The English Period 



twenty miles. Others have said that at particular times, and 1 766 

 when the wind sits fair, the sound of them reaches fifteen leagues. 

 It would appear that even in 1 766 the Falls were already very well 

 known. 



1768 



The wonders of Canada. A letter from a gentleman to the Antigua 1768 

 Gazette, New York, August 21, 1768. (Mag. Am. hist., April, 1877. 

 Vol. I, pt. I, pp. 243-246.) 



About nine miles up, on the eastern side of Niagara is an 

 encampment of the last Indian War on Mount Pleasant, afford- 

 ing a most noble prospect of vast level woods, the deep rapid, 

 meandering river, and the distant lake, bounded by the high 

 lands beyond. At this place it is probable that the falls origin- 

 ally were, and broke up by slow degrees, to their present situa- 

 tion, which is seven miles higher, for it is still as equally level 

 country, from the top upwards as from the foot of the mount 

 downwards, and the banks of the river very high, especially from 

 the mount to the falls, where I stood level with the upper bed 

 of. the river. Here it is also, that the portage of nine miles 

 commences, to the upper landing place or little Fort Niagara, 

 in crossing the river from whence going upward, about three 

 miles over Midway at Navy Island, where the King's vessels 

 for Lake Erie's navigation are built, the several inlets and sur- 

 rounding woods afford a beautiful view, and looking down the 

 river from this point of the island, in a fair, calm day, there 

 appears a pyramidal cloud, very high, arising like the steam of 

 a mighty furnace, from the violence of the falls forcing the spray 

 so high, that, becoming lighter than the air, is suspended, and 

 said to serve as a mark, in the navigation of the lakes above and 

 below, for fifty miles. In my return, I went to the island that 

 divides the river into an east and west branch at the Falls, which 

 will scarcely be credited but by such as have made this tour, 

 but it is nevertheless true: Five sturdy men under the pilotage 

 of a Mr. Stedman who lives at the carrying-place, and had ven- 

 tured there once before, conducted me thither in a batteaux, and 



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