Niagara Falls 



1789 is a graphic description of the difficulties and inconveniences of travel in 



Powell her day. It is interesting reading and of the greatest value historically, not 



only for the light which it throws upon the general state of the country 

 about Niagara and for the description of the Falls, but for the information 

 which it contains relative to the Indians whom Miss Powell was so 

 fortunate as to see in council assembled on the present site of Buffalo and 

 for evidence as to conditions on the Niagara frontier just after the 

 Revolution. 



The fort [Niagara] is by no means pleasantly situated. It is 

 built close upon the Lake, which gains upon its foundations so 

 fast, that in a few years they must be overflowed. 

 Several gentlemen offered to escort us to the landing, which is 

 eight miles from Fort Erie. 



There the Niagara river becomes impassable, and all the 

 luggage was drawn up a steep hill in a cradle, a machine I never 

 saw before. We walked up the hill, and were conducted to a 

 good garden with an arbor in it, where we found a cloth laid for 

 dinner, which was provided for us by the officers of the post. 



After dinner we went on seven miles to Fort Schlosher. The 

 road was good, the weather charming, and this was the only 

 opportunity we should have of seeing the Falls. All our party 

 collected half a mile above the Falls, and walked down to them. 

 I was in raptures all the way. The Falls I had heard of forever, 

 but no one had mentioned the Rapids! 



For half a mile the river comes foaming down immense rocks, 

 some of them forming cascades 30 or 40 feet high ! The banks 

 are covered with woods, as are a number of Islands, some of 

 them very high out of the water. One in the centre of the river, 

 runs out into a point, and seems to divide the Falls, which would 

 otherwise be quite across the river, into the form of a crescent. 



I believe no mind can form an idea of the immensity of the 

 body of water, or the rapidity with which it hurries down. The 

 height is 180 feet, and long before it reaches the bottom, it loses 

 all appearance of a liquid. The spray rises like light summer 

 clouds, and when the rays of the sun are reflected through it, 



90 



