i68 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



(Abstract. 



NIAGARA'S WATER POWER. 



By B. M. Ricketts, Ph. B., M. D. 



Read January 3, 1S93. 



Niagara is in latitude 43 degrees, 16 seconds North; longi- 

 tude 2 degrees and 5 seconds West from Washington, or 79 

 degrees and 5 seconds West from Greenwich. 



The word Niagara is of Indian origin, borrowed from the 

 language of the Iroquois, and means the " Thunder of Waters." 

 There are five gorges of about equal depth, width and length 

 within a radius of thirty miles of Niagara River (all to the 

 West) showing that the river's course had as many times been 

 changed. There is a possibility of there having been three 

 separate falls, one above the other, when the falls first began 

 to recede. 



Over Niagara pour 58,000 barrels of water per second ; 

 3,480,000 per minute ; 208,800,000 per hour. Its sources are 

 Lake Erie, 290 miles long, 65 miles wide, 210 feet deep ; Lake 

 Superior, 355 miles long, 160 miles wide, 1,000 feet deep; 

 Lake Huron, 260 miles long, 100 miles wide, 1,000 feet deep; 

 Lake Michigan, 320 miles long, 70 miles wide, 1,000 feet deep; 

 Lake St. Clair, 49 miles long, 15 miles wide, 20 feet deep. 



These lakes are the receptacle of all the surface water ex- 

 tending over 150,000 square miles, almost one-half of the con- 

 tinent. With such a .supply the waterfall at Niagara is never 

 noticeably diminished ; hence the inducements offered to 

 capitalists to utili/.e this immense waterfall for manufactur- 

 ing purposes. 



The first method of utilizing the water-power at Niagara 

 on a large scale was by the old hydraulic canal, which com- 

 menced on the shore of the river above the falls, extending 

 about three-quarters of a mile to its discharge place on the 



