The Niagara River

The Strait of Niagara, or the Niagara River, as it is commonly called, ranks

among the wonders of the world. The study of this stream is of intense and

special interest to many classes of people, notably historians, archæologists,

botanists, geologists, artists, mechanics, and electricians. It is doubtful if

there is anywhere another thirty-six miles of riverway that can, in this

respect, compare with it.

The term "strait" as applied to the Niagara correctly suggests the river's

historic importance. The expression, recurring in so many of the relations

of French and English military officers, "on this communication" also

indicates Niagara's position in the story of the discovery, conquest, and

occupation of the continent. It is probably the Falls which, technically,

make Niagara a river; and so, in turn, it is the Falls that rendered Niagara

an important strategic key of the vast waterway stretching from the mouth

of the St. Lawrence to the head of Lake Superior. The lack¿so far as it does

exist¿of historic interest in the immediate Niagara region, the comparative

paucity of military events of magnitude along that stream during the old

French and the Revolutionary wars proves, on the one hand, what a

wilderness separated the English on the South from the French on the

North, and, on the other, how strong "the communication" was between

Quebec and the French posts in the Middle West. It does not prove that

Niagara was the less important.