The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-07-01
Niagara Runs Dry.

Under date of Hamilton, Ont, June 9,
Right Rev. Bishop Fuller writes to the
Chicago Tribune as follows
In the month of March last I delivered
in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, a lecture
entitled upper Canada as it Was Fifty
Years Ago, and Ontario as it Now Is; !"
and in the course of my lecture I spoke
of the great difficulty of constructing the
International Bridge between Buffalo and
the Canada side opposite to that city on
account of the great current Of water
running at times down the Niagara River,
where the waters are driven by strong
westerly winds down Lake Erie, whereas
the quantity of water running down the
river is very much diminished when the
winds drive up Lake Erie. I then re-
marked Z" This fact caused an event,
thirty-two years ago this month, of which
probably very few of you have ever heard
l refer to the time when the Falls of
Niagara were dry for a whole day! That
day was the 31st of March, 1848. I did
not witness it myself, but I was told of it
the next day by my late brother-in-law,
Thomas G. Street, ESQ.,, M. P. Happen
ing to go out to his place the next day,
he told me that his miller (for he has
grist mill on the rapids above the Falls)
knocked at his bedroom door about five
o'clock in the morning of that day, and
told him to get up, as there was no water
In the mill race, and no water In the
great river outside the mill race. He
said he was startled at the intelligence
and hurried out as soon as he could dress
himself, and then saw the river, on the
edge of which he had been born thirty
four years before, dry. After a hurried
breakfast, he and his youngest daughter
(then unmarried) went down about three
quarters of q mile to the precipice itself,
over which there was so little water run
ming that, having provided himself with
strong pole, they started from Table
Rock and walked near the edge of the
precipice about one-third of the way to
Goat Island, on the American shore, and
having stuck this pole in crevice of the
rock, and Miss Street having tied her
pocket handkerchief firmly to the top of
the pole, they returned. He said he then
turned his view towards the river below the
Falls, and saw the water 80 shallow that
immense jagged rocks stood up in such a
frightful manner that he shuddered when
he thought of his having frequently pass
ed over them in the little Maid of the
Mist Gas often had done).
"He then returned toward home and
drove from the Canadian shore some one
half mile above the Falls toward Goat
Island When he told me this ne re-
preached himself very much for not
having sent out for me about eight miles
distant, but he said that, though he had
several times intended to do so, he had
each time concluded not to do it, lest be-
fore he could reach the wonderful scene
the waters should have returned to their
old courses. OF course, everybody was
speaking of the wonderful event when I
was out there the next day, and have
heard others who witnessed it speak of it
since that time
So far can testify to the evidence of
the fact at the time of its occurrence.
Mr.. Streets theory was this That the
winds had been blowing down Lake Erie,
which is only about thirty feet deep, and
rushing great deal of the water from it
over the Falls, and suddenly changed and
blew this little water Comparatively
speaking) up to the western portion of
the lake /; and that at this juncture the
ice on Lake Erie, which had been broken
up by these high winds, got jammed in
the river between Buffalo and the Can
ada side and formed dam which kept
back the waters of Lake Erie a whole