Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/514

472 N I A N I A merit of the empire he was made marshal of France and grand cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1805 he com manded the 6th corps of the grand army, and by his victory at Elchingen, for which he was made duke of Elchingen, secured the surrender of General Mack at Ulm. He was then ordered to the upper Adige, and missed the battle of Austerlitz, but was present at Jena and Eylau, and was so instrumental in winning the battle of Friedland that Napoleon called him the brave des braves, and gave him the grand eagle of the Legion of Honour. In 1808 he was ordered to Spain with the 6th corps, and received the command of Galicia, which he managed to keep in subjec tion to the French in spite of the mountainous nature of the country. In 1810, in command of a corps d arme e under Masse"na, he advanced into Portugal, but he was so disgusted at being under Masse na s command that per petual quarrels resulted, and not only were the French defeated at Busaco, but Ney, when conducting the last column on the retreat from Torres Vedras, received more than one repulse from Lord Wellington at Pombal, Redinha, and Foz d Aronce. For his opposition to Masse"na Ney was recalled from Spain, but received the command of the 3d corps in the grand army of 1812. At the battle of the Moskva he so distinguished himself that he was made Prince de la Moskowa on the field, and in the disastrous retreat from Moscow it was Ney who com manded the rear-guard, and kept the relics of the grand army together. He served at Liitzen and Leipsic, and in the last defensive campaign of 1814, and with Macdonald remained faithful to Napoleon to the last. At the Restora tion he was made a peer, and in 1815 was given the command of the army sent to check Napoleon on escaping from Elba. But the sight of the old colours and of his old master was too much for him, and he led his troops over to Napoleon s side. In the Flemish campaign he fought the battle of Quatre Bras against the English on the same day that Napoleon defeated the Prussians at Ligny, and at Waterloo he commanded in person the last charge of the Old Guard. He made no attempt to leave France, and was arrested as a traitor ; on December 5 he was found guilty of high treason by the House of Peers by 169 votes to 17, and two days later he was shot in the gardens of the Luxembourg. His execution caused a cry of horror ; while no one would have regretted the death of Fouchd or many another of the innumerable traitors, it is to be lamented that Ney was chosen to suffer, whose honesty was well known, and had only once failed him. The character of Ney was that of a simple soldier ; intensely brave, though without the rash impetuosity of a Murat, he was yet as modest as he was brave ; as a general his conduct of the two retreats from Portugal and Russia are his chief titles to fame; and, if he was not faithful to the Bourbons, he paid with his life for his defection. See Memoires du Marechal Ney, publics par sa famille, Paris, 1833, which go down to the capitulation of Ulm, and were translated into English in 1833 ; Vie du Marechal Ney, Paris, 1816; Histoire complete du proces du Marechal Ney, 1815, English translation, 1816 ; A. Delraas, Me.rn.oire sur la revision du proces du Marshal Ney, 1832 ; and Military Studies by Marshal Ney written for the use of his officers, translated by C. H. Gaunter, with notes by Major A. James, London, 1833. NIAGARA, a river in North America forming a por tion of the great lake and river system known as the ST LAWRENCE (q.v.), flows northward from Lake Erie (573 feet above sea-level) to Lake Ontario, separating the State of New York from the province of Ontario in Canada, and within the 33 miles of its course makes a total descent of 328 feet. On issuing from Lake Erie the river is only about three-fourths of a mile broad, and for the first two miles is somewhat swift ; it then divides and passes round Grand Island, broadens and assumes the tranquillity of a lake until the commencement of the rapids, where it sud denly narrows and makes a descent of about 52 feet in the mile before its hurried and troubled waters are precipitated over a lofty chasm forming falls of unexampled grandeur. The breadth of the river immediately be fore making the leap is 4750 feet, but the centre is occupied by Goat Island, rising about 40 feet above the water, and oc cupying a breadth of about 1000 feet, a distance of about 1400 feet separating it from the Ameri can side and about double that distance from the Canadian side, while the length of the verge line be tween the island and the Canadian side is moreover increased by an inward horse shoe curve. The Niagara River, height of the fall on the American side is about 164 feet, and on the Canadian side about 150 feet; the dis charge is about 18,000,000 cubic feet per minute. The. waters plunge into an abyss about 1000 feet wide, and during the next seven miles make a descent of about 104 feet through a deep ravine with perpendicular banks rising- to a height of from 200 to 350 feet, the breadth of the river varying from 250 to 400 yards. Three miles below the great falls the whirlpool rapids are formed by a sudden turn in the channel causing the waters to impinge against the Canadian shore, where they have made a deep indenta tion, and to rush back to the American side in a great whirl or eddy, rendered more furious by the uneven bed of the river, and the narrow space into which it contracts. After issuing from the gorge at Lewiston the river enters on a tranquil course, which continues to Lake Ontario. The. point where the gorge ceases marks the termination of a, table-land in an escarpment facing northwards ; and it has been generally held that the falls were situated here at the time when the river first began to flow, that is, subse quently to the great Ice Age. Recent study has suggested a much more complicated theory, making a great part of the gorge older than the Ice Age, and thus reducing the period for which the modern river has flowed from several hundred thousands of years to one-tenth of that time. The rate of recession is very uncertain; while it would appear from the best maps that some parts have receded at least 100 feet since 1841, others have remained more or less- stationary. At the present site of the falls the edge of the cataract is formed by strata of hard limestone reaching to a depth of about 80 feet ; and by the action of the spray the softer shaly strata below have been hollowed out so as to form the " Cave of Winds," which may be entered from the Canadian side. The river is crossed by a suspen sion bridge for foot passengers, about 250 yards below tho falls, and a mile and a half farther down by two railway bridges about a hundred yards apart, one of which has a carriage way 18 feet below ; the other, a cantilever bridge, completed in December 1883, carries a double line of rails. The name Niagara ("thunder of waters") is the invention of an Indian tribe who adopted it as their own designation, from the fact that it was descriptive of the remarkable natural phenomenon- situated within their territory. This tribe, on account of their peace ful proclivities, were also called the Neuter Nation; but, to avoid