Flora and Fauna 



. . . This island [Goat Island], which divides the stream, 1319 

 was, a short time ago, the secure eyry of a number of Bald Hewitt 

 Eagles; but the bridge exposed them to the intrusion of travellers, 

 and they have totally deserted it. 



. . . As we sat in the boat, I took up some of the foam that 

 covered the waters, and, squeezing it in my hand, found that it 

 possessed a sort of solidity that astonished me, more resembling 

 the compression of snow than of foam: a gentleman has since 

 assured me, that I might have carried it with me, in that state, to 

 England. He attempted to explain this singular phenomenon, 

 by distributing its consistency to a vast portion of sulphurous and 

 aluminous matter, which is carried down by the rapids, and 

 incorporated with the foam by the force and agitation of the 

 cataract. By the rapids, on the American side, are erected 

 several mills; at one of which, a man will cut 270 small nails per 

 minute. On that side, and on Goat Island, grew some of the 

 largest arbor vitae, or white cedar trees, I ever saw, — some of 

 them measuring seven feet round. We walked back on the 

 Canadian side of the river, which is wide and level, with no rapids, 

 except in the immediate vicinity of the falls. 



On this side we observed some good farms, well managed, and 

 exhibiting (what was become a novelty to us) clean fallows and 

 good large flocks of sheep. — The inhabitants seem to exult in 

 the idea, that they are British subjects, and not dirty yankeys. 



The spirit of hostility and jealousy, generated by the mutual 

 outrages of boundary territories, is but too visible here. The 

 memory of war is recent in their bosoms, and the vestiges of its 

 ruins are still before their eyes. We saw several graves, enclosed 

 with palisades, which (they told us) were those of British offi- 

 cers, slain during the war, — some of whom were of distinction. 

 This desolating scourge had destroyed the houses of the settlers, 

 on both sides the river, but particularly the Canadian, which 

 is more cultivated. On the other, Buffalo was completely burnt 

 down, with the exception of one house. . . . 



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