216 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



When I objected Hennepin's account of those falls to M. 

 Borassaw, he replied, that accordingly every body had depended on 

 it as right, until the late survey. On further discourse he acknow- 

 ledged, that below the cataract, for a great way, there were 

 numbers of small ledges or stairs across the river, thiit lowered it 

 still more and more, till you come to a level ; so that if all the 

 descents be put together, he does not know but the difference of 

 the water above the falls and the level below, may come up to 

 father Hennepin ; but the strict and proper cataract on a perpen- 

 dicular is no more than 26 fathoms, or 156 feet, which yet is a 

 prodigious thing, and what the world t suppose cannot parallel, 

 considering the size of the river, being near a quarter of an 

 English mile broad, and very deep water. 



Several other things M. Borassaw set me right in, as to the falls 

 of the Niagara. Particularly it has been said, that the cataract 

 makes such a prodigious noise, that people cannot hear each other 

 speak at some miles distances; whereas he affirms, that you may 

 converse together close by it. I have also heard it positively 

 asserted, that the shoot of the river, when it comes to the precipice, 

 was with such force, that men and horse might march under the 

 body of the river without being whet ; this also he utterly denies, 

 and says, the water falls in a manner right down. 



What he observed farther to me was, that the mist or shower 

 which the falls make, is so extraordinary, as to be seen at five 

 leagues distance, and rises as high as the common clouds. In this 

 brume or clowd, when the sun shines, you have always a glorious 

 rainbow. That the river itself, which is there called the river 

 Niagara, is much narrower at the falls than either above or below ; 

 and that from below there is no coming nearer the falls by water 

 than about six English miles, the torrent is so rapid, and having such 

 terrible whirlpools. 



He confirms Father Hennepin's and Mr. Kelug's account of the 

 large trouts of those lakes, and solemnly affirmed there was one 

 taken lately, that weighed 86 Ib. which 1 am the rather inclined 

 to believe, on the general rule, that fish are according to the 

 waters. To confirm which, a very worthy minister affirmed, that he 

 saw a pike taken in Canada river, and carried on a pole between 

 two men, that measured five feet terj inches in length, and pro* 

 portionably thick, 



