How should I prove all this? My first step was to visit the
beautiful Iris Island, otherwise known as Goat Island. Donning a
suit of oilcloth and other disagreeable loose stuff, I followed
the guide into the Cave of the Winds. Of course, the sensation
at first was so novel and overpowering that the question of
pitch was lost in one of personal safety. Remaining here a few
minutes, I emerged to collect my dispersed thoughts. After
regaining myself, I returned at once to the point of beginning,
and went slowly in again (alone), testing my first question of
pitch all the way; that is, during the approach, while under the
fall, while emerging, and while standing some distance below the
face of the fall, not only did I ascertain this (I may say in
spite of myself, for I could hear but one pitch), but I heard
and sang clearly the pitch of all the harmonic or accessory
tones, only of course several octaves higher than their actual
pitch. Seven times have I been under these singing waters
(always alone except the first time), and the impression has
invariably been the same, so far as determining the tone and its
components. I may be allowed to withhold the result until I
speak of my experience at the Horseshoe Fall, and the American
Fall proper--it being scarcely necessary to say that the Cave of
the Winds is under the smaller cascade, known as the Central
Fall.
My next step was to stand on Luna Island, above the Central
Fall, and on the west side of the American Fall proper. I went
to the extreme eastern side of the island, in order to lose as
far as possible the sound of the Central Fall, and get the full
force of the larger Fall. Here were the same great ground tone
and the same harmonics, differing only somewhat in pitch.
I then went over to the Horseshoe Fall and sat among the Rapids.
There it was again, only slightly higher in pitch than on the
American side. Not then knowing the fact, I ventured to assert
that the Horseshoe Fall was less in height, by several feet,
than the American Fall; the actual difference is variously given
at from six to twelve feet. Next I went to the Three Sister
Islands, and here was the same old story. The higher harmonics
were mostly inaudible from the noise of the Rapids, but the same
two low notes were ringing out clear and unmistakable. In fact,
wherever I was I could not hear anything else! There was no roar
at all, but the same grand diapason--the noblest and completest
one on earth! I use the word completest advisedly, for nothing
else on earth, not even the ocean, reaches anywhere near the
actual depth of pitch, or makes audible to the human ear such a
complete and perfect harmonic structure.
[Illustration: Horseshoe Falls from Below.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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