St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-01-30
NIAGARA NEVER WAS DRY.
Old Residents Say the Current Story II
Not True.

Old Residents Say the Current Story Is
Not True.
The talk about the successful trans
mission of Niagara power to Buffalo, 20
miles from the great cataract, has res
falls ran dry" It is now going the
rounds of the press, and the writer de-
picts with remarkable detail the ap-
pearance of the falls and bed of the
river above and below the fails, and re-
lates many wonderful incidents in con-
nection. He says:
When, from the remotest ages and
until few hours before my visit had
rolled and tossed and tumbled those
awful rapids, there were now to be
seen only great masses of rocks and
powders, between which trickled little
streams of water, none of them larger
than a tiny woodland trout stream"
The writer also tells of people cross
ing on foot and with horses and car
riages the dry bed Of the river, and
says that there was no water below the
falls, a most impossible occurrence.
He says all this occurred in the latter
part of March, 1s4s.
The best authority to be obtained in
this city-the oldest living inhabit-
ants-say that the falls have not run
dry within their recollection, says a
Niagara Falls correspondent. Maj.
Solon NJ. N. Whitney, the Oldest living
resident of this city, and the discover
er of the Cave of Winds go years ago,
in discussing the matter, said:
"I well remember the time that the
story refers to, and I was one Of the
first to notice the fall of water in the
river. know it was April I, because
when I related the fact to others on that
day they thought it was an AL Fools
day joke. It was early in the morn
ing of April that the water began
to reeede, and in short time many
rocks appeared above the surface that
had never been seen before. The Amer
lean fall, / think, was the lowest it
has been, though it was very far from
being dry. The Horseshoe fall was low,
but of enormous volume just the same.
The statement that has been some
times made that ladies drove In car
riages two-thirds of the way across the
river is false. There was no lady who
would have done such thing. Ladies
were ti1nid those days.
The cause of the water getting so
low, remember, was an ice jam up the
river somewhere near Buffalo.
'sNow, about where the falls ran dry.
Ii you walk to the head of Goat island
you will notice that for. several hundred
feet from the shore up the river the
bottom of the river is very close to the
surface. Tt is a ledge of rock which
extends out toward the Canadian shore
to a point beyond the Third Sister
island. When the water got to its
lowest point OH that day this ledge of
rocks was completely dry, and man
named Hamlin drove across the Goat
island bridge and up to the head Of the
island, and from there was able to
drive on this rock across to the Third
Sister island and back. The water had
stopped flowing between Goat island
and the Three Sister islands entirely,
and it was nothing but black rock. This
is the nearest to the falls ever running
dry. The water at the point mentioned
Is always shallow, and ct times the
rock shows itself now, but never SO
much as ON the date referred to. AS
to the American falls, there was lots of
water passing over it at the time re-
ferred to, but not SO much as under
ordinary head. Table Rock was well