Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-08
GREATER THAN NIAGARA.
The Marvellous Story of Indians Regar
ing a Labrador Cataract.

Marvellous stories are related by the
few Montagnais and Nascapee Indians
who have penetrated far into the in
terror of Labrador respectinga cataract
beneath whose terrific leap Niagara
pales into insignificance. But one white
man has ever seen these falls, and the
Indians ideas of measurements and
distances are so imperfect that, even
when their stories agree, it is exceed
ingly difficult to deduce from them
anything like reliable data. An eX-
petition lately undertaken by Randle
T. Holme, F. r. G. S., and H. Duff,
fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, to
explore the interior of Labrador and
investigate these falls unfortunately
failed in its object, the explorers hav-
Ing been misled by erroneous calcula-
tons as to distance and the exact loca-
ton of the cataract and compelled to
return in consequence drumming short
of provisions. They got so near the
object of their expedition, however.
that they were enabled, from the
general configuration of the country,
to form what must be a tOlerably COR
rect estimate as to both the location
and the magnitude of the cataract.
This estimate agrees with description
of the grand falls furnished by Mac
lean, who visited them in 1859, and
whose further progress into the in-
terror was stopped by them. He
gave the width of the river Immediate
" above the falls as 1000 feet, but
saws that the cataract itself is not more
than $50 feet across. The height of
E,n =. cd Of 10
estimate is Endorsed by a halfbreed
named Kennedy, met by Messrs. Holme
and Duff in the interior, and who was
in charge of Fort Naskapee on Lake
Petchikapou. One of the chief diff
culties encountered by explorers de-
sirous of reaching the falls is the obsti-
nate refusal of the Labrador Indians
to approach them. They believe them
to be haunted and think it impossible
to look upon them and live. Kennedy
was conducted to them by an old
Indian named Louis Over the Fire,
who, being an IroquOis, did not share
the superstitious belief of the Mon
tagnais and Nascapees. Messrs. Holme
and Duff were principally misled by
the erroneous statements and calcula-
tions as to distances contained in
Professor Kinds Labrador, > the lead
ing authority upon this virtually I'M
known country. The falls are on the
Grand or PetchikapOu River, which
flows into Hamilton Inlet. They are
thirty miles above Lake WaminikapOu,
a body of water which is itself forty
miles long and situated 80 miles inland
from the mouth of the river Professor
Hind gives this lake as only 100 miles
from the mouth of the river, so that
the expedition of Messrs. Holme and
Duff has brought to light the fact that
the best works heretofore published
upon this terra inco0nita contain any,
thing but reliable data They agree,
however, with Professor Hind that the
elevation of the immense table land
which forms the interior of Labrador
is about 2,240 feet. On this height of
land are a succession of great lakes,
joined by broad, placid streams, and
when these reach the edge of the table
land they commence their wild career
to the sea. The Moisie aud Coldwater
rivers descend by successive falls, but
toward the southeast the descent from
the elevated table land is quite sudden.
This is particularly true of the Grand
River, which has drop of over two
thousand feet in thirty miles; COM
mencing with the falls and ending at
Lake Waminikapou. There is slight
rapid below the falls, but none near
the lake, and everything goes to show
that the height of the grand falls isvery
little. if anything, short of two
thousand feet. They are by a great
deal the highest falls in existence that
are composed of any great volume of
water. There are mere mountain tor
tents that fall from a greater height,
and the great fall of the Yosemite Val
ley measures 1850 feet, but tits broken
into three distinct leaps. Niagara, on
the ether hand, has height of 164 feet
only.