Evening star., 1936-03-22
Waterfalls Threatened
By Machine Age
BY Frederic ]. Haskir.

instantly mention Niagara. While
Niagara is very respectable waterfall,
it is dwarf beside the greatest. The
vast stream of the Horseshoe Falls at
Niagara leaps 155 feet to the rocks below,
but the highest great waterfall in the
world leaps 629 feet. 1t is the Gersoppa
Falls, in Southern India. Merely its
spray rises as high as Niagara.
To be sure, America can show water
fall OF greater height, but it is not the
fall OF great river. Yosemite Falls, in
Callfornla, plunge over ,430-foot preci-
plce to one level, the cataract then DASH
ing forward few hundred yards and
then plunging again 300 feet. But that
merely is the fall of Yosemite Greek.
Such waterfall, while spectacular, is
not to be compared with Niagara, over
which the waters of the Great Lakes
pour, nor with Gersoppa, which drops
the broad waters of the Sharavati River,
mighty stream on the borders of the
Mysore State
Mankind has always evinced a tire.
mendous interest in waterfalls. Early
man must have stood in awe of these
tremendous natural phenomena. In
deed, most waterfalls, even some of the
lesser ones, have had their own pre-
siding deities. Later, with the advance
OF civilization, men came to worship
waterfalls in a different sense-not as
gods but as things of marvellous and
awe-inspiring beauty. A final stage has
been reached with a further advance of
civilization, and man now looks upon
these magnificent spectacles as potential
sources of power.
The Machine Age is encroaching upon
the waterfalls of the world with aston
ishing rapidity. Already Niagara Falls
have been bereft of much of their beauty.
The waters still dash in dangerous VOL
ume over the cliff, but much of the
scenic beauty has been impaired by the
nearby presence of machinery and the
trappings of mechanical power, which
have beauty only for the engineer. The
Niagara which the Indians knew and the
Niagara which the first honeymooners
saw is no more. Fully one-quarter of
the flow has been diverted to commercial
uses and, of course, the end is not yet.
*
But even three-quarters of a water
fall such as Niagara continues a world
wonder. Other cataracts have Jared less
well. The Rjukanfoss once upon time
was a waterfall in Norway, which
travellers journeyed far to see Today
they cannot see it at all. 1t no longer is
visible. The entire falls have been en-
cased in hideous hydroelectric piping.
The same fate is overtaking many other
scenic falls of great beauty in Norway.
The waterfalls of Italy are not so
famous as some of the other great ones
of the world, but many beautiful water
leap in the ApennineS has been destroyed
for scenic purposes by the advance of
the Machine Age. The same is true in
some places in Spain, in France, in Ger
many. No longer will poets celebrate
the Terni Falls, in Italy. Samuel Taylor
Coleridge once declared the cataract Of
Foyers Falls, in Scotland, to be one Of
the five finest things in that extremely
scenic country. Could he see it now he
would withdraw his estimate, for it has
been devoured by the Machine Age. The
Shoshone Falls, in this country, have
practically disappeared before the neces-
sity of turning an Idaho desert into
tillable land. Almost innumerable in
stances could be cited in many parts
of the world.
There is no doubt that many benefits
accrue to the populations of cities, and,
indeed. of rural regions, by the COM
mercialization of these great waterfalls.
Electric current rates have, in some cases,
been reduced by the harnessing of great
cataracts But it has been suggested
that regulatory bodies. such as the Fed
eral Power Commission in the United
States, might. conceivably. in connection
with granting permits of exploitation, lay
down provisions that everything possible
be done to conceal the mechanical as
poets of power plants and preserve scenic
beauty. 1t might be possible to provide
that only part of the waters Of fall
could be diverted to commercial use.
There are some waterfalls in the world
which will defy the engineer and the
exploiter for many long year. perhaps
forever, so far as that term can have any
thinkable meaning. They are too large
to be conquered. The very power which
engineers and company promoters might
covet might prove their own protection,
that and the practically inaccessible To-
cations they occupy.
X ~
Edward c. Rashleigh. an EngliShman
who has made a speciality of hunting
obscure waterfalls as another man might
make speciality of hunting rare orchids,
has noted number which are certain
to compel the engineers to keep their
distance for quite some time. There are,
for example. the AughrabieS Falls, on
the Orange River in South Africa. They
are so inaccessible at present that the
explorer has to be a bold man and resort
to acrobatic feats even to get glimpse
of them, SO guarded they are by rock
formations. They fall $50 feet. Attempts
have been made with weighted plumb
lines to plumb the depth of the pool
into which they plunge, but while a
depth of 140 feet has been reached, no
bottom has yet been found.
Then there are the Paulo Alfonso
Falls on the Sac Francisco River, in
Brazil Mr.. Rashleigh finds them the
most awe-inSpiring of all the cataracts
of the world. There are many waterfalls
in Brazil, and it is probable that some
have yet been undiscovered. But ref
erence must be made to the Guayra
Falls, on the Parana River Over these
falls tumble twice the value of water
which plunges over Niagara. indeed the
volume is equal to the waters OF Niagara,
Paulo Alfonso, Iguazu, the Grand Falls
of Labrador, the Victoria Falls on the
Zambezi, in Africa, and the Kaieteur
waterfalls combined. Their span is near
ly four times as wide as Niagara.
There are the Khon Cataracts, on the
Mekong, in. Indo-China This torrent,
discharges over its precipices twice the
volume of Niagara, or nearly So British