Chapter X 



INDUSTRIAL NIAGARA 



1799 



LlANCOURT, DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT. Travels through the 1799 

 United States of North America, the country of the Iroquois, and upper Liancourt 

 Canada, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797; with an authentic account 

 of lower Canada. 2 vols. Lond.: R. Phillips. 1799. Vol. I. 

 Pp. 221,223.224. 



Chippaway was formerly the chief place of an Indian tribe, 

 which now inhabits the borders of Virginia. . . . 



About a mile above the falls, two corn-mills and two saw- 

 mills have been constructed in the large bason, formed by the 

 river on the left. We examined, with peculiar attention, the 

 most distant of them. It is the most remarkable chiefly on this 

 account, that the logs are cut here into boards, thrown into the 

 Chippaway creek near its mouth, and by means of a small lock 

 conveyed into a canal, formed within the bed of the river by a 

 double row of logs of timber, fastened together and floating on 

 the water. The breaking of these is prevented by other large 

 balks floating at a certain distance from each other, which form, 

 as it were, the basis of this artificial canal. The water retains 

 in this canal the rapidity of the current, and conveys the logs into 

 the lower part of the mill, where, by the same machinery which 

 moves the saws, the logs are lofted upon the jack and cut into 

 boards. Only two saws at a time are employed in this mill. The 

 power of the water is almost boundless, but the present wants of 

 the country do not require a greater number of saws. The very 

 intelligent owner of the mill has constructed it on a plan, which 

 admits of the addition of a greater number of courses, according 

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