Aug. 3, 1883.] 



► KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



73 



and the Whirlpool, the Whirlpool Rapids being those just 

 above the Whirlpool itself. Fig. 2 shows in section, enor- 

 mously exaggerated vertically, the descent from Lake Huron 

 to Lake Ontario, — the River Niagara (Falls, Rapids, Whirl- 

 pool, and the quieter parts) being all compressed in this 

 figure in the narrow space shown between Lake Erie and 

 Lake Ontario. 



Niagara is wonderful in this that here we have brought 

 before us within a limited space the action of forces 

 usually at work over a far wider area. In comparison 

 with the forces of Nature actually at work in the earth, 

 even during a single hour, the work done at Niagara in 

 many years is almost as nothing. A small quantity of the 

 waters gathered from the higher regions of a small portion 

 of Northern America finds here an outlet, and passes from 

 a level^ of no great height, by comparison with the 

 elevation of even the smallest mountain ranges, to 

 a height still considerably above the sea-level. Yet 



thence to solar forces before which tlie whole might of earth 

 is as nothing, and onwards to the starry depths wliere 

 every point of light is such a sun as ours, until in the 

 black darkness which hides from our eyes the real glories 

 of the universe we recognise the mystery of Infinite ilight 

 unknown and unknowable : Lo ! these are but a portion 

 of God's ways : they utter but a whisper of His glory ; 

 the thunder of His power who can understand 'i 



Professor Tyndall writes as follows in the Daily ^eio» : 

 — " The ' rapids ' proper of Niagara occur above the fall, 

 where for a mile or so the water comes galloping and 

 tumbling down before it.takes its final leap over the ledge 

 of the cataract. Below the cataract the river flows through 

 a deep gorge, which has been excavated by the river. At 

 some distance down there is a ferry between the American 

 and the Canadian sides. Lower still is a suspension bridge 

 for foot passengers, while about two miles below the fall 



Hypotenuse of the Trian^lelSOOl^esZon^ 



Section froTTh Tide Waler to LaJccBicroTh 



Fig. 2.— WATER SLOPE FROM LAKE HURON TO THE SEA. 



because the range of distance within which the 

 descent is accomplished is small, we have a display 

 of nature's energies which impresses, even appals, the 

 thoughtful mind, by presenting concrete e%-idence of 

 the action of a force of whose might we have usually 

 but abstract indications. To shallow minds Niagara is 

 naturally disappointing, because they cannot even liegin to 

 comprehend its significance. To a dull mind the Atlantic 

 and the Andes, the earthquake and the hurricane, are 

 disappointing, — impressing it little more than they would 

 impress a horse or a dog. But the mind which knows 

 something of the language in whicli Niagara speaks, finds 

 awful, almost oppressive, teaching in the thought that 

 this work which goes on amid deafening uproar and 

 confusing tumult represents not a millionth part of 

 the energies residing in terrestrial gravity, — the force 

 which our mother earth ordinarily uses as if but 

 in play. Here its grim might is seen, and all the 

 more impressively since we know that while it is 

 but the merest nothing of the earth's force which is at 

 work before us, yet we are overwhelmed by its vehemence, 

 powerless in its presence. ^^'hen the real energies of 

 Niagara have been recognised, and the relation between 

 these energies and the might of terrestrial gravity is 

 understood, the mind must needs bo awed, even oppressed, 

 by the stupendous significance of Niagara. We pass from 

 the grandeur of the scene displayed before us to the infi- 

 nitely mightier terrestrial energies of which it speaks. 



the river is spanned by the railway suspension bridge. 

 Between the ferry and this bridge, the river Niagara 

 flows unruffled, but below the suspension bridge the 

 gorge narrows, and the rapidity and turbulence of the 

 water increase. For a certain distance the width can 

 hardly be more than three hundred feet ; and here 

 occur what are called the ' Whirlpool Rapids,' which are 

 not to be confounded with the rapids above the fall. It 

 was through the Whirlpool Rapids that poor Captain 

 Webb had to steer his way. It is impossible to describe 

 the wild fury of the waters at this place. I send for your 

 inspection a photograph by Bierstadt, which will give you 

 some notion of it. The river boils and leaps in the most 

 frantic manner, the most extraordinary effect being pro- 

 duced when two waves so coalesce that the united forces 

 of both run on and toss the crest of the compounded 

 billow, shivered into liquid spherules, high in air. In the 

 middle of the river no man could live, and we are informed 

 that Captain Webb avoided the middle. But the tossing 

 everywhere is terrific. Lower down the river suddenly liends 

 nearly at a right angle, and here is formed the whirlpool 

 from which the Lower Rapids derive their name. The river 

 strikes the bank opposed to it with tremendous force, and 

 is thereby thrown into gyratory motion. Here, it is said. 

 Captain Webb lost liis life. I do not think a powerful 

 swimmer, with his wits about him, need have come to grief 

 in the Whirlpool itself. But how any man could have 

 kept his senses intact amid the battering and tossing of the 



