SHOOTING NIAGARA IN A BARREL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 148, 15 August 1911, Page 8

SHOOTING NIAGARA IN A BARREL.

THREE HOURS IN A WHIRLPOOL. After being whirled for throe hours in a steel barrel amid the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls, Mr. Robert Loach was taken out almost suffocated. Mr. Loach had been long preparing to shoot the rapids in a barrel specially constructed. It was a stout affair of thin steel, warranted to withstand tremendous buffeting. The interior was padded so tiiat its inmate should not be harmed. The last day of the International Niagara Carnival, when 300,060 people were watching feats performed at the Falls, was chosen for the test. Mr. Beachey, the airman, first repeated his dangerous feat of flying through a gorge and over the Falls; hut this was under more favourable conditions Then Houdin, the wiro-walkcr, attempted to slide across the gorge on a tight wire. Within a hundred feet of the Canadian! shore lie was marooned for 30 minutes. The wire was not taut enough, and ho slipped into a depression, from which .ho was unable to ascend. Finally ho was reached witli a rope and hauled ashore. • Hurled 20 Feet in tho Air. Then Mr. Leach entered his barrel, which was closed, and consigned to the rapids. It was immediately caught by a giant wave, which hurled it twenty feet in the air. It fell in the outer current and was swept around the maelstrom for three hours. Again and again Mr. Loach’s assistants, terrified at the length of time, the barrel was in the water, vainly attempted to reach it, hut this was impossible. At last a lucky side current started tiie barrel down the river towards tho shore, whore it was caught. Mr. Leach was dragged through the manhole, limp and unconscious, and it was generally believed that lie was deixd, hut after a while lie revived, and was carried up tiio steep hank. Several times the barrel stood on end in the middle of the whirlpool. Mr. Leach’s recovery after his experience is considered remarkable.