Niagara Falls 



1908 in the drainage areas of the Great Lakes. This conservation 

 Randolph ca jj s f or international co-operation. In these lakes we have our 

 seasons of surplus water and our seasons of deficient flow. The 

 surplus is allowed to run to waste and when the low period comes 

 there is no relief. These lakes are capable of storing all of the 

 surplus waters and it is for man to build the works which will 

 bring that capability into play. . . . 



The author goes on to advocate the construction of controlling works 

 at the head of the St. Mary's river and at the head of the Niagara river 

 which would make possible absolute control of the waters so that there 

 would be no low stage and constant mean flow could be maintained. 



1908 Review of article of J. W. Spencer — " The Spoliation of the Falls 



of Niagara." (Nature, Nov. 5, 1908. 79:18.) 



This article of Dr. Spencer's appears in the Popular Science Monthly 

 for October, 1 908. 



The spoliation of the Falls of Niagara, on account of the 

 abstraction of water for electrical and other works, forms the 

 subject of an exceedingly interesting article in the October num- 

 ber of the Popular Science Monthly, by Dr. J. W. Spencer, who 

 has devoted much attention to the study of rivers generally. After 

 referring in more or less detail to the various power-stations con- 

 nected with Niagara, the author notes the very great lowering 

 of the water-level above the falls as the result of this tapping. 

 As an' example of the enormous amount of water taken by these 

 works, it is stated that when in June last a single company 

 temporarily stopped its take of 8,000 cubic feet per second, the 

 water in the basin rose no less than 6 inches, and at the edge of 

 the American Falls 1 -2 inches. ' The preservation of the falls," 

 continues Dr. Spencer, " is now a question of inches. Under the 

 conditions as set forth (i. e. as regards further tapping) the whole 

 of the Horseshoe Falls will have shrunken from a crest-line 

 of 2,950 feet to 1 ,600 feet, and their diameter will have been 

 reduced from 1,200 to 800 feet. They will then be entirely 

 within Canadian territory, as the boundary line will become 



1152 



