River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-11-27

where it makes the leap is ALSO feet.
including the island. The height of
the falls varies between 164 feet on the
American to $50 feet on the Canadian
bank The volume of the waters is
calculated at 100000 cubic feet per
minute, the solid sheet that pours
over the edge of the abyss being 20
feet thick. The Iguazu forms the
northern boundary between the Ar
gentine territory of Misiones and the
Brazils. Although it's main course is
directed due east to west, the river
bed is subject to many windings on
account of the broken country which
is it's watershed. Thus, at - miles dis
! tant from the Alto Parana, where the
falls occur, it gives a sudden turn al
most at right angles. The height down
which the waters flow is slightly over
22O feet, represented, save in the Bra
lillian pit, by a double cliff whose CEN
trail platform is sometimes over hun
bred yards, sometimes but few feet
in width. The edge of the upper cliff
is broken by numerous rocky islets,
most of which disappear from view
when the river rises. Such floods come
with a sudden capriciOusness after the
torrential dOwnpours to which that
tropic land is subject. Thus, while the
ordinary volume of the falls is infinite
ly less than that of Niagara, the river
just above it's descent, where the width
is about a mile and a half, is liable to
rise from six to ten feet. This addi-
tional flood is afterwards gathered
into the gorge below, whose narrow
neck is but 600 feet wide, with a height
of perhaps some 400 feet. As a con-
sequence the measured distance be-
tween high and low water at this point
is over 100 feet. In the same way the
waters of Niagara are concentrated be-
low their fall into One-quarter of
their former width. The deep ravine
that confines them has in both cases
been worn by the tremendous impact
of the higher cataract, which, as it
eats into the rocky bed, will of neces-
sity narrow in time the broad reaches
above the falls to the semblance of
the straight gorge below.
The ground on each side facing and,
so to speak, the property of the falls
of Iguazu, includes in its broken con-
tours an area of two or three square
miles, which is intersected by numer-
Gus baclwaters and tributary streams.
Thus our first glimpse of the long
looked-for falls may be perhaps a dis
appointing one. But as we pass on
to the vantage spots from which the
picture may be taken in some measure
of its fulness this feeling quickly
passes, never to return. We are wan
dering in fairyland, and, had we only
time to linger and explore its re-
cesses, we might each day discover
some new charm, some unexpected
beauty, apart, complete in itself, and
yet forming but fraction of the be-
wildering whole. Whether the rough
black cliffs are yelled in a long sheet
of foam. and the misty wreath. struck
to pillar of fame by the rising sun,
proclaims how Nature lavishes her
wonders all UNDECIDED if man be there
to witness, or only the silent woods;
or whether the river, starved in its
far-off affiuents, shrinks as it makes
the leap into myriad cascades garland
ed with tropic growth of more than
feminine witchery-its power will be
the same. W. S. BARCLAY.