Niagara Falls18—Some half-wit Barnum, amateur Noah,fashioned an arka—salvaged, broken barge—to populate with creatures trapped or bought:black bear, wolverine, a fox like a flame,peacocks, possum, hogs, raccoon, wailing tribeof forsaken dogs, weasel, skunk, even—according to eyewitness reports—sixsilver monkeys shipped by rail from New York,God’s mange-thumbed menagerie chained to planksthat would have floated three runaway slaveshad not abolitionists threatened court.Then Noah bid his besti...