CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 215 



the stream, in a noise like the loudest thunder, to make the solid 

 rock (at least as to sense) shake to its very foundation, ami threaten 

 to tear every nerve to pieces, and to deprive one of other senses be- 

 sides that of hearing. It was a most magnificent sight, that ages, 

 added to the greatest length of human life, would not efface or era- 

 dicate from my memory ; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and a 

 total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern. 

 It was one of the most magnificent, stupendous sights in the crea- 

 tion, though degraded and vilified by the lies of a grovelling fa. 

 riatic priest. 



I was awakened from one of the most profound reveries that ever 

 I fell into, by Mahomet, and by my friend Drink, who now put to 

 me a thousand impertinent questions. It was after this I measured 

 the fall, and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have 

 mentioned; but I confess I could at no time in my life less promise 

 upon precisian; my reflection was suspended, or subdued; and, 

 while in sight of the fall, I think I was under a temporary aliena- 

 tion of mind; it seemed to me as if one element had broke loose 

 from, and become superior to, all laws of subordination; that the 

 fountains of the great deep were again extraordinarily opened, and 

 the destruction of a world was once more begun by the agency of 



water. 



[Bruce's Travels, Vol. V. 8vo+ 



2. Falls of the River Niagara, draicn up from M. Borassazo's 

 Account. By the Hon. Paul Dudley, F.R.S. 



THE falls of Niagara are formed by a vast ledge or precipice of 

 solid rock, lying across the whole breadth of the river, a little 

 before it empties itself into, or forms the lake Ontario. 



M. Borassaw says, that in spring 1722, the governor of Canada 

 ordered his own son, with three other officers, to survey the 

 Niagara, and take the exact height of the cataract, which they ac- 

 cordingly did with a stone of half a hundred weight, and a large 

 cod-line, and found it on a perpendicular no more than 26 fathoms, 

 Tingt et six brass. 



This differs very much from the account Father Hennepin has 

 given of that cataract ; for he makes it 100 fathoms, and our 

 modern maps from him, as I suppose, mark it at 600 feet ; but 

 I believe Hennepiu never measured it, and there is 110 guessing at 

 such things. 



