Niagara Falls 



1796 it is at present. Below Queenstown, however, there are no traces 

 on the banks to lead us to imagine that the level of the water 

 was ever much higher there than it is now. The sudden increase 

 of the depth of the river just below the hills at Queenstown, and 

 its sudden expansion there at the same time, seem to indicate that 

 the waters must for a great length of time have fallen from the 

 top of the hills, and thus have formed that extensive deep basin 

 below the village. In the river, a mile or two above Queenstown, 

 there is a tremendous whirlpool, owing to a deep hole in the bed ; 

 this hole was probably also formed by the waters falling for a 

 great length of time on the same spot, in consequence of the rocks 

 which composed the then precipice having remained firmer than 

 those at any other place did. Tradition tells us, that the great 

 fall, instead of having been in the form of a horse shoe, once 

 projected in the middle. For a century past, however, it has 

 remained nearly in the present form; and as the ebullition of the 

 water at the bottom of the cataract is so much greater at the 

 center of this fall than in any other part, and as the water con- 

 sequently acts with more force there in undermining the precipice 

 than at any other part, it is not unlikely that it may remain nearly 

 in the same form for ages to come. 



At the bottom of the Horse-shoe Fall is found a kind of white 

 concrete substance, by the people of the country, called spray. 

 Some persons have supposed that it is formed from the earthy 

 particles of the water, which descending, owing to their great 

 specific gravity, quicker than the other particles, adhere to the 

 rocks, and are there formed into a mass. This concrete substance 

 has precisely the appearance of petrified froth; and it is remark- 

 able, that it is found adhering to those rocks against which the 

 greatest quantities of the froth, that floats upon the water, is 

 washed by the eddies. 



We did not think of ascending the cliff till the evening was 

 far advanced, and had it been possible to have found our way 

 up in the dark, I verily believe we should have remained at the 

 bottom of it until midnight. Just as we left the foot of the great 



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