Note 1 — Chapter V · THE BUILDING OF THE GRIFFON

Lake Ontario is 326 ft. lower than Lake Erie and about 30 miles distant. For 18 miles the Niagara River flows peacefully along, then suddenly the channel narrows and the waters rush down 53 ft. in half a mile, and then drop over a cliff 160 ft. in two separate falls, one 600 and the other 200 ft. wide. Seven thousand tons of water are thus discharged every second into a narrow gorge whose nearly perpendicular walls rise 200 ft. on either side. Down its steep slope the imprisoned waters dash in a succession of boiling rapids, white with foam, forming in one loop of the channel a curious whirlpool. Issuing from this gorge at Lewiston, the river flows tranquilly on to Lake Ontario.