22.4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
eventually the Philistine propensities of the agricultural natives 
destroyed this emblem of a departed age. I was fortunate enough . 
the next year to be able to lay hold of some small pieces of the frame 
work, which I now have in my possession. 
Going down the American channel past Tonawanda, with its 
miles of timber wharves, and directly east of Navy and Grand 
Islands, we come to Cayuga Island and creek, a mile from whose 
mouth is the village of La Salle. The name of René Cavelier dit 
La Salle occupies a place in early Canadian annals second only, if 
second, to that of Champlain himself. At the mouth of this creek, 
six miles above the falls, was built the first European craft that ever 
navigated the waters of the upper lakes, the ill-fated Griffin, whose 
fate must, like that of many a noble vessel in modern days, be a 
matter of conjecture, since, after carrying La Salle on his way to 
the Mississippi, it was never afterwards seen or heard of. The water 
of this creek, like that of all the streams flowing into the Niagara, is 
of a dark brown colour, in striking contrast with the clear blue of the 
river itself. Three miles below Cayuga Creek is Schlosser’s Island and 
landing, pronounced by. the degenerate inhabitant of the river 
Slusher’s. Here was one end of the portage round the Falls of which 
the other end was nine miles below at Lewiston. Here the canoes of 
the Indian and voyageur once again entered the stream on their voy- 
age from Fort Frontenac to the fur depots at Machilimackinac. The 
current is very mild along this shore of the river, and until the lower 
end of Grand Island is reached, when it becomes very rapid, the 
voyageurs could propel themselves as easily and rapidly as along a 
placid inland lake. In 1750 the French constructed a stockade and 
fort at this point which they appropriately called Fort La Portage. 
It was burnt in 1759 by Chabert Joncaire who was in command of 
it when the British commenced the glorious campaign against the 
French, which gave us the “brightest jewel in the British crown.’’ 
A short time after this the fort was rebuilt by Captain Joseph 
Schlosser, a{German, who had served in the British army throughout 
the campaign. A few inequalities in the surface of the ground now 
mark the site of the guardian of the Portage, but some twenty or thirty 
years ago the outlines and ditches were still quite distinct. A monu- 
ment of antiquity still stands some yards below the remains of the Fort 
in the shape of a stone chimney, which was the centre point of the 
French barracks and storehouses previous to 1759. Several 
