Niagara Falls 



1787 tance from hence to the Fall is very considerable and you have 

 ys no kind of road, the way lying along the beach, which is formed 



of large stones which have from to time fallen from the high 

 clifts which overhang most part of the way. These rocks lie 

 just as they happen to have fallen, so that sometimes you are 

 obliged to climb over them, at others to creep under them, whilst 

 they seem to threaten your destruction every step you take ; many 

 of them appear as if they would fall every moment, being only 

 ballanced on a point, others seem to have no other support than 

 trees which have fallen at the same time with themselves, which 

 appear very slight supporters for such immense masses of stone; 

 then as the apertures among these rocks are not large enough to 

 admit of your walking through, you are obliged to creep through 

 them on your hands and knees, or slide through them on your 

 back, every moment in danger of meeting with either a water or 

 rattle snake, for both of which this place is very remarkable, 

 particularly the latter, and the very best part of the road lies 

 over a parcel of large round stones that slide under your feet. 

 Notwithstanding all these dangers, such is the beauty of the sur- 

 rounding prospect and such the pleasing kind of awe which I 

 felt at the time, that it never once struck my mind that I was in 

 the least danger until the whole was over and we had got back 

 again to the entrance of the wood. 



But to return to my tale. Having scrambled over these rocks 

 until we got pretty near the Fall, we found the spray begin to 

 fall like hard rain. Here Mr. Humphry stopped, but Mr. Doug- 

 las and myself went on until we got within about Twenty yards 

 of the Falls. Here we were in some doubt whether or no we 

 should strip and go as far as we could under the Fall; this we 

 however at length rejected, as we never found any one pretends 

 to have gone further than under the first small shoot, which we 

 thought unworthy the trouble of undressing for, there are 

 reports of people that have gone under the great shoot but who 

 they were I could not learn, although I have examined several 

 who asserted they had been under the Falls of Niagara, yet, when 



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