Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-20
NIAGARA FALLS.
A Startling Story-The Great Catar-
act Undermined.
Are thcFaIls to be Washed Away
Peril Of the Great Lake Regional
Scientific Commission from the
United states and Canada Called
For.
pecial Cor. Of the Chicago Journal.l

/ great cataract. 1t has been created by
a story SO startling and serious, and yet
SO well based that avoid the ponderous
porticos of phrase and paraphrase with
which trained newsmongers open the
budgets of their commodity. ! come at
once to the subject, and give your read
ers what some of them may term ro-
nance, the idle tale of some mischievous
guide, conceived to tickle the itching ears
of tourists. But Baptiste Williams is no
such man. Visitors at the Canada side
of the great cataract have for twenty-five
years past known this, the most singular
representative of the peculiar parasitic
class of humanity the great cataract at
taches to itself. Williams is grave,
taciturn man, with French and Indian
blood in his veins, and bearing almost
unimpaired, amid the rush and hustle
of this century, the same composition
of spirit and nerve, energy and cooinesss,
that led the early movement OF French
Jesuits and men-at-arms among the wilds
| of New France two hundred years ago.
Williams has been solitary man for
twelve years and the occupant of soli-
tary cabin not far from the river bank,
midway between the Clifton House and
the springs. He does not press among
strangers nor press his stories upon
them. His quiet gray eyes never CLEAN
expectant for quarters. He leaves all
that to crowd he despises and with
whom he never mingles. The rabble of
lousy fellows who annoy the visitors to
the falls with their pertinacity, fall to the
rear when the gray-coated, wiry little old
man is seen to be in conversation with
some fortunate party who are never
weary with his quiet and well drawn
funds of information. Such is Baptiste
Williams, of whom Cooper would have
made true hero with Leather Stockings
and Long Tom Coffin. And now for
what Williams has to tell and he is not
responsible, let me say, for the statement
\ in this form. On the contrary, news
papers and newspaper Representatives are
! his dread and abomination. Indeed on
this very theme he is sore, for his theory,
| and its sustaining facts, is not new one
Many of your readers will remember
some seasons ago that report, that al
most Immediately took rank with the
Seneca lake snake marvel OF the same
| season, had its run in the papers, to the
effect that the falls were undermined,
and in manner that might any year
bring decided catastrophe. In a Lock
port paper at that time full details were
given, and Baptiste Williams name,
greatly to his disgust, connected with
the promulgation. 1t brought him into
fierce eddy of ridicule and denial, and
sent many up to his cabin to ask perticu-
lars with a zeal that almost converted
him into hedgehog for some seasons.
One thing was noticeable, the old man
stuck to the story, which gained its first
fight among rumors, when the great
change took place in the line of the
Horseshoe Fall by the breaking down OF
large area of the firm but thin and
illy-supported stone that forms the break
and bed of the cataract.
There are now apparent proofs the
most incredulous cannot ignore, that
what Williams at that time advanced as
to the true condition of the cataract are
right, and jeering will not throw dust in
the eyes Of science or even of common
sense on this point And first, what is
the Niagara barrier but vast dam con-
fning and retaining the level Of the wa
ters of the vast inland seas that are vital
to the climate and the commerce OF the
great heart of the continent. Without
these it would be a desert waste, mac
cessible and undesirable Andyet upon
the wards of how slender key hang the
vast climatic influences that have so
much to do with the destiny of untold
millions. Are the Indications true that
the barrier set by the Almighty in the
Niagara river, and which has in the wear
of the slow centuries been receding up
the stream, steadily wearing away its
own tenure, has already begun to develop
the beginning of the end? The records
of this mighty retreat, this steady, i'm
pairing conflict of water against walled
rocks, are written ON the tall pages of the
cliffs that for miles below the falls line
the river. Is there crisis at hand,
likely 10 be realized within the period of
q few Years; possible of realization in the
tense tt.multdous thr99es any season may
developP is what ! haye set myself To
consider.
Science long ago asserted that the re-
PROCESSION of the falls was due to the
friable and treacherous support of the
overlying Niagara limestone, by the |
crumbling and loose shales that build up |
its foundations from beneath. The
startling theory now forcing its truth
upon careful observers is that through |
this loose and friable mass the mighty |
current has now cut its way from above |
the falls, at some point where the lime
stone fails or offers a break AT this
point, three miles above Goat Island and
nearer the Canada side, whirling eddy, |
several seasons ago, began to make its |
appearance, increasing visibly each
year, until it now at times presents tea- /
lures that bid fair to rival the other mar
vels of this region, with the dismal sug-
gestion of doom, indeed, for some of
them. This whirlpool, which ! visited
two days ago with Williams, gazing upon
ii with awe from the nearest adjacent
bank, already presents vast dimensions,
and receives, evidently, no inconsider-
able share of the volume Of the river.
Nor is it alone by watching the wild
swirl OF the seething waters that this is
discernable, for each year has diminished
the available accessible points Of lnte-
rest under the sheet, proving that rag
ing torrent, with inconceiyable power
and volume, is pouring beneath the falls
from the river above. ! am myself not
so unskilled by virtue Of frequent visits
10 the wonders behind the mighty cur
tain of the cataract, that fail to see
that this change has taken place, and as
the face Of the wall is torn away below,
the thin superintendent rock fall,
piecemeal from above so rapidly that
even the dullest observers are startled TO
see the line Of the break Of the waters
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