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The
Niagara
River
Archer Butler Hulbert
_By Archer Butler Hulbert_
The Ohio River
A Course of Empire
_Large Octavo, with 100 Full-page Illustrations and a Map. Net, $3.50.
By express, prepaid, $3.75_
The Niagara River
_Large Octavo, with many Full-page Illustrations and Maps. Net, $3.50.
By express, prepaid, $3.75_
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York London
[Illustration]
The Niagara River
By
Archer Butler Hulbert
Professor of American History, Marietta College; Author of "The Ohio
River," "Historic Highways of America," "Washington and the West";
Editor of "The Crown Collection of American Maps."
With Maps and Illustrations
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1908
Copyright, 1908
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO
HENRY CARLTON HULBERT
IN
APPRECIATION OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND FRIENDSHIP
AND AS A TOKEN OF
ESTEEM
Note
In the endeavour to gather into one volume a proper description of the
various interests that centre in and around the Niagara River the author
of this book felt very sincerely the difficulties of the task before
him. As the geologic wonder of a continent and the commercial marvel of
the present century, the Niagara River is one of the most remarkable
streams in the world. In historic interest, too, it takes rank with any
American river. To combine, then, into the pages of a single volume a
proper treatment of this subject would be a task that perhaps no one
could accomplish satisfactorily.
Works to which the author is most indebted, especially the historical
writings of Hon. Peter A. Porter, Severance's _Old Trails of the Niagara
Frontier_, _The Niagara Book_, and the writings of the scholar of the
old New York frontier, the late O. H. Marshall, and the collections of
the historical societies along the frontier, are indicated frequently in
footnotes and in text. The author's particular indebtedness to Mr.
Porter is elsewhere described; he is also in the debt of F. H. Mautz,
Henry Guttenstein, Superintendent Edward H. Perry, whose kindness to the
author was so characteristic of his treatment of all comers to the
shrine over which he presides, E. O. Dunlap, and many others mentioned
elsewhere. He has appreciated Mr. Howells's characteristic
conscientiousness when he wrote concerning Niagara, "I have always had
to take myself in hand, to shake myself up, to look twice, and recur to
what I have heard and read of other people's impressions, before I am
overpowered by it. Otherwise I am simply charmed." The author has
laboured under the difficulty of attempting to remain "overpowered"
during a period of several years. That there have been serious lapses
in the shape of lucid intervals, the critic will find full soon!
It has seemed best to treat of modern Niagara under what might have been
called "Part I." of this volume. The history of the Niagara region
proper begins in Chapter VII., the problems of present-day interest
occupying the preceding six chapters.
A. B. H.
Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio,
_January 26, 1908_.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--Buffalo and the Upper Niagara 1
II.--From the Falls to Lake Ontario 23
III.--The Birth of Niagara 52
IV.--Niagara Bond and Free 72
V.--Harnessing Niagara Falls 99
VI.--A Century of Niagara Cranks 123
VII.--The Old Niagara Frontier 153
VIII.--From La Salle to De Nonville 171
IX.--Niagara under Three Flags 196
X.--The Hero of Upper Canada 231
XI.--The Second War with England 263
XII.--Toronto 292
Index 315
List of Illustrations
PAGE
View of Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian Side
From a photograph. _Frontispiece_
A Glimpse of Buffalo Harbor 4
Lafayette Square 8
St. Paul's Church, Buffalo 12
Niagara Falls 14
From the original painting by Frederick Edwin Church, in
Corcoran Gallery.
The American Rapids 16
The View from Prospect Point 20
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
Goat Island Bridge and Rapids 24
Horseshoe Falls from Below 26
"The Shoreless Sea" 28
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
Rustic Bridge, Willow Island 30
The Cave of the Winds 32
The American Fall 36
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
Remains of Stone Piers of the "First Railway in
America"--the British Tramway up Lewiston
Heights, 1763 38
Amid the Goat Island Group 40
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian Shore 44
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
Looking up the Lower Niagara from Paradise Grove 46
From a photograph by Wm. Quinn, Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The Mouth of the Gorge 48
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
The Whirlpool Rapids 50
The American Fall, July, 1765 54
From an unsigned original drawing in the British Museum.
The Horseshoe Fall, July, 1765 60
From an unsigned original drawing in the British Museum.
Ice Mountain on Prospect Point 64
Cave of the Winds in Winter 66
"Maid of the Mist" under Steel Arch Bridge 70
Beacon on Old Breakwater at Buffalo 72
Winter Scene in Prospect Park 74
Bath Island, American Rapids, in 1879 80
From New York Commissioners' Report.
Path to Luna Island 86
Green Island Bridge 92
Bird's-eye View of the Canadian Rapids and Fall 100
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
American Falls from Below 106
The Riverside at Willow Island 118
Goat Island Bridge, Showing Niagara's Famous Cataract
and International Hotels 124
The Path to the Cave of the Winds 130
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.
American Falls from Goat Island 136
Horseshoe Falls from Goat Island 142
Ice Bridge and American Falls 148
Colonel Roemer's Map of the Country of the Iroquois,
1700 154
Champlain 160
Map of French Forts in America 164
Niagara Falls by Father Hennepin 166
The first known picture of Niagara, dated 1697.
R. Rene Cavelier, Sieur De La Salle 172
Frontenac, from Hebert's Statue at Quebec 178
Luna Island Bridge 184
"Carte du Lac Ontario." A Specimen French Map
of the Niagara Frontier Dated October 4, 1757 190
From the original in the British Museum.
Stones on the Site of Joncaire's Cabin under Lewiston
Heights, where the "Magazine Royale" was
Erected in 1719 198
Specimen Manuscript Map of Niagara Frontier of
Eighteenth Century 204
From the original in the British Museum.
A Drawing of Fort Niagara and Environs Showing
Plan of English Attack under Johnson 208
A Sketch of Fort Niagara and Environs by the
French Commander Pouchot Showing Improvements
of 1756-1758 210 and 211
Canadian Trapper, from La Potherie 212
Youngstown, N. Y., from Paradise Grove 214
The Stone Redoubt at Fort Niagara, Built in 1770 216
From the original in the British Museum.
Pfister's Sketch of Fort Niagara and the "Communication."
Two Years before the Outbreak
of the Revolutionary War 220
Fort Erie and the Mouth of the Niagara, by Pfister,
in 1764 226
From the original in the British Museum.
Major-General Brock 232
A Plan of Fort Niagara after English Occupation,
by Montresor 238
"Navy Hall Opposite Niagara" 244
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
Queenston and Brock's Monument 250
From a photograph by Wm. Quinn, Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Brock's Monument 260
"Queenston or Landing near Niagara" 266
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
Lieutenant Pierie's Sketch of Niagara, 1768 272
From an old print.
Old View of Fort Mississauga 278
Monument at Lundy's Lane 284
Lieutenant-General Simcoe 294
"York Harbor" 296
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
"The Garrison at York" 302
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
Captain Sowers's Drawings of Fort Niagara, 1769 308
From the original in the British Museum.
The Niagara River
Chapter I
Buffalo and the Upper Niagara
The Strait of Niagara, or the Niagara River, as it is commonly called,
ranks among the wonders of the world. The study of this stream is of
intense and special interest to many classes of people, notably
historians, archaeologists, botanists, geologists, artists, mechanics,
and electricians. It is doubtful if there is anywhere another thirty-six
miles of riverway that can, in this respect, compare with it.
The term "strait" as applied to the Niagara correctly suggests the
river's historic importance. The expression, recurring in so many of the
relations of French and English military officers, "on this
communication" also indicates Niagara's position in the story of the
discovery, conquest, and occupation of the continent. It is probably the
Falls which, technically, make Niagara a river; and so, in turn, it is
the Falls that rendered Niagara an important strategic key of the vast
waterway stretching from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the head of
Lake Superior. The lack--so far as it does exist--of historic interest
in the immediate Niagara region, the comparative paucity of military
events of magnitude along that stream during the old French and the
Revolutionary wars proves, on the one hand, what a wilderness separated
the English on the South from the French on the North, and, on the
other, how strong "the communication" was between Quebec and the French
posts in the Middle West. It does not prove that Niagara was the less
important.
The Falls increased the historic importance of Niagara because it
limited navigation and made a portage necessary; the purposes of trade
and missionary enterprise, as well as those of conquest, demanded that
this point be occupied, and occupation necessarily meant defence. Here,
from Lewiston and Queenston to Chippewa and Port Day (to use modern
names) ran the two most famous portage paths of the continent. Here were
to be seen at one time or another the footprints of as famous explorers,
noble missionaries, and brave soldiers as ever went to conquest in
history.
The Niagara River was important in the olden time to every mile of
territory drained by the waters that flowed through it. What an empire
to hold in fee! Here lies more than one-half the fresh water of the
world--the solid contents being, according to Darby
1,547,011,792,300,000; it would form a solid cubic column measuring
nearly twenty-two miles on each side.
The most remote body of water tributary to Niagara River is Lake
Superior, 381 miles long and 161 miles broad with a circumference of
1150 miles. The Niagara of Lake Superior is the St. Mary's River,
twenty-seven miles in length, its current very rapid, with water
flowing over great masses of rock into Lake Huron. Lake Huron is 218
miles long and 20 miles wider than Lake Superior, but with a
circumference of only 812 miles. Lake Michigan is 345 miles long and 84
broad and enters Lake Huron through Mackinaw Straits which are four
miles in length, with a fall of four feet. In turn Lake Huron empties
into the St. Clair and Detroit rivers which, with a total fall of eleven
feet in fifty-one miles, forms the Niagara of Lake Erie. This sheet of
water is 250 miles long and 60 miles broad at its widest part. The area
drained by these lakes is as follows, including their own area:
Lake Superior 85,000 sq. m.
" Huron 74,000 "
" Michigan 70,040 "
" Erie 39,680 "
--------
Total 268,720 "
Considering this as a portion of the St. Lawrence drainage, we have the
marvellous spectacle of a navigable waterway from the St. Louis River,
Lake Superior, to Cape Gaspe at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, of
twenty-one hundred miles in length, the Niagara River being paralleled
to-day by the Welland Canal, and lesser canals affording a passageway
around the rapids of the St. Mary's in the West and the St. Lawrence in
the East. In a previous volume in the present series[1] it was seen that
the improved rivers in the Ohio basin now offered a navigable pathway
over four thousand miles in length; how insignificant is that prospect
in view of this great transcontinental waterway two thousand miles in
length but including the 268,000 square miles in the four great lakes
alone! Well does George Waldo Browne in his beautiful volume on this
subject, _The St. Lawrence River_, say:
Treated in a more extended manner, according to the ideas of the
early French geographers, and taking either the river and lake
of Nipigon, on the north of Superior, or the river St. Louis,
flowing from the south-west, it has a grand total length of over
two thousand miles. With its tributaries it drains over four
hundred thousand square miles of country, made up of fertile
valleys and plateaux inhabited by a prosperous people, desolate
barrens, deep forests, where the foot of man has not yet left
its imprint.
Seldom less than two miles in width, it is two and one-half
miles wide where it issues from Ontario, and with several
expansions which deserve the name of lake it becomes eighty
miles in width where it ceases to be considered a river. The
influence of the tide is felt as far up as Lake St. Peter, about
one hundred miles from the gulf, while it is navigable for
sea-going vessels to Montreal, eighty miles farther inland.
Rapids impede navigation above this point, but by means of
canals continuous communication is obtained to the head of Lake
Superior.
If inferior in breadth to the mighty Amazon, if it lacks the
length of the Mississippi, if without the stupendous gorges and
cataracts of the Yang-tse-Kiang of China, if missing the ancient
castles of the Rhine, if wanting the lonely grandeur that still
overhangs the Congo of the Dark Continent, the Great River of
Canada has features as remarkable as any of these. It has its
source in the largest body of fresh water upon the globe, and
among all of the big rivers of the world it is the only one
whose volume is not sensibly affected by the elements. In rain
or in sunshine, in spring floods or in summer droughts, this
phenomenon of waterways seldom varies more than a foot in its
rise and fall.
[Illustration: A Glimpse of Buffalo Harbor.]
The history of the Niagara is so closely interwoven with that of the
great "Queen City of the Lakes," Buffalo, that it would seem as though
the famous waterway was in the suburb of the city and its greatest
scenic attraction. However true this is to-day, it was very far from the
case a century ago, for though the site of Buffalo was historic and
important, the city, as such, is of comparative recent origin, coming to
its own with giant strides in those last decades of the nineteenth
century. Writes Mr. Rowland B. Mahany in his excellent chapter on
"Buffalo" in _The Historic Towns of the Middle States:_
Few cities of the United States have a history more picturesque
than Buffalo, or more typical of the forces that have made the
Republic great. At the time of the adoption of the Federal
constitution, in 1787, not a single white settler dwelt on the
site of what is now the Queen of the Lakes; and it was not until
after the second presidency of Washington, that Joseph Ellicott,
the founder of Buffalo, laid out the plan of the town, which he
called New Amsterdam.
On February 10, 1810, the "Town of Buffaloe" was created by act of the
State Legislature, a name originally given to the locality by the Seneca
Indians, who, we shall see, dominated the old Niagara frontier; it is
believed that the name came from the animals which visited the
neighbouring salt licks; and the name therefore may be much older than
any settlement or even camping site. The village of New Amsterdam was
now merged into the town of Buffalo, which boasted a newspaper in the
second year of its existence, 1811. The story of the following years
falls naturally into that of the disastrous war with England from 1812
to 1814, in which Buffalo suffered severely. As Mr. Mahany suggests, the
story of Buffalo is characteristically American, and its phases, as such
offer an inviting field, but one too wide for full examination in the
present history.[2]
The important position of the city with reference to the Great Lakes was
very greatly increased with the building of the Erie Canal from 1817 to
1825. It is interesting to recall the fact that it was in reality fear
of the possibility of another war with England that caused the deciding
vote for the Erie Canal project to be cast in its favour.[3] In the
proper place we shall have impressed upon us the great distance that
separated the Niagara frontier from the inhabited portion of the
Republic at this early period, the great length of the land route and
the difficulty of it; it was said to be far more than a cannon was worth
to haul it to the frontier during the War of 1812. All this shows very
distinctly the early condition surrounding the rise of the metropolis of
the Niagara country, and, from being strange that little Buffalo did not
grow faster, it is amazing to find such rapid growth during the first
twenty-five years of her life.
With the opening of the canal in 1825 a new era dawned; the work of the
great land companies in north-eastern New York drew vast armies of
people thither, and the canal proved to be the great route for a much
longer migration from the seaboard to the further north-west, to
Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as to neighbouring Ohio. All this helped
Buffalo. Numbers of travellers arriving at the future site of the Queen
City of the Lakes at once decided that they could at least go farther
and fare very much worse, and so sat down to grow up with the Niagara
frontier. The proximity of the Falls had something to do, of course,
with bringing increasingly larger numbers of travellers and transients
to the Lake Erie village. But it was slow work, this building up a great
city, and no doubt the very fact that the stones of the mighty edifice
one finds beside that beautiful harbour to-day were laid slowly accounts
for the solidity of the structure; Buffalo was not built on a boom.
From James L. Barton's reminiscences, for instance, we have clear
pictures of the early struggle for business in this frontier town, which
prove it to have been typically American. Mr. Barton owned a line of
boats on the Lakes and canal but found it very difficult to find freight
for the boats to carry down the State:
A few tons of freight [he writes], was all that we could furnish
each boat to carry to Albany. This they would take in, and fill
up at Rochester, which place, situated in the heart of the
wheat-growing district of Western New York, furnished nearly all
the down freight that passed on the canal. Thus we lived and
struggled on until 1830. Our population had increased largely,
and that year numbered six thousand and thirty-one. In the fall
of 1831, I received from Cleveland one thousand bushels of
wheat. . . . The next winter I made arrangement with the late
Colonel Ira A. Blossom, the resident agent of the Holland Land
Company, to furnish storage for all the wheat the settlers
should bring in, towards the payment on their land contracts
with the company. The whole amount did not exceed three thousand
bushels. . . . In 1833 the Ohio canal was completed, which gave
us a little more business. Northern Ohio was then the only
portion of the great West that had any surplus agricultural
products to send to an eastern market. In 1833 a little stir
commenced in land operations, which increased the next year, and
in 1835 became a perfect fever and swallowed up almost
everything else. Nearly every person who had any enterprise got
rich from buying and selling land; using little money in these
transactions, but paying and receiving in pay, bonds and
mortgages to an illimitable amount.
In 1837 the panic affected the young lake city as it did all parts of
the land, but by 1840 the population of Buffalo had swelled to over
eighteen thousand. The record of growth of the past century is a matter
of figures strung on the faith of a great company of active,
enterprising, far-sighted business men, until Buffalo ranks among the
cities of half a million population, with a future unquestionably secure
and brilliant.
The Niagara River is some nineteen hundred feet in width at its mouth
here at Buffalo and forty-eight feet deep; the average rate of current
here is under six miles per hour, but when south-west gales drive the
lake billows in gigantic gulps down the river's mouth the current
sometimes races as fast as twelve miles per hour. Old Fort Erie, built
here at the mouth of the Niagara immediately after England won the
continent from France, in 1764, was formerly the only settlement
hereabouts, Black Rock, now part of Buffalo, at the mouth of the Erie
Canal, was not settled until near the close of that century. It is
believed that five forts have guarded the mouth of this strategic river,
all known as Fort Erie. When the people of the opposite sides of the
river were in conflict in 1812, Black Rock was the rival of Fort Erie.
The large black rock which formed the landing-place of the ferry across
the river here, and which gave the hamlet its name, was destroyed when
the Erie Canal was built. Black Rock was formally laid out in 1804 and
in 1853 was incorporated with the city of Buffalo.
[Illustration: Lafayette Square.]
The upper Niagara with its even current and low-lying banks is not
specially attractive. Grand Island, two miles below the mouth, divides
the river into two narrow arms. This beautiful island, the Indian name
of which was Owanunga, so popular to-day as a summering place, is
remembered in history especially as the site selected in 1825 for Major
M. M. Noah's "New Jerusalem," the proposed industrial centre of the Jews
of the New World, but nothing was accomplished on the island itself
toward the object in view.
At Buffalo, however, Noah took the title "Judge of Israel," and held a
meeting in the old St. Paul's Church, where remarkable initiatory rites
took place. In resplendent robes covered by a mantle of crimson silk,
trimmed with ermine, the Judge held what he termed "impressive and
unique ceremony," in which he read a proclamation to "all the Jews
throughout the world," bringing them the glad tidings that on the
ancient isle Owanunga "an asylum was prepared and offered to them," and
that he did "revive, renew, and establish (in the Lord's name), the
government of the Jewish nation, . . . confirming and perpetuating all
our rights and privileges, our rank and power, among the nations of the
earth as they existed and were recognised under the government of the
Judges." Mr. Noah ordered a census of all the Hebrews in the world to be
taken and did not forget, incidentally, to levy a tax of about one
dollar and a half on every Jew in order to carry on the project. A
"foundation stone" was prepared to be erected on the site of the future
New Jerusalem; the following inscription was engraved upon it:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord
is our God--the Lord is one.
ARARAT,
A CITY OF REFUGE FOR THE JEWS,
FOUNDED BY MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH,
IN THE MONTH OF TISRI 5586--SEPT. 1825
IN THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.
At the lower extremity of Grand Island is historic Burnt Ship Bay, made
famous, as hereafter related, in the old French War.
The little town of Tonawanda, with its immense lumber interests, and La
Salle, famous in history as the building site of the _Griffon_,
elsewhere described, lie opposite Grand Island on the American shore,
the former at the mouth of Cayuga Creek. On the opposite shore, a little
below the beautiful Navy Island, is the historic town of Chippewa.
Below Navy Island the river spreads out to a width of over two miles; it
has fallen twenty feet since leaving Lake Erie, and now gathers into a
narrower channel for its magnificent rush to the falls one mile below.
In this mile the river drops fifty-two feet, through what are known as
the American and Canadian Rapids, on their respective sides of the
river.
From a scenic standpoint it is questionable whether any of the delights
of Niagara surpass those afforded by this beautiful series of cascades;
sightseers are prepared from their earliest days for the magnificent
beauty of the Falls themselves, but of the Rapids above little is known
until their insidious charm gradually works its way into the heart to
remain forever an image of beauty and rapture that cannot be effaced.
Guide books will give adequate advice as to the best points of vantage
from which to view the various rifts and cascades.[4]
Some years ago [writes Mr. Porter], Colin Hunter, then an
Associate, now a Royal Academician, came over from London to
paint Niagara. Of all the points of view he selected the one as
seen up stream from the head of the Little Brother Island. A
temporary bridge was built to it, and here, with a guard at the
bridge, so as to be secure from intrusion, he painted his grand
view, looking up stream. The upper ledge of rocks, with its
long, rapid cascade, was his sky-line; in the foreground were
the tumbling Rapids; far to the right of the picture the tops of
a few trees appearing on the Canada shore above the waters alone
showed the presence of any land. We advise . . . the visitor to
clamber over the rocks on the Canadian shore of the Island . . .
go out as near the water's edge as possible, and you will
appreciate the difference that a few feet in a point of
observation may make in what is apparently the same scenery.
Just before you reach the foot of the island a gnarled cedar
tree and a rock, accessible by leaping from stone to stone,
gives you access to a point of observation than which there is
nothing more beautiful at Niagara. Do not fail to get this view,
for it is the Colin Hunter view, as nearly as you can get it,
and you will appreciate the artistic sense of the great painter
who chose this incomparable view in preference to the Falls
themselves for a reproduction of the very best at Niagara.
Another beautiful point from which to view the Rapids is on Terrapin
Rocks, the so-called scenic and geographical centre of Niagara. Here the
power of the magnificent river, the "shoreless sea" above you, the
clouds for its horizon, grows more impressive with every visit. By day
the sight is marvellously impressive; by night, under some
circumstances, it is yet more wonderful. Of this night view Margaret
Fuller wrote, most feelingly:
After nightfall as there was a splendid moon, I went down to the
bridge and leaned over the parapet, where the boiling rapids
came down in their might. It was grand, and it was also
gorgeous: the yellow rays of the moon made the broken waves
appear like auburn tresses twining around the black rocks. But
they did not inspire me as before. I felt a foreboding of a
mightier emotion to rise up and swallow all others, and I passed
on to the Terrapin Bridge. Everything was changed, the misty
apparition had taken off its many coloured crown which it had
worn by day, and a bow of silvery white spanned its summit. The
moonlight gave a poetical indefiniteness to the distant parts of
the waters, and while the rapids were glancing in her beams, the
river below the Falls was as black as night, save where the
reflection of the sky gave it the appearance of a shield of blue
steel.
As the Falls of Niagara slowly creep backward in tune to their
stupendous recessional toward Lake Erie they encroach more and more on
the magnificent domain of the Rapids, nor will their gradual increase in
height atone for this savage invasion nor palliate the offence
committed. A thousand years more, we are told, and the visitor will view
the "Horseshoe" Fall from the upper end of the Third Sister Island, and
the marvellous canvas of Colin Hunter will be as meaningless as
Hennepin's picture of two centuries and more ago. The American Fall,
receding much more slowly than the Horseshoe Fall, will invade the
beautiful rapids above Goat Island bridge at a very much later date,
for, as we shall see, the greater fall recedes almost as many feet per
year as the lesser recedes inches. And in this connection it is
interesting to note that if the recession continued to Lake Erie and
onward into that lake until the line of fall was a mile long at its
crest, with the water falling 336 feet, Victoria Falls in the Zambesi
River would still exceed their American rival by sixty-four feet in
height!
[Illustration: St. Paul's Church, Buffalo.]
The accessibility of the Niagara Rapids, because of the fortunate
location of the Goat Island group is, in itself, one of the great charms
of the region, and this may explain in part the insuppressible desire of
early visitors to reach these glorious points of vantage. The view of
the rapids from the Goat Island bridge to-day is said to be the source
of chief pleasure "to half the visitors to Niagara."[5]
George Houghton's beautiful lines on "The Upper Rapids" express with
fine feeling the effect of these racing cascades on the sensitive mind:
Still with the wonder of boyhood, I follow the race of the Rapids,
Sirens that dance, and allure to destruction,--now lurking in shadows,
Skirting the level stillness of pools and the treacherous shallows,
Smiling and dimple-mouthed, coquetting,--now modest, now forward;
Tenderly chanting, and such the thrall of the weird incantation,
Thirst it awakes in each listener's soul, a feverish longing.
Thoughts all absorbent, a torment that stings and ever increases,
Burning ambition to push bare-breast to thy perilous bosom.
Thus, in some midnight obscure, bent down by the storm of temptation
(So hath the wind, in the beechen wood, confided the story).
Pine-trees, thrusting their way and trampling down one another,
Curious, lean and listen, replying in sobs and in whispers;
Till of the secret possessed, which brings sure blight to the hearer,
(So hath the wind, in the beechen wood, confided the story),
Faltering, they stagger brinkward,--clutch at the roots of the grasses,
Cry,--a pitiful cry of remorse,--and plunge down in the darkness.
Art thou all-merciless then,--a fiend, ever fierce for new victims?
Was then the red-man right (as yet it liveth in legend),
That, ere each twelvemonth circles, still to thy shrine is allotted
Blood of one human heart, as sacrifice due and demanded?
Butterflies have I followed, that leaving the red-top and clover,
Thinking a wind-harp thy voice, thy froth the fresh whiteness of daisies,
Ventured too close, grew giddy, and catching cold drops on their pinions,
Balanced--but vainly,--and falling, their scarlet was blotted forever.
When, about 1880, William M. Hunt was commissioned to decorate the
immense panels of the Assembly Chamber of the Capitol at Albany, N. Y.,
he chose, with true artistic feeling, the view of the rapids above Goat
Island bridge as the choice picture to represent the great marvel and
chief wonder of the Empire State--Niagara. It is generally conceded that
Church's _Horseshoe Falls_ takes rank over all other paintings of
Niagara, but Colin Hunter's _Rapids of Niagara_ excel any other view of
either the Falls, Gorge, or Rapids on canvas to-day.
[Illustration: Niagara Falls.
From the original painting by Frederick Edwin Church, in Corcoran
Gallery.]
But we must observe here that these Rapids were something aside from
beautiful to the French and English officers whose duty it was to
defend and supply "the communication" from Fort Frontenac to Fort
Chartres; they probably seemed very "horrid," in the old time sense, to
those who struggled under the burdens of the ancient portage path. The
southern termini of the two pathways--one on either side of the
river--were Chippewa and Port Day, respectively. The route from Lewiston
to Port Day was evidently the common portage until after the War of 1812
when the Canadian path was opened. A little below what is known as
Schlosser Dock stood the French fort guarding this end of their old
portage path. Fort du Portage or Little Fort Niagara, built about 1750,
nine years before England conquered the region. Near by stands the one
famous relic of the old regime, the Old Stone Chimney of Fort du
Portage, later a chimney of the English mess-house at Fort Schlosser. As
will be noted later Fort du Portage was destroyed by the retreating
French, after the capture of Fort Niagara by Sir William Johnson: to
guard that end of the portage the English under Colonel Schlosser built
Fort Schlosser in 1761. The road occupying the course of the ancient
portage does not extend to the river now, but it bears the old name, and
on it you may see, not half a mile back, outlines of the earthen works
of one of the eleven block-houses built in 1764 by Captain Montresor the
first of which was erected on the hill above Lewiston: these
block-houses guarded the important roadway from the assaults of Indians
such as the famous Bloody Run Massacre of 1763. Frenchman's Landing is
the modern name for the cove below the Old Stone Chimney where was the
terminus of the earliest portage path guarded by the block-house known
as the first Little Fort Niagara. This whole district is now the site
of the power-houses and mills that are making Niagara a word to conjure
with in the centres of trade as certainly as in the ancient day it was a
mesmeric word in the courts and camps of the Old World.
The thunder of Niagara Falls reaches our ears even amid the music of
these beautiful Rapids, and we are drawn on to the marvellous group of
islands that impinge upon the cataract.
[Illustration: The American Rapids.]
What is commonly known as the Goat Island group consists of the island
of that name, containing some seventy acres of land, and sixteen other
islands or rocks contiguous thereto. Without undertaking to dispute or
defend many of the extravagant assertions made in behalf of Goat Island,
to which have been given the titles "Temple of Nature," "Enchanted
Isles," "Isle of Beauty," "Shrine of the Deity," "Fairy Isles," etc. it
would, I think, be difficult to disprove the statement often made that
no other seventy acres on the continent are more interesting than these
bearing this homely name. From the standpoint of the artist and
naturalist this statement would probably pass unquestioned. The views
already alluded to of the American and Canadian rapids to be gained from
this delightful vantage point are probably unparalleled. To the botanist
Goat Island is a paradise. Sir Joseph Hooker affirmed that he found here
a greater variety of vegetation within a given space than he had found
in Europe or in America east of the Sierras, and Dr. Asa Gray confirmed
the extravagant statement. Wrote Frederick Law Olmsted:
I have followed the Appalachian chain almost from end to end,
and travelled on horseback "in search of the picturesque" over
four thousand miles of the most promising parts of the continent
without finding elsewhere the same quality of forest beauty
which was once abundant about the Falls, and which is still to
be observed on those parts of Goat Island where the original
growth of trees and shrubs has not been disturbed, and where
from caving banks trees are not now exposed to excessive dryness
at the root.
In a report, prepared by David F. Day for the New York State Reservation
Commissioners, we find explained, in part, the notable fertility of this
little plot of ground, although the oft-returning misty rain from the
Falls, and the fact that Goat Island never experiences the dangers of a
"forward" spring have much to do in preserving its beautiful robe of
colours:
A calcareous soil enriched with an abundance of organic matter
like that of Goat Island would necessarily be one of great
fertility. For the growth and sustentation of a forest and of
such plants as prefer the woods to the openings it would far
excel the deep and exhaustless alluvians of the prairie states.
It would be difficult to find within another territory so
restricted in its limits so great a diversity of trees and
shrubs and still more difficult to find in so small an area such
examples of arboreal symmetry and perfection as the island has
to exhibit.
The island received its flora from the mainland, in fact the
botanist is unable to point out a single instance of tree,
shrub, or herb, now growing upon the island not also to be found
upon the mainland. But the distinguishing characteristic of its
flora is not the possession of any plant elsewhere unknown, but
the abundance of individuals and species, which the island
displays. There are to be found in Western New York about 170
species of trees and shrubs. Goat Island and the immediate
vicinity of the river near the Falls can show of these no less
than 140. There are represented on the island four maples, three
species of thorn, two species of ash, and six species,
distributed in five genera, of the cone-bearing family. The one
species of basswood belonging to the vicinity is also there.
Mr. Day has a catalogue of plants in his report to the Reservation
Commissioners, giving 909 species of plants to be found on the
Reservation, of which 758 are native and 151 foreign. Wrote Margaret
Fuller:
The beautiful wood on Goat Island is full of flowers, many of
the fairest love to do homage there. The wake robin and the May
apple are in bloom, the former white, pink, green, purple,
copying the rainbow of the Falls, and fit it for its presiding
Deity when He walks the land, for they are of imperial size and
shaped like stones for a diadem. Of the May apple I did not
raise one green tent without finding a flower beneath.
Explaining the climatic advantages of the island Mr. Olmsted remarks:
First, the masses of ice which every winter are piled to a great
height below the Falls and the great rushing body of ice cold
water coming from the northern lakes in the spring prevent at
Niagara the hardship under which trees elsewhere often suffer
through sudden checks to premature growth. And second, when
droughts elsewhere occur, as they do every few years, of such
severity that trees in full foliage droop and dwindle and even
sometimes cast their leaves, the atmosphere at Niagara is more
or less moistened by the constantly evaporating spray of the
Falls, and in certain situations bathed by drifting clouds of
spray.
It is a very irony of fate that this marvellous gem among the islands of
earth could not bear a name befitting its place in the admiration and
esteem of a world; it was, I believe, Judge Porter himself that named
this beautiful spot "Iris Island," a name altogether fitting in both
wealth of suggestion and beauty of association. One John Steadman,
remembered as a contractor to widen the old portage path from Lewiston
to Fort Schlosser, and former owner of the island under a "Seneca
patent," planted some turnips here, we are told, in the year 1770 A.D.,
and in the following autumn placed here "a number of animals, among them
a male goat," to get them out of the reach of the bears and wolves that
infested the neighbouring shore near his home two miles up the river. In
the spring of 1771 it was found that the severe winter had been too much
for all but the "male goat," who, unfortunately, survived the ordeal,
and by so doing bids fair to hand his name down through the centuries
attached to the most beautiful island in the world. In the Treaty of
Ghent, which set our boundary line here, the island bears the name
"Iris." Mr. Porter has stated that even if it were desirable to change
the name now "it would seem impossible now to do so."[6] Is this the
truth? Could not the commissioners who have the matters in hand do a
great deal toward inaugurating a change to the old official name that
would in the long run prove effective? The present writer is most
positive that this could be done and that it is a thing that ought
certainly to be attempted immediately. It would be surprising how much
the change would be favoured if once attempted, if guide books and maps
followed the new nomenclature. The only possible satisfaction that one
can have in the present name is in the horrifying reflection that if the
male goat had died the island would probably have been "Turnip Island"
if not "Colic Island."
Below the islands resound the Falls. Perhaps there is no better method
of describing this almost indescribable wonder than by taking the
familiar walk about them beginning at the common point of commencement,
Prospect Point.
[Illustration: The View from Prospect Point.
From a photograph by Notman, Montreal.]
It is important on visiting the Falls for the first time to obtain as
good a view as possible, as the first view comes but once. Many are
somewhat disappointed with it, since from a distance the Falls give the
idea of a long low wall of water, their great height being offset by
their great breadth of almost a mile. The best view is from the top of
the bank on the Canadian side; but as most of the tourists reach the
American side first it is from this standpoint that most visitors gain
their first impression. No better vantage ground can be gained on the
American side than Prospect Point. Here, placed at the northern end of
the American cataract, is the best position to make a study of the
geography of Niagara. Stretching from your feet along the line of sight
extends the American Fall to a distance of 1060 feet. At the other side
of the American Fall is the Goat Island group. This group stretches
along the cliff for a distance of 1300 feet more. Beyond this extends
the line of the Horseshoe Fall for a further distance of 3010 feet,
making in all a total of slightly over a mile. To the right, down the
river is the gorge which Niagara has been chiseling and scouring for
unnumbered centuries; this chasm extends almost due north for a distance
of seven miles to Lewiston. Down the gorge the gaze is uninterrupted for
a distance of nearly two miles, almost to the Whirlpool where the river
turns abruptly to the left on entering this whirling maelstrom, issuing
again almost at right angles to continue its mad plunges. To the left,
up the river lie the American Rapids, where the water rushes on in its
madness to hurl its volume over the 160 feet of precipice and into the
awful chasm below. Just below Prospect Point and somewhat higher in
altitude than it, is what has been called Hennepin's View, so named
after Father Hennepin, who gave the first written description of the
Niagara. Here one sees not only the Horseshoe Fall in the foreground, as
at Prospect Point, but the American Fall also, which lies several feet
lower than our point of vantage.
Proceeding up the river the next point of interest reached is the steel
bridge to Goat Island. The first bridge to this island was constructed
by Judge Porter in 1817 about forty rods above the site of the present
one. In the spring of the next year this bridge was swept away by the
large cakes of ice coming down the river. It was rebuilt at its present
site, its projector judging that the added descent of the rapids would
so break up the ice as to eliminate any danger to the structure; and the
results proved his theory true. This structure stood until 1855 when its
place was taken by a steel arch bridge, which served the public until
1900. In that year the present structure authorised by the State of New
York took its place.
Looking upon this structure, one wonders how the foundations could
possibly have been laid in such an irresistible current of water. First,
two of the largest trees to be found in the vicinity were cut down and
hewn flat on two sides. A level platform was erected on the shore at the
water's edge and on this the hewn logs were placed about eight feet
apart, supported on rollers with their shore ends heavily weighted with
stone. These logs were then run as far out over the river as possible,
and a man walked out on each one armed with an iron pointed staff. On
finding a crevice in the rock forming the bottom of the river, these
staffs were driven firmly into the rock and then lashed to the ends of
the timbers, thus forming a stay to them and furnishing the means
necessary for beginning the construction of the crib. The timbers were
planked, and the same process was pursued until the island was reached.
While the second bridge was under construction, the famous Indian
chieftain and orator, Red Jacket, visited the Falls. The old veteran is
said to have sat for a long time watching the process of bridging the
angry waters, the transforming power of the white man at work,
conquering a force which to him appeared more than able to baffle all
the ingenuity of man. On being asked by a bystander what he thought of
the work of construction he seemed mortified that the white man's hand
should so desecrate these sacred waters; folding his blanket slowly
about him, with his eyes fixed upon the works, he is said to have given
forth the stereotyped Indian grunt, adding "D----n Yankee!"
Upon this bridge we find one of the best positions, as we have noted,
from which to view the Rapids. From the point of their beginning, about
a mile above the Falls to the crest of the cliff the descent is over
fifty feet. Here, standing upon what seems in comparison but a frail
structure, one can realise the grandeur of the Rapids. In the terrible
race they seem to be trying to tear away the piers of the bridge which
are fretting their current.
[Footnote 1: _The Ohio River; A Course of Empire_, p. 359.]
[Footnote 2: Frank H. Severance in his delightful _Old Trails of the
Niagara Frontier_ has several most interesting chapters relating to the
Buffalo neighbourhood. Mr. Severance has done, through the Buffalo
Historical Society, much good work in keeping warm the affection of the
present generation for the memory of the past, its heroes and its
sacrifices.]
[Footnote 3: See A. B. Hulbert, _The Great American Canals_, vol. ii.,
p. 111.]
[Footnote 4: Congressman Peter A. Porter's Guide Book may be recommended
highly; its use to the present writer, taken in addition to its author's
personal assistance and advice, must be acknowledged in the most
unreserved way. Numerous references to Mr. Porter's various monographs,
especially his _Old Fort Niagara_ and _Goat Island_, in addition to his
Guide, will be met with frequently in this volume. To one really
interested in Niagara history _Old Fort Niagara_ will be found most
attractive and comprehensive; its numerous references to authorities put
it quite in a class by itself among local histories.]
[Footnote 5: Frederick Almy in _The Niagara Book_, p. 51. This volume
has been of perennial interest to the author because of the
contributions of the venerable William Dean Howells and E. S. Martin. No
one who in early life has essayed the life of journalist and
correspondent can read Mr. Howells's article in this little book without
immense relish: its humour is contagious, and its descriptions of
Niagara in 1860, fascinating.]
[Footnote 6: _Goat Island_, p. 28. This most interesting pamphlet by Mr.
Porter will be found quite a complete guide to a study of Niagara Falls,
and is most worthy the perusal of those who care to examine more than
the mere surface of things at Niagara.]