The English Period 



fall the sun broke through the clouds, and one of the most 1796 

 beautiful and perfect rainbows that ever I beheld was exhibited 

 in the spray that arose from the fall. It is only at evening and 

 morning that the rainbow is seen in perfection; for the banks of 

 the river, and the steep precipice, shade the sun from the spray 

 at the bottom of the fall in the middle of the day. 



The Falls of Niagara are much less difficult of access now 

 than they were some years ago. Charlevoix, who visited them in 

 the year 1 720, tells us, that they were only to be viewed from 

 one spot; and that from thence the spectator had only a side 

 prospect of them. Had he been able to have descended to the 

 bottom, he would have had ocular demonstration of the existence 

 of caverns underneath the precipice, which he supposed to be the 

 case from the hollow sound of the falling of the waters; from the 

 number of carcases washed up there on different parts of the 

 strand, and would also have been convinced of the truth of a 

 circumstance which he totally disbelieved, namely, that fish were 

 oftentimes unable to stem the rapid current above the falls, and 

 were consequently carried down the pecipice. 



The most favourable season for visiting the falls is about the 

 middle of September, the time when we saw them; for then the 

 woods are seen in all their glory, beautifully variegated with the 

 rich tints of autumn ; and the spectator is not then annoyed with 

 vermin. In the summer season you meet with rattlesnakes at 

 every step, and musquitoes swarm so thickly in the air, that to 

 use a common phrase of the country, " you might cut them with 

 a knife." The cold nights in the beginning of September effectu- 

 ally banish these noxious animals. 



Holley, John Milton. (Whittlesey, Charles. Early history of 1796 

 Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland: Fairbanks, Benedict. 1867. P. 175.) Holley 



A brief notice by one of the surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company 

 who passed the Falls in June, 1 796. 



109 



