Volume IV Part 5 (1/2)

The best view of the great cataract is from the Canadian sh.o.r.e just below it, where, from an elevation, the upper rapids can be seen flowing to the brink of the fall. A bright day is an advantage, when the green water tints are most marked. The Canadian sh.o.r.e above, curves around from the westward, and in front are the dark and precipitous cliffs of Goat Island, surmounted by foliage. The Canadian rapids come to the brink an almost unbroken sheet of foaming waters, but the narrower rapids on the American side are closer, and have a background of little islands, with torrents foaming between. The current pa.s.sing over the American fall seems shallow, compared with the solid ma.s.ses of bright green water pouring down the Canadian horseshoe. There, on either hand, is an edge of foaming streams, looking like cl.u.s.ters of constantly descending frosted columns, with a broad and deeply recessed, bright-green central cataract, giving the impressive idea of millions of tons of water pouring into an abyss, the bottom of which is obscured by seething and fleecy clouds of spray. On either side, dark-brown, water-worn rocks lie at the base, while the spray bursts out into mammoth explosions, like puffs of white smoke suddenly darting from parks of artillery. The water comes over the brink comparatively slowly, then falls with constantly accelerated speed, the colors changing as the velocity increases and air gets into the torrent, until the original bright green becomes a foaming white, which is quickly lost behind the clouds of spray beneath. These clouds slowly rise in a thin, transparent veil far above the cataract. From under the spray the river flows towards us, its eddying currents streaked with white. A little steamboat moves among the eddies, and goes almost under the ma.s.s of falling water, yet finds a practically smooth pa.s.sage. Closer, on the left hand, the American fall appears a rough and broken cataract, almost all foam, with green tints showing through, and at intervals along its face great ma.s.ses of water spurting forward through the torrent as a rocky obstruction may be met part way down. The eye fascinatingly follows the steadily increasing course of the waters as they descend from top to bottom upon the piles of boulders dimly seen through the spray clouds. Adjoining the American cataract is the water-worn wall of the chasm, built of dark red stratified rocks, looking as if cut down perpendicularly by a knife, and whitened towards the top, where the protruding limestone formation surmounts the lower shales. Upon the faces of the cliffs can be traced the manner in which the water in past ages gradually carved out the gorge, while at their bases the sloping talus of fallen fragments is at the river's edge. Through the deep and narrow canyon the greenish waters move away towards the rapids below. It all eternally falls, and foams and roars, and the ever-changing views displayed by the world's great wonder make an impression unlike anything else in nature.

GOAT ISLAND.

Niagara presents other spectacles; the islands scattered among the upper rapids; their swiftly flowing, foaming current rus.h.i.+ng wildly along; the remarkable lower gorge, where the torrent making the grandest rapids runs finally into the Whirlpool basin with its terrific swirls and eddies--these join in making the colossal exhibition. Added to all is the impressive idea of the resistless forces of Nature and of the elements. Few places are better fitted for geological study, and by day or night the picture presents constant changes of view, exerting the most powerful influence upon the mind.

Goat Island between the two falls is a most interesting place, covering, with the adjacent islets, about sixty acres, and it was long a favorite Indian Cemetery. The Indians had a tradition that the falls demand two human victims every year, and the number of deaths from accident and suicide fully maintains the average. There have been attempts to romantically rename this as Iris Island, but the popular t.i.tle remains, which was given from the goats kept there by the original white settlers. It was from a ladder one hundred feet high, elevated upon the lower bank of Goat Island, near the edge of the Canadian fall, that Sam Patch, in 1829, jumped down the Falls of Niagara. He endeavored to gain fame and a precarious living by jumping down various waterfalls, and not content with this exploit, made the jump at the Genesee falls at Rochester and was drowned. A bridge crosses from the American sh.o.r.e to Goat Island, and it is recorded that two bull-terrier dogs thrown from this bridge have made the plunge over the American falls and survived it. One of them lived all winter on the carca.s.s of a cow he found on the rocks below, and the other, very much astonished and grieved, is said to have trotted up the stairs from the steamboat wharf about one hour after being thrown into the water and making the plunge.

From the upper point of Goat Island a bar stretches up the river, and can be plainly seen dividing the rapids which pa.s.s on either side to the American and Canadian falls. A foot-bridge from Goat Island, on the American side, leads to the pretty little Luna Island, standing at the brink of the cataract and dividing its waters. The narrow channel between makes a miniature waterfall, under which is the famous ”Cave of the Winds.” Here the venturesome visitor goes actually under Niagara, for the s.p.a.ce behind the waterfall is hollowed out of the rocks, and amid the rus.h.i.+ng winds and spray an idea can be got of the effects produced by the greater cataracts. Here are seen the rainbows formed by the sunlight on the spray in complete circles; and the cave, one hundred feet high, and recessed into the wall of the cliff, gives an excellent exhibition of the undermining processes constantly going on. Upon the Canadian side of Goat Island, at the edge of the fall, foot-bridges lead over the water-worn and honeycombed rocks to the brink of the great Horseshoe. Amid an almost deafening roar, with rus.h.i.+ng waters on either hand, there can be got in this place probably the best near view of the greater cataract. Here are the Terrapin Rocks, and over on the Canadian side, at the base of the chasm, are the fragments of Table Rock and adjacent rocks which have recently fallen, with enormous ma.s.ses of water beating upon them. In the midst of the rapids on the Canadian side of Goat Island are also the pretty little islands known as the ”Three Sisters” and their diminutive ”Little Brother,” with cascades pouring over the ledges between them--a charming sight. The steep descent of the rapids can here be realized, the torrent plunging down from far above one's head, and rus.h.i.+ng over the falls. This fascinating yet precarious region has seen terrible disasters and narrow escapes. The overpowering view of all, from Goat Island, is the vast ma.s.s of water pouring down the Canadian falls. This is fully twenty feet in depth at the brink of the cataract, and it tumbles from all around the deeply recessed Horseshoe into an apparently bottomless pool, no one yet having been able to sound its depth. In 1828 the ”Michigan,” a condemned s.h.i.+p from Lake Erie, was sent over this fall, large crowds watching. She drew eighteen feet water and pa.s.sed clear of the top. Among other things on her deck were a black bear and a wooden statue of General Andrew Jackson. The wise bear deserted the s.h.i.+p in the midst of the rapids and swam ash.o.r.e. The s.h.i.+p was smashed to pieces by the fall, but the first article seen after the plunge was the statue of ”Old Hickory,”

popping headforemost up through the waters unharmed. This was considered a favorable omen, for in the autumn he was elected President of the United States.

THE RAPIDS AND THE WHIRLPOOL.

The surface of Niagara River below the cataract is for some distance comparatively calm, so that small boats can move about and pa.s.s almost under the ma.s.s of descending waters. The deep and narrow gorge stretches far to the north with two ponderous international railroad bridges thrown across it in the distance, carrying over the Vanderbilt and Grand Trunk roads. An electric road is constructed down the bottom of the gorge on the American bank, and another along its top on the Canadian side. The water flows with occasional eddies, its color a brilliant green under the sunlight, the gorge steadily deepening, the channel narrowing, and when it pa.s.ses under the two railroad bridges, which are close together, the river begins its headlong course down the Lower Rapids leading to the Whirlpool. With the speed of an express train, the torrent runs under these bridges, tossing, foaming and rolling in huge waves, buffeting the rocks, and thus it rushes into the Whirlpool. Viewed from the bottom of the gorge alongside the torrent, the effect is almost painful, its tempestuous whirl and headlong speed having a tendency to make the observer giddy. The rus.h.i.+ng stream is elevated in the centre far above the sides, the waves in these rapids at times rising thirty feet, tossing wildly in all directions, and coming together with tremendous force. Huge rocks, fallen in earlier ages, evidently underlie the torrent. It was in these terrible rapids that several daring spirits, and notably Captain Webb in 1883, attempted, unprotected, to swim the river, and paid the penalty with their lives. More recently these rapids have been safely pa.s.sed in casks, peculiarly constructed, although the pa.s.sengers got rough usage. The Whirlpool at the end of the rapids is a most extraordinary formation. The torrent runs into an oblong pool, within an elliptical basin, the outlet being at the side through a narrow gorge not two hundred and fifty feet wide, above which the rocky walls tower for three hundred feet. Into this basin the waters rush from the rapids, their current pus.h.i.+ng to its farthest edge, and then, rebuffed by the bank of the abyss, returning in an eddy on either hand. These two great eddies steadily circle round and round, and logs coming down the rapids sometimes swim there for days before they are allowed to get to the outlet. Upon the left-hand side of this remarkable pool the eddy whirls around without obstruction, while that upon the right hand, where the outlet is, rebounds upon the incoming torrent and is thrown back in huge waves of mixed foam and green, the escaping waters finally rus.h.i.+ng out through the narrow opening, and on down more brawling rapids to the end of the deep and wonderful gorge, and thence in placid stream through the level land northward to Lake Ontario.

NIAGARA INDUSTRIES AND BATTLES.

The town of Niagara Falls, which has about seven thousand people, long had its chief source of prosperity in the influx of sight-seers, but it has recently developed into an important industrial centre through the establishment of large works utilizing the power of the falls by means of electricity. Some distance above the cataract on the American side a tunnel starts, of which the outlet is just below the American fall. This tunnel is one hundred and sixty-five feet below the river surface at the initial point, and pa.s.ses about two hundred feet beneath the town, being over a mile long. Part of the waters of the Upper Rapids are diverted to the head of the tunnel, and by falling through deep shafts upon turbine wheels the water-power is utilized for dynamos, and in this way an enormous force is obtained from the electricity, which is used in various kinds of manufacturing, for trolley roads and other purposes, some of the power being conducted to Buffalo. A similar method is to be availed of on the Canadian side. It is estimated that in various ways the Niagara Falls furnish fully four hundred thousand horse-power for industrial uses, and the amount constantly increases. The largest dynamos in the world, and the most complete electrical adaptations of power are installed at these Niagara works.

But the history of Niagara has not been always scenic and industrial.

In 1763 occurred the horrible ma.s.sacre of the ”Devil's Hole,”

alongside the gorge of the Lower Rapids, when a band of Senecas ambushed a French commissary train with an escort, the whole force but two, who escaped, being killed, while reinforcements, hurried from Lewiston at the sound of the muskets, were nearly all caught and tomahawked in a second ambush. Many of the victims were thrown alive from the cliffs into the boiling Niagara rapids, their horses and wagons being hurled down after them. There were repeated actions near Niagara in the War of 1812. In October, 1812, the battle of Queenston Heights was fought, the Americans storming the terrace and killing General Brock, the British commander, whose monument is erected there, but being finally defeated and most of them captured. There were various contests near by in 1813, and the battle of Chippewa took place above the falls on July 5, 1814, the British being defeated. On July 25th the battle of Lundy's Lane was fought just west of the falls, between sunset and midnight of a summer night, a contest with varying success and doubtful result, the noise of the conflict commingling with the roar of the cataract, and the dead of both armies being buried on the field, so that, in the words of Lossing, ”the mighty diapason of the flood was their requiem.”

”O'er Huron's wave the sun was low, The weary soldier watched the bow Fast fading from the cloud below The das.h.i.+ng of Niagara.

”And while the phantom chained his sight Ah! little thought he of the fight,-- The horrors of the dreamless night, That posted on so rapidly.”

Thus majestically wrote Mrs. Sigourney of this matchless cataract of Niagara:

”Flow on forever in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on, Unfathomed and resistless. G.o.d hath set His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him Eternally--bidding the lip of man Keep silence, and upon thine altar pour Incense of awe-struck praise. Earth fears to lift The insect trump that tells her trifling joys, Or fleeting triumphs, 'mid the peal sublime Of thy tremendous hymn. Proud Ocean shrinks Back from thy brotherhood, and all his waves Retire abashed. For he hath need to sleep, Sometimes, like a spent laborer, calling home His boisterous billows from their vexing play, To a long, dreary calm: but thy strong tide Faints not, nor e'er with failing heart forgets Its everlasting lesson, night or day.

The morning stars, that hailed Creation's birth, Heard thy hoa.r.s.e anthem mixing with their song Jehovah's name; and the dissolving fires, That wait the mandate of the day of doom To wreck the Earth, shall find it deep inscribed Upon thy rocky scroll.”

DESCENDING THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.

XIV.

DESCENDING THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.

The Great River of Canada -- Jacques Cartier -- The Great Lakes -- The Ancient Course -- The St. Lawrence Ca.n.a.ls -- Toronto -- Lake of the Thousand Islands -- Kingston -- Garden of the Great Spirit -- Clayton -- Frontenac -- Round Island -- Alexandria Bay -- Brockville -- Ogdensburg -- Prescott -- Galop, Plat and Long Sault Rapids -- Cornwall -- St. Regis -- Lake St. Francis -- Coteau, Split Rock, Cascades and Cedars Rapids -- Lake St.

Louis -- Lachine -- Caughnawaga -- Lachine Rapids -- Montreal -- St. Mary's Current -- St. Helen's Island -- Montreal Churches and Religious Houses -- Hochelaga -- First Religious Colonization -- Dauversiere and Olier -- Society of Notre Dame de Montreal -- Maisonneuve -- Mademoiselle Mance -- Marguerite Bourgeoys -- Madame de la Peltrie -- The Accommodation -- Victoria Tubular Bridge -- Seminary of St. Sulpice -- Hotel Dieu -- The Black Nuns -- The Gray Nunnery -- McGill University -- Place d'Armes -- Church of Notre Dame -- Cathedral of St.

Peter -- Notre Dame de Lourdes -- Christ Church Cathedral -- Champ de Mars -- Notre Dame de Bonsecours -- Rapids of St. Anne -- Lake of the Two Mountains -- Trappists -- Mount Royal -- Ottawa River -- Long Sault Rapids -- Thermopylae -- Louis Joseph Papineau -- Riviere aux Lievres -- The Habitan -- The Metis -- Ottawa -- Bytown -- Chaudiere Falls -- Rideau Ca.n.a.l -- Dominion Government Buildings -- Richelieu River -- Lake St. Peter -- St. Francis River -- Three Rivers -- Shawanagan Fall -- St.

Augustin -- Sillery -- Quebec -- Stadacona -- Samuel de Champlain -- Montmagny -- Laval de Montmorency -- Jesuit Missionaries -- Father Davion -- The French Gentilhomme -- Cape Diamond -- Charles Dilke -- Henry Ward Beecher -- Castle of St.

Louis -- Quebec Citadel -- Wolfe-Montcalm Monument -- General Montgomery -- Plains of Abraham -- General Wolfe -- The Basilica -- The Seminary -- English Cathedral -- Bishop Mountain -- The Ursulines -- Marie Guyart -- Montcalm's Skull -- Hotel Dieu -- Fathers Brebeuf and Lalemont and their Martyrdom -- Notre Dame des Victoires -- Dufferin Terrace -- Point Levis -- Beauport -- French Cottages -- Faith of the Habitans -- Cardinal Newman -- Falls of Montmorency -- La Bonne Sainte Anne -- Isle of Orleans -- St. Laurent and St. Pierre -- The Laurentides -- Cape Tourmente -- Bay of St. Paul -- Mount Eboulements -- Murray Bay -- Kamouraska -- Riviere du Loup -- Cacouna -- Tadousac -- Saguenay River -- Grand Discharge and Little Discharge -- Ha Ha Bay -- Chicoutimi -- Capes Trinity and Eternity -- Restigouche Region -- Micmac Indians -- Glooscap -- Lorette -- Roberval -- Lake St. John -- Montaignais Indians -- Trois Pistoles -- Rimouski -- Gaspe -- Notre Dame Mountains -- Labrador -- Grand Falls -- The Fishermen.

THE GREAT RIVER OF CANADA.

”The first time I beheld thee, beauteous stream, How pure, how smooth, how broad thy bosom heav'd!