosemite, so graphically and scientifically made
+known to us in the second volume of Professor J. D. Whitney's Geological
+Report for California.
+
+Before describing them it is necessary to note the physical features of
+the region in which they are placed. The valley of the Yosemite forms a
+portion of the bed of the Merced River, which flows through it and
+passes from it by a wild, deep canon into the San Joaquin. It is about
+eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a sharp bend
+to the west, about two miles from its upper end. To this place the
+Merced and two tributaries, called the North and South Forks, have come
+through the most rugged canons, falling nearly two thousand feet in the
+space of two miles.
+
+Near the southerly end of the valley is the remarkable rock El Capitan,
+an almost vertical cliff 3,600 feet high, and one of the grandest
+objects in the valley. Just above this is the imposing pile called the
+Cathedral Rocks, and behind these, connected with them, two slender and
+beautiful granite columns called the Cathedral Spires.
+
+Two miles above, on the opposite side, is the row of summits, rising
+like steps one above another, named the Three Brothers. On the other
+side, in the angle of the valley, stands Sentinel Rock, so called from
+its fancied resemblance to a watch-tower. Three-fourths of a mile in a
+southerly direction from this is the Sentinel Dome, more than four
+thousand feet high and affording from its summit a most magnificent
+view. Following up the North Fork, just at the entrance of the canon,
+rises the Half Dome, the grandest and loftiest in the Yosemite Valley,
+an inaccessible crest of granite, having an elevation--according to
+Prof. Brewer--of 6,000 feet. On the opposite side of the same canon
+stands the North Dome, another of those rounded masses of granite so
+characteristic of the sierras. Appearing as a buttress to this is
+Washington's Column, and below this the Royal Arches, an immense arched
+cavity, formed by the giving way and sliding down of portions of the
+rock, and presenting, in the upper part, a vaulted appearance.
+
+In the angle formed by the Merced with the South Fork is the symmetrical
+and beautiful North Dome. This valley is the most remarkable basin thus
+far found in the world, and in view of its gigantic and impressive
+scenery we cannot but marvel at its size--a mere cup or trough in the
+midst of one of the sublimest of geological formations. This tiny strip
+of wonder-land is, as we have seen, only eight miles long and less than
+three-quarters of a mile average width.
+
+[Illustration: BRIDAL VEIL FALL]
+
+Beginning at the south-westerly end of the valley we first reach, in
+ascending it, the Bridal Veil, formed by one of the torrents that feed
+the Merced River. It is 1,000 feet in height, the body of water not
+being large, but sufficient to produce the most picturesque effect. As
+it is swayed backward and forward by the force of the wind, it seems to
+flutter like a white veil.
+
+Near the head of the valley, where it turns sharply toward the west, we
+have before us the Yosemite Fall. "From the edge of the cliff to the
+bottom of the valley the perpendicular distance is, in round numbers,
+2,550 feet. The fall is not one perpendicular sheet. There is first a
+vertical descent of 1,500 feet, when the water strikes on what seems to
+be a projecting ledge, but which is in reality a shelf or recess about a
+third of a mile back from the front of the lower portion of the cliff.
+Across this shelf the water rushes downward in a foaming torrent on a
+slope, equal to a perpendicular height of 626 feet, when it makes a
+final plunge of about 400 feet on to a low talus of rock at the foot of
+the precipice. As these various falls are in one vertical plane, the
+effect of the whole from the opposite side of the valley is nearly as
+grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the
+descent was made in one sheet from the top to the bottom. The mass of
+water in the 1,500 feet fall is too great to allow of its being entirely
+broken up into spray, but it widens very much as it descends, and as the
+sheet vibrates backward and forward with the varying pressure of the
+wind, which acts with immense force on this long column of water, the
+effect is indescribably grand."
+
+The first fall in the canon of the Merced is the Vernal, "a simple
+perpendicular sheet 475 feet high, the rock behind it being a perfectly
+square-cut mass of granite. Ascending to the summit of the Vernal Fall
+by a series of ladders, and passing a succession of rapids and cascades
+of great beauty, we come to the last great fall of the Merced--the
+Nevada, which has a descent of 639 feet, and near its summit has a
+peculiar twist caused by the mass of water falling on a projecting ledge
+which throws it off to one side, adding greatly to the picturesque
+effect. It must be ranked as one of the finest cataracts in the world,
+taking into consideration its height, the volume and purity of the
+water, and the whole character of the scenery which surrounds it."
+
+The fall from end to end of the valley proper is about fifty feet. "Its
+smooth and brilliant color, diversified as it is with groves of trees
+and carpeted with showy flowers, offers the most wonderful contrast to
+the towering masses of neutral and light purple-tinted rocks by which it
+is surrounded. Its elevation above the sea is estimated at 4,060 feet,
+and the cliffs and domes about it from 3,000 to 5,000 feet higher." It
+is a source of great satisfaction to the lover of nature that this
+famous and favored territory, so studded with grandeur and fretted with
+beauty, has wisely been set apart by Governmental authority to minister
+to the higher needs and better instincts of man.
+
+[Illustration: VERNAL FALLS]
+
+The valley of the Yellowstone east of the Rocky Mountains in the north,
+like that of the Yosemite west of the sierras of the Pacific slope, is
+another wonder-land, presenting a bewildering variety of land and water
+formations which, in turn, awe, charm, fascinate, or amuse, but always
+astonish, the beholder.
+
+Among the most interesting objects in the Yellowstone Valley are the
+upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. "No language," says
+Professor Hayden, "can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty
+of these scenes, and it is only through the eye that the mind can gather
+anything like an adequate conception of them. The two falls are not more
+than a fourth of a mile apart. Above the upper fall the Yellowstone
+flows through a grassy, meadow-like valley with a calm, steady current,
+giving no warning until very near the fall that it is about to rush over
+a precipice 140 feet high, and then, within a quarter of a mile, again
+leap down a distance of 350 feet. After the waters roll over the upper
+descent they flow with great rapidity along the upper flat, rocky bottom
+which spreads out to near double the width above the falls, and
+continues thus until near the fall, when the channel again contracts and
+the waters seem, as it were, to gather into a compact mass and plunge
+over the descent of 350 feet in detached drops of foam as white as
+snow."
+
+On the Snake or Lewis River, the largest tributary of the Columbia
+River, are three falls, the greatest of which is the Shoshone in Idaho,
+where the river, with a width of six hundred yards, is said to be of so
+great a depth that it discharges nearly as much water as the Niagara,
+over a precipice about two hundred feet high. This grand fall is
+situated in the midst of magnificent scenery, and is surrounded by a
+fertile country.
+
+Another lesser Niagara is found in the north-east, in the river St.
+Maurice, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, which falls into it
+from the north below Three Rivers and about twenty-two miles above its
+mouth. The fall--the Shawenegan--is the same height as Niagara, and
+while the width and depth of the river are not given, the volume of
+water pouring over the precipice is said to be forty thousand feet per
+second, a supply sufficient to produce a grand and impressive cataract.
+
+Eight miles below Quebec the river Montmorency discharges directly into
+the St. Lawrence, over a cliff two hundred and fifty feet high, with a
+width of one hundred and fifty feet. The falling foam-flecked sheet
+presents a beautiful and picturesque appearance. It is unique as being
+the only known instance in which a tributary falls perpendicularly into
+the main stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     Tequendama--Kaiteeur--Paulo
+     Affonso--Keel-fos--Riunkan-fos--Sarp-fos--Staubbach--Zambesi or
+     Victoria--Murchison--Cavery--Schaffhausen.
+
+
+In South America is the remarkable fall of Tequendama, on the river
+Bogota, which, at this point, is only one hundred and forty feet wide,
+and is divided into numerous narrow and deep channels which finally
+unite in two of nearly the same width, and make a perpendicular plunge
+of six hundred and fifty feet to the plain below. "The cataract," says
+Humboldt, "forms an assemblage of everything that is sublimely
+picturesque in beautiful scenery. It is not one of the highest falls,
+but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so lofty a height,
+precipitates so voluminous a mass of water. The body, when it first
+parts from its bed, forms a broad arch of glassy appearance; a little
+lower down it assumes a fleecy form, and ultimately, in its progress, it
+shoots forth in millions of smaller masses, which chase each other like
+sky-rockets. The attending noises are quite astounding, and dense clouds
+of vapor soar upward, presenting beautiful rainbows in their ascent.
+What gives a remarkable appearance to the scene is the great difference
+in the vegetation surrounding different parts of it." At the summit the
+traveler "finds himself surrounded, not only with begonias and the
+yellow bark tree (Sandal), but with oaks, elms, and other plants, the
+growth of which recall to mind the vegetation of Europe, when suddenly
+he discovers, as from a terrace and at his feet, a country producing the
+palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. The cause of the difference is not
+ascertained, the difference of altitude--one hundred and seventy-five
+metres--not being sufficient to exert much influence on the atmosphere."
+
+[Illustration: NEVADA FALLS]
+
+Another and grander South American fall, of comparatively recent
+discovery, is the Kaiteeur, so called, in the river Potaro, a large
+affluent of the Essequibo, the largest river in British Guiana. The
+volume of water is greater than that in the Bogota, and falls in a
+single column of dazzling whiteness seven hundred and forty feet into a
+vast basin below. The ascending cloud of spray, the solemn monotone of
+the descending flood, the extreme wildness of the primitive forest, and
+the luxuriant and abundant growth of tropical vines and shrubs, and
+their gorgeous colors, make the scene impressive.
+
+[Illustration: LOWER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE]
+
+"There is in Brazil," says Elisee Reclus, "not far from Bahia, the
+wonderful cataract of San Francisco, known by the name of Paulo Affonso.
+At the foot of a long slope over which it glides in rapids, the river,
+one of the most considerable of the South American continent, whirls
+round and round as it enters a kind of funnel-shaped cavity, roughened
+with rocks, and suddenly contracting its width, dashes against three
+rocky masses reared up like towers at the edge of the abyss; then
+dividing into four vast columns of water, it plunges down into a gulf
+two hundred and forty-six feet in depth. The principal column, being
+confined in a perpendicular passage, is scarcely sixty-six feet in
+width, but it must be of an enormous thickness (depth), as it forms
+almost the whole body of the river. Half way up, the channel which
+contains it bends to the left, and the falling mass, changing its
+direction, passes under a vertical column of water, which penetrates
+through it from one side to the other, and breaking it up into a chaos
+of surges, converts it into a sea of foam. Sometimes the white, misty
+vapor may be seen, and the thunder of the water may be heard at a
+distance of more than fifteen miles." The spray and roar of Niagara are
+often seen and heard at Toronto, forty miles away, across Lake Ontario.
+
+In Norway is found the highest perpendicular fall in the world that is
+constantly supplied with water. It is the Keel-fos, formed by a mountain
+stream that falls two thousand feet into the Navoeens Fjord near
+Gudhaven, but the water becomes a mere billowy bank of mist before it
+reaches the bottom.
+
+The Riunkan-fos is another Norwegian cataract in the outlet of Lake
+Mjoesvard, which pours through a wild, rock-studded slope until it
+reaches a precipice, on the brink of which it is divided by a huge mass
+of rock into two channels. Thence it falls eight hundred and eighty feet
+into a dark basin at its foot, from which water-rockets and sharp jets
+of foam shoot up and out in all directions. The intense whiteness of the
+fleecy column is indescribable.
+
+A still more famous Norwegian cataract is the Sarp-fos in the
+Stor-Elven, formed by the junction of the Lougen and Glommen, the
+largest of the Norwegian rivers. Like the Riunkan-fos the stream is
+greatly contracted in a rocky gorge, and at the edge of the cliff is
+divided into two channels which, however, soon unite in a fall of one
+hundred feet upon huge masses of rock, through and over which it rushes
+tumultuously for a short distance, and then flows quietly into the sea.
+The volume of water is unusually large for a purely mountain river,
+being in the gorge at the top of the fall one hundred and fifty feet
+wide and forty feet deep. The massive and intensely white column
+contrasted with the dark green foliage of the solemn pines, and the
+darker rocks about it, and the deep blue water into which it falls,
+produce a vivid impression on the mind of the beholder. The Stor-Elven
+here presents the curious phenomenon of a stream changing, not from a
+perpendicular fall to a rapid, but the reverse, from a rapid to a
+perpendicular fall. A great portion of the right bank of the river at
+the fall, and for a considerable distance below, is chiefly composed of
+a stiff blue clay, and the river once flowed past Sarpsborg, a mile
+below, in a succession of magnificent rapids. At that time a superb
+mansion with numerous out-buildings stood at the termination of the
+rapids. On the 5th of February, 1702, the mansion, together with
+everything in and about it, sunk into an abyss six hundred feet deep,
+and was entirely buried beneath the water. The walls of the house were
+of unusual strength and thickness, with several high towers, but the
+whole was buried out of sight. Fourteen persons and two hundred head of
+cattle were also engulfed. The catastrophe was caused by the washing
+out of the blue clay, and the undermining of the bank, which then
+toppled over into the watery chasm.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE]
+
+In Switzerland is the Staubbach--dust-stream--a well known fall in the
+canton of Berne. It has a sheer descent of nearly nine hundred feet, in
+which the water is converted into spray that is easily moved by the
+wind, thus giving it a singularly beautiful resemblance to a white
+curtain floating in the air.
+
+In South Africa, Livingstone has made the public acquainted with that
+extraordinary hiatus in the crust of the earth in which the great river
+Zambesi is swallowed up. A stream more than a thousand yards wide,
+dotted with islands, flowing between fertile banks clothed with the
+luxuriant and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, without the least
+preliminary break or rapid, suddenly drops into a dark chasm of unknown
+depth, which, repeatedly doubling on itself, pursues its tortuous course
+some forty miles through the hills before emerging again into the
+sunlight. "From Kalai," says Livingstone, "after some twenty minutes'
+sail we came in sight of the columns of vapor appropriately called
+smoke. * * * Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of
+the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees. The
+tops of the columns at this distance (six miles) appeared to mingle with
+the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful." At the brink of
+the chasm he found the river divided into two channels of unequal width
+by a large island called the "Garden," on account of its rich
+vegetation. "Creeping with awe to the verge I peered down into a large
+rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and
+saw that a stream a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and
+then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards.
+In looking down into this fissure on the right of the island one sees
+nothing but a dense, white cloud. From this cloud rushed up a great jet
+of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred
+feet high; then, condensing, it changed its hue into that of dark smoke,
+and came back in a constant shower. This shower fell chiefly on the
+opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the top there
+stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet.
+From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf, but as
+they flow down the steep wall the column of vapor in its ascent licks
+them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are
+constantly running down, but never reach the bottom."
+
+[Illustration: THE STAUBBACH, SWITZERLAND]
+
+In Northern Africa the Murchison Falls in the White Nile, between lakes
+Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi, were discovered by Sir Samuel
+Baker, and are described by him. "Upon rounding the corner a magnificent
+sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were
+beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about three
+hundred feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage,
+and, rushing through a gap that cleft the river exactly before us, the
+river itself, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow
+gorge scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through the
+rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of about one hundred and twenty
+feet perpendicularly into a dark abyss below. The fall of water was
+snow-white, which had a superb effect, as it contrasted with the dark
+cliffs that walled the river, while graceful palms of the tropics and
+wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view."
+
+A writer in Hamilton's "East Indian Gazetteer" gives us an account of
+the cataract of Gungani Chuki in the northern branch of the river
+Cavery. "Much the larger stream is broken by projecting masses of rock
+into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller
+torrents. The first plunges into the river below from a height variously
+estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the
+others, impeded in their course by intervening rocks, work their way
+with many fantastic evolutions to a distance about two hundred feet from
+the base of the precipice, where they all unite to make a single final
+plunge, while the other branch of the river precipitates itself in two
+columns from a cliff of the same height, and standing nearly at right
+angles with the main fall. The surrounding scenery is wild in the
+extreme, and the whole presents a very imposing spectacle.
+
+"A second cataract is formed by the southern arm of the Cavery about a
+mile below. The channel here spreads out into a magnificent expanse,
+which is divided into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall
+with infinite variety of configuration over a precipice of more than one
+hundred feet, but presenting no single body equal to the Gungani Chuki,
+but the whole forming an amphitheatre of cataracts, meeting the eye in
+every direction along a sweep of perhaps 90 deg., and combined with scenery
+of such sequestered wildness that for picturesque effect it is perhaps
+without parallel in the world." This branch of the stream is used to
+irrigate the province of Tanjore, and the coming of its floods is
+celebrated by the natives with special festivities, as they consider the
+river to be one of their most beneficent deities.
+
+The beautiful and picturesque fall of the Rhine below Schaffhausen,
+where the water falls sixty-five feet in a single column, is the
+admiration of all travelers.
+
+[Illustration: VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     Famous Rapids and
+     Cascades--Niagara--Amazon--Orinoco--Parana--Nile--Livingstone.
+
+
+In all its features and characteristics the great water-course,
+including the great lakes, which feeds the Niagara, is peculiar and
+interesting. It is more than two thousand miles long; its utmost
+surface-sources are scarcely six hundred feet above tide-water; its
+bottom, at its greater depth, is more than four hundred feet below
+tide-water. In all its course it receives less than two score of
+affluents, and only two of these, the St. Maurice and the Saugeen, bring
+to it any considerable quantity of water, and no flood in any of them
+discolors its emerald surface from shore to shore. Only fierce gales of
+wind bring up from its own depths the sediment that can discolor its
+whole face. Far the greater portion of its water-supply is drawn from
+countless hidden springs, lying deep in the bosom of the earth. In all
+the elements of beautiful, picturesque, and enchanting scenery it is
+unrivaled.
+
+The rapids of the Niagara just above the Falls, from the Leaping Rock
+down through the Witches' Caldron to the edge of the precipice, are
+nearly a mile in width, and discharge ten million cubic feet of water
+each minute. But for a combination of grandeur and beauty, and for
+imparting a sense of almost infinite power, nothing can surpass the
+Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls, where the ten million cubic feet of
+water are compressed into a tortuous, tumultuous channel, less than four
+hundred feet wide.
+
+There are many lesser rapids in the St. Lawrence, from the Thousand
+Islands to Montreal, the passage of which in the large lake steamers is
+an exciting voyage. The constant changes of scenery at every turn and in
+every rood of progress is almost bewildering. Then the alternation of
+rapids and broad expanses of river, the bird-like motion as the steamer
+sinks and sails down through the rapids, and the sense of relief when it
+seems to rise and glide over the smooth river, vary and increase the
+excitement. There is developed in one of those expanses a peculiar
+geological feature called the Split Rock. The name is strictly accurate.
+The descending steamer finds but one narrow channel, a little more than
+its own width, through which it can pass in a stream more than half a
+mile wide. It lies between the sharp corners of a broad, wedge-shaped
+cleavage in an immense rock which, by some convulsion of nature--not by
+any abrading process of the elements--has been literally split downward
+more than eighty feet. The last crooked and turbulent rapid passed just
+before reaching Montreal is the terror of the river pilots, and they
+never attempt its passage except by daylight. From Montreal to the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence the constantly deepening channel flows with an unbroken
+current.
+
+It is a notable fact that the great river of rivers, which drains a
+larger territory than any other on the globe, the Amazon proper, has a
+fall of only two hundred and ten feet in a course of three thousand
+miles, and while it has a deep channel and a uniform current of three
+miles an hour for its whole length, it has no broken rapids. But in its
+many great affluents rapids are numerous, though not so famous as those
+found in other South American rivers.
+
+The river Orinoco, more remarkable in some respects than the Amazon,
+receives the waters of four hundred and thirty-six rivers, besides two
+thousand smaller streams. It is one thousand five hundred miles long, is
+navigable for seven hundred and eighty miles, and at Bolivar, two
+hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, it is four miles wide and three
+hundred and ninety feet deep. Its famous rapids of the Apure and Maypure
+were visited by Humboldt. At the latter, the river is two thousand eight
+hundred and forty yards wide, and plunges down an inclined plane about
+three miles long, making a fall equal to forty feet in vertical height.
+It is dotted with innumerable islands which furnish a striking contrast
+to the vast sheet of white water, presenting the singular appearance of
+an eruption of shrub-crowned rocks in a sea of foam. These islands, and
+its great width, constitute the peculiar characteristics of this chute.
+
+In the grandest of the South American rapids, those of the river Parana,
+a vast volume of water from a channel nearly two and a half miles in
+width is compressed into a gorge only sixty-six yards wide, through
+which the flood dashes down a slope of sixty degrees inclination and
+fifty-six feet perpendicular fall. Its roar--a perpetual monotone--is
+heard thirty miles away.
+
+Hardly less remarkable than the rapids of the South American rivers are
+those of the two great African rivers, the Nile and the Congo, or, as
+Mr. Stanley has re-christened the latter, the Livingstone. The Nile may
+be compared to a vast tree with its huge delta-roots in the
+Mediterranean, its boll extending up through a rainless desert nearly
+one thousand five hundred miles to meet its numerous branches which
+stretch up into the mountains of Abyssinia, and the vast basin south of
+the equator that contains the great lakes of Victoria N'yanzi and Albert
+N'yanzi. From these branches in each year, at a fixed season, are poured
+down the sediment-charged waters which irrigate and fertilize an immense
+valley that would otherwise be only a parched and desert waste.
+
+Without specifying the data for his calculations, Mr. Stanley, who saw
+them both, states that the volume of the Livingstone is ten times
+greater than that of the Nile. Its course is interrupted by two series
+of cataracts, or rather a combination of cascades and rapids. The first
+series, seven in number, occurs within four hundred miles of its source,
+and consists of the Stanley Falls, occupying different points in a
+channel sixty-two miles long. Its banks are of moderate elevation above
+its bed, and in the long, bright, equatorial days the leaping,
+sparkling, foaming waters present a scene of dazzling brilliancy. In the
+second series, named by Mr. Stanley the Livingstone Falls, there are
+thirty-two cascades, more extensive and imposing than those of the
+first. The river, after a gentle descent of nearly one thousand miles,
+and after receiving many large affluents, reaches the first of these
+impetuous torrents where all its waters are compressed into a narrow
+gorge only four hundred and fifty feet wide, and at a single point near
+the right bank where a sounding was possible, Mr. Stanley found a depth
+of one hundred and thirty-eight feet.
+
+The remaining thirty-one cascades are distributed along a channel one
+hundred and fifty-five miles in length, between banks from fifty to six
+hundred feet high, and having a fall of one thousand one hundred feet.
+The dimensions here given indicate that these rapids are second, in
+power and impressiveness, only to those above the Whirlpool of Niagara.
+
+
+Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous
+Cataracts, by George W. Holley
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