Niagara Falls 



1902 supposed that he had tried to walk the cable at night, with his 

 m ap boots on, while intoxicated. 



Not discouraged by Peere's fate, Samuel John Dixon, of 

 Toronto, made two trips across the same narrow path of steel. 



Clifford M. Calverley, James E. Hardy and J. F. Jenkins 

 have also crossings of the gorge to their credit. Hardy is said 

 to have been the youngest man to perform the feat; while Jenkins 

 crossed on a velocipede arrangement, his balance-pole being 

 carried under his feet. 



It is hard to tell whether those who have done wonderful 

 things in the air or those who have sought fame in the water have 

 created the greater sensation at Niagara. It is not recorded that 

 anybody has ever lost his life walking across the gorge on a rope 

 or wire, for Peere's death was more in the nature of a tumble from 

 the cliff, but many lives have been lost in braving the tumultuous 

 waters of the canon of Niagara. The lower Niagara River was 

 generally believed to be unnavigable between the Falls and Lewis- 

 ton until 1861. The steamer "Maid of the Mist" was then 

 heavily mortgaged, and Captain Robinson reckoned he wasn't 

 going to have her tied up, if running her to a Canadian port could 

 avert it. Accordingly, on the afternoon of June 6th, with only 

 his two associates Maclntyre and Jones aboard, Robinson gave 

 the signal to go ahead, but to the surprise of those who saw the 

 boat her bow was directed right toward the rapids instead of 

 toward the falls. Under full steam the little steamer sped down 

 the river and dashed into the waves. She plunged through the 

 rolling whitecaps with a rush, but lost her smokestack as the huge 

 waves swept her deck. The voyage was fierce, but short, and 

 in a few minutes the boat was in the whirlpool. She answered 

 to her rudder, and turning her nose out of the outlet, Robinson 

 soon had her speeding toward the peaceful waters five miles 

 below. Practically uninjured, the boat landed at the wharf at 

 Queenston, and Robinson was a hero. 



Nearly a quarter of a century passed before a human being 

 again voluntarily defied the fury of the Whirlpool Rapids, and 



420 



