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.