Niagara Falls 



1721 it does not come much short of what the map of M. Deslisle 

 Charlevoix ma k e s it ; that is, six hundred feet, having certainly gone into 

 this paradox, either, on the faith of the baron de la Hontan or 

 father Hennepin; but after I arrived at the summit of the third 

 mountain, I observed, that in the space of three leagues, which 

 I had to walk before I came to this piece of water, though you 

 are sometimes obliged to ascend, you must yet descend still 

 more, a circumstance to which travellers seem not to have 

 sufficiently attended. As it is impossible to approach it but on 

 one side only, and consequently to see it, excepting in profil, or 

 sideways; it is no easy matter to measure its height with instru- 

 ments. It, has, however, been attempted by means of a pole 

 tied to a long line, and after many repeated trials, it has been 

 found only one hundred and fifteen, or one hundred and twenty 

 feet high. But it is impossible to be sure that the pole has not 

 been stopt by some projecting rock; for though it was always 

 drawn up wet, as well as the end of the line to which it was tied, 

 this proves nothing at all, as the water which precipitates itself 

 from the mountain, rises very high in foam. For my own part, 

 after having examined it on all sides, where it could be viewed to 

 the greatest advantage, I am inclined to think we cannot allow it 

 less than a hundred and forty, or fifty feet. 



As to its figure, it is in the shape of a horseshoe, and is about 

 four hundred paces in circumference; it is divided into two, 

 exactly in the middle, by a very narrow island, half a quarter 

 of a league long. It is true, those two parts very soon unite; 

 that on my side, and which I could only have a side view of, 

 has several branches which project from the body of the cascade, 

 but that which I viewed in front, appeared to me quite entire. 

 The baron de la Hontan mentions a torrent, which if this author 

 has not invented it, must certainly fall through some channel on 

 the melting of the snows. 



You may easily guess, Madam, that a great way below this 

 Fall, the river still retains strong marks of so violent a shock; 

 accordingly, it becomes only navigable three leagues below, and 



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