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I have heard fay that the frfh that happen to be 

 entangled in the current, fall dead into the river, 

 and that the Indians of thofe parts were confiderably 

 advantaged by them ; but I faw nothing of this 

 fort. 1 was alfo told, that the birds that attempted 

 to fly over v/ere fometimes caught in the whirlwind 

 formed, by the violence of the torrent. But I ob- 

 ferved quite the contrary, for I faw fmall birds fly- 

 ing very low, and exactly over the Fall, which yet 

 cleared their paffage very well. 



This meet of water falls upon a rock, and there 

 are two reafons which induce me to believe, that it 

 has either found, or perhaps in time hollowed out 

 a cavern of confiderable depth. The firft is, that 

 the noife it makes is very hollow, refembling that 

 of thunder at a diftance. You can fcarce hear it 

 at M. de Joncaire's, and what you hear in this place, 

 may poflibly be only that of the whirlpools caufed 

 by the rocks, which fill the bed of the river as far 

 as this. And fo much the rather as above the ca- 

 taract, you do not hear it near fo far. The fecond 

 is, that nothing has ever been feen again that has 

 once fallen over it, not even the wrecks of the 

 canoe of the Outaways, I mentioned jufl: now. Be 

 this as it will, Ovid gives us the defcription of fuch 

 another cataract fituated according to him in the 

 delightful valley of Tempe. I will not pretend that 

 the country of Niagara is as fine as that, though 

 I believe its cataract much the noblefl: of the two *. 



* Eft ncmus Hsemonia?, prserupta quod undique claudit 

 Sylva, vocant Tempe, per quae Peneus ab imo 

 EfFufus Pindo fpumoiis volvitur undis. 

 Dejettifque gravi tenues agitantia fumos 

 Nubila conducit, fummifque afpergine fylvas 

 Impluit, et fonitis plufquam vicina fatigat. Met. Li v. i. 



Z 2 - Befides 



