NIAGARA IN WINTER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 3

NIAGARA IN WINTER.

During February and. often into March (writes the Argus ooai-espond-•ent on February 24 last) the Ice King holds sway at Niagara, amd with his magic touch transforms tree and shrub, rock.and cliff, into a veritable fairyland. The spray from the mighty •cataract forms a thick, milk-white ©rust, which in the sunlight a-eflects all the colors of the prism, and presents to the delighted gaze the icy .splendor and starry lustre of the. frozen zone, or under the moon's pale rays the v deeply-laden branches seem like beckoning wreaths of the tred men who once roamed the forests, and are now only memories, forced into oblivion by the resistless anarch of modem civilisation, and the opening of the twentieth century finds "Ni-ah-ga-<rah," ' "Thunder of the Waters," chained to furnish the power .which runs the giant dynamos in the power-houses on the Canadian and American shores of the Niagara River, and from these power-houses is delivered to mills and factories fair and near electric power. They fumnash the light for the city of Niagara Falls, and a large portion of the city of Buffalo, twenty-two miles distant. They generate the power that runs all the trolley lines between Niagara Falls >and Buffalo, and to many neighbouring towns in the province of Ontario, and it is this wonderful transmission of a small portion, of the enormous water power of Niagara turned into electricity that is so rapidly developing this section, and what the limits in distance of the transmission of electricity at a commercial profit will be none can tell. Some predict that in the near future cities as far. from Niagara as New York or Montreal (about 450 miles) may receive ■electric power from the great cataract. HUGE CROWDS WATCH THE SCENE.

The ice scenery this year lias been unusually fine, and has attracted •crowds, who thronged the snow-bound paths of beautiful Goat Island, which always presents a dazzling spectacle at this seaston. Prospect Park, on the American, side of Victoria Park, across in panada, is equally attractive, and ■■one who has (never seen Niagara in winter garb cannot realise its marvellous beauty. The crowds have been augmented owing to a rare phenomenon—for four days, from February 14 to 19^ the Ice King held the American channel in bondage, and the flow of water over the precipice was almost arrested. It was, indeed, an awesome spectacle to behold the jagged rocks exposed, to see the precipitous gorge, the dairk precipice oven more teiirible when covered wtih the tremendous waterfall. The oldest inhabitant came forward..to relate that on March 29, 1848, "for that day only," persons walked in the bed of the rocky -channel of the American a-apids, between Goat Island and the mainland,' a ; nd from the island out in tho bed of the main channel towards Canada.; but the ice-jam of 1909 is the longest period the waters have been nearly shut off since the eyes of the first white ma.n crested on the falls. The jam of ice was a great hardship on • commercial interests; many mills were obliged to shut down, and the street railway companies ran on half-power. Heroic measures were resorted to, and the mountainous blocks of ice which -choked the upper channel were blown :up by dynamite;" immediately the imrprisoned water rushed madly into the

river, and hastened, roaring 'and dasliing, to the great leap over the precipice, covering the dark rocks and river bed where only a short timei before hundreds of venturesome people of both sexes walked dry-shod, even as far as "Avery's Rock," so-called because of the tragedy of July 17, 1858, when Samuel A very ©lung to itfbis rock for twenty-four hours, when, he lost his hold, and was carried over the Falls. The rapids were so fierce and strong that it was almost impossible to reach the rock by line or float, and # though every possible means to save him were resorted to, they were unavailing, and the poor man was swept to his doom while vast crowds watched him, from the shore. [According to latest cable advices, the ice block must nave reformed, as the flooding of the" aiear-by cities through ithe dammed-up waters was feared.—Ed. E.S.] The Niagara Power Company, the principal plant for the development of eelctric power <m the American side, is located more than a mile above the Falls, and.so the large manufactories that have •sprung up like magic do not harm the natural beauties that surround the cataract. The water is taken from the upper river, being carried to the lower gorge below the Falls through a long tunnel, and empties from the rock, forming an artdficial waterfall not unsightly.