PERILOUS FIATS AT NIAGARA.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 171, 25 September 1886, Page 3

PERILOUS FIATS AT NIAGARA.

Tho Uteet crazo for notoriety ia navigating tbe Whirlpool at Niagara Falls. A

cooper >named Graham recently,, made, > tbe trip .concealed , in a barrel specially.? prepared,, and lator, pn, August- 2()t^t ,vpntured again, in, a t barrel ; with / hie rjbeacl, exposed. Both experiments < t were; successful ; but a Lewiston Sherman named Scott attempted the. feat ,on „ the same ..afternoon, an,d perished.,, IJe . B warn in a - cork; auiti, An .hour .afters, he started, bis body was, ,picked ,-> up near < the . town' wfyore he ihad lived. The body.. was .not much marked; indications ate thfifc the force of the water pressed the breath out of, the, man. JBuftajp, N;. ¥„ is full of cranks wanting to, distinguish themselves in their way. One :4acob , Sohumber, a cooper of Man-, Chester, , proposes ,to float in a barrel down the Niagara River on the Canadian ■ side, plunge over, the Hersefihoe i'alle, and con- , tinue, through , the Rapids to Lewiston Graham, t though sucoessful on, two {occasion?, had a tough time, and Bays he has had I enough. On Sunday, August 22nd, Wm. J. Kendall, of Boston, guarded ..by a, cork yeat, swam the, Rapids successfully, ; for $I,OQO, his portion of a wager of $10,000 between, Boston partießi There were few epectaso,t£, Kendall says that , when ;he reaohed the Bpot v where . Captain Webb is Buppoeed to hare lost his life, the water seemed to, go from under him, and ■ a huge wave struck him on ,thd head and Bhoulders, knocking him unconscious for a few moments. , Qe found his swimming abilities of no , use whatever,, and never, expected to come, ou,t aliyi. When entering the Whirlpool he was , so benumbed, and partly unconscious that; he did not use a limb, and did not know what he was doing. The current took him rightinto the main eddy.andsuckedhimdown | like a flash, keepiug him under fully fifteen seconds. Upon reaching the under current j he was shot out of , the pool fully fifty feet from its centre. When he, reached the suri face of the water he had partly recovered consciousness, and knowing there wag no time to spare before he was dashed down the lower rapids, swam to the shore. He fainted, and it took half-an-hour to, bring him to. " Would he make another trip V' he was asked, " Emphatically no," be replied; "there's not money enough in the world to,»iioduco me to repeat this afternoon's experience. A child would have the same chance to go through the rapids and come out, all right as an expert swimmer,/' It took him three minutes to go from the railroad bridge to the whirlpool. Kendall is 21 yeara of age, 6 feet 2 inches in height, weighs 195 pounds, and is well proportioned.