PART III.

Niagara Falls from Below

"We reached," he says, "the Cave [of the Winds] and entered it, first by a wooden way carried over the bowlders, and then along a narrow ledge to the point eaten deepest into the shale." He also speaks of the "blinding hurricane of spray hurled against" him. This last circumstance, probably, prevented him from noticing the fact that no shale is visible in the Cave of the Winds. Its wall from the top downward, some distance beneath the place where he stood, is formed entirely of the Niagara limestone. But it is checkered by many seams, and is easily abraded by the elements.

Long-continued observation of the locality enables the writer to offer still other reasons why the Fall will never dwindle down to a rapid. As has already been noticed, the course of the river above the present Falls is a little south of west, so that it flows across the trend of the bed-rock. Hence, as the Falls recede there can be no diminution in their altitude resulting from the dip of this rock. On the contrary, there is a rise of fifty feet to the head of the present rapids, and a further rise of twenty feet to the level of Lake Erie. During 1871-2, the bed of the river from Buffalo to Cayuga Creek was thoroughly examined for the purpose of locating piers for railway bridges over the stream. The greatest depth at which they found the rock—just below Black Rock dam—was forty-five feet. Generally the rock was found to be only twenty to twenty-five feet below the surface of the water.

About five miles above the present Falls there is, in the bottom of the river, a shelf of rock stretching, in nearly a straight line, across the channel to Grand Island, and having, apparently, a perpendicular face about sixteen inches deep. Its presence is indicated by a short but decided curve in the surface of the water above it, the water itself varying in depth from eleven to sixteen feet. The shelf above referred to extends under Grand Island and across the Canadian channel of the river, under which, however, its face is no longer perpendicular. If the Falls were at this point, they would be fifty-five feet higher than they are now, supposing the bed-rock to be firm. Now, by excavations made during the year 1870 for the new railway from the Suspension Bridge to Buffalo, the surface rock was found to be compact and hard, much of it unusually so. As a general rule it is well known that the greater the depth at which any given kind of rock lies below the surface, and the greater the depth to which it is penetrated, the more compact and hard it will be found to be. The rock which was found to be so hard, in excavating for the railway, lies within six feet of the surface. The deepest water in the Niagara River, between the Falls and Buffalo, is twenty-five feet. At this point, then, it would seem that the shale of the Niagara group must be at such a depth that the top of it is below the surface of the water at the bottom of the present fall. Hence, being protected from the disintegrating action of the atmosphere, and the incessant chiseling of the dashing spray, it would make a firm foundation for the hard limestone which would form theperpendicular ledge over which the water would fall. Supposing the bottom of the channel below this fall to have the same declivity as that for a mile below the present fall, the then cataract would be, as has been before stated, fifty-five feet higher than the present one. If we should allow fifty feet for a soft-surface limestone, full of cleavages and seams which might be easily broken down, still the new fall would be five feet higher than the old one. But, so far as can now be discovered, there is no geological necessity, so to speak, for making any such allowance. In the new cataract the American Fall would still be the higher, and its line across the channel nearly straight. The Canadian Fall would undoubtedly present a curve, but more gradual and uniform than the present horseshoe.

But there might possibly occur one new feature in the chasm-channel of the river as the result of future recession. That would be the presence in that channel of rocky islands, similar to that which has already formed just below the American Fall. The points at which these islands would be likely to form are those where the indurated rock of either the Medina or the Niagara group lies near the surface of the water. This probably was the case at the narrow bend below the Whirlpool, before noticed, and from thence up to the outlet of the pool. After considering what must have occurred in the last case, we may form some opinion concerning the probabilities in reference to the first.

We can hardly resist the conclusion that masses of fallen rock must have accumulated below the Whirlpoolas we now see them under the American Fall. But if so, where are they? The answer to this question brings us to the consideration of the most remarkable phenomenon connected with this wonderful river. To the beholder it is matter of astonishment what can have become of the great mass of earth, rock, gravel, and bowlders, large and small, which once filled the immense chasm that lies below him. He learns that the water for a mile below the Falls is two hundred feet deep, and flows over a mass of fallen rock and stone of great depth lying below it; he sees a chasm of nearly double these dimensions, more than half of which was once filled with solid rock; he beholds the large quantities which have already fallen, which are still defiant, still breasting the ceaseless hammering of the descending flood. For centuries past this process has been going on, until a chasm seven miles long, a thousand feet wide, and, including the secondary banks, more than four hundred feet deep, has been excavated, and the material which filled it entirely removed. How? By what? Frost was the agent, ice was his delver, water his carrier, and the basin of Lake Ontario his dumping-ground. Although there is little likelihood that islands similar to Goat Island have existed in the channel from Lewiston upward, still it is probable that, when the Fall receded from the rocky cape below the Whirlpool up to the pool, it left masses of rock, large and small, lying on the rocky floor and projecting above the surface of the water. As there were no islands above, there were no broken, tumultuous rapids. As has been before remarked, the water poured over in one broad, deep, resistless flood. Whenfrozen by the intense cold of winter, the great cakes of ice would descend with crushing force on these rocks. The smaller ones would be broken, pulverized, and swept down-stream, the channel for the water would be enlarged gradually, and the larger masses thus partially undermined. Then the spray and dashing water would freeze and the ice accumulate upon them until they were toppled over. Then the falling ice would recommence its chipping labors, and with every piece of ice knocked off, a portion of the rock would go with it. Finally, as the cold continued, the master force, the mightiest of mechanical powers, would be brought into action. The vast quantities of ice pouring over the precipice would freeze together, agglomerate, and form an ice-bridge. The roof being formed, the succeeding cakes of ice would be drawn under, and, raising it, be frozen to it. This process goes on. Every piece of rock above and below the surface is embraced in a relentless icy grip. Millions of tons are frozen fast together. The water and ice continue to plunge over the precipice. The principle of the hydrostatic press is made effective. Then commences a crushing and grinding process which is perfectly terrific. Under the resistless pressure brought to bear upon it, the huge mass moves half an inch in one direction, and an hundred cubic feet of rock are crushed to powder. There is a pause. Then again the immense structure moves half an inch another way, and once more the crumbling atoms attest its awful power. This goes on for weeks continuously. Finally the temperature changes. The sunlight becomes potent; the ice ceases to form; the warm rays loosen the grip of the ice-bridgealong the borders of the chasm below. The water becomes more abundant; the bridge rises, bringing in its icy grasp whatever it had attached itself to beneath; it breaks up into masses of different dimensions: each mass starts downward with the growing current, breaking down or filing off everything with which it comes in contact. Fearful sounds come up from the hidden depths, from the mills which are slowly pulverizing the massive rock. The smaller bits and finer particles, after filling the interstices between the larger rocks in the bottom of the chasm, are borne lakeward. The heavier portions make a part of the journey this year; they will make another part next year, and another the next, being constantly disintegrated and pulverized.

This work has been going on for many centuries. The result is seen in the vast bar of unknown depth which is spread over the bottom of Lake Ontario around the mouth of the river. On the inner side of the bar the water is from sixty to eighty feet deep, on the bar it is twenty-five feet deep, and outside of it in the lake it reaches a depth of six hundred feet.

Great Icicles under the American Fall

And finally, to the force we have been considering, more than to any other, it is probable that all the coming generations of men will be indebted for a grand and perpendicular Fall somewhere between its present location and Lake St. Clair; for it must be remembered that the bottom of Lake Erie is only fourteen feet lower than the crest of the present Fall, and the bottom of Lake St. Clair is sixty-two feet higher. It may also be considered that the corniferous limestone of the Onondaga group—whichsucceeds the Niagara group as we approach Lake Erie—is more competent to maintain a perpendicular face than is the limestone of the latter group.

We may here appropriately notice a remarkable feature in the geognosy of the earth's surface from Lake Huron to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have before stated that the elevation of that lake above tide-water is five hundred and seventy-eight feet. But its depth, according to Dr. Houghton, is one thousand feet. If this statement is correct, the bottom of it is four hundred and twenty-two feet below the sea-level. The elevation of Lake St. Clair is five hundred and seventy feet. But its depth is only twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty feet above the sea-level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five hundred and sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four feet deep, making it four hundred and eighty-four feet above the sea-level. From Lake Erie to Lake Ontario there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. But the latter lake is six hundred feet deep, and its elevation two hundred and thirty-two feet. Hence the bottom of it is three hundred and sixty-eight feet below the sea-level. From the outlet of Lake Ontario the St. Lawrence River flows eight hundred and twenty miles to tide-water, falling two hundred and thirty-two feet in this distance. The water from the springs at the bottom of Lake Huron is compelled to climb a mountain nine hundred and eighty feet high before it can start on this long oceanward journey.

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS.

Forty years since—Niagara in winter—Frozen spray—Ice foliage and ice apples—Ice moss—Frozen fog—Ice islands—Ice statues—Sleigh-riding on the American rapids—Boys coasting on them—Ice gorges.

If the first white man who saw Niagara could have been certain that he was the first to see it, and had simply recorded the fact with whatever note or comment, he would have secured for himself that species of immortality which accrues to such as are connected with those first and last events and things in which all men feel a certain interest. But he failed to improve his opportunity, and Father Hennepin was the first, so far as known, to profit by such neglect, and his somewhat crude and exaggerated description of the Falls has been often quoted and is well known. So long as "waters flow and trees grow" it will continue to be read by successive generations. The French missionaries andtraders who followed him seem to have been too much occupied in saving souls or in seeking for gold to spend much time in contemplating the cataract, or to waste much sentiment in writing about it. And so it happens that, considering its fame, very little has been written, or rather published, concerning it.

Seventy years ago, the few travelers who were drawn to the vicinity by interest or curiosity were obliged to approach it by Indian trails, or rude corduroy roads, through dense and dark forests. Within the solitude of their deep shadows, beneath their protecting arms, was hidden one of the sublimest works of the physical creation. The scene was grand, impressive, almost oppressive, not less sublime than the Alps or the ocean, but more fascinating, more companionable, than either.

Niagara we can take to our hearts. We realize its majesty and its beauty, but we are never obliged to challenge its power. Its surroundings and accessories are calm and peaceful. Even in all the treacherous and bloody warfare of savage Indians it was neutral ground. It was a forest city of refuge for contending tribes. The generous, noble, and peaceful Niagaras—a people, according to M. Charlevoix, "larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages," and who lived upon its borders—were called by the whites and the neighboring tribes the Neuter Nation.

The crafty Hurons, the unwarlike Eries, the invincible league formed by the six aggressive and conquering tribes composing the Iroquois confederacy,—theMohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Senecas, and the Tuscaroras,—all extinguished the torch, buried the tomahawk, and smoked the calumet when they came to the shores of the Niagara, and sat down within sight of its incense cloud, and listened to its perpetual anthem. In succeeding contests between the whites, on two occasions only was nature's repose here disturbed by the din of battle—first, in the running fight at Chippewa, and again at the obstinate and bloody struggle of Lundy's Lane.

During the War of 1812, in which these actions occurred, the dense forest which lay outside of the old belt of French occupation was first extensively and persistently attacked, the sunlight being let in upon comfortable log-cabins and fruitful fields. The Indian trail and corduroy "shake" were superseded by more civilized and comfortable highways. Post routes were opened and public conveyances established. For many years, however, the two principal ways of access to Niagara were by the Ridge road, from the Genessee Falls—now Rochester—and the river road on the Canadian side from Buffalo to Drummondville.

Some forty years ago, and for many years thereafter, Niagara was, emphatically, a pleasant and attractive watering-place; the town was quiet; the accommodations were comfortable; the people were kind, considerate, and attentive; guides were civil, intelligent, and truthful; conveyances were good, and were in charge of careful and respectable attendants;commissions were unknown; "scalping" was left to the Indians; nobody was annoyed or importuned; the flowers bloomed, the birds caroled, the full-leaved trees furnished refreshing shade, and the air was balmy. Then the lowing of cows in the street, the guttural note of the swine, and the voice of the solicitor were not heard. Elderly people came to stay for pleasant recreation and quiet enjoyment; younger people to "bill and coo" and dance. Now all that is changed. A contemporary orator once described the moral status of a famous stock-jobbing locality by saying that "ten thousand a year is the Sermon on the Mount for Wall street." The same gospel is popular at Niagara.

Whoso has seen Niagara only in summer has but half seen it. In winter its beauties are not diminished, while the accessories due to the season are numerous and varied. After two or three weeks of intensely cold weather many beautiful and fantastic scenes are presented around the Falls.

The different varieties of stalactites and stalagmites hanging from or apparently supporting the projecting rocks along the side walls of the deep chasm, the ice islands which grow on the bars and around the rocks in the river, the white caps and hoods which are formed on the rocks below, the fanciful statuary and statuesque forms which gather on and around the trees and bushes, are all curious and interesting. Exceedingly beautiful are the white vestments of frozen spray with which everything in the immediate vicinity is robed and shielded; and beautiful, too, are the clusters of iceapples which tip the extremities of the branches of the evergreen trees.

There is something marvelous in the purity and whiteness of congealed spray. One might think it to be frozen sunlight. And when, by reason of an angle or a curve, it is thrown into shadow, one sees where the rainbow has been caught and frozen in. After a day of sunshine which has been sufficiently warm to fill the atmosphere with aqueous vapor, if a sharp, still, cold night succeed, and if on this there break a clear, calm morning, the scene presented is one of unique and enchanting beauty.

Winter Foliage

The frozen spray on every boll, limb, and twig of tree and shrub, on every stiffened blade of grass, on every rigid stem and tendril of the vines, is covered over with a fine white powder, a frosty bloom, from which there springs a line of delicate frost-spines, forming a perfect fringe of ice-moss, than which nothing more fanciful nor more beautiful can be imagined.

Then, as the day advances, the increasing warmth of the sun's rays dissolves this fairy frost-work and spreads it like a delicate varnish over the solid spray, giving it a brilliant polish rivaling the luster of the rarest gems; the mid-morning breeze sets in motion this flashing, dazzling forest, which varies its color as the sunlight-angle varies; and finally, when the waxing warmth and growing breeze loosen the hold of the icy covering in the tree-tops, and it drops to the still solid surface in the shade beneath,—the tiny particleswith a silver tinkle and the larger pieces with the sharp, rattling sound of the castanet,—the ear is charmed with a wild, dashing rataplan, while a scene of strange enchantment challenges the admiration of the spectator.

Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the garment of frozen fog with which all external objects are adorned and etherealized when the spring advances and the temperature of the water is raised. As the sharp, still night wears on, the light mists begin to rise, and when the morning breaks, the river is buried in a deep, dense bank of fog. A gentle wave of air bears it landward; its progress is stayed by everything with which it comes in contact, and as soon as its motion is arrested it freezes sufficiently to adhere to whatever it touches. So it grows upon itself, and all things are soon covered half an inch in depth with a most delicate and fragile white fringe of frozen fog. The morning sun dispels the mist, and in an hour the gay frost-work vanishes.

The ice islands are sometimes extensive. In the year 1856 the whole of the rocky bar above Goat Island was covered with ice, piled together in a rough heap, the lower end of which rested on Goat Island and the three Moss Islands lying outside of it, all of which were visited by different persons passing over this new route.

The ice formed on the rocks below the American Fall, stretched upward, reached the edge of the precipice just north of the Little Horseshoe, continued up-stream aboveChapin's Island, spread out laterally from that to Goat Island on the south, and over nearly half of the American rapids to the north. At the brow of the precipice it accumulated upward until it formed a ridge some forty feet high. About fifteen rods up-stream another ridge was formed of half the height of the first. Every rock projecting upward bore an immense ice-cap. Around and between these mounds and caps horses were driven to sleighs, albeit the course was not favorable for quick time. The boys drew their sleds to the top of the large mound, slid down it, up-stream, and nearly to the top of the smaller hill.

On the lower or down-stream side, they would have had a clear course to the water below, at the brink of the Falls, and might have made "time" compared with which Dexter's minimum would have seemed only a funeral march. But with all Young America's passion for speed, he declined to try this route. The writer walked over the south end of Luna Island, above the tops of the trees.

The ice-bridge of that year filled the whole chasm from the Railway Suspension Bridge up past the American Fall. When the ice broke up in the spring, such immense quantities were carried down that a strong northerly wind across Lake Ontario caused an ice-jam at Fort Niagara. The ice accumulated and set back until it reached the Whirlpool, and could be crossed at any point between the Whirlpool and the Fort. It was lifted up about sixty feet above the surface, and spread out over both shores, crushing and destroying everything with which it came incontact. Many persons from different parts of the country visited the extraordinary scene.

At Lewiston the writer, with many others, saw a most remarkable illustration of the terrific power of this hydrostatic press. Just below the village, on the American side, there stood, about two rods from high-water mark, a sound, thrifty, tough white-oak tree, perhaps a hundred years old, and two feet in diameter. The ice, moved by the water, struck it near the ground and pressed it outward and upward, until it was actually pulled up by the roots—or rather some of the roots were broken and others were pulled out—and landed twenty feet farther away from the chasm.

Those who watched the operation stated that, from the time the ice touched the tree until it was landed on the bank above, the motion of the ice could not be detected by the eye.

Ice Bridge and Frost Freaks

Slowly, steadily, surely it pressed on. Suddenly there would be an explosion, sharp and loud, when a root gave way. No motion in the ice or tree could be discovered. After a lapse of two or three hours another sharp crack would give notice of another fracture. Thus the ice pressed gradually on, and in ten hours the work was done. A thousandth part of this force would pulverize a bowlder of adamant. We need not wonder, therefore, that the river Niagara keeps its channel clear.

In the ice-gorge of 1866 the ice was set back to the upper end of the Whirlpool, over which it was twenty feet deep. The Whirlpool rapid was subdued nearly to an unbroken current, which all the way below to LakeOntario was reduced to a gentle flow of quiet waters. Never was there a sublimer contest of the great forces of nature. The frost laid its hand upon the raging torrent and it was still.

The winter of 1875 was intensely cold. The singular figures represented in the illustrations—the eagle, dog, baboon, and others—are exact reproductions of the real chance-work of the frost of that season. The long-continued prevalence of the south-west wind fastened to every object facing it a border or apron of dazzling whiteness, and more than five feet thick. The ice mountain below the American Fall, reaching nearly to the top of the precipice, was appropriated as a "coasting" course, and furnished most exhilarating sport to the people who used it. A large number of visitors came from all directions, and, on the 22d of February, fifteen hundred were assembled to see the extraordinary exhibition.

In the coldest winters, the ice-bridges cannot be less than two hundred and fifty feet thick. The ice-bridge of 1875 formed on the 6th and 7th of May, was crossed on the 8th, and broke up on the 14th—the only one ever known in the river so late in the spring.

Coasting below the American Fall

Judge Porter—General Porter—Goat Island—Origin of its name—Early dates found cut in the bark of trees and in the rock—Professor Kalm's wonderful story—Bridges to the Island—Method of construction—Red Jacket—Anecdotes—Grand Island—Major Noah and the New Jerusalem—The Stone Tower—The Biddle Stairs—Sam Patch—Depth of water on the Horseshoe—Ships sent over the Falls.

In preparing this narrative, the writer has had the good fortune to listen to many recitals of facts and incidents by the late Judge Augustus Porter and the late General Peter B. Porter, whose names are intimately and honorably connected with the more recent history, not only of this particular locality but of the Empire State.

Judge Porter, after having spent several years in surveying and lotting large portions of the territory of Western New York and the Western Reserve in Ohio, came from Canandaigua to Niagara Falls with his family in June, 1806, where he continued to live until his death, nearly fifty years afterward.

General Porter settled as a lawyer at Canandaigua in 1795, removed to Black Rock in 1810, and to Niagara Falls in 1838.

In 1805, the two brothers became interested with others in the purchase from the State of New York offour lots in the Mile Strip lying both above and below the Falls.

A few years later, they purchased not only the interest of their partners in these lots, but other lands at different points along this strip. In 1814, they bought of Samuel Sherwood a paper since named afloat—an instrument given by the State authorizing the bearer to locate two hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated lands belonging to the State. This float they fortunately anchored on Goat Island and the islands adjacent thereto lying "immediately above and adjoining the Great Falls."

The origin of the name of Goat Island is as follows: Mr. John Stedman, who came into the country in 1760, had cleared a portion of the upper end of the island, and in the summer of 1779 he placed on it an aged and dignified male goat. The following winter was very severe, navigation to the island was impracticable, and the goat fell a victim to the intense cold. Since which the scene of his exile and death has been called Goat Island.

By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, the boundary line between Great Britain and the United States, on the Niagara frontier, was to run through the deepest water along the river-courses and through the center of the Great Lakes. As the deepest water, at this point, is in the center of the Horseshoe Fall, the islands in the river fell to the Americans. General Porter, acting as Commissioner for the United States, proposed to call the largest one Iris Island, and it was so printed on theboundary maps. But the public adhered to the old name of Goat Island.

One of the early chronicles states that the island contained two hundred and fifty acres of land. At the present time there are in it less than seventy. A strip some ten rods wide by eighty rods long has been worn away from the southern side of it since 1818, when Judge Porter made the first road around it.

The earliest date he found on the island was 1765, carved on a beech-tree. The earliest date cut in the rock on the main-land was 1645. Human bones and arrowheads were found on the island. The Indians went to it with their canoes, which they paddled up and down in the comparatively quiet water lying on the rocky bar which extends upward nearly a mile above the head of the island.

Notwithstanding this fact, the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, who visited the place in 1750, relates a fabulous story of two Indians who, on a hunting excursion above the Falls, drank too freely from "two bottles of French brandy" which they brought from Fort Niagara; becoming drowsy, they laid themselves down in the bottom of their canoe for a nap.

The canoe swung off shore and floated down-stream. Nearing the rapids, the noise awakened one of them, who had apparently been more fortunate in learning the English language from the French than most of his tribe, for, seeing their perilous situation, he exclaimed: "We are gone!" But the two plied their paddles with such aboriginal vigor that they succeeded in landing onGoat Island. From the sequel it would seem that they must have destroyed or lost their canoe. Finding no houses of refreshment, nor cairns of stores left by former explorers, and most naturally getting hungry, they concluded it would be desirable to get back to the fort—a wish more easily expressed than accomplished.

But it was necessary for them to "do or die." So, as the story runs, they stripped the bark from the basswood trees, and with it made a ladder long enough to reach from a tree standing on the edge of the precipice at the foot of the island down to the water below.

After dropping their ladder they followed it downward. Reaching the water, and being good swimmers, they plunged in with great glee, expecting to be able to swim across to the opposite shore, which they could easily climb. But the counter current forced them back to the island.

After being a good deal bruised on the rocks, they were compelled to abandon the attempt to cross, and then returned up their ladder to the island. There, after much whooping, they attracted the notice of other Indians on the shore. These reported the situation at the fort, and the commandant sent up a party of whites and Indians to rescue them. They brought with them four light pike-poles. Going to a point opposite the head of the island, they exchanged salutations with the new Crusoes, and began preparations for their rescue. Two Indians volunteered to undertake the task. "They took leave of all their friends as if they were going to their death." Each Indian rescuer, according to the wondrous fable, took twopike-poles andwadedacross the channel to the island, gave each of the Crusoes a pike-pole, and then the four waded back to the main-land, where they were joyfully received by their anxious, waiting friends, after having been "nine days on the island."

Remembering that the water in mid-channel is twelve feet deep, with a twelve-mile current, we must concede this to be the most marvelous of all aquatic achievements.

In 1817 Judge Porter built the first bridge to Goat Island, about forty rods above the present bridge. In the following spring the large cakes of ice from the river above, not being sufficiently broken up by the short stretch of rapids over which they passed, struck the bridge with terrific force, and carried away the greater part of it. With the courage and enterprise of a New-Englander, the next season he constructed another bridge farther down, on the present site, rightly judging that the ice would be so much broken up before reaching it as to be harmless.

That bridge, with constant repairs and one almost entire renewal, stood firm in its place until the year 1856, when it was removed to make room for the present iron bridge. The old piers were much enlarged and strengthened, and also raised about three feet higher to receive the new bridge. As nearly every stranger inquires how the first bridge was carried over the turbulent waters, a brief description of the process may be acceptable. First, a strong bulkhead was built in the shallow water next to the shore; a solid backing was put in behind this, andthe upper surface properly graded and well floored with plank. Strong rollers were placed parallel with the stream and fastened to the floor. In the old forest then standing near by were many noble oaks, of different sizes and great length. A number of these were felled and hewed "tapering," as it was termed, so that, when finished, they were about eighteen inches square at the butt, fifteen at the top, and eighty feet long. Through the small ends were bored large auger-holes. These sticks were placed, as required, on the rollers, at right angles to the stream, the small ends over the water, and the shore ends heavily weighted down.

Second Moss Island Bridge

The first stick being properly placed, levers were applied to the rollers and the stick was run out until the small end reached an eddy in the water. Then another similar stick was run out in like manner, parallel to the first, and about six feet from it. A few light, strong planks were placed across and made fast. Two men were provided each with strong, iron-pointed pike-staffs, each staff having in its upper end a hole, through which was drawn some ten feet of new rope. Thus provided, they walked out on the timbers, drove their iron pikes down among the stones, and tied them fast to the timbers. Thus the whole problem was solved. Around these pike-staffs the first pier was built and filled with stone. Then other timbers were run out, all were planked over, and the first span was completed. The other spans were laid in the same way.

The great Indian chief and orator, Red Jacket, occasionally visited Judge and General Porter—the latterthen living at Black Rock. Judge Porter told this anecdote of the chief: He visited the Falls while the mechanics were stretching the timbers across the rapids for the second bridge. He sat for a long time on a pile of plank, watching their operations. His mind seemed to be busy both with the past and the present, reflecting upon the vast territory his race once possessed, and intensely conscious of the fact that it was theirs no longer. Apparently mortified, and vexed that its paleface owners should so successfully develop and improve it, he rose from his seat, and, uttering the well-known Indian guttural "Ugh, ugh!" he exclaimed: "D——n Yankee! d——n Yankee!" Then, gathering his blanket-cloak around him, with his usual dignity and downcast eyes, he slowly walked away, and never returned to the spot.

Before parting with the distinguished chief, we will repeat after General Porter two other anecdotes characteristic of him. He lived not far from Buffalo, on the Seneca Reservation, and frequently visited the late General Wadsworth, at Geneseo. Indeed, his visits grew to be somewhat perplexing, for the great chief must be entertained personally by the host of the establishment.

Of course he was a "teetotaler"—only in one way. When he got a glass of good liquor he drank the whole of it. He was very fond of the rich apple-juice of the Geneseo orchards. Having repeated his visits to General Wadsworth, at one time, with rather inconvenient frequency, and coming one day when the General saw that hehad been drinking pretty freely somewhere else, his host concluded he would not offer him the usual refreshments. In due time, therefore, Red Jacket rose and excused himself. As he was leaving the room the orator said, "General, hear!" "Well, what, Red Jacket?" To which he replied with great gravity: "General, when I get home to my people, and they ask me how your cider tasted, what shall I tell them?" Of course he got the cider.

His determined and constant opposition to the sale of the lands belonging to the Indians is well known. At the council held at Buffalo Creek, in 1811, he was selected by the Indians to answer the proposition of a New York land company to buy more land. The Indians refused to sell, although, as usual, the company only wanted "a small tract." To illustrate the system, after the speech-making was over, Red Jacket placed half a dozen Indians on a log, which lay near by. They did not sit very close together, but had plenty of room. He then took a white man who wanted "a small tract," and making the Indians at one end "move up," he put the white man beside them. Then he brought another "small-tract" white man, and making the aborigines "move up" once more, the Indian on the end was obliged to rise from the log. He repeated this process until but one of the original occupants was left on the log. Then suddenly he shoved him off, put a white man in his place, and turning to the land agent said: "See what onesmall tractmeans; white manall, Indiannothing."

Colonel William L. Stone, in his "Life of Red Jacket," relates the following: In 1816, after Red Jacket took uphis residence on Buffalo Creek, east of the city, a young French count traveling through the country made a brief stay at Buffalo, whence he sent a request to the sachem to visit him at his hotel.

Red Jacket, in reply, informed the young nobleman that if he wished to see the old chief he would give him a welcome greeting at his cabin. The count sent again to say that he was much fatigued by his journey of four thousand miles, which he had made for the purpose of seeing the celebrated Indian orator, Red Jacket, and thought it strange that he should not be willing to come four miles to meet him. But the proud and shrewd old chief replied that he thought it still more strange, after the count had traveled so great a distance for that purpose, that he should halt only a few miles from the home of the man he had come so far to see. The count finally visited the sachem at his house, and was much pleased with the dignity and wisdom of his savage host. The point of etiquette having been satisfactorily settled, the chief accepted an invitation to dinner, and was no doubt able to tell his people how the count's "cider" tasted.

In 1819, when the boundary commissioners ran the line through the Niagara River, Grand Island fell to the United States, under the rule that that line should be in the center of the main channel. To ascertain this, accurate measurements were made, by which it was found that 12,802,750 cubic feet of water passed through the Canadian channel, and 8,540,080 through the American channel. To test the accuracy of these measurements, the quantitypassing in the narrow channel at Black Rock was determined by the same method, and was found to be 21,549,590 cubic feet, thus substantially corroborating the first two measurements.

The Indian name of Grand Island is Owanunga. In 1825, Mr. M. M. Noah, a politician of the last generation, took some preliminary steps for reëstablishing the lost nationality of the Jews upon this island, where a New Jerusalem was to be founded. Assuming the title of "Judge of Israel," he appeared at Buffalo in September for the purpose of founding the new nation and city. A meeting was held in old St. Paul's Church, at which, with the aid of a militia company, martial music, and masonic rites, the remarkable initiatory proceedings took place.

The self-constituted judge presented himself arrayed in gorgeous robes of office, consisting of a rich black cloth tunic, covered by a capacious mantle of crimson silk trimmed with ermine, and having a richly embossed golden medal hanging from his neck. After what, in the account published in his own paper of the day's proceedings, he called "impressive and unique ceremonies," he read a proclamation to "all the Jews throughout the world," informing them "that an Asylum was prepared and offered to them," and that he did "revive, renew, and establish (in the Lord's name), the government of the Jewish nation, * * * confirming and perpetuating all our rights and privileges, our rank and power, among the nations of the earth as they existed and were recognized under the government of the Judges." He also ordereda census to be taken of all the Hebrews in the world, and levied a capitation tax of three shekels—about one dollar and sixty cents—"to pay the expenses of re-organizing the government and assisting emigrants." He had prepared a "foundation stone," which was afterward erected on the site of the new city, and which bore the following inscription:

"Hear, O Israel, the Lordis 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 OFAMERICAN INDEPENDENCE."

After the meeting at St. Paul's, the "Judge" returned at once to New York, and, like the great early ruler of his nation, he only saw the land of promise, as he never crossed to the island.

The strong round tower, called the Terrapin Tower, which stood near Goat Island, not far from the precipice, was built in 1833, of stones gathered in the vicinity. It was forty-five feet high, and twelve feet in diameter at the base. So much was said in 1873 about the growing insecurity of the tower that it was taken down.

The Biddle Staircase was named for Mr. Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia, who contributed a sum of moneytoward its construction. It was erected in 1829. The shaft is eighty feet high and firmly fastened to the rock. The stairs are spiral, winding round it from top to bottom. Near the foot of these stairs, at the water's edge, Samuel Patch, who wished to demonstrate to the world that "some things could be done as well as others," set up a ladder one hundred feet high, from which he made two leaps into the water below. Going thence to Rochester, he took another leap near the Genesee Falls, which proved to be his last.

The depth of water on the Horseshoe Fall is a subject of speculation with every visitor. It was correctly determined in 1827. In the autumn of that year, the shipMichigan, having been condemned as unseaworthy, was purchased by a few persons, and sent over the Falls. Her hull was eighteen feet deep. It filled going down the rapids, and went over the Horseshoe Fall with some water above the deck, indicating that there must have been at least twenty feet of water above the rock. This voyage of theMichiganwas an event of the day. A glowing hand-bill, charged with bold type and sensational tropes, announced that "The PirateMichigan, with a cargo of furious animals," would "pass the great rapids and the Falls of Niagara," on the "eighth of September, 1827." She would sail "through the white-tossing and deep-rolling rapids of Niagara, and down its grand precipice into the basin below." Entertainment was promised "for all who may visit the Falls on the present occasion, which will, for its novelty and the remarkable spectacle it will present, be unequaled in the annals ofinfernalnavigation."Considering that the Falls could be reached only by road conveyances, the gathering of people was very large. The voyage was successfully made, and the "cargo of live animals" duly deposited in the "basin below," except a bear which left the ship near the center of the rapids and swam ashore, but was recaptured.

Two enterprising individuals made arrangements to supply the people assembled on the island with refreshments. They had an ample spread of tables and an abundant supply of provisions. As there was much delay in getting the vessel down the river, the people got impatient and hungry. They took their places at the tables. When their appetites were nearly satisfied, notice was given that the ship was coming, whereupon they departed hurriedly, forgetting to leave the equivalent half-dollar for the benefit of the purveyors.

In after years, one of the proprietors of this unexpected "free lunch"—the late General Whitney—established here one of the best hotels in the country, and left his heirs an ample fortune.

A few geese in the cargo were only badly confused by their unusual plunge, and were afterward picked up from boats. It was noticed as being a little singular that geese which went over the Falls in the PirateMichiganwere for sale at extravagant prices all the next season.

Another condemned vessel of about five hundred tons burden, theDetroit, which had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was sent down the rapids in 1841. A large concourse of people assembled from all parts ofthe country to witness the spectacle. Her rolling and plunging in the rapids were fearful, until about midway of them she stuck fast on a bar, where she lay until knocked to pieces by the ice. From Baron La Hontan we know that the Indians went on the water, just below the Falls, in their canoes, to gather the game which had been swept over them. For more than a hundred years there has been a ferry of skiff and yawl boats at this point, and in all that time not one serious accident has happened.

Joel R. Robinson, the first and last navigator of the Rapids—Rescue of Chapin—Rescue of Allen—He takes theMaid of the Mistthrough the Whirlpool—His companions—Effect upon Robinson—Biographical notice—His grave unmarked.

The history of the navigation of the Rapids of Niagara may be appropriately concluded in this chapter, which is devoted to a notice of the remarkable man who began it, who had no rival and has left no successor in it—Joel R. Robinson.

In the summer of 1838, while some extensive repairs were being made on the main bridge to Goat Island, a mechanic named Chapin fell from the lower side of it into the rapids, about ten rods from the Bath Island shore. The swift current bore him toward the first small island lying below the bridge. Knowing how to swim, he made a desperate and successful effort to reach it. It is hardly more than thirty feet square, and is covered with cedars and hemlocks. Saved from drowning, he seemed likely to fall a victim to starvation. All thoughts were then turned to Robinson, and not in vain. He launched his light red skiff from the foot of Bath Island, picked his way cautiously and skillfully through the rapids to the little island, took Chapin in and brought him safely tothe shore, much to the relief of the spectators, who gave expression to their appreciation of Robinson's service by a moderate contribution.

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