The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-03-04
DRAWN OVER FALLS
Great Sacrifice of Animal Life in
Niagara Cataract.
Birds Especially Are Victims, While
Geese, Ducks and Squirrels, Foxes
and Bears Also Meet Death in
the Settling Flood.

Ihe seeming riooo
New York.-The Niagara pitfan or
swan trap" as appropriately dubbed
ut present deservedly claims con-
siderable attention from the local
! ornithologists Of that region, and their
/ reports have always been read with
/ decided ayidity in pathological cir
/ cles. These observers, as do others
more remote. rue the fact OF this al
/ most yearly sacrifice, yet they feel
/ their heIplessness. With many birds
! and animals, it has been an ever re-
! curing phenomenon which has been
noted more or less irregularly in the
historical literature of this country.
/ These dozens or more buried notes
/ from sources not always easily aces
sible to all biologists may be OF
/ enough pertinent historical interest
/ to warrant their collection in one
article, Albert Hazen Wright says in
Forest and Stream.
The first and most extended account
is from a letter by Peter Kahn, who
wrote September 2, 1850, that several
| of the French gentlemen told me that
| when birds come flying into this fog
or smoak of the fall, they fall down
and perish in the water; either be-
cause their wings become wet. or
that the noise Of the fall astonishes
them, and they know not where to
so in the dark; but others were Of
opinion, thai seldom or never any bird
perishes there III that manner; be-
cause, as they all agree, among the
abundance of birds found dead below
the falls, there are no other sorts than
such as live and swim frequently in
the water; as swans, geese ducks,
water hens. teal and the like.
And very often great fiocks OF them
are seen going to destruction in this
manner; they swim in the river above
the fall, and so are carried down lower
and lower by the water, and as water
fowl commonly delight in being car
ried with the stream, so here they
indulge themselves in enjoying this
pleasure so long, till the swiftness of
the water becomes so great that 1t is
no longer possible for them to rise,
but they are driven down the preci-
pice and perish. They are observed
when they draw nigh the fall to en-
; deavor with all their might to take
wing and leave the water, but they
cannot. In the months of September
and October such abundant quantities
OF dead water fowl are found every
morning below the fall, on the shore.
that the garrison of the fort for a long
time live chiefly upon them; besides
the fowl they find also several sorts
of dead fish. also deer, bears and other
animals which have tried to cross the
water above the fall; the larger ami
amls are generally found broken to
pieces. -. | was told at Oswego
that in October or Whereabouts such
plenty of feathers are to be found here
below the falls, that man in a day s
time can gather enough of them for
several beds, which feathers they said
came off the birds killed at this fall.
. / asked the French if this was true.
, They told me they had never seen
+. such thing; but that if the feathers
were picked off the dead birds. there
might be such a quantity"
Toward the close of the eighteenth
century, Isaac Weld, Jr. made the
, / following observations: Having
reached the margin of the river, we
, proceeded toward the great fall, along
the strand, which for considerable
part of the way thither consists OF
horizontal beds Of limestone rock, Gov
cred with gravel, except, indeed
where great piles of stones have fallen
from the sides of the cliff. These
horizontal beds of rock, in some
] places extend very far into the river
forming points which break the force
! of the current, and occasion strong
= eddies along particular parts of the
] shore. Here great numbers of the
bodies of fishes, squirrels, foxes and
various other animals, that, unable to
stem the current of the river above
the falls, have been carried down
them and consequently killed. are
washed up. The shore Is likewise
found strewed with trees, and large
pieces of timber, that have been
. swept away from the sawmills above
: the falls and carried down the preci
|: pice. The timber is generally terribly
!: shattered, and the carcasses of al
|: the large animals, particularly of large
/; fishes, are found very much bruised
!; dreadful stencil arises from the
:: quantity of putrid matter lying on the
: shore, and numbreless birds of prey
Z: attracted by it. are always seen hover
:: ing about the places.
: These wild bears" might have beer
: ear-marked settlers swine run wild
a.; a fact of which Dewitt Clinton did
{. not apparently take cognizance wheI
: he penned the following remarks
- This island Goat was formerly thu
place where eagles erected thei
aeries, as we'll On account of its seclu
sion, as its propinQuity to the car
casses below the falls. Some year
ago a large deer was seen for two o