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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.