CHAPTER IV.

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.

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 NationAttouanderonks, 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 themAttouankes, 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 HuronsAttouanderonks."

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 theNeuter Nation, as the Niagaras were called by theHurons 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 theNeuter 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 thename, 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 andsubdued 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."

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 intoNiagara. 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 wordnigh; theain the third and fourth syllables but slightly abbreviated from the longainfar, and that in the second syllable but slightly aspirated.

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, theGriffin—The Niagara frontier.

From the earliest visit of the French missionaries andvoyageursto 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 theyrose 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 havepurchased 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 FortNiagara 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 groomsof that age will find their Cataract House near the site of old Fort Schlosser.

To the west of this old stone chimney stand the few surviving trees of the first apple orchard set out in this region. As early as 1796, it is described as being a "well-fenced orchard, containing 1200 trees." Not fifty are now standing.

Across the river from Lewiston is Queenston, so named in honor of Queen Charlotte. The battle which bears its name was fought on the 13th of October, 1813, between the American and British armies. The former crossed the river, made the attack, and carried the heights. The commander of the British forces, General Brock, and one of his aids, Colonel McDonald, were killed. The British were reënforced, and the American militia refusing to cross over to aid the Americans, the latter were obliged to return across the river, leaving a number of prisoners in the hands of the enemy. Some years afterward, the Colonial Parliament caused a fine monument to be erected on the heights to the memory of General Brock. It presents a conspicuous and imposing appearance from the terrace below.

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 successfullyexecuted 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 14thof 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 theGriffin, a vessel of sixty tons burden, the first civilized craft that floated on the upper lakes, and the pioneer of an inland commerce of unrivaled growth and value. She reached Green Bay safely, but on her return voyage foundered with all on board in Lake Huron.

The French also built some small vessels on Navy Island. The reënforcements sent from Venango for the French, during the siege of Fort Niagara by Sir William Johnson, in 1759, were landed on this island. To the east of it there is a large deep basin, formed at the foot of the channel, between Grand and Buckhorn islands. The upper part of this channel being narrow, the basin appears like a bay. In this bay the French burnt and sunk the two vessels, as is supposed, which brought down the Venango reënforcements; hence the name "Burnt Ship Bay." The writer has seen the ribs and timbers of these vessels beneath the water, and caught many fine perch which had their haunts near them. The Niagara frontier was the theater of great activity during the War of 1812.

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 Agassizmade 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 thatof 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 creekswere 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 unusualthing, 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 sixfeet 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 loamand 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, withdestructive 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 nothave been more favorable to resist attack. It was a Malakoff of earth on a foundation of rock. Little by little the refluent waves carried back portions of the crumbled mass, and deposited them in the neighboring depressions. Slowly, wearily, desultorily, the erosion and desquamation went on. At last the upper drift was broken down, and its crumbled remains were swept from the rock.

Then the insidious forces of heat and cold, sun and frost became potent. The thin laminæ of limestone were loosened by the frost, broken up and disintegrated. At last a thin sheet of water was driven through the gorge by some fierce gale. The steep declivity of the counterscarp was then fatally attacked, and after a time its perpendicular face was laid bare. Thenceforth the elements had the top and one end of the rocky mass to work on, and they worked at a tremendous advantage. The breaking up and disintegration of the rock went on. It was gradually crumbled into sand, which was washed off by the rains or swept away by the winds. Finally a channel was excavated, of which the bottom was lower than the surface of the great lake above; the sparkling waters rushed in, dashed over the precipice, and Niagara was born.

As the water worked its way over the precipice gradually, so it would gradually excavate its channel to Lake Ontario, and it is not probable that any great inundation of the lower terrace could have occurred.

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 Medinagroup, 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 betweenthe 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 theMaid 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.

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 presentcurve 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, whichwas 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 in1848, 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'saccount, 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.

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