Stranica 83 [83]
It is a problem of nature, and like other natural problems demands the practical gathering
of many facis, of facts of many kinds, of categories of facts suggested by the tentative theories
of to-day, and of new categories of facts to be suggested by new theories.
The river sprang from a great geologic revolution, the banishment of the dynasty of cold,
and so its lifetime is a geologic epoch ; but from first to last man has been the witness of its toil,
and so its history is interwoven with the history of man. The human comrade of the river’s
youth was not, alas, a reporter with a note-book, else our present labor would be 1i eht.—
Whatever the antiquity of the great cataract may be found to be, the antiquity of man is
greater.
THE NIAGARA RIVER.
The Niagara River is part of the boundary line between the United States and Canada. so
decreed by the treaty of Ghent in 1515. By that treaty, the boundary line runs through the
center of the Great Lakes, and through the deepest channel af the rivers. By this means, over
three-fourths of the islands in the River, including all the important ones, but one. belong to
the United States. Of these islands there are in all 36, of which Grand Island is the largest and
Goat Island the most famous, In its course the river falls 336 feet, as follows: From Lake
Erie to the Rapids above the Falls, 15 feet ; in the Rapids, 55 feet ; at the Falls, 161 feet : from
Falls to Lewiston, 98 feet; from Lewiston to Lake Ontario, 7 teet. Its sources are. Laks
Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world.
Lake Superior, 335 miles long, 160 miles wide, 1030 feet deep.
oo s út ézet 260 8. 100 kt [000 aS
‘* Michigan, 320 = 70 > [000 “a
ro NSbwkeeats, 5 40 ae 15 ce 20 Tt
oon 1.290 ss 65 ss S4 f
The Falls are in latitude 43° 6” North ; longitude 2° 5” West from Washington, or 70° 5”
West from Greenwich. |
Hennepin speaks of three Falls, the third formed by the huge masses of rock situated
where Table Rock stood. These rocks were of great extent, and the water being obliged to
flow around them, formed the third Fall, and this Fall fell inward at right angles to the present
Fall. Seventy years later, 1751, this third Fall had disappeared, though still told about by
the Indians. The reason was that the big rock had been crumbled away, and the channel of
the big or center Fall, had been cut deeper, thus draining this higher channel.