T. C. 



Niagara Falls 



1808 people civil. For a pint of tolerable Teneriffe, a gill of rum, 

 supper, breakfast, bed, and feed for my horse, I paid only thir- 

 teen shillings and six pence York money. There had been a 

 handsome bridge over the Chippeway, but the middle part was 

 broken down, and they now ferry across. On the opposite side 

 to the taverns, is a fort with a lieutenant's guard. The waters of 

 Chippeway are dark coloured owing to its running for near 

 thirty miles through a swamp. . . . But my landlord, Stevens, 

 could give me no information; nor would he take the trouble of 

 giving me any particular directions as to the proper means of 

 seeing the falls to the best advantage. ' They are by the road 

 side, you cannot miss them." 



Monday, May 15, to the falls of Niagara. Opposite Chip- 

 peway, the river seems to be about a mile and a half across. At 

 the falls it is contracted and divided by an island into two main 

 cataracts, the one near the British, the other near the American 

 side. The road runs along the brow of a hill, and as you pass 

 along at about two miles distance from Chippeway, you observe 

 a wagon road descending to the right into some flats washed 

 by the rapids of Niagara. The descent may be eighty or 

 ninety feet. The flats are very narrow, but there are four or 

 five buildings on them, a mill, a tannery, &c. At any of these 

 you can procure a person to walk with you half a mile to the 

 Table Rock, over a part of which the river rushes and makes 

 the great fall. Ten dollars would make this a good horse road; 

 at present you have to wind through the bushes very uncomfort- 

 ably. The tavern-keepers at Chippeway ought to feel it their 

 duty to make the walk as comfortable for the ladies as possible, 

 and a trifle would make it so. When you get on the edge of 

 this limestone flat called the Table Rock, you have before you 

 a full and complete view of an amphitheatre of about half a 

 mile in circumference; comprehending close to your right two- 

 thirds of the river Niagara, after rushing along in broken and 

 foaming rapids, precipitating itself into a chasm beneath your 

 feet, exactly one hundred and fifty feet deep. The falling 



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