The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-04-13
THE NIAGARA FALLS FIS J HOAX


cent scientific discovery proving that
fish ascend the 800 feet high Niagara
Falls, and that Canadian savant
has actually, by means of strong cleo
trio light and the instantaneous pro-
cess, succeeded in photographing the
fish while performing this highly
sensational feat, have been going the
round of the American Press, and, as
I see from the last home papers,
these accounts have been copied into
several English papers of standing,
who comment on the discovery as if
it were really q bona fide one As
the case of the recent great Tennes-
see lynching hoax, to which hundreds
of English papers devoted pathetic
ally wrt thful leaders before they dis
covered that there was not q shred of
truth about the whole yarn, great in
geuuity is displayed also in this in
stance in giving the story convinc,
ing seplblence of truth, an ingenuity
which, to judge by the attendant sue
cess, is able to make a good many
people believe the most absurdly i'm
possible things. 1t may amuse read
ers of the Field to peruse the "get
up" OF this yarn, and will give the
American version as it first attracted
my attention:
1t appears Ito quote the New York
Evening POST that Professor jacques
Marie Phinni, of Laval University,
Quebec, member of the National In
stitute of France and other scientific
societies, has long been puzzled how
certain fish of the saltwater species
have succeeded in getting into
the lakes above the Niagara Falls.
None of the various theories to &C
count for this circumstance, such as
the presence of subterranean channels
or of birds carrying the spawn from
the lower waters to the upper waters,
seemed to him of O. satisfactory ma
ture. His own theory that the fish
assembled the falls met with such uni
versal ridicule that he determined to
establish the truth by careful and sci
entific observations, in aid of which
the Dominion Government has grant
ed him site in Victoria Park at the
foot of the falls, upon which he has
built small hut right at the base and
almost within reach of the spray of
the great Horseshoe Fall.
The powers of lower orders of ami
NAL life, compared to man, explains
the Professor, are immense. We know
that a grasshopper can jump 100 or
more times his own leugth that q
bird, in flying lightly from tree to
tree, expends an amount of energy
wonderfully superior in proportion TO
man and that q small fish, gliding
easily and rapidly through rapids or
breaking waves, is marvel of ami
mated locOmotion. 1t is not to be
supposed, however, that fishes, even
the largest of them, are endowed with
q muscular power sufficient to oppose
and overcome a force strong enough
to crush the strongest ships, to bend
and twist the heaviest iron rods like
straws, and to toss like cockleshells
rocks weighing many tons. Their
power Is rather an adaptability to
elude the impact of the onrusbing
water. Professor Phinni, in the course
| of his observations, has made care
full study of the fight of birds, and
| reasons, from their sailing against
strong currents of air, possibility of
| fishes doing the same thing in water.
But the professor is by no means
| satisfied with the theory, no matter
| how well founded in reason. Starring
| with the wellknown ascent of the
| salmon and similar fish up falls and
rapids of smaller magnitude, he set
out to prove by the incontrovertible
| evidence of science that the same is
done by fish at the mighty cataract at
Niagara. He first studied the great
fall from his little brown-painted cab
in close to its foot, etc. Having estab-
lished his physical data, Prof. Pbinni
next turned powerful electric search
| light into the edge Of the fall itself,
and brought into use an instantaneous
camera. Fish have in this way been
seen and photographed in their APP
| proach to the base of the falls, care
| fully following certain paths or side
| currents, and then boldly entering the
mighty cataract itself, seeking des-
| truction apparently in the very Jaws
| of death. But here is shown the most
wonderful part of all, brought out
| clearly by the unfailing and unim-
| peachable aid of the photograph. The
| fish are seen to shape their course on
| the same principle as the flight of a
bird or an ice-boat against the wind,
and the professor is of the opinion that
it requires far less muscular power to
do this than would be imagined. In
making the ascent to the top, the pro-
fesSor calculates that the fish will
swim distance of at least three times
the height of the falls. Prof. Phinni's
report, after first being made to the
Laval University, will be sent by that
body with the Dominion exhibit to
the Worlds Fair at Chicago, and will,
| it is unnecessary to say, form very
remarkable demonstration of scientific
and Photographic work of the highest
order.
Knowing that such an institution
as the Laval University of Quebec
does exist, it occurred to me, on first
reading the above account, to write
there and find out whether the inge
NOUS author of this hoax bad gone
to the length of taking a name of
one of Its professors Ia vain, though,
indeed, the nature Of the name was
really enough to settle that question.
A highly amusing reply from the
director of the institution, in which,
in his caustic French, he terms the
whole story ''gigantesque plague
Americaine," proved that no such
professor is known there, but that
"great admiration is due to these in
genious Yankees, who recoil from no
impossibility in manufacturing sem
sational articles"
W. a.. BAILLIE GRoHMAN.
Victoria, British Columbia, Feb.
22d.-The Field.
A London newspaper recently