REVERSING FALLS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 125, 29 May 1934, Page 14

REVERSING FALLS

A TIDAL WONDER

COUNTERPART ;, DISCOVERED

Twice every twenty-four hours there is witnessed in Saihf John, New Brunswick, one of .the, earths..most curious phenomena.- It is the famous reversing falls, which.is the subject'of quaint Indian tradition and has been described by explorers and writers since the days of Champlain. i .

On the outskirts of Saint John the St: John River iiarrqws to a width of 350 feet and runs .between limestone banks '100ft'high "'before 'it empties into; the harbour. Down this channel at low'tide pours a huge volume of water," running swiftly over the rocky ledges which form the river bed.

The tide in Saint John harbour rises between 20 and 30 feet, and in its ascent- it meets and-conquers the flow' of the river with the result that the current is reversed, and salt water of the" Atlantic pours up the falls- until it in turn is overcome by the down? ward current. This happens, of course, twice daily, and at other times the waters are quiet. . Until las£ year .this was supposed to be theorily reversing falls in the world. However, a Canadian hydrogfaphic survey discovered a similar curiosity in an uncharted fjord on the south*-' eastern coast 'of' Baffin Land, in the .Canadian Arctic; : > ■;.; ■"-;' ..

' New Brunswick Indians haye a legend that the falls developed out of a quarrel between <an Indian god "Glooseap" and a .mythological character "Big Beaver." Big Beaver, says this tale, built a dam • across tho river, Glooseap smote it. with a-mighty rock, a.nrl since then the water has run both ways. ' .. ; i.': \