OCR Text |
Show THE DAMAGE TO NIAGARA FALLS. The millions of frionds of Niagara Falls who fear that water diverted for the Erio canal and power purposes will interfere with the grandeur of the scene, will be interested in the report of United States army engineers engi-neers to be submitted to congress at the coming session The report shows that the natural action of the water the grlsdlng away of the soft ro-k shelf at the tee of the famous Horseshoe Horse-shoe is what threatens most to damage dam-age the appearance of the Falls The engineers, appointed by Mr. Taft while he was secretary of war under President Roosevelt, report that according to scientific measurements the entire change made in the crest of the American falls owing to water diversion amounts to a lowering of the sheet of water by 0.52 of a foot, the loworlng of tho crest of the Horseshoe Horse-shoe being .5 of a foot. In figures more intelligible this means that the crest line of the American falls Is lowered five-eighths of an inch out of an average depth of twenty-four inches, the lowering of the crest of the I Horseshoe or Canadian falls being six r Inches out of an average depth of Buveniy-iwo incnes - a uccrease so slight that neither the keenesl eye nor tho most-delicate camera can observe ob-serve It. The damage which, the falls have done to themselves Is in the very middle mid-dle of the Horseshoe, where the water has gouged into tho soft rock a twenty-foot doop V-shaped notch. This acts as a channel whlqh draws away water from the shallower ends of the falls and which Is eating Its way upstream up-stream at a rate of moro than five feet a j car. The report locommends that the governments of the state of New York nnd the province of Ontario plan a sunken V-shaped dam above the notch. The swift, rushing water, striking against the apex of this concealed con-cealed dam, wjll be deflected toward the ends of tho falls, and the falls will therreby regain something of their original natural appearance. |