The English Period 



It did not appear to me, notwithstanding the advantageous situa- 1793 

 tion in which I placed myself, that the water fell so much as Lmcoln 

 fifty feet; the appearance was very like, as to distance, the water 

 falling from a very high three-story house. A gentleman with 

 me, who had rode four hundred miles to see the Falls, was very 

 much of the same opinion. As I observed before, there is a con- 

 stant vapor ascending, caused by the violent agitation of the 

 water. Through this, when the sun shines, you discover the rain- 

 bow. The water falls with such weight into deep water that 

 there is very little current on the surface of the water near the 

 Falls, not so great as to prevent your passing with a canoe across 

 the river. 



1796 



Weld, Isaac. Travels through the States of North America, and the 1798 

 provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1 795, 1 796, and Weld 

 1797. Lond.: Stockdale. 1799. Pp. 308-323. 



Weld came to the Falls in September, 1 796. His book was extremely 

 popular and his description of Niagara Falls much quoted. Weld 

 travelled in a leisurely manner and observed carefully and with an artist's 

 eye the beauties of the landscape. His account is not only concise but 

 thoroughly readable and altogether one of the most valuable Niagara 

 Falls records we have. 



Fort Chippeway, September. 



At the distance of eighteen miles £rom the town of Niagara 

 or Newark, are those remarkable Falls in Niagara River, which 

 may justly be ranked amongst the greatest natural curiosities in 

 the known world. The road leading from Lake Ontario to 

 Lake Erie runs within a few hundred yards of them. . . . 



From the sudden change of the face of the country in the 

 neighbourhood of Queenstown, and the equally sudden change 

 in the river with respect to its breadth, depth, and current, con- 

 jectures have been formed, that the great falls of the river must 

 originally have been situated at the spot where the waters are so 

 abruptly contracted between the hills; and indeed it is highly 

 probable that this was the case, for it is a fact well ascertained, 

 that the falls have receded very considerably since they were first 

 7 97 



