20 ACCOUNT or tHe SPRAY 
Falls ; and itis reafonable to fuppofe that fuch an impregna- 
tion will be more fenfibly perceived at its fource than af- 
terwards, when it is mixed and diluted with the water of 
the river. To this may be added that at Fort-Erie, about 
twenty miles above the Falls, the water is thought not to 
be inferior to that of Niagara. In the fecond place, it oc- 
curred to me that if any confiderable depofition of earth 
took place, as I had fuppofed, the fpecific gravity of the 
water below the Falls muft be lefs than that of the water 
above.———To determine this point, 1 weighed a quantity 
of water at Niagara with all the care and exactne(fs I was 
mafter of; and the very fame day madea journey up to 
Fort-Schloffer, and weighed the water immediately above 
the Falls. The fpecific gravity was found to be exactly 
the fame. As I conduted this experiment with all pofli- 
ble caution, meafuring the temperature of the water and 
alfo that of the room, in which it was weighed, each time ~ 
by Farenheit’s thermometer, [think I can depend upon its 
being pretty accurate——In enquiring into the formati- 
on of this fubftance called the fpray, it muft be obferved 
ift, That the rocks near the Falls are kept conftantly wet 
by the vapour whichrifes inform of athick mift ; and even 
thofe at the diftance of a quarter of a mile, or more, are 
affected by it, when the wind blows down the river. adly. 
That thefe rocks, either from thenature of their ftructure, 
or from the circumftance of their being kept conftantly 
wet; or perhaps from the fpray accumulating between 
their layers, and a&tingasa wedge, are very apt to crack 
and {plit; and hence are almoft conftantly tumbling down 
in larger or {maller pieces. 
adly. That upon feparating the layers of thefe rocks 
there is generally more or lefs of this fubftance called {pray 
found between them and almoft univerfally in a foft ftate. 
From the beft enquiries I have been able to make, during 
arefidence of many years, this fubftance is never found a- 
bove 
