Ney
MICHEL, DUKE OF ELCHIN- GEN AND PRINCE OF THE MOSKVA, peer and Marshal of France; born in Saarlouis, France, Jan. 10, 1769. His early years were devoted to the study of the law, but disliking the confinement, he entered the army as a private hussar in 1787. He distinguished himself in the first years of the Revolutionary War, when serving with the army of the Rhine; and in 1796 he rose :
NEZ PERCES to the rank of Brigadier-General. On his marriage with Mlle. Anguré, the Beauharnais, Napoleon named him poleon named him his envoy and minthe Helvetian republic; but in 1803 he was recalled 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 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 Napoleon had quitted Elba.
On taking leave of Louis XVIII., he made many protestations of his zeal and fidelity to the king. Arriving at Besançon, Ney, however, found the whole country hastening to meet the returning emperor at Lyons.
The troops he commanded shared the 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 day, and the second abdication 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; companions in arms having declared themselves incomcourt-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 PERCÉS, a tribe of American Indians, chiefly settled in Idaho, on the Percés proper have always been loyal to the whites, and are making good progress in civilization; but in 1877 the zation; but in 1877 the treaty reductions sanguinary outbreak on the part of the "non-treaty" murdered settlers, fought the soldiers, and then fled across Idaho, Montana, and Dakota.
Idaho, Montana, and Dakota. They were General, then Colonel, Miles, and beaten, and the survivors to Indian Territory; 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 river, which flows from Lake Erie N.
NIAGARA FALLS. The Niagara 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 1½ miles of the Falls, the river is contracted to a width of 22 miles, and grows narrower as it proceeds. By this, and by the descent in the channel, which is about 60 feet in the mile, are produced the swift currents 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 Island. This fall is from 8 to 10 feet an islet at a short distance from Goat higher than the Horseshoe, but only about 220 yards wider. The Falls can be seen from below on both sides, and every viewing them from all the best points.
The river is crossed about 200 or 300 yards below the Falls, by a suspension bridge, and by a ferry where it is 1,200 yards wide. A straacross the direct which, after forming a vast circular course of the river, 3 or 4 miles below, basin, with an almost impassable whirlpool, is forced away at right angles to its old channel. culated at 16,000,000 horse power, and The total energy of the Falls is calgun on April 15, 1895, when the first the work of utiliz large dynamo was run at full speed. utilizing this power was be- On July 1 the first electric power transmitted for commercial purposes, 4,000 horse power, was sent to an aluminum 1896, the Niagara Falls Power Company factory a mile distant. On Jan. 17, accepted a grant for the transmission of electric power for lighting and power purposes to Buffalo.
On April 18, 1898, house generator had been tested by the the fourth 5,000-horse-power Westingthe fourth 5,000horse-power Westingpower company. This power company. This machine, the first to be installed NIAGARA FALLS and operated, brought the capacity of the station up to 20,000 electrical horse power; additional dynamos subsequently raised the capacity to 300,000 horse power. It is used in Syracuse, 165 miles from the source, and supplies power to the electric railways of Ontario, 240 miles away.