Niagara Falls 



1796 The current near us was extremely rapid, on a stony bed, but 



unaccompanied with danger. Upon our left, before us, was a 

 portion of the fall, about two hundred feet wide. A small isle 

 divides this from the great cataract. Beyond, and in front of 

 the spectator, this fall moulds itself into the form of a horse-shoe, 

 with an opening of about twelve hundred feet, shrouded on the 

 right by rocks jutting out from the side of the chasm. For more 

 than eighteen hundred feet round the spray fills the air, and 

 descending in columns, wets the spectator to the skin. 

 • • • • • 



It remains for me to explain how the river extricates itself from 

 the chasm. I pursued my way on foot, across the wood, by a 

 steep path, for six miles. I was endeavouring to discover the out- 

 let, when I suddenly lighted on the steep shelf before described. 

 The Canadians denominate this place the platon, or platform. 

 My view, here disembarrassed from the trees, suddenly glanced 

 over a boundless horizon. On the north, Ontario stretched itself 

 before me, like a sea; nearer lay an extensive meadow, through 

 which the St. Laurence flows, in three sweeps or bends. Beneath 

 me, and, as it were, at the bottom of a valley, the little village 

 of Queenstown is seated, on the west bank of the river ; while, on 

 the right, the river finally issues as from a cavern, by an opening 

 concealed by the woods from my view. 



To those, who closely examine the situation of the scene, it is 

 plain, that the fall commences here, and that it has sawed through 

 the layers of the rock, and thus hollowed out its channel. The 

 chasm has been gradually worn away, from age to age, till it 

 reached the place where the fall now appears. This operation 

 has continued slowly, but incessantly. The oldest settlers in the 

 neighbourhood, as Weld relates, recollect a period when the bank 

 of the fall was several paces forward. An English officer, sta- 

 tioned for thirty years at Fort Erie, states several facts, clearly 

 proving, that the rocks existing there thirty years ago, are now 

 undermined. 



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