He Walked Under Niagara

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 94, 20 April 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

He Walked Under Niagara

THE Niagara Falls have long been considered one of the world's •*■ great wonders. This stupendous double cataract is on the Niagara River, which separates the Canadian state of Ontario from America. One hundred million cubic feet of water flow over the falls in an hour

.. . but it is not wasted. Very many years ago Niagara was harnessed to make electricity for man. The cataract is divided in two by Goat Island; thus half of Niagara is in Canada, and half in the "United States. The Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side are 158 feet high and 3100 feet across, while the American falls are IC7 feet high and 1080 feet across. Surely, one would think, here at least is one of Nature's marvels which must be left unexamined by the curiosity of man. Not is possible to make a journey right under the falls themselves, a venturing into-the very home of the thunder which has boomed ceaselessly out over the border country for untold years. Here is the story of that exciting journey, told by "a tourist who still holds it as one of his greatest experiences:

It was a glorious summer day. with the sun in its zenith catching the spray and loose globules of water which become detached from the dense wall of green-blue fluid as it rolls over the edge.

Imagine yourself on the brink on the American side of the river, gazing down on to the fairly tranquil surface of its lower bed, where the little tourist boat steams and fusses all unconcerned right up to the actual falls, for the weighty column of water descends deep down at its contact, only to rise again three-quarters of a mile below at the famous rapids.

I chose mid-day to descend into the "Cave of the Winds." as then one gets the unique sight of a rainbow all round you on the nether spray. If you stand on a certain rock and look nil round you there is the complete circle of prismatic colours, instead of the arc one is accustomed to; it is flat, but that is not so peculiar, for I have »«en a rainbow flat on the sea at Scarborough once.

Now to prepare for the adventure! Yon have to go into a shed and strip off all your clothing, putting on instead sterilised flanne. garments not unlike what a diver wears under his deep-sea gear; over this come oil skin overalls, with a good strong "sou wester" on your head. Being a warm day, 1 didn't see why I shouldn't get wet, so discarded the mackintosh rig, all but the hat. which I was advised to wear for protection to the skull, for the drops descending frcm such a height could easily make a hole in vour cranium.

Now we start, with a guide going backwards in front of us all the way, cautiously treading a slippery slope or ledge of rock, protected with handrails, till we reach a platform two-thirds of the Way down. There is the rainbow like a fairy circle, caused by the meridian sun shining direct on to the spray which rises all round and shuts out all vestige of the river below, though one has a grand view of the majestic precipitation overhead, looking like a solid volume of bottle glass. No words escape us; no one could hear them even if they were shouted (tho guide himself is permanently stone deaf from being in that constant roar!).

Down we stumble, lower still, winding along a corkscrew track till we find ourselves right beneath and behind the mighty falls. You try to look up, you try to look round you try to look in front, you try to loi-k behind; no. you can't keep your eyelids open for more than a fraction of a second at" a time. The hissing and roaring, louder than any blast furnace or oscillating shaft of machinery, make you imagine you are in the

Cyclops' forge. The exhaustion of the air caused by the tumbling rush of water nearly prevents lis from breathing; mechanically ire grope forward, after the figure of our gnome-like guide, retreating, still backwards, like a phantom ghoul. Gradually we find ourselves ascending, though still at the back of the falls," but by degrees we become conscious of air and light. Finally, out we scramble, and give out a long-drawn sigh of relief, next engulfing into our lungs the free air of heaven, exclaimiug ''How weird! How wonderful!"' Well, you've been under Niagara, but wliat you have seen or what you felt like couldn't be told, nor. I venture to say, would you do it again; but as long as you live you fancy you have oncc dreamt that you have been into the "Cave of the Winds."' The word Niagara, which is the original name the Red Indians gave ,tlie falls, means "Thunder of the Waters." and indeed, so loud is the roaring of the falls that it may be heard for many miles around. Vet perhaps Niagara is most impressive when it is silent. They are a marvellous sight in the winter when they become frozen, and, instead of cascades of water, huge icicles, like a glacier suspended in mid-air, hang over the cliffs. Then the sonorous voice of Niagara, which has been likened to the deep boom of a thirty-two foot pedal note of an organ, is quiet, until the return of spring, when the melting ice and the gathering waters oncc again burst free in a mighty cataract over the cliffs.

Most people go to Niagara for the ds>.y. It is said that the longer one stays tbe more one becomes fascinated, particularly with the falls. but almost as mucb with the surrounding magnificent scenery—tiie whirlpool, the rapids, the gorge. The traditions, the terrors, the beauties of the great falls, are to the scientific mind subordinated to the industrial potentialities. Already, as mentioned before, they have to some extent been harnessed, and the aluminium works and the electric power plant are already famous.