Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-20
MEMPHIS TENN: SATURDAY EVENING AUGUST 20 1870

whirlpool above vast torrent has cut III
way down shorter slope through thu
bed of the Niagara, and this seems unde
niable, how long can this wear and wasl
go on without bringing its results Il
end, where no man can say? A few
facts as to the actuality and distinctnesi
of the torrent. At Chippewa, the great
lumber mill of the Dalrymple Brothers, a
the foot of Spencer street, occupies q
large dockage front They are large
dealers in lumber. By the giving way
Of an overloaded pier one night early in
May last, many thousand stave bolts
were thrown into the stream. These
slaves hoated in mass directly down
into the new whirlpool and were seen in
clashing multitude the next day whirl-
ing and swinging in circles gradually
narrowing to the suck" These slaves
came out below the falls, and Williams
and others who hold this theory Of the
now subterranean channel watched
them in this precise view, and too care
fully not to be able to assert that they
did not 90 orer the falls.
Now, If all this be true, whatis to come
of it? To the point where Niagara river
shadows into angry rapids, it is of great
depth. The cataract is natural dam.
If it is now, indeed, assaulted by a
treacherous and irresistible agency ofde-
struction, who can estimate its possible,
not to say its inevitable, effects. With
the barrier torn away and the rent chan
mel of Niagara left a ragged and dis
rupted waterway, what must result but
that the level of the lakes must be eff
fected, to the exact and perilous extent
foreshadoyed. Lower Lake Erie sixty
feet, what becomes of Buffalo, Cleveland
and their Lake Erie sister cities. | have
not at hand the data of soundings on the
great lakes, and have only the informa-
ton of an intelligent captain, who, with
all the stout incredulity of his class,
scouts the whole idea, but gives me
enough of shore soundings to assure me
that all lake cities will be left from ten
to fifteen miles inland by any such drain
of the lakes as that too distinctly fore
shadowed in what ! have written. At
Chicago last year / heard something
about one of your railroad companies
grasping at the lake front. How would
this change effect their riparian ambi-
ton, and, ON the whole, where would
your lake tnnnel be? But the subject is
too grave for levity. ao lt
Yet is it to be asserted that there are
no further vast changes to go on upon
the surface of this earth of ours, scored
all over as it is with the proofs of mighty
vicissitudes that have been the conflict
of ages2 How many places does the eye
of science, not to say the mere casual
observer, discover in the conformations
of the level meads and their outlying in
closing slopes, the record of some lake
or sea ages ago inclosed that the dry end
might appear? In how many places can
the geologist actually locate the mined
gateways in the creyiced hills or torn
cliffs that we're unlocked when the flood
went forth? Is there anything in the
possible disruption of this mighty barrier
in the Niagara river Inconsistent with
the agencies that have been shaping the
earth2 - tr
/ am glad that the facts have thus
crudely noted are now being studied by
eyes more skillful than my own. There
are among the guests at the Clifton, Dr.
Arthur Shelton Mackway, professor of
physics, in the Nassau University at
Montreal, and the distinguished Prot.
John Williams Frisbie, +. r. s., of the
Glasgow school of Technology, the latter
of whom, i feel sure, your citizens in at
tendance upon the sessions of the Ameri-
can association for the advancement of
science in your city will remember. Both
are deeply erudite men, and in position
to make their researches valuable. They
contemplate, believe, arranging for the
construction of large number of wood
en- and iron floats sufficiently marked in
color and character to serve the purpose
of testing direct connection between
the whirlpool and the river below the
falls. Their preparations are already
a marvel among the gossps. A
Buffalo journalistic wiseacre the
other day announced them as a
new description of torpedo, which
indeed some of them resemble. Baptiste
Williams and a select crew 60 up the |
river in a few days TO launch the floats
and give them a direction toward the |
while keen eyes will watch |
the river surface above and below the |
cataract, and the world will hear the re-
suit, though it is likely scientific com
mission from the United States and
Canada will be called into existence at
some stage in the investigation. ai
~ JUNIUs.
The Chicago journal, in which the
above appears, says.
For light summer reading we COM
mend to our readers our letter from
Niagara Falls in this issue, with the
strict injunction, however, that they do
not believe one word of it, either as to
personnel or position 1t is an instance
where writer has obviously drawn on
his imagination so entirely for his facts
hat he has achieved an absence of dis
.ortion and peryeEsiop atupth altogether
,n66mmo,, In tourists letters
Plight with N Sen Monster.