Niagara Falls 



1820 of its progress, on the expiration of the present century, and we 

 Schoolcraft should no t be disappointed in our anticipations, if its progress is 

 found, greatly to exceed the prevalent expectation. To aid in 

 the determination, the Island of Iris, which extends from the 

 brink of the Fall, up the river, and which is now connected with 

 the shore, by a wooden bridge, appears to present great facilities. 

 A simple measurement of its length, with a monument for record- 

 ing it at its head, would convert it into a graduated scale, and 

 the point of the indentation of the Horse Shoe Fall, could, in like 

 manner, be perpetuated on either shore, by a series of correspond- 

 ing celestial observations, for determining the longitude of the 

 extreme point of that incurvation. Distant ages would thus be 

 furnished with data, the precision of which, would probably 

 enable them to throw new and important lights on the history of 

 the earth, and the changes it has undergone. Is this suggestion of 

 too visionary a nature, to merit the consideration of geological 

 societies ? 



1822 



1822 Blane, Capt. William Newnham. An excursion through the 



Blane United States and Canada during the years 1822-23. . . . Lond. : 



Baldwin, Craddock and Joy. 1 824. Pp. 405-406. 



Few places would afford a more agreeable summer's residence 

 than the neighborhood of the falls. There is plenty of shooting 

 to be had at a short distance, and the fishing is perhaps the best in 

 the world. Thousands of salmon trout of a great size, together 

 with white fish, etc., are caught immediately below the falls; 

 and the numbers of large sturgeon that come up to the same place, 

 afford excellent sport to those who are at all dexterous in throwing 

 a fish spear. Above the falls also, a great quantity of very large 

 fish is to be caught, either with nets or with the hook and line. 

 While I was at Niagara the weather was uncommonly fine and 

 warm, and the river, at a mile or two above the rapids, was 

 spotted over every night in the most picturesque manner, with 

 canoes carrying lighted torches of pitch-pine. Out of these boats 



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