270 



Mr. Thomas Commerford Martin 



[Jnne 19, 



Fall, of 74 inches, and of 



the Horse Shoe, of 2 • 18 feet, would probably 

 have been much greater 

 had the water been less 

 limpid. 



TheroaroftheFalls, 

 which can be heard for 

 many miles, has a deep 

 note, four octaves lower 

 than the scale of the or- 

 dinary piano. The fall 

 of such an immense body 

 of water causes a very 

 perceptible tremor of the 

 ground throughout the 

 vicinity. The existence 

 of the Falls is also in- 

 dicated by huge clouds 

 of mist which, rising 

 above the rainbows, 

 tower sometimes a mile 

 in air before breaking 

 away. 



It was Mr. Thomas 

 Evershed, an American 

 civil engineer, who un- 

 folded the plan of divert- 

 ing part of the stream at 

 a considerable distance 

 above the Falls, so that 

 no natural beauty would 

 be interfered with, while 

 an enormous amount of 

 power would be obtained 

 with a very slight reduc- 

 tion in the volume of 

 the stream at the crest 

 of the Falls. Essenti- 

 ally scientific and cor- 

 rect as the plan now 

 shows itself to be, it 

 found prompt criticism 

 and condemnation, but 

 not less quickly did 

 it rally the able and 

 influential support of 

 Messrs. W. B. Rankin e, 

 Francis Lynde Stetson, 

 Edward A. Wickes, and 



