REVERSING FALLS UNIQUE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1934, Page 7

REVERSING FALLS UNIQUE

CURIOUS PHENOMENON. SUBJECT OF INDIAN LEGEND. Saint John, N. 8., Canada. Twice every twenty-four hours there is witnessed in Saint John one of the earth’s 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. On the outskirts of Saint John the St John River narrows to a width of 350 feet and runs between limestone banks 100 feet 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 7 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 downward current. This happens, of course, twice-daily, and at other times the waters a,re quiet. Until last year this was supposed ‘to be the only reversing falls in the world. However a Canadian hydrographic survey discovered a similar curiosity in an' unchartered fjord on the south-eastern coast of Baffin Land, in the Canadian Arctic. New Brunswick Indians have a legend that the falls developed out of a quarrel between an Indian god, “Glooscap,” and a mythological character “Big Beaver.” Big Beaver, says this tale, built a dam across the river, Glooscap smote it with; a mighty rock, and since then the Water has run both ways. < ’ C