Niagara Falls 

 1820 forty years ago were also observed. I heard the singing of 



Clinton 



locusts and birds. It is covered with large trees, and the soil is 

 uncommonly good, being composed of a fine vegetable mould. 

 This island was formerly the place where eagles erected their 

 aeries, as well on account of its seclusion, as its propinquity to 

 the carcases below the falls. . . . Volney says that he 

 found at the bottom of the precipice the carcases of some deer, 

 and wild boars, which the current had hurried down the cataract 

 on their attempting to swim across the river above it. As there 

 are no wild boars in this country, this shows how inattentive the 

 most observing travellers are to objects of natural history. It is 

 generally supposed that every animal is deprived of life which 

 passes over the falls, but this is a mistake. Tame geese frequently 

 escape; a dog once got clear with a broken rib; and two sheep 

 were found below the cataract, one of which was alive. On the 

 other hand, the probability of escaping with life is scarcely any. 

 Wild geese, deer, fish, and other animals, are to be seen dashed 

 to pieces. 



The country above the heights of Lewiston and Queenston is 

 a vast plain, from v/hich there is an abrupt descent of near three 

 hundred feet, into another plain at Lewiston, and in which plain 

 is Lake Ontario. The upper slope is table land, as well as the 

 plain below, and this produced the French denominations of 

 Upper and Lower Canada. The river divides the slope between 

 the heights of Lewiston and Queenston, which is composed of 

 the same materials on each side. This fact in connexion with the 

 scanty covering of earth which the rocks on the top of the bank 

 retain in other places on the western shore, and the parallel 

 arrangement of alluvial earth on the eastern side, now two hun- 

 dred feet above the surface of the river, furnishes proof little 

 short of demonstration, that the Niagara river has sawed through 

 the rock from Queenston to the present falls. At the heights of 

 Lewiston the upper stratum is composed of solid masses of lime 

 stone resting on red indurated brittle clay, then at a great distance 



446 



