14 Dr. Bigsby on the Tojwgraphy of Lake Ontario. 



The River Genesee enters the lake in the middle of the south 

 shore. At its mouth, on the left sloping bank, stands the vil- 

 lage of Charlottestown. Itis here about twohundred yards wide, 

 and varies a good deal on the way to the first fall, five miles from 

 the lake. The banks (as we ascend) soon rise to the height 

 of 80 to 120 feet, and continue to mount to the Falls, where 

 they are 196 feet. They are usually steep, and covered with 

 trees, especially cedar and hemlock, growing on ferruginous 

 sandstone. The first fall is seventy feet high. The quantity 

 of water is only great in spring ; it is, however, very advan- 

 tageously displayed, by dashing on two successive ledges, from 

 which, arching beautifidh', it loses itself in the wreathing spray 

 which ever plays around the foot of the bare red rock. The 

 walls of the chasm into which it falls are perpendicular, and 

 dilate so as to give it the form of a horse-shoe. Large masses 

 of debris occupy the base of these cliffs. A few hundred yards 

 above this cascade is a second, only a few feet in height; and 

 a short distance still higher up the river, a third ninety feet 

 high, and passing in an unbroken and almost transparent cur- 

 tain over a gracefully curving line of rocks. Like the other 

 falls it is embellished by heights and foliage. This river rises 

 in the hilly region on the north frontier of Pennsylvania. 



The islands of Lake Ontario are all at the north-east end, 

 and are only twenty in number, counting several very small 

 ones; I exclude the patches of marsh and pebbles in Quinte 

 Bay. I shall only mention some of the larger. Of these, by far 

 the greatest is Amherst or Tonti Island, Grand Island more 

 strictly belonging to the outlet soon to be described. Amherst 

 Island is a mile and three quarters below the peninsula of 

 Prince Edward, the interval being named " The Upper Gap," 

 while the " Lower Gap," 3^ miles broad, is included between 

 the lower end of Amherst Island and the upper end of Simcoe 

 Island. 



Amherst is fertile, of moderate elevation, runs about S.W., 

 and is lOj miles long. It is pretty compact. Its greatest 

 breadth is ^f miles. Its mean distance from the Canadian 

 main is If mile. 



The greater or True Duck Island, 15f miles south-east from 

 the east point of Prince Edward Peninsula, is 2^ miles long 

 and 1600 yards across where widest; but it is commonly 

 much narrower. It belongs to Canada. 



Stony Island, 2 miles or thereabouts* from the American 

 Main, near Sackett's Harbour, is 3^ miles long by an average 



• The map of the Boundary Commission, from which these distances are 

 measured, does not include the vicinity of Sackett's Harbour. 



breadth 



