Niagara Falls 



1841 

 Bonnycastle 



1841 

 De Veaux 



very persons who had obtained the license of occupation, with the 

 full understanding that it was granted to them in order to prevent 

 the possibility of such another attempt as that of the American 

 inn-keeper, now turned, full of grievance against the government, 

 brought two actions of trespass against the officer of engineers, 

 and, mirabile dictu! although one of them had sat on the judg- 

 ment seat when the jury punished the American for his covetous- 

 ness, they, by their great influence in the neighborhood, were able 

 to obtain a decided verdict, with damages of five hundred pounds 

 against the crown; and either they, or their heirs, now remain in 

 actual possession of land of which they had humbly begged the 

 temporary occupancy? 



The City of the Falls proved, as any sensible person might 

 have anticipated, a thorough failure, and the public have still 

 access to the Table Rock, and staircase, owing to Messrs. Clarke 

 and Street being unable to eject the government from a space of 

 one chain, or sixty feet in width, along the upper edge of the 

 precipice. 



Travellers may, therefore, without paying toll to the miller 

 proceed as far as the mill, constructed by one of the parties on 

 the rapids above, and may also go down the staircase for nothing ; 

 though such is the profit derived from this staircase, that the bar- 

 room, through which you must pass to descend, pays these people, 

 I am told, two hundred a year. 



You must also pay for going under the sheet of water, which 

 is fair enough, as you must have a guide and water-proof dress. 



But enough of this, which would not have been mentioned, 

 were it not that the travelling public from all parts of the world 

 is interested in it; and if the local government will put the case 

 in Chancery, as I intended to do, there is but little fear that the 

 beautiful banks of the Falls will not long remain at the mercy of 

 private speculators. 



De Veaux, SAMUEL. The travellers' own book, to Saratoga Springs, 

 Niagara Falls and Canada, containing routes, distances; . . . Buffalo: 

 Faxon and Read. 1 84 1 . Pp. 95-258. 



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