Niagara Part 3

The Quartette--the third was an Italian, the other three were Frenchmen--who first referred directly to Niagara in print, stands--Champlain, Ragueneau, Bressani, Gendron, and in that order:--A Soldier of the Sword; two Soldiers of the Cross; and a Soldier of Medicine--though, so far as the dates when the letters of those four were written, and the information thus put in form which made its publication possible, are concerned, the Physician, Gendron, should occupy the second--instead of the fourth place. And, by-the-way, this Sieur Gendron was the first white Physician who is known to have lived anywhere in the western portion of this Country; the first white Physician in the limits of the present province of Ontario in Canada; and the first white Physician among the Indians of North America.

In the case of the good Docteur Gendron--who, next to Champlain, was the earliest to mention Niagara,--it was not the scenic beauty of the Falls (he does not say that he ever saw them), but it was something in the direct line of his profession which caused him to refer to them. It was because, at their base, and created, as he was told, by their waters, there was found--and there only--a panacea for many, if not for all, human ills. From his statements, it seems clear, that those "Erie Stones," which were "found only at Niagara," were themselves widely known amongst the Savages; and were a considerable article of trade between many, even to the most distant, Tribes.

And, even as to the minds of the Aborigines who dwelt far from it, the triple importance of Niagara was that it necessitated a long Land Carriage or Portage in their canoe voyages, that it was a famous "trading place," and, that it was the only source of supply of those famous "Erie Stones"; even so, to the mind of Docteur Gendron, their main importance lay, not in their imagined grandeur, but in the authenticated statement, that it, and it alone, produced a stone or powder, efficacious in the treatment of certain ills; which was undoubtedly a very welcome and a very decided addition to the probably very limited stock of his Materia Medica. Thus, Niagara, which to-day is famous the World over, for its Scenery, for its Botany, for its Geology, for its History, for its Hydraulic works, and lastly (and almost equally with its Scenery), for its Electrical developments, has also, through Docteur Gendron's "hasty letter"--written in 1644 or 1645--a distinct, and a very, very early claim to a place in the annals of the Healing Art--as it was known and practiced on the Continent of North America, during the first half of the 17th Century; and also therefrom another distinct proof that the locality was an Aboriginal Center of Trade.

This "Trade" in those "Erie Stones" must have been a most important thing for those Savages,--the Onguiaahras--who dwelt close to the Cataract at that time, and prior thereto.

It is further a most interesting fact, that the "Trade" therein was the first recorded trade ever carried on at Niagara; and it is also most interesting to recall, that this first Trade, at this famous spot, was in an article used for the relief of human suffering,--a simple remedy, furnished by Nature, and "all ready for use."

That Niagara product; which, possibly long before Columbus landed at San Salvador, probably during all the 16th, certainly during the 17th Century; made the locality famous, far and wide; was among the earliest known of America's healing remedies. It was evidently a leading, and a much-sought-for, prescription among the Aborigines. To-day, it has no value whatever. It is still to be found in abundance in the immediate vicinity of the Falls, in the Gorge below them; but no one seeks to gather it, save as a curiosity.

But, in those early days, among the ignorant and phenomenally superst.i.tious Savages, those "Erie Stones," to be "found only at Niagara," seemed to them a special gift from the Great Spirit to his children. To the Savages, they were, veritably, "Big Medicine."

Their fame lasted for many a year. They were gathered and traded in--yes, and used--even until the middle of the 18th Century. As late as 1787, their reputation still clung to the great Fall.

That year, Capt. Enys, of the 29th Regiment, British, was at Niagara, and wrote of them--they were no longer called "Erie Stones," but the substance was known as "petrified spray of the Falls,"--

"On our return" [from the base of the Fall, and walking along the water's edge, under the cliff], "we employed ourselves in picking up a kind of stone, which is said to be the Spray of the Fall, petrified, but whether it is or no, I will not pretend to determine; this much I can say, that it grows, or forms itself in cavities in the cliff, about half way to the top, from whence it falls from time to time; its composition is a good deal like a piece of white marble which has been burnt in the fire, so that it may be pulverized with ease. Whatever may be its composition, it does not appear that it will bear to be exposed to the air, as some pieces which seem to have fallen longer than the rest are quite soft; while such as had lately fallen are of a much harder nature."

Robert McCauslin, M.D., who, during and after the War of the Revolution, spent nine years at Niagara--undoubtedly as British Post Surgeon at Fort Niagara,--furnished a scientific paper ent.i.tled, "An account of an earthly substance, found near the Falls of Niagara, and vulgarly called the Spray of the Falls," to Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton; and he, on October 16, 1789, communicated it to the American Philosophical Society; in whose Transactions it was subsequently published. Dr. McCauslin specially noted, that

"This substance is found, in great plenty, everywhere about the bottom of the Falls; sometimes lying loose among the stones on the beach, and sometimes adhering to the rocks, or appearing between the layers upon breaking them. The ma.s.ses are of various sizes and shapes, but seldom exceed the bulk of a man's hand. Sometimes they are of a soft substance and crumble like damp sugar; while other pieces are found quite hard, and of a s.h.i.+ning, foliated appearance; or else opaque and resembling a piece of burnt allum. It often happens that both these forms are found in the same ma.s.s. Pieces which are taken up whilst soft soon become hard by keeping; and they are never known to continue long in a soft state, as far as I have been able to learn."

He records that it is not found at all above the Falls, in the greatest amounts in the Gorge, close to the Falls; and in decreasing quant.i.ties as the distance from them increases; and is never found at a greater distance from them than perhaps a mile. From several scientific experiments which he made upon this substance, he deduced,

"1st, That this concrete is not an alkaline earth, as it is not affected either by the vitriolic or vegetable acids.

"2d, That we may, with more probability, say that it is a combination of an acid with a calcareous earth, and that it might with propriety be ranked amongst the selenites."

He thought it was formed by the moisture arising from the Falls constantly and slowly filtering between the layers of rock, in whose crevices it deposited its heavier portions, and that the violent agitation which the water had undergone disposed it to part with its earth more easily than it would otherwise do.

He adds, "The circ.u.mstance of this Spray not being found above the Falls seems to suggest an opinion that that part of the vapor which hangs upon the surrounding rocks is the heaviest, as being most loaded with earthy particles, whilst the remainder which mounts up is the purest and contains little or no earth."

Dewit Clinton, when he visited Niagara in 1810--as a Member of the first Board of Commissioners, appointed by the State of New York, to report on the whole subject of the proposed Erie Ca.n.a.l, noted in his diary,

"A beautiful white substance is found at the bottom of the Falls; supposed by some to be Gypsum, and by the vulgar, to be a concretion of foam, generated by the forces of the Cataract. But it is unquestionably part of the limestone, dissolved and re-united."

Since Clinton's time no attention has been paid to this substance as a curative agent.

As a geological substance it is still collected, but with greater ease than formerly, for, besides being found on and below the face of the cliff, its existence in the limestone all over the vicinity of the Falls has been demonstrated by means of the huge excavations that have been made in the development of the various Power Plants at Niagara.

CHANGES OF CONTOUR

Wonderful changes have taken place in the contour of the greater Fall at Niagara since Docteur Gendron recorded that the Indians traded in those "Erie Stones." The additional Fall, which Father Hennepin pictured in 1697, as pouring eastward from the Canadian end of the Horse Shoe Fall, was formed by the waters flowing around a large rock, which stood at the very edge of the cliff. Before the middle of the 18th Century that rock had disintegrated and been swept away; and that separate Fall then merged itself into the greater cascade; as is shown in a view of Niagara accompanying Peter Kalm's description thereof in 1751. But it must be remembered that in Hennepin's time that Canadian end of the Horse Shoe Fall extended very much farther down the Gorge than it does to-day--probably 800 feet farther. That Fall then extended its shallow end down to where old Table Rock stood. Then the levels of all the upper lakes were higher than they are to-day, those levels having been considerably lowered through the white man's denudations of the forests in the Basin of the Great Lakes. As the downpour of Niagara thereby diminished in volume, that end of the Canadian Fall receded; so that, as far as can be deduced, that Fall was some 400 feet shorter in contour (all taken off its western end) in 1900 than it was when Hennepin saw it--two and a quarter centuries before. Since 1900, the policy of the Province of Ontario, to turn its share of Niagara into cash--in renting out to corporations the right to use the waters of the Cataract for the development of electrical horsepower ("at so much per")--has resulted in still further shortening the contour of the Horse Shoe Fall, by another 400 feet. The contour of that Fall was given by survey in 1840 as 3,060 feet. Hence, in Hennepin's time, it must have been about 3,500 feet. To-day, owing to the filling in of the old river-bed, along the edge of the precipice at the Cataract's western end, that contour line would not be more than 2,700 feet.

But it must be recalled that the recession at the apex of that Fall has been very marked since 1840; and as that recession is V shaped it has added somewhat--fully two hundred feet--to the figures of that old contour line; making the contour line of the Falls to-day about 2,900 feet.

By reason of that shortening of that Fall, two scientific questions are brought up in regard to those deposits of gypsum, or "Petrified Spray of the Falls."

First--to what extent has that concretion formed behind the falling water? Has it formed there in greater quant.i.ties than it has where the face of the cliff has been open to the air? In greater quant.i.ties might have been expected, on account of the greater amount and absolute continuity of the moisture on the rocky face. The 400 feet length of cliff, from which the waters have now been permanently shut off, furnishes the answer. Practically, none of that concrete has ever acc.u.mulated in the crevices of the rock on the face of the cliff immediately behind the Falls. The currents of air, and the furious blasts of water which they create, rush constantly away from the under surface of the falling sheet, and continuously against the face of the cliff. These scour and cut away the rock, even as a sand blast would do, though more slowly. They allow no chance for deposits. The strata of the Clinton Formation (which commences at about the level of the water in the Gorge, and of the Niagara shale, which overlie it--the two combined having a depth of about eighty feet) are eaten away the faster. The eighty-feet-deep layer of Niagara Limestone, which overlies the shale, being harder, is eaten away slowly; its lower layers being attacked by the winds and waters from below (as the underlying shale disappears) and also on its face, yielding faster than the upper ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN FALL--NIAGARA. CAVE OF THE WINDS IS BEHIND SMALL FALL.]

That this concretion has always formed in the limestone, back from the face of the cliff, behind the falling sheet (where the blasts of wind and water cannot reach nor effect it) is certain.

That it forms under the river bed, and back from the face of the gorge on both sides of the river, and wherever the water percolates through the upper layer of rock, is also certain.

It is so found in the limestone (but not in the shale) wherever deep excavations have been made near the river in the vicinity of the Falls and wherever tunnels have been driven through the limestone--in the crevices and especially where a pocket or hollow s.p.a.ce exists in that formation.

This process of eating away the lower rocks, undermining the upper limestone, which, as its support is taken away, tumbles into the Gorge, shows the means by which the Falls gradually recede.

It is shown to the best advantage in the Cave of the Winds, which, during the past thirty years, by this wind-and-water-blast process, has been enlarged to four times its former size. Some day the layer of rock at the top of that cave will fall; the edge of the Luna Island Fall will be thus moved back a number of feet; the Cave of the Winds will become merely a narrow s.p.a.ce between the outward-curving fall of water and the perpendicular rock; and the wind-and-water-blast will continue its erosive work on that rocky face;--and in the course of years will again produce a distinct cave.

The other scientific question--which the future will answer--is, How fast does this Niagara concrete form? With that 400 feet length of cliff on the Canadian sh.o.r.e--which was formerly covered by the end of the Horse-shoe Fall--exposed to the air and to observation (the outer end of those crevices in its face being now free from any such deposit); with the extensive excavations on the debris slope for the Power House below the bank, exposing new surfaces, where little such deposit now appears; with other probable excavations in connection with the power development, exposing similar surfaces at other points along the Gorge; it will be possible to approximately determine the yearly amount of acc.u.mulation and deposit of this ancient Niagara product. For that deposit will go on as ceaselessly as it has been going on, ever since the time--possibly many thousands of years ago--when the waters of a great lake (which was formed by the melting of the ice sheet) covered all this region; finally breaking over its northern barrier at the Lewiston escarpment, where, seven miles from its present location, Niagara was born.

STILL A TRADE CENTER

Le Sieur Gendron, of whom we know nothing more than is contained in the printed letters, noted before, pa.s.sed away many a year ago; but at this late date, some two and a half centuries after his death, a lover of Niagara, in his search for and his collecting of early books that in any way refer to its famous Cataract, secured a copy of De Rocoles'

"America, the Third Part of the World," 1660, which contains the first publication of Docteur Gendron's interesting letters from, and about, the Huron Country, in Canada. Therein he found this remarkable reference to the Waterfall,--which was quoted verbatim from the good Docteur's "hasty letter," by the State Historian of King Louis of France,--and is thereby enabled to add an hitherto unknown link (which turns out to be the second) in the chain of the earliest references to Niagara Falls; and so, both in History and in Medicine, to a.s.sign to good Docteur Gendron, a place (next alongside of the great Founder of Quebec) in Niagara's Temple of Fame. For the Sieur Gendron probably wrote from actual knowledge; he had probably, through some Huron emissary, secured some of those "Erie Stones," that "Petrified Spray of the Falls" in trade, at Niagara; he had doubtless tried the healing qualities thereof on some of his Savage Patients--and let us hope that this Niagara Remedy proved efficacious, and justified its wide-spread reputation. At any rate, in recording its uses, and its distribution by "Trade," and by probably himself using it in his Practice--limited then to the Huron Indians; and the few Frenchmen (perhaps a score or more) who then made their headquarters at the Home of the Jesuit Mission to the Hurons,--he showed, even as many a good Physician of later days has done, that he was a believer in, and user of, every one of Nature's Remedies, as furnished by her to man, and in their simplest forms; and if that Niagara product benefited his savage patients (mainly because they had faith that it would do so) surely the good Docteur earned his professional fee--which he probably had to take in trade--that is, in furs.

Niagara, meaning thereby the Niagara Frontier, or, more properly, that portion thereof which extended from Lake Ontario to about two miles above the Falls (which included Fort Niagara, and the whole of the famous Portage around the Cataract) even in Aboriginal days, before the first Fort Niagara was built, when the Indians applied the word Onguiaahra to the same territory, by reason of its accessibility, its central location, its Portage and its "Erie Stones," was widely known as a "Center of Trade." When the French became the masters of this region its main importance lay in its portage; and the same is true of it under British rule; and also under United States owners.h.i.+p, down to 1826, when the Erie Ca.n.a.l was completed.

And during all those three periods it was indeed a Trade Center. For over it pa.s.sed on their westward way, all the soldiers, French, British, and American, who built or won, and garrisoned every fort and trading post in the West. All the cannon, equipments, arms, ammunition, clothing of all kinds, tools, most of the food (all of it save the fish they caught, the game they shot, and the few vegetables they raised) which sustained life in the poorly-fed garrisons in those far off posts on the upper Lakes; most of the necessities, everyone of the luxuries,--every pound of coffee, of tea, of sugar, of tobacco, of salt, of flour, of dried and salted meats, every bit of medicine, every gallon of rum;--all those and many other articles had to go to them, annually, by "way of Niagara." There was no other feasible way of transporting goods to the West. In fact there was no other way, save by the Ottawa and through the Georgian Bay; and on the Ottawa, there were forty-two portages, whereas via Niagara there was but the one. And under both French and British rule, Niagara was a great Center of Trade, in furs, and an enormous trade it was. Both the military and the commercial trade of half a Continent flowed by its doors; and both, going eastward and westward, required unloading and transporting over its seven miles of portage.

At one time, in 1764, when provisions were being forwarded to the West for the use there of Gen. Bradstreet's Army, it is recorded that over 5,000 barrels of provisions alone lay at Fort Schlosser, the upper terminus of Niagara's portage, awaiting s.h.i.+pment to the West. By Niagara also went--had to go, for besides being the only feasible route, it was the only safe way, for it had military protection,--all the traders, with their boat loads of cheap merchandize; men who spent months at a time in journeying among the tribes in the Northwest, trading their wares for valuable furs; all of which peltries, in turn, they had to bring east "by Niagara."

With the opening of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, in 1826, all that portaging business at Niagara disappeared; and Niagara, that is the territory immediately adjoining the Cataract, became a famous Watering Place; which character it has ever since retained, and always will retain.

In the early days of that scenic glory it still preserved a tinge of its ancient aspect, as "An Aboriginal Center of Trade." For many years Indian bead-work was one of the main attractions offered in the Bazaars there. And the elder generation of visitors will recall the familiar sight of aged Indian Squaws, and dusky Indian Maidens, who daily, during the season of travel, sat at various points along the route of the tourist--on the steep banks of the road leading up the hill to Goat Island, beneath the trees, close to the rapids, on Luna Island, alongside the path leading down the bank on Goat Island to old Terrapin Tower, and at various points around the Ferry House, and what is now Prospect Park--offering for sale, crude bead work, pincus.h.i.+ons, moca.s.sins, etc.

Often a pappoose, strapped to the board which formed the back of its picturesque but doubtless uncomfortable cradle, gazed stolidly at the pale faced visitor, as the cradle leant up against the foot of a tree, or swung suspended from some low-hanging branch. The "Braves" at home then made the toy canoes, the bows and arrows, the quivers, the war clubs and tomahawks, which the squaws also disposed of to tourists as souvenirs of Niagara.

Those "Squaw Traders" were a most picturesque feature of Niagara, and the fact that those descendants of a pa.s.sing Race now seldom or never sit by the roadside and offer their wares directly to the visitor is a distinct loss to the artistic environment of the Cataract.

In those days also some enterprising genius devised the scheme of manufacturing trinkets--such as watch charms, seals, etc.,--out of that Niagara gypsum, or "Petrified Spray of the Falls"; thereby unconsciously reviving the Aboriginal Trade in that substance, which Docteur Gendron had so early recorded--only this time without any pretension that it possessed any healing qualities--but that trade was neither so famous nor so wide spread, nor so long continued, as the original.

The projectors of the Village at the Falls of Niagara, named it Manchester, in the belief that by reason of its water power (and they then contemplated the use of only a fractional part thereof--not enough to have offered any danger of "Ruining Niagara") it would develop into a manufacturing center which should rival its British prototype.

To-day, through its hydraulic developments, mainly devoted to the generation of electric power, Niagara has again become a really great Center of Trade. How great this locality is destined to become--when the stupendous works, now either in operation or under construction, shall have been completed up to the limits of their rights--whether that enormous development (over a million horse-power on both sides of the river, equal to one-quarter of the total estimated power of Niagara) shall build up a great International Manufacturing Community within close sight of the ever-ascending spray cloud; or whether the most of that power shall be utilized at far distant points, and Niagara be known commercially rather as the Producer of Power than as itself an Enormous Center of Trade--Time alone will tell. But, however great or less that growth shall be--by reason of its power, of its central location, of its accessibility, of its more than a million annual visitors--it will always be, what it is to-day, what it was in "Aboriginal days," a "Center of Trade."