Flora and Fauna 



the descent, seeming to take a delight, in the exercise. Neither 1820 

 are small land-birds affected on flying over the Falls, in the man- 

 ner that has been stated. I observed the blue bird and the wren, 

 which had already made their annual visit to the banks of the 

 Niagara, frequently fly within one or two feet of the brink, 

 apparently delighted with the gift of their wings, which enabled 

 them to sport over such frightful precipices, without danger. . . . 

 Nothing in the examination of the geological constitution, and 

 mineral strata of our continent, conveys a more striking illustration 

 of its remote antiquity, (still doubted by many) than a considera- 

 tion of the time, it must have required for the waters of Niagara, 

 to have worn their channel, for such an immense distance, through 

 the rock. It is true, we are in possession of no certain data, for 

 estimating the annual rate of their progress, or for comparing the 

 results with the Mosaic history of the earth. All that can be 

 presumed is, that this progress, is now as rapid, a3 it was in former 

 ages. The discovery of these Falls does not appear to have been 

 made, until an hundred and eighty-six years after the first visit 

 of Columbus to the American continent in 1492, or a hundred 

 and eighty years after the discovery of North America by Cabot, 

 in 1497. I assume the period of La Salle's visit, in 1678, as the 

 basis of these deductions, but my opportunities of research, do not 

 allow me to state with certainty that he was the first visitor, who 

 has furnished a printed account of them. He was followed by 

 La Hontan, in 1683, and by the Jesuit, Charlevoix, in 1721; 

 but, they give no accounts which are sufficiently precise, to enable 

 us to determine what changes have since taken place in the aspect 

 of the Falls. It was not, indeed, until after the dismemberment 

 of the Iroquois confederacy, that the path to the Falls, was opened 

 to the English Colonies, the date of whose unmolested intercourse 

 with this region, cannot, however, precede that of the ratification 

 of the definitive treaty of peace, with Great Britain, in 1 784. It 

 is, therefore, only thirty-six years, since it has been the free and 

 fashionable resort of all sections of the Union. Maps and 

 descriptions are now extant, which will enable us to fix the rate 

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