Niagara Falls 



1874 • • • This Fall had a greater charm for me than the Horse- 

 et mm shoe Fall, perhaps because we were so much closer to it and 



were able to look straight down into its misty depths. 



The minor drawbacks to visiting Niagara are the great num- 

 ber of tolls and the numerous touts. Regarding the former, if 

 they would only charge so much on arrival, instead of giving you 

 the trouble of putting your hand in your pocket every time you 

 look at the Falls, it would be pleasanter; as for the latter, not 

 one of them ought to be allowed near the place. If there is one 

 thing more wanted than another, it is a pleasant drive or ride 

 without a toll-gate at every mile, and this could be easily made 

 along the shore of the Niagara river towards La Salle. The 

 Goat Island toll is right enough, as keeping up the bridges and 

 other expenses are incurred; but all other tolls are wrong, being 

 wholly unnecessary. 



We saw a great many beautiful birds, both in the surrounding 

 woods and on the islands. There were two or three sorts of 

 orioles, blue-birds, cardinal grosbeaks, and numbers of the 

 American robins; birds as ubiquitous as our sparrows, and about 

 the size of a large blackbird. Unfortunately, they are consid- 

 ered good eating, and therefore, as they are very tame, become 

 an easy prey to every little wretch who carries a gun. 



1875 



1875 MORRIS, WILLIAM. Letters sent home. Out and home again by way 

 Morns f Canada and the United States ; or, What a summer's trip told me of the 



people and the country of the great West. Lond. : F. Warne. N. Y. : 

 Scribner, Welford and Armstrong. (1875.) Pp. 202-235. 



It was very early in the morning when I left Toronto to cross 

 Lake Ontario in one of the river steamers — a floating town. 

 But the weather was beautiful, and the air most bracing. The 

 distance across the lake is thirty miles, which brings us to the 



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