NIAGARA MENACED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 2

NIAGARA MENACED

FALLS GROW NARROWER

ENGINEERS TO RESCUE The famous waterfalls in the Niagara River, which serves as a frontier between Canada and the United States, have long been a concern of the neighbouring Governments of the State of New York and the province of Ontario, through whose far-sighted policies the lands adjoining the falls have been acquired as public possessions, to be kept as far as possible from spoliation by man. In recent times, since the development of the power from the waters became a. profitable enterprise, the work of their harnessing has been carried out on the Canadian side under the direct control of the Government, in such a manner as to detract as little as possible from their beauty and grandeur. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the Governments have ratified a new agreement designed to preserve and ensure the character of the place. That ‘‘vast and prodigious cadence of water,” however, has now to be saved not from man, but from itself, for recent changes in the course of the stream have threatened to narrow the sweep of the falls, and to lessen their grandeur. In its upper reaches the Niagara River, which drains the enormous fresh water area of the Four Great Lakes, flows level with a high plain. It then drops sheer for 160 feet into a narrow gorge, and rushes on, eddying and raging, till it reaches the foot of the bluff, and then empties quietly into Lake Ontario. At the waterfalls there is a thick solid layer of hard limestone on the top, and underneath is a soft shale on which the waters fall with terrific force, scattering it, and thus eating under the limestone, which is dislodged in great masses from time to time as the support underneath is withdrawn. Thus in process of time the falls have receded farther and farther up the river, and, as close observations • made during the last 100 years show, at a rate of about four feet a year. A comparison of the famous first drawing of the falls with a modern photograph shows the changes of three centuries. In recent years the erosion has been chiefly in the centre of the Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side, and in consequence the dip in the centre has been deepening while the sides have remained stationary. To counteract this natural process, which it is feared may narrow the falls and make them less impressive, the Government, after long consultation with engineers and other experts, have agreed upon the construction of a “few unobtrusive weirs” for diverting some of the water from the centre back toward the sides. Man is thus about to battle against Nature in order to preserve the falls in their full majesty.