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Niagara Falls 



1750 motion when it approaches the island, where it grows the most 

 rapid water in the World, running with a surprizing swiftness 

 before it comes to the Fall ; it is quite white, and in many places 

 is thrown high up into the air! The greatest and strongest 

 battoes would here in a moment be turn'd over and over. The 

 water that goes down on the west side of the island, is more 

 rapid, in greater abundance, whiter, and seems almost to outdo an 

 arrow in swiftness. When you are at the Fall, and look up the 

 river, you may see, that the river above the Fall is every where 

 exceeding steep, almost as the side of a hill. When all this 

 water comes to the very Fall, there it throws itself down perpen- 

 dicular ! It is beyond all belief the surprize when you see this ! I 

 cannot with words express how amazing it is ! You cannot see it 

 without being quite terrified ; to behold so vast a quantity of water 

 falling headlong from a surprising height! I doubt not but you 

 have a desire to learn the exact height of this great Fall. Father 

 Hennepin, supposes it 600 Feet perpendicular ; but he has gained 

 little credit in Canada; the name of honour they give him there, is 

 un grand Menteur, or The great Liar; he writes of what he saw 

 in places where he never was. 'tis true he saw this Fall : but as it is 

 the way of some travellers to magnify every thing, so has he done 

 with regard to the fall of Niagara. This humour of travellers, 

 has occasioned me many disappointments in my travels, having 

 seldom been so happy as to find the wonderful things that had 

 been related by others. For my part, who am not fond of the 

 Marvellous, I like to see things just as they are, and so to relate 

 them. Since Father Hennepin s time, this Fall by all the accounts 

 that have been given of it, has grown less and less ; and those who 

 have measur'd it with mathematical instruments find the perpen- 

 dicular fall of the water to be exactly 137 feet. Monsr. Moran- 

 drier, the king's engineer in Canada, assured me, and gave 

 it me also under his hand, that 137 Feet was precisely the 

 height of it; and all the French Gentlemen that were present 

 with me at the Fall, did agree with him, without the least con- 

 tradiction: it is true, those who have try'd to measure it with a 



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