The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1873-02-04
The Fate OF Niagara.

A recent number OF the Popular Science
Monthly contains an article which foreshad-
ows the fate which will overtake the great
cataract, either through the efforts OF nature
or OF man. In either case, it would appear,
the falls are doomed. Natural agencies,
however, act 90 slowly, though surely, in
this direction that tens OF thousands oil
wears must eapse before this method oi
destruction OF Niagara is accomplished; but
artificial means may affect the same object
in far shorter time. Already man has ex-
erted his power over the cataract to such an
extent that, according to the learned pro-
fessor who wrote the article, every summer
minute diverts to bis uses tiity-two thousand
cubic feet OF water which belong 10 II.
Though this is mere drop In the bucket
compared with the uinety-eight hundred
cubic miles OF water-nearly half the fresh
water on the globe-which plunges over
Niagara Falls at the rate OF eighteen million
cubic feet minute, 1t is capable of indeh-
mite increase. The volume OF water now
changed from the course of the cataract by
human agency Is inappreciable In inhuenc-
ing its character or progress, but 1t plainly
foresbadows the future OF the falls. When
the acres bordering on the upper lakes are
fully subjected to human power, when the
forests are levelled, and the fields ploughed,
these great sheets of water will furnish high
ways to the ocean. That there will before
many years be canal from Lake Michigan
to the Illinois, to bear ships laden for Eu-
ropean marts, and another from Lake Erie
to Lake Ontario, is, as the writer suggests,
likely enough. In this way the floods OF
Niagara River will cease to give grandeur
and impressiveness to the falls. There will
then be mere struggling stream to run
over The precipice where Niagara now thun-
ders, unless, indeed, the precipice itself is
levelled by human agency.
This condition OF things has, OF course,
its sentimental az we'll as utllitarian side.
We have become 80 accustomed to the
grandeur OF the falls, and to the belief In
their ennobling influences. that the idea of
turning them to practical uses seems almost
sacrilege. To use Niagara to turn mill
was long ago ridiculed by one OF our poets
as the last resort OF grovelling utilitarian-
ism. We all sympatbize to some extent
with this feeling, and it is only when the
grandeur OF human achievement is COM
mensurate with the sacrifice OF 80 much nat
ural grandeur that we become reconciled to
it. To dam up the laundering torrent OF Nj
agara River by human agency might seem
preposterous. Yet it is claimed that bar
rier fifteen feet high, stretching across the
plateau at the head OF the rapids, would
throw the river back on Lake Erie, and
such a barrier fifty feet high would hold
back the waters Of Lake Michigan. Geolo-
gists like Hall and Lyell have prepared US
for The future Of the falls, as judged by their
past experience. Thus fur the movement
of the cataract southwark over the shale
which lies at its base and forms the lower
part OF it's precipice, has had the effect to re-
duce it's height at the rate OF thirty-aVe feet
for every mile. Two miles more will bring
if beyond the head OF the rapids, when the
entire precipice, being OF limestone, will
wear away faster at the top than at the bot
tom, "and the great Niagara-only hun
''dred feet high now-will dwindle away into
ga succession OF cascades ard rapids" Pro.
iessor Cunning thinks, however, that this
result, owing to change ia the course OF
the river, will not be reached for more than
eighty thousand years by the main fall, pro-
vided natures operations are not interfered
with; but he anticipates, as we have seen,
the destruction OF the cataract in the inter-
ests OF commerce and by the hand OF man.