Niagara Falls, the grandest cataract in the world, belong in part to
the state of New York. Here the water of the great lakes, west of
Ontario, is poured over a precipitous cliff about 160 feet high in two
immense sheets, called the American and Horseshoe falls, separated by
Goat Island. These falls received the name Niagara from the aborigines,
Ni-a-ga-ra meaning the "thunder of waters." The roar created by the
fall can be heard, under favorable conditions, at a distance of fifteen
miles. There are three distinct falls. The Horseshoe fall, so named on
account of its crescent shape, is the largest, covering a distance of
2,000 feet and having a fall of 154 feet; the American fall, 660 feet,
and the Central fall, 243 feet in width, each have a fall of 163 feet.
The volume of water is perpetually the same, no amount of rain or snow
making any apparent change. This is conceded to be the grandest natural
feature in the world, providing a water power the limit of which is
incalculable.
Many of our readers have visited the falls in the summer season and
doubtless all of them have read descriptions of them, more or less
disappointing; everyone is familiar with the numberless photographs and
engravings that have been made of them. Of course, no adequate idea of
them has ever been given to the imagination. The writer has seen them
many times and must confess to a want of sympathy with that feeling
of wonder and bewilderment which many people claim to experience when
first beholding them. It would be interesting to compile a list, if it
could be done, of exclamations made on first viewing Lake Erie, as it
really is, tumbling over a gigantic cliff. Charles Dickens is reported
to have been unable to utter a word for many seconds, and there does
not appear to be an adjective of sufficient potentiality to hold the
idea of its majesty. And yet there are falls greater than these in the
world. Dr. Livingstone, alluding to Victoria Falls in Central Africa,
declared that of all the wonders of the lands he had visited he had
seen no such stupendous spectacle as they. The chasm into which a
mile-wide sheet of water plunges has been plumbed to twice the depth of
Niagara.
The Niagara River is the channel by which all the waters of the lakes
flow toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It has a total descent of 330
feet. The interruption to navigation occasioned by the rapid descent
of the Niagara River is overcome on the Canadian side by the Welland
Canal; on the American side the communication between tide-water and
the upper lakes was first effected by the Erie Canal. The river flows
in a northerly direction with a swift current for the first two miles
and then more gently, with a widening current, which divides as a
portion passes on each side of Goat Island. As these unite below the
island the stream spreads out, about two or three miles in width,
and appears like a quiet lake studded with small, low islands. About
sixteen miles from Lake Erie the river grows narrow and begins to
descend with great velocity. This is the commencement of the rapids,
which continue for about a mile, the water falling in this distance
about fifty-two feet. The stream terminates below in a great cataract.
At this point the river, making a curve from west to north, spreads
out to an extreme width of 4,750 feet. Goat Island, which extends
down to the brink of the cataract, occupies one-fourth of this space,
leaving the river on the American side about 1,100 feet wide and on
the Canadian side about double this width. A cave, called the Cave
of the Winds, is formed behind the fall, into which, on the Canadian
side, persons can enter and pass by a rough and slippery path toward
Goat Island. As already stated, there are many cataracts which descend
from greater heights. The sublimity of Niagara is in the vast power
displayed by a mighty current flowing down the long rapids and finally
plunging in one uniform sheet into the abyss below. Dangerous as it
appears, the river is here crossed by small rowboats. For seven miles
below the falls the narrow gorge continues, varying in width from
200 to 400 yards. The river then emerges at Lewiston, N. Y., having
descended 104 feet from the foot of the cataract. A suspension bridge
was constructed in 1855 by Mr. Roebling, for the passage of railway
trains, and eighteen feet below the railway it also sustains a carriage
and foot track. From this bridge a fine view is had of the falls. Other
bridges have since been built, among them a cantilever.
Geologists say that the gorge through which the Niagara River flows
below the falls bears evidence of having been excavated by the river
itself. Within the present century changes have taken place by the
falling down of masses of rock, the effect of which has been to cause
a slight recession of the cataract and extend the gorge to the same
distance upward toward Lake Erie. Table Rock, once a striking feature
of the falls, has wholly disappeared. Father Hennepin made a sketch
of the falls in 1678, a facsimile of which shows that many striking
features have disappeared. In 1750 the falls were visited by Kalm,
a Swedish naturalist, whose description of Niagara was published in
1751. He alludes to a rock having fallen down a few years previous and
indicates the spot in his sketch. Lyell estimates the retrocession of
the falls to be about a foot a year.
Of late years the extraordinary power of the falls has been adapted
to the production of electricity, which has been distributed to
various cities and towns within a radius of 100 miles. Street cars
and machinery of every kind are run by them, and, by new devices and
more powerful dynamos, it is believed the field for the successful
utilization of this great force is almost without limit.