The Greatest Highway in the World Part 11

Buffalo is connected with the Canadian sh.o.r.e by ferry and by the International Bridge, completed in 1873 at a cost of $1,500,000.

Niagara Falls, while it is not on the main route to Chicago is best reached from Buffalo, from which it is only 32 miles distant, and travellers so easily can stop over to make the little side trip that it is virtually a part of the journey westward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The fall of Niagara in the Province of New York.

A Colonial Print (1762) in the N.Y. Public Library]

Niagara Falls.

Of the seven natural wonders of the American world, which are given as Yellowstone Park, Garden of the G.o.ds, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Natural Bridge, Yosemite Valley, and the Giant Trees of California, by far the greatest spectacle is Niagara. The name means "thunder of the waters," and was given by the early Indians who regarded the falls with a quite comprehensible religious awe. Today there are more than a million and a half visitors annually.

Probably the first white man to discover the Falls was Etienne Brule, an a.s.sociate and trusted comrade of Champlain; but the first chronicler and the man to whom honour of discovery is usually given, is Father Hennepin, founder of the monastery at Ft. Frontenac in Quebec, who in 1678 joined La Salle's Mississippi expedition, and pushing on a few days journey ahead of his commander, came upon the wonderful waters described in his _Louisiane Nouvelle_ (1698). The French built some trading posts here and their influence prevailed until 1759, when the British, driving the French northward overthrew their fortifications and took possession of the land. When the Revolution broke out some years later, the Indians, terrible and unscrupulous wagers of guerilla warfare, fought on the British side.

The Niagara River, upon which the Falls are situated, 22 M. from its head in Lake Erie, and 14 M. from its mouth in Lake Ontario, forms the outlet of four of the five Great Lakes (Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior). It descends about 330 ft. in its course of 36 M. About 15 M.

from Lake Erie the river narrows and the rapids begin. In the last three quarters of a mile above the falls, the water descends 55 ft. and the velocity is enormous. The basin of the Falls has a depth of from 100 to 192 ft. During cold winters the spray covers the gra.s.s and trees in the park along the cliff with a delicate veneer of ice, while below the Falls it is tossed up and frozen into a solid arch. Adjoining the left (Canadian) bank is the greater division, Horseshoe Fall, 155 ft. high and curving to a breadth of 2,600 ft. The American Fall, adjoining the right bank, is 162 ft. high and about 1,400 ft. broad. In recognition of their aesthetic value the province of Ontario and the State of New York have reserved the adjacent land as public parks. In the midst of the Rapids lies a little group of islands, among them the famous Goat Island. Besides the wonderful view it affords, its western end gives a unique example of absolutely virgin forest.

The Indians used to fish and hunt, crossing the Rapids on foot and supporting their steps with tall wooden poles spiked with iron. The necessity, on one occasion, of saving two marooned comrades on the island, taught them this means of crossing, which they had never before attempted.

The Niagara River runs half its length on an upper plain, then drops at the falls into a narrow gorge through which it courses seven miles to the escarpment, the crest of which is a bed of limestone--60 ft. thick at the falls. The water plunges into a deep basin hollowed out of soft shale, which, as well as the escarpment, is being constantly worn away.

The site of the cataract retreats upstream and the gorge is lengthened at a rate of about five ft. a year. It is evident that the whole gorge has been dug out by the river, and many attempts have been made to determine the time consumed in the work. The solution of the problem would aid in establishing a relation between the periods and ages of geologic time and the centuries of human chronology. The Horseshoe Fall wore its cliff back 335 ft. in about 63 years. Geologists have computed 25,000 years as a lower limit for plausible estimates of the river, but have been able to set no upper limit.

The Canadian and American sh.o.r.es are connected by three bridges, one of which a suspension carrying all cla.s.ses of traffic, is 1,240 ft. long.

The flow of water in the river averages 222,000 cubic ft. per second, though it sometimes falls as low as 176,000 cubic ft.

On March 29, 1848, Niagara ran dry, and persons walked in the rocky channel bed of the American Rapids between Goat Island and the mainland. This phenomenon, never known before or since, was due to these facts. Lake Erie was full of floating ice flowing to its outlet, the source of Niagara River. During the previous afternoon a heavy northeast wind had driven the ice back into the lake, and during the night the wind, suddenly veering, blew a gale from the west which forced the ice floe sharply into a ma.s.s in the narrow channel of the river, where it froze. Thus, when the water on the lower side of the barrier drained off, the Niagara River and the American Fall were dry, and the Canadian Fall a mere trickle. This extraordinary condition lasted for a whole day.

Thus the descent of this stream at the Falls and in the Rapids just above them gives in theory a water-power of nearly 4,000,000 lip., three-fourths of which is estimated as available.

This maximum could be obtained only by sacrificing the beauty of the Falls--in fact diverting the river from its channel so that the cataract as a scenic feature would be destroyed. To combat this commercial vandalism an a.s.sociation for the protection of the Falls has been formed.

There were before 1918 several companies with power-producing plants, the largest of which was the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.

This company had made an extensive beginning in utilization of the water fall by a tunnel 29 ft. deep and 18 ft. wide, pa.s.sing about 200 ft.. below the surface of the city from a point 1 M.

above the Falls to the upper steel arch bridge.

In 1918, when added power was needed for the more rapid production of war materials, the various companies consolidated with the Niagara Falls Power Company. In May of that year the intake from the Niagara River and the hydraulic ca.n.a.l were deepened, and three hydro-electric units--the largest in the world today--were installed, with the result that an extension of 100,000 hp. was developed, making the total of the station 250,000 hp.

510 M. DUNKIRK, Pop. 19,366. (Train 3 pa.s.ses 8:23p; No. 41, 1:00a; No.

25, 12:45a; No. 19, 4:57a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 10:24p; No. 26, 11:26p; No. 16, 3:10a; No. 22, 6:08a.)

Dunkirk, settled about 1805, has a fine harbour and extensive lake trade, and lies, moreover, in fertile agricultural and grape-growing country. The property of the town, a.s.sessed at $10,000,000 is chiefly in factories producing locomotives, radiators and other steel and iron products, wagons, silk gloves, and concrete blocks. There are several pleasant parks, of which Gratiot and Washington are the largest. Brocton (519 M.) and Westfield (526 M.) are junctions for travellers bound for Chautauqua (about 20 M. south of Brocton on Chautauqua Lake), the princ.i.p.al seat of the Chautauqua educational movement.

The Chautauqua movement, inst.i.tuted more than 46 years ago in the west, has here its largest station. Each summer 15,000 or 20,000 people from all over the country a.s.semble here to take courses in a great variety of subjects, from Italian Primitivism to Camp Cookery. Chautauqua makes its chief appeal, perhaps, to the middle-aged and elderly who in their youth were working too hard to have had any opportunities for study.

Just beyond Ripley (534 M.) we cross the state line into Pennsylvania.

557 M. ERIE, Pop. 93,372. (Train 3 pa.s.ses 9:30p; No. 41, 2:06a; No. 25, 1:36a; No. 19, 5:59a. Eastbound No. 6 pa.s.ses 9:25p; No. 26, 10:30p; No.

16, 2:03a; No. 22, 5:08a.)

Erie stands on the site of the old French fort Presque Isle, built in 1753 and surrounded by a village of a few hundred inhabitants. Although Washington protested on behalf of the Governor of Va. against the French occupation of this territory, it remained in French hands until 1758 when an epidemic of small-pox broke out, making the fort untenable. Two years later the British seized it, and three years after the Indians, rising against their white rulers in the Conspiracy of Pontiac, took possession. In 1765 the British recaptured the fort and kept it until 1785, when it pa.s.sed into the possession of the U.S. Gen. Anthony Wayne, who was given the task of occupying the lake posts delivered up by the English, came here soon after to negotiate the famous treaty of Greenville with the Indians in 1795. He died in 1796 at Erie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old Block House At Erie

(From a Painting by Dr. Thomas B. Stuart)

Certain hostile tribes in northwest of Ohio who had defeated Gen.

St. Clair in 1791, sent away in scorn a mission asking permission for white men to settle beyond the Ohio (1793). Wayne, angry at this insolence, gathered together some troops of the recently organized American army and after having given the Indians one more chance of a peaceable settlement, defeated them thoroughly in the battle of Fallen Timbers, 80 miles north of Cincinnati. By the resulting treaty of Greenville, he opened up the northwest to civilization.]

In spite of the necessary severity of the punishment meted out to the Indians by the new government through the agency of Wayne, no part of Washington's administration, domestic or foreign, was more original or more benign than the policy he constantly urged toward them. To save them from the frauds of traders a national system of trade was adopted, and a number of laws were pa.s.sed to protect them from the aggressions of borderers, as well as to secure them in the rights allowed them in their treaties.

The battle of Lake Erie (1813) was closely a.s.sociated with the city.

Here were Perry's headquarters during the War of 1812, and here he built in less than six months many of the vessels with which he won his naval victory over the British.

Erie is now an important manufacturing centre, the products of which are valued at between $40,000,000 and $50,000,000. A large branch of the General Electric Co. is here, besides important factories for flour and grist mill products, paper and wood pulp, organs, petroleum, etc. The leading articles of shipment are lumber, coal, grain and iron ore. Over 1,400 ships a year enter and clear the broad, landlocked harbour. On a bluff overlooking lake and city, is the State Soldiers' and Sailors'

Home, and nearby, a monument to Gen. Wayne. Between Springfield (577 M.) and Conneaut we cross the state line into Ohio.

584 M. CONNEAUT, Pop. 9,000. (Train 3 pa.s.ses 10:08p; No. 41, 2:39a; No.

25, 2:04a; No. 19, 6:34a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 8:50p; No. 26, 9:59p; No. 16, 1:20a; No. 22, 4:32a.)

The first permanent settlement was made here in 1799 though a preliminary surveying party composed of Moses Cleaveland, the founder of the city of Cleveland, and 50 a.s.sociates, two of whom were women, had arrived in 1796 and found 20 or 30 cabins of the Ma.s.sauga tribe.

In his journal Cleaveland gives a description of the arrival here, "on the creek Conneaugh, in New Connecticut Land," July 4, 1796. "We gave three cheers," he continues, "and christened the place Ft. Independence, and, after many difficulties, perplexities and hardships were surmounted and we were on the good and promised land, felt that a just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There were in all, including women and children, 50 in number. The men under Capt. Tinker, ranged themselves on the beach and fired a Federal Salute of 15 rounds, and then the 16th in honor of New Conn. Drank several toasts.

Closed with three cheers. Drank several pints of grog. Supped and returned in good order."

After the whites had established themselves, the Indians were driven out for having murdered a settler. The country of Ashtabula in which Conneaut stands was not only the first settled on the Western Reserve, but the first in Northern Ohio, and the town is sometimes called the "Plymouth" of the Western Reserve.

Conneaut, which means in the Seneca language "many fish," is built at the mouth of Conneaut Creek in what is now a thriving agricultural and dairying region on Lake Erie. Besides being an excellent harbour to which coal and ore are shipped, the city has flour and planing mills, tanneries, canneries, and other factories.

595 M. ASHTABULA, Pop. 22,082. (Train 3 pa.s.ses 10:29p; No. 41, 3:06a; No. 25, 2:19a; No. 19, 6:50a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 8:34p; No. 26, 9:44p; No. 16, 1:00a; No. 22, 4:16a.)

Settlers were attracted to the site of the present town of Ashtabula (an Indian word said to mean "fish river") in 1801 by the excellent harbour here, formed by the mouth of the Ashtabula River. The city is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake and commands some fine views. There are large green-houses under gla.s.s from which forced fruit and vegetables are shipped to Pittsburgh and other large cities.

It is the centre of a prosperous agricultural and dairying region which has been largely settled by Finns.

Ashtabula is one of the most important ports in America for the shipment of iron ore and coal. Iron ore especially, is brought here in enormous quant.i.ties by boat and trans-shipped to Pittsburgh. The shipyards and drydocks in the harbour, and the huge machines for loading coal and unloading ore are of great interest. The city has large manufactories of leather, worsted goods, agricultural implements, foundry and machine shop products; and the total value of its output is close to $10,000,000 annually.

602 M. GENEVA, Pop. 3,081. (Train 3 pa.s.ses, 10:42p; No. 41, 3:18a; No.

25, 2:29a; No. 19, 7:03a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 8:22p; No. 26, 9:32p; No. 16, 12:39a; No. 22, 4:02a.)

Geneva is built close to the site of the early Indian village Kanadasaga, burnt in 1779.

In that year Gen. Sullivan was despatched at the head of an expedition against the Indians of Western N.Y., who had taken up arms for the British and had been guilty of the terrible Wyoming and Cherry Valley ma.s.sacres. Kanadasaga was one of the Indian "council hearths" destroyed, and tribes in this region were driven westward, never to recover their old power.

In addition to the lake, there are good mineral springs. According to Duncan Ingraham, a Ma.s.sachusetts traveller who wrote an account of a journey in 1792, the town then consisted "of about 20 log houses, three or four frame buildings, and as many idle persons as can live in them."

Some of these old houses along the main street are of pure Colonial type, and really beautiful. Hobart College, founded 1822, is situated here. Malt, tinware, flour, stoves, wall-paper, etc., are manufactured, and there are also extensive nurseries.