NO EMIGRATION. * I 03 



original bank has extended on the States side, I have not 

 the means of knowing, but it is the same at Lockfort, 

 where the locks are situated, on the Erie Canal. It is 

 possible the head of the Mohawk and Hudson River were 

 within its boundary ; and perhaps the tremendous Kaatskill 

 mountains formed the outline on that side. In Canada it 

 may be traced a considerable distance with the eye from the 

 lake. This bank is in some places more than 300 feet high. 

 At the back of Kingston, thirty or forty feet, or perhaps 

 more, above the present high water-mark of the lake, there 

 are places where the rock is not only quite bare of soil, but 

 the interstices washed out, and chasms have been also made, 

 evidently by the washing of the water over this part, ex 

 actly similar to the rock at the bottom of the lake, near Fort 

 Erie, which is often laid bare by a strong east wind blowing 

 the water back up the lake. 



The water in the lakes this winter has fallen to the gene 

 ral level, or rather lower, which may be attributed to the 

 extraordinary dryness of the fall and winter, and the almost 

 constant westerly winds, which have blown so much of 

 the water down, and consequently out of the lakes. So dry 

 has it been, that now, at the latter end of January, there 

 has been so little rain or snow that the swamps are as com 

 pletely dry as they were during the last summer, and mills 

 cannot grind on many of the creeks for want of water : the 

 season, for mildness and pleasant clear weather, was hardly 

 ever known to be equalled, except four years ago. It is 

 generally believed that the seasons are much more temperate 

 of late years than at the first settlement of the province. In 

 December last, a large piece of the rock over which the 

 water pours at the Niagara Falls, gave way ; the noise and 

 shock, it is said, were heard and felt at Chippawa. It has 

 somewhat altered its appearance ; the horse-shoe is now 

 deeper and more circular. 



Oct. 10. Sailed again in a schooner for the west, from 

 Fort Erie, late at night ; as high a wind came on as I almost 

 ever witnessed. Our little vessel bounded off the rolling 

 surges, without shipping any seas ; but our sails being old, 

 all gave way, and at day-light we had not a single sail left ! 

 The consequence was, we were fast drifting ashore in a 

 direct line for a reef of rocks, that run out near a mile from 

 a point of land ; we used every exertion to round this point, 



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