>'.:'(iTi|iiM'^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. PRICE, 25 CENTS. WM. T. HUNTER, Publisher, 31 West 13th St., New York. BLONDIN, THE HERO OF NIAGARA. /^R. BLONDIN was born on the 28th of February, 1824, in tlie vilhige of »'*^ St. Omer, Pas de Cahiis, France. His father was one of the GUI Gnard, and had fought under Napoleon during the Russian war at the battles of Moscow, Austerlitz and Wagram. He died before little Blondin had reached his ninth year. When but four years of age the little one had already shown signs of extraordinary courage and ability, and was therefore brought by his father to the school of higher gymnastic science of Lyons, where, after a season of six months, he was declared by the Directory able to perform before the public. We do not wish to describe his boyhood, but we will follow him to America — the place of his fame. Blondin is, without any question or doubt, the king of the tight-rope, and although he has found so many rivals there has not. been one to equal him or to be able to say to him " I can do the same as you." Till the year 1855 very little was known to the world of the rope dancing genius; but at that time Blondin gave up his ordinary attendance at festivals in villages and towns, and undertook a voyage to America as a member of a gymnastic troupe called the " Ravel Family. " Here in America his talent made itself known in a wonderful performance. Antoine Ravel appeared one evening with the piece de resisinnce of the programme. He placed a cordon of Arabian soldiers around him, with bayonets on the tops of their guns, intending to jump over their heads and the bayonets. As he was still occupied trying to arrange them and displeased that they could not stand as he wished, Blondin, standing in the middle of the ring, uncostumed, and assisting in arranging the men, tried for fun to jump over them unprepared as he was, to the amazement of the public. He succeeded in a masterly manner and from that moment his renown began. In the winter of 1858 the thought occurred to him to work at his own risk, and to be independent. He visited Niagara Falls, and took it into his head to stretch a rope 170 feet long over the waterfall, and walk across. It was, of course, impossible to attempt this in the winter, but he took up his residence thei'e in the hotel so as to be able to give his exhibition in the spring. The rope which he had made for the purpose was 1100 feet long. When the information of his intention was published in the papers it seemed almost incredible, but what was at first supposed to bo humbug spread rapidly over the United States, and at length in the presence of 50,000 persons, Blondin walked across the Niagara on the SOth of June, 1859. The whole Union talked about the audacious Frenchman. Not satisfied with this result he repeated the walk, wrapj)C(l in a sack, and just as safely as if he had used his eves. NIAGARA PARK ILLUSTRATED. On the 13th of July in the Buffalo Theatre, he carried a man on his shoulders along a wire rope extending from the stage to the third gallery — up to the top and down again. On the IGth of July he walked over Nuigara again, rolling a wheel-barrow. On the 15th of August he commenced again giving exhibitions on the wire rope. On the 19th he carried a man over on his back to the astonishment of thousa,nds of people. On the 2d of Septem- ber he went by night and stood on the rope on his head in the light of the fireworks. During the summer of 1860 he went across often on the rope, carrying a man on his back. Ilis last performance at Niagara took place in the presence of the Prince of Wales and his suite. The Prince was almost breathless when the feat was accomplished, and with a heavy sigh exclaimed — " Thank God its all over !" The Prince called Blondin to him, and, showing his admiration, asked him what kind of a feeling he had when walking on the rope ; where- upon Blondin answered, " Nothing, but the necessity of keeping the balance." In the suite of the Prince there was a photographer who took the picture of the rope-dancer during his passage across. Without a balance pole, Blondin stood still with his companion on his shoulders till the picture was taken. The next day he received from the Lord Steward of the Prince a remittance of money and the following document : " Major-General Bruce has been deputed by the Prince of Wales to send the enclosed check to Mr, Blondin, and to say, that His Royal Highness had witnessed with very much interest the exhibition of courage and skill which Mr, Blondin gave yesterday, and desired to express his admiration of the personal courage evinced at that grand peiformance. " Niagara Falls, loth September, 18G0." The inhabitants of Niagara village, to whom his performances by attracting manv thousands of people had Drought much money, presented him with a medal. In conclusion let it be mentioned, that, on account of the carefulness with which Mr. Blondin works, harm has not come to him up to the present time, and we trust never will, Mr, Blondin went on a tour through India, Java, China, the Philippine Islands, Siam, New Zealand and Australia from 1874 to 1877. Ti THE WmmLPDOL S ft US.V, V^5=^' / lu^ Hav Sc ■'^:.unt had been given of these by Mr. Hall in his first rejoort. I therefore pro- .~<^-^-J~~c^s ;^ ^ ^ posed to him that we should ~-r 'v^^ examine these carefully, and see if we could trace any remnants of the same alongf the edges of the river clitf below the Falls. We began by collecting in Goat Island shells of the- genera Unio, Cyclas, Me- lania, Valvata, Limnea, Planorhis and Helix, all """"■^ - of recent sj^ecies, in the superficial deposit. They form regular beds, and numerous individuals of the Unio and Cyclas have both their valves united. We then found the same formation exactly opposite to the Falls on the top of the cliff (at d, fig. 1) on the American side, where two river terraces, one twelve and the other twenty-four feet above the Niagara, have been cut in the modern deposits. In these we observed the same fossil shells as in Goat Island, and learned that the teeth and other remains of a mastadon, some of which were shown us, had been found thirteen feet below the surface of the soil. We wer& then taken by our guide to a spot further north, where similar gravel and sand with fluviatile shells oc- East. FlGUHK 1. f d d' curred near the edge of the cliff overhanging the ravine resting on the solid limestone. It was about half a mile below the principal Fall, and extended at some points 300 yards inland, but no farther, for it was then bounded by the bank of more an- cient drift (/. fig. 1). This deposit precisely occupies the place which the ancient bed and alluvial plain of the Niagara would naturally have filler, if the river once extended farther northwards at a level sufficiently high to SECTION AT NIAGARA FALLS. Limestone 80 feet thick. Shale 80 feet thick. Fresh-water strata on Goat Island above 20 feet thick. Same formation on the American side, containing bones of msis- tadon. Ledge of bare limestone on the Canada side. Ancient drift. fc'^T^- UI^^TANT VIKW OK FAILS Fi;()M CANADIAN SIDE 34 NIAGARA PARK ILLUSTRATED. iover the greater part of Goat Island, have existed, and there must have North. Figure SECTION OF GOAT ISLAND FROM NORTH TO SOUTH 2,500 FEET IN LENGTH. A. Massive compact portion of the Niagara limestone. B. Upper thin bedded portion of the Niagara limestone strata, slightly inclined to the south. c. Horizontal fresh-water beds of gravel, sand and loam, with shells. Z>, E. Present surface of the river Niagara at the Rapids. At that period the ravine could not been a barrier, several miles lower down, at or near the Whirl- pool. The supposed original channel, through which the waters flowed from Lake Erie to Quoenstown or Lew- iston, was excavated chiefly, but not entirely, in the su- perficial drift, and the old river banks cut in this drift are still to be seen facing each other, on both sides of the ravine, for many miles below the Falls. A section of Goat Island from south to north, or parallel to the course of the Niagara (fig. 2), shows that the limestone (Z>) had been greatly denuded before the fluviatile beds (c) were accumulated, and consequently when the Falls were several miles below their present site. From this fact I infer that the slope of Ihe river at the Kapids was principally due to the original shape of the old channel, and not as some have conjectured to modern erosions on the approach of the Falls to the spot. The observations made in 1841 induced me in the following year to re- examine diligently both sides of the river from the Falls to Lewiston and Queenstown, to ascertain if any other patches of the ancient river bed had escaped destruction. Accord- ingly, following first the edge of the cliffs on the eastern bank, I discovered, with no small de- light at the summer house {E, fig. 3) above the Whirlpool, a bed of stratified sand and gravel, forty feet thick, con- taining fluviatile shells in abun- dance. Fortunately a few yards from the summer house a pit had been recently dug for the cellar of a new house to the depth of nine feet in the shelly sand, in which I found shells of the genera Unio, Cyclas, Melania, Melix and Pupa, not only identical in species with those which occur in a fresh state in the bed of the Niagara, near the ferry, but corresponding also in the proportionate number of individuals Figure 3. SECTION AT THE SUMMER HOUSE ABOVE WHIRL- POOL, EAST BANK OF NIAGARA. A. Thick bedded limestone, same as at Falls. b. Ancient drift. c. Boulders at base of steep bank formed by drift. d. Fresh-water strata, 40 feet thick. E. Summer house. GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF RETROCESSION. 35 belonging to each species, that of Cyclas similis, for example, being the most numerous. The same year I found also a remnant of the old river bed on the opposite or Canadian side of the river, about a mile and a half above the Whirlpool, or two miles and a half below the Falls. These facts appear conclusive as to the former extension of a more elevated valley, four miles at least below the Falls ; and at this point the old river bed must have been so high as to be capable of holding back the waters which covered all the patches of fluviatile sand and gravel, including that of Goat Island. As the tableland or limestone platform rises gently to the north, and is highest near Queenstown, there is no reason to suppose that there was a greater fall In the Niagara when it 5owed at its higher level than now between Lake Erie and the Falls ; and according to this view, the old channel might well have furnished the requir- ed barrier. I have stated that on the left, or Canadian bank of the Niagara, below the Trails, I succeeded in de- tecting sand with fresh- water shells at one point only, near the mouth of the muddy river. The ledge of limestone on this side is usually laid bare, or only covered by vege- table mould (as at e, fig. 1), until we arrive at the boulder clay (/, fig. 1), which is sometimes within a few yards of the top of the precipice, and sometimes again retires eighty yards or more from it, being from twenty to fifty feet in height. ****** There is also a notch or indentation, called the '' Devil's Hole," on the right or eastern side of the Niagara, half a mile below the Whirlpool, which deserves notice, for there^ I think, there are signs of the Great Cataract having been once situated. A small streamlet, Cc^lled the " Bloody Run," irum a battle fought there with the Indians, joins the Niagara at this jilace, and has hollowed out a lateral chasm. Asceuding the great ravine, we here see, facing us, a projecting cliff of limestone, which stands out forty feet beyond the general range of the river cliff below, and has its flat summit bare and without scil, just as if it had once formed the eastern side of the Great Fall. THE DEVIL S HOLE. 36 NIAGARA PARK ILLUSTRATED. A FIRST IMPRESSION. DICKENS. fN" THE morning we arrived at Buffalo, and, being too near the Great Falls to wait patiently anywhere else, we set off by the train at nine o'clock to Niagara. It was a miserable day ; chilly and raw ; a damp mist falling ; and the trees in that northern region quite bare and wintry. Whenever the train halted I listened for the roar ; and was constantly straining my eyes in the direction where I knew the Falls must be, from seeing the river rolling on to- wards them ; every moment expecting to behold the spray. Within a few minutes of our stopping, not before, I saw two great white clouds rising up slowly and majestically from the depths of the earth. That was all. At length we alighted ; and then, for the first time, I heard the mighty rush of water, and felt the ground tremble underneath my feet. The bank is very steep, and was slippery with rain and half-melted ice. I hardly know how I got down, but I was soon at the bottom, and climbing, with two English offi- cers who were crossing and had Joined me, over some broken rocks, deafened by the noise, half blinded by the spray and wet to the skin. We were at the foot of the American Fall. I could see an immense torrent of water tearing headlong down from some great height, but had no idea of shape, oi* situation, or anything but vague immensity. When we were seated in the little ferry- boat, and were crossing the swollen river, immediately before both cataracts, I began to feel what it was : but I was in a manner stunned, and unable to- comprehend the vastness of the scene. It was not until I came on Table Kock,, and looked — Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright green water ! — that it came upon me in its full might and majesty. Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect,, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Peace of Mind, tranquillity, calm recollections of the Dead, great thoughts of Eternal Kest and Happiness: nothing of gloom or terror. Niag- ara Avas at once stamped upon my heart, an Image of Beauty ; to remain, there changeless and indelible, until its pulses cease to beat, for ever. — American" Notes.. FALL OF TABLE ROCK. 9jfN olden times @ Table Kock on the Canada side was asplen- d id crag from Avhich the eye could take in at one glance the Avhole of the Falls. It was one of the most fam- ous points about Niagara. Its forms and di- mensions were A"ery large, but have been chang- ed to their pres- ent appearance through fre- quent and vio- lent disruptions. The overhang- ing table fell in 1850. Emerson liad been on it only the day be- fore. Fortunate- ly it fell at noon when few peo- ple were out of doors, and at the moment no one was on the rock but the driver of an omnibus wlio had taken out his liorses to feed them and was washing his vehicle on the edge of the cliff. He heard the warning crash and felt the motion of the falling rock just in time to escape. The vehicle which he had been cleansing fell into the abyss and no trace of it could afterwards be seen. The huge mass of rock wliicli fell was over two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide and one hundred feet deep where it separated from the bank. Now all that is left of the far-famed Table Rock is a narrow ledge, bordering the bank where it juts and close to the Horseshoe Fall, but from it the grandest and most comprehensive view of the wide sweep of the Cataract and the Eapids above are obtained. S8 NIAGARA PARK ILLUSTRATED. PILGRIMAGE UNDER THE FALL. HARRIET MARTINEAU. HE second time I visited Niagara I accomplished the feat of going behind the Fall. We had a stout negro for a guide. He took me by the hand and led me through the spray. I pres- ently found the method of keeping myself at my ease. It was to hold down the brim of my hat so as to pro- tect my eyes from the dashing waters, and to keep my mouth shut. With these precautions I could breathe and see freely in the midst of a tumult which would otherwise be enough to extinguish one's being. A hurricane blows up from the cauldron; a deluge drives at you from all parts; and the noise of both wind and waters reverberated from the cavern, is inconceivable. Our path was sometimes a wet ledge of rock, just broad enough to allow one person at a time to creep along; in other places we walked over heaps of fragments both slippery and unstable. If all had been dry and quiet I might probably have thought this path above the boiling basin dangerous, and have trembled to pass it; but amidst the hubbub of gusts and floods, it appeared so firm a foot- ing that I had no fear of slipping into the cauldron. From the moment that I perceived that we were actually behind the cataract and not in a mere cloud of spray, the enjoyment was intense. I not only saw the watery curtain before me like the tempest driven snow, but by momentary glances could see the crystal roof of this most wonderful of nature's palaces. The precise point where the flood quitted the rock was marked by a gush of silvery light, which of course was brighter where the waters were shooting forward, than below where they fell perpendicularly. There was light enough to see one another's features by, and even to give a shadow to the side of the projecting rock which bars our further progress. When we came to within a few paces of this projeclion, our guide by a motion of his hand forbade my advancing further. But it was no time and place to be stopped by anything but the impossible. I made the guide press himself against the rock and crossed between him and the cauldron, and easily gained my object, laying my hand on Termination Rock. Mrs. F. says we looked like three gliding ghosts when her anxious eye first caught our forms moving behind the cloud. She was glad enough to see us, for some one passing by had made her expect us at least two minutes before we appeared. Dripping at all points as we were. We scudded under the rocks and up the staircase to our dressing rooms,, after which we wrote our names among those adventurers who had performed the same feat, and received a certificate of our having visited Termination Rock. PILGRIMAGE UNDER THE FALL. 40 mAGAEA PARK ILLUSTRATED. NIAGARA. MRS. SIGOUBNEY. ^"tef LOW on forever, in thy glorious robe M\ Of terror and of beauty : — Yea, flow on Unfathona'd and resistless. —God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead : and the cloud Mantled around thy feet. — And he doth give Thy voice of thunder, power to speak of Him Eternally, — bidding the lip of man Keep silence, — and upon thy rocky altar pour Incense of awe-struck praise. Ah ! who can dare To lift the insect trump of earthly hope. Or love, or sorrow,— 'mid the peal sublime Of thy tremendous hymn ? Even Ocean shrinks Back from thy brotherhood : and all his waves Retire abashd. For he doth sometimes seem To sleep like a spent laborer, — and recall His wearied billows from their vexing plaj^ And lull them to a cradle calm : — but thou, With everlasting, undecaying tide. Doth rest not, night or day. — The morning stars, When first they sang o'er j^oung Creation's birth. Heard thy deep anthem, and those wrecking fires That wait the archangel's signal to dissolve This solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears On thine unending volume. Every leaf That lifts Itself within thy wide domain. Doth gather greenness from thy living spray. Yet tremble at the baptism. — I.o ! yon birds Do boldly venture near, and bathe their wing Amid thy mist and foam. 'Tis meet for them To touch thy garment's hem, and lightly stir The snowy leaflets of thy vapor wreath. For they may sport unharmed amid the cloud. Or listen al the echoing gate of heaven. Without reproof. But as for us, it seems Scarce lawful, with our broken tones, to speak Familiarly of thee.— Methinks, to tint Thy glorious features with our pencil's point, Or woo thee to the tablet of a song Were profanation. Thou dost make the soul A wondering witness of thy majesty, But as it presses with delirious joy To pierce thy vestibule, doth chain its step, Acd tame its rapture, with the humbling view Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand In the dread presence of the Invisible, As if to answer to its God, through thee. NIVGARA FAI.rS ABOVE TIIK WHIKLPOUL RAPTDS. 43 j\ J AGAR A PARK ILLUSTRATED. INDIAN LEGENDS. The Victim cf the Falls. EW are ilio legends con- nected with Kiagara, and those which do exist are tragic and solemn in their character. The early Indians looked with too much awe upon this migh- ty cataract to connect it in their imagination with any thing but the terrible. Its depths ta them contained the Great Spirit of the Falls, a Manitou of Evil whom they were bound to propitiate Avith offerings of pipes, Avampums, and trinkets. This Spirit, according to tradition, exacted annually two human victims to satisfy his cravings for earthly blood. In addition to this the Indians used every summer to sacrifice the fairest maiden of their tribe, sending her to glide over the dreaded brink in a white canoe, filled with choicest fruits and flowers. 1'he accompanying engraving, taken from a picture by Chas. Volkmar, illustrates this rite. It is also embodied in another form in the charming poem given below and written by George Houghton. Niagara. ' Here, when the world was wreathed with the scarlet and gold cf October, Here, from far-scattered camps, came the moccasined tribes of the red-man, Left in their tents their bows, forgot their brawls and dissensions, Ringed thee with peaceful fires, and over their calumets pondered; ' Chose from their fairest virgins the fairest and purest among them. Hollowed a birchen canoe, and fashioned a seat for the virgin. Clothed her in white, and sent her adrift lowhiil to thy bosom, Saying : ' Receive this our vow, Niagara, Father of Waters ! ' 'Lo ! drifting toward us approaches a curious tangle of something ! White and untillered it floats, bewitching the sight, and appearing Like to a birchen canoe, a virgin crouched pallid within if, Hastening with martyr zeal to solve the unriddled hereafter ! ' Slower and smoother her flight, until on the precipice pausing, Just for the space of a breath the dread of the change seems to thrill her; Crossing herself, and seeming to shudder, she lifts eyes to heaven, — Sudden a mist upwhirls — I see not — but know all is over." - George HoTJGHTO^. INDIAN LEGEND. 44 NIAGARA PARK ILLUSTRATED. MY VISIT TO NIAGARA. XATHAXIEL HAWTHORXE. NEVER did