A MARVELLOUS WATERFALL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 17

A MARVELLOUS WATERFALL.

MIGHTIER THAN NIAGARA. Marvellous stories are related by the few Montagnais and Nascapeq Indians who have penetrated far in,ip, the interior pf Labrador reaja.&ctiing. a cataract, beneath whose Niagara pales into inBut one white man has ever i Siedn the*e falls, and the Indians’ ideas of : measurements and distances are so imperfect that, even where their stories agree, it is exceedingly difficult to deduce from them anything like reliahle data. An expedition lately undertaken by Randle E. Holme, F.R. G-S,> and H. Duff, fellow of All Souls’ College, Oxford, to explore the in,t.erior of Labrador and investigate these falls, unfortuuately failed in its object, the explorers having been misled by erroneous calculations as to distances and the exact location of the c.taract, and compelled to return in consequence oi tunning short of provisions. They got so near the object l of their expedition, however, that the} 7 werq enabled, from the general configuration oj the country, to form what must be a tolerably correct • stimate as to both the location and m .g-.ii.u-ie of the oataraet. *

This estimate agrees with the description of the grand falls furnished by Maclean, who visited them in 1839, and whose further progress in the interior was stopped by them. Ho gave the width of the river immediately above the falls at 1500 ft, but says that the cataract itself is not more than 150 ft across. The height of the falls he estimates at 2000 ft. This estimate is endorsed by a half-breed named Kennedy, met by Messrs Holme and Duff in the interior, and who, 30 years ago, was in charge of Fort Nascapee, on Lake Petchikapou. One of the chief difficulties encountered by explorers desirous of reaching the falls is the obstinate refusal by the Labrador Indians to approach them. They believe them to be haunted, and think it impossible to look upon them and live. Kennedy was conducted to them by an old Indian named Louis-Over-the-Fire, who being an Iroquois, did not share the superstitious belief of the Montagnais and Nascapees. Messrs Holme and Duff were principally misled by the erroneous statements and calculations as contained in Professor Hind’s “ Labrador,” the leading authority upon this virtully unknown country. The falls are on the Grand or Petchikapou Rive”, which flows into the Hamilton Inlet. They are 30 miles above Lake WaminiKapou, s body of water which is itself 40 miles long, and situated 150 miles inland from the mouth of the river. Professor Hind gives this lake as only 100 miles from the mouth of the river, so that the expedition of Messrs Holme and Duff has brought to light the fact that the best works heretofore published upon this terra incognita contain anything but reliable data. They agree, however, with Professor Hind that the elevation of the immense tableland which forms the interior of Labrador is about 2240ffc. On this height of land are a successions of great lakes joined by broad placid, streams, and when these reach the* edge of the tableland they commence their wild career into the sea. The Moisie and the Coldwater Rivers descend by successive falls, but toward the south-east the descent from the elevated tableland is quite sudden. Tbia is particularly true of the Grand River* which has a drop of over 2000 feet ia the 30 miles commencing with the falls, and ending at Lake Waminikapou. Thera is a slight rapid below the falls, but none near the lake, and everything goes to show that the height of the grand falls is very little, if anything, short of 2000# feet.

These are by a great deal the falls in existence that are composed of any great volume of water. Those are. mere mountain torrents that fail from & greater height, and the great fall of Yosernite Valley measures 255(Jft., but ifc is broken into three distinct leaps. Niagara, on the other hand, has a height of 164 ft only.—Boston Herald.