Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/559

NEZ PEKCES 455 NIA6ABA FALLS to the rank of Brigadier-General. On his marriage with Mile. AnguJe, the friend of Hortense de Beauharnais, Na- poleon named him his envoy and min- ister-plenipotentiary to the Helvetian republic; but in 1803 he was recalled to take command of the army intended to make a descent upon England. In the following year, Ney was created a marshal. After a succession of victories he obtained the additional title of Prince of the Moskva, and in June, 1814, he was invested with the dignity of a peer of France. He retired to his seat in the country, from which he was recalled in March, 1815, by information that Napo- leon had quitted Elba. On taking leave of Louis XVIII., he made many protesta- tions of his zeal and fidelity to the king. Arriving at Besangon, Ney, how- ever, found the whole country hastening to meet the returning emperor at Lyons. The troops he commanded shared the delirium; and Ney himself yielded his opinion, and went over with his army to his former friend and master. He again fought under his banner at the battle of Waterloo. After the conclusion of that eventful day, and the second abdi- cation of Napoleon, Ney was advised to quit France. He refused and retired to the residence of a near relative; but he was soon arrested, and brought to trial; and his colleagues and companions in arms having declared themselvep incom- petent to form a court-martial whereby to judge him, the affair was carried to the House of Peers, by whom he was condemned. He was shot Dec. 7, 1815, in the garden of the Luxembourg, Paris. NEZ PERCES, a tribe of American Indians, chiefly settled in Idaho, on the Lapwai river. The Nez Perces proper have always been loyal to the whites, and are making good progress in civili- zation; but in 1877 the treaty reductions of their reservation led to a sanguinary outbreak on the part of the "non-treaty" Nez Perces, who murdered settlers, fought the soldiers, and then fled across Idaho, Montana, and Dakota. They were overtaken by General, then Colonel, Miles, and beaten, and the survivors (some 350) transferred to Indian Terri- tory; but in 1885 some were restored to Idaho, and the rest joined the Colville Indians, in Washington. There is no evidence that they ever had a custom which would justify their name, "pierced nose." At present their number has been reduced to some 1,000. NGANKINGFU or NGANKING, a city of China on the Yang-tze river. It has a military college and other public buildings. Pop. about 40,000. NIAGARA FALLS. The Niagara river, which flows from Lake Erie N. into Lake Ontario, is about 36 miles in length; its descent from the level of one lake to that of the other is about 334 feet. At the foot of Grand Island, which reaches within 1^ miles of the Falls, the river is contracted to a width of 2% miles, and grows narrower as it pro- ceeds. By this, and by the descent in the channel, which is about 60 feet in the mile, are produced the swift cur- rents known as the rapids, in which the river, notwithstanding its great depth, is perpetually white with foam. At the Falls, which are 22 miles from Lake Erie, the river is divided by an island called Goat Island; but, in consequence of a bend in the channel, by far the largest portion of the water is sent down by the Canadian side. On this side, therefore, is the grander cataract^ which has been named the Horseshoe Fall, and which is about 600 yards in width and 154 feet high. The water is so deep that it retains its green color for some distance below the brow of the precipice ; and it rushes over with such force that it is thrown about 50 feet from the foot of the cliff. The separation caused by Goat Island leaves a large wall of rock between the Canadian and American falls, the latter being again divided by an islet at a short distance from Goat Island. This fall is from 8 to 10 feet higher than the Horseshoe, but only about 220 yards wider. The Falls can be seen from below on both sides, and every facility is given for viewing them from all the best points. The river is crossed by a suspension bridge, and by a ferry about 200 or 300 yards below the Falls, where it is 1,200 yards wide. A stra- tum of a rock runs across the direct course of the river, 3 or 4 miles below, which, after forming a vast circular basin, with an almost impassable whirl- pool, is forced away at right angles to its old channel. The total energy of the Falls is cal- culated at 16,000,000 horse power, and the work of utilizing this power was be- gun on April 15, 1895, when the first large dynamo was run at full speed. On July 1 the first electric power trans- mitted for commercial purposes, 4,000 horse power, was sent to an aluminum factory a mile distant. On Jan. 17, 1896, the Niagara Falls Power Company accepted a grant for the transmission of electric power for lighting and power purposes to Buffalo. On April 18, 1898, the fourth 5,000-horse-power Westing- house generator had been tested by the power company. This machine, the first of a new set of dynamos to be installed