Eny 



Niagara Falls 

 1787 is near a mile in length and I should think three times as broad 



as that on the east side; the numerous falls are large in propor- 

 tion, which of course renders it infinitely more grand than the 

 one we had seen the evening before, but still it wanted those 

 beautiful little islands with which the smaller one is adorned. 

 In the course of this long rapid I conceive the perpendicular fall 

 of the water is not less than 1 00 feet before it reaches the brink 

 of the Fall, and so full is it of rocks and cascades that I conceive 

 it utterly impossible that any boat can ever get down to the Fall 

 without being overset; indeed some of the 29th Regiment whilst 

 in these parts sent down an old boat for the purpose of seeing it 

 go over the Fall. They went themselves below the Falls to 

 look out for it, whilst they left men on the different points to 

 make signals when it passed them, but some of those near the 

 Fall nor the Gentlemen at the bottom never saw anything 

 more of it. 



As the day was now advancing, we could not stay so long 

 here as I could have wished for fear of being stinted in time at 

 the Fall itself, for which we now set off, and very soon reached 

 the nearest house to it and got permission from Mr. Elsworth 

 the owner to put our horses in his stable ; but all the family being 

 busy carrying their corn we could get no one to go with us. 

 However, as Mr. Humphry had been here before, he undertook 

 to guide us, and we accordingly set out under his directions. 

 Not far from the house we came to the edge of a very steep 

 bank, which we descended through a very deep ravine or gully, 

 not without some dread of rattlesnakes, for whose habitation this 

 place seemed particularly suited and the pass being so very 

 narrow and full of stones and stumps, that had any such thing 

 been there it would be difficult to avoid it. After going some 

 distance we got to the bottom of this nasty place and found our- 

 selves again on level ground, which took us to the brink of the 

 Fall at a place from its appearance called the Table rock, over 

 a part of which the water rolls. This being the nearest part to 

 the Great Fall, you are of course almost stunned with its noise 



80 



