NIAGARA FALLS. 203 



A dog once got clear with a broken rib ; and 

 two sheep were found below the cataract, one of 

 which was alive. On the other hand, the proba- 

 bility of escaping with life is scarcely any. Wild 

 geese, deer, fish, and other animals, are to be 

 seen dashed to pieces. A tragical story is told 

 of a poor Indian, which would form a good sub- 

 ject for a poem. He had tied his canoe to the 

 shore at Chippewa, and had fallen asleep. Some 

 ruthless villain, it is supposed, loosened his fast- 

 ening, and he floated down. When he got invol- 

 ved in the great rapid, he was awakened h v the 

 noise, and rising up, and perceiving his perilous 

 situation, he tried with all his might to peddle 

 himself out— but finding his efforts unavailing, 

 he wrapped himself up in his blanket, and sat 

 down in the canoe, yielding himself up to his fate 

 with stoical apathy, and with Roman fortitude. 

 In this short and dreadful interval between life 

 and death, a poetic imagination might conceive 

 and describe with wonderful pathos and energy, 

 the ideas which passed through the untutored 

 mind of the poor Indian, and the feelings which 

 agitated his bosom, when on the eve of a final 

 separation from his family and sacred home, and 

 when the ties which connected him with this, 

 world, were about to be for ever dissolved. 



