Flora and Fauna 



through it, while at their feet are thousands of eels lying side by 1824 

 side, trying vainly to ascend the torrent. 



WATERTON, CHARLES. Wanderings in South America, the north- 1824 

 west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1 8 1 6, Waterton 

 1820, and 1824. Lond.: B. Fellowes. 1828. Pp. 264-269, 278. 



The author, an English naturalist and traveller, inspired by Wilson's 

 Ornithology of the United States, came to look for bugs and ' irds but 

 found few specimens. He paid scant attention to the scenery of the Falls, 

 but was undeniably more interested in inns, the American ladies and his 

 own sprained ankle. 



From the press of this city [Philadelphia] came Wilson's 

 famous " Ornithology." By observing the birds in their native 

 haunts, he has been enabled to purge their history of numberless 

 absurdities, which inexperienced theorists had introduced into it. 

 It is a pleasing and a brilliant work. We have no description of 

 birds in any European publication that can come up to this. By 

 perusing Wilson's " Ornithology " attentively before I left 

 England, I knew where to look for the birds, and immediately 

 recognized them in their native land. 



Since his time, I fear that the white-headed eagles have been 

 much thinned. I was perpetually looking out for them, but saw 

 very few. One or two came now and then, and soared in lofty 

 flight over the falls of Niagara. . . . 



1826 



CLINTON, George W. Journal of a tour from Albany to Lake Erie 182 6 

 by the Erie canal in 1826. (Pub. Buf. Hist. Soc. 14:292-293.) Clinton 



I have now seen the greatest fall (all circumstances consid- 

 ered) in existence, and must confess that it did not make a durable 

 impression on me. I have stood on the point of Goat Island, 

 on Table Rock, and have viewed it from every point. I have 

 hung with my body partly on Table Rock and gazed at the rage 

 and turmoil below, and have felt that nought that I had ever 



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