and improved by
extensive federal work. The Welland Canal, about 25 M. west of Buffalo,
connects Lake Erie with the St. Lawrence River. The annual tonnage of
the port of Buffalo is upwards of 20,000,000 tons. The total export
trade is close to $100,000,000. Besides being the first port in the
country in handling horses, sheep, cattle and hogs, it receives immense
quantities of lumber, pig iron and ore and has more than a score of huge
grain elevators with a capacity of about 30,000,000 bushels.

In the manufacturing field it has two great advantages: a supply of
natural gas and almost unlimited electric power from Niagara Falls. Its
total annual output is valued at approximately $400,000,000, and its
manufactures include meat packing, foundry and machine shop products,
flour, steel, linseed oil, railroad cars, clothing, chemicals,
furniture, automobiles, jewelry, confectionery and tobacco.

Buffalo is connected with the Canadian shore by ferry and by the
International Bridge, completed in 1873 at a cost of $1,500,000.

Niagara Falls, while it is not on the main route to Chicago is best
reached from Buffalo, from which it is only 32 miles distant, and
travellers so easily can stop over to make the little side trip that it
is virtually a part of the journey westward.

[Illustration: The fall of Niagara in the Province of New York.
A Colonial Print (1762) in the N.Y. Public Library]

Niagara Falls.

Of the seven natural wonders of the American world, which are given as
Yellowstone Park, Garden of the Gods, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the
Natural Bridge, Yosemite Valley, and the Giant Trees of California, by
far the greatest spectacle is Niagara. The name means "thunder of the
waters," and was given by the early Indians who regarded the falls with
a quite comprehensible religious awe. Today there are more than a
million and a half visitors annually.

Probably the first white man to discover the Falls was Etienne Brul['e], an
associate and trusted comrade of Champlain; but the first chronicler and
the man to whom honour of discovery is usually given, is Father
Hennepin, founder of the monastery at Ft. Frontenac in Quebec, who in
1678 joined La Salle's Mississippi expedition, and pushing on a few days
journey ahead of his commander, came upon the wonderful waters described
in his _Louisiane Nouvelle_ (1698). The French built some trading posts
here and their influence prevailed until 1759, when the British,