[ 37 ] 
you may, every clear and calm morning fee 
the vapours of the Fall rifing in the air ; you 
would think all the woods thereabouts were fet 
on fire by the Indians , fo great is the apparent 
fmoak. In the fame manner you may fee it on 
the Weft fide of the lake Erie , a great many 
leagues off. 
Several of the French gentlemen told me, 
that when birds came flying into this fog or 
fmoak of the fall, they fall down and perifh in 
the Water; either becaufe their wings are be- 
come wet, or that the noife of the fall aftonifh- 
es them, and they know not were to go in the 
Dark : but others were of opinion, that 
feldom or never any bird perifhes there in that 
manner ; becaufe, as they all agreed, among 
the abundance of birds found dead below the 
fall, there are no other forts then fuch as live 
and fwim frequently in the water; as fwans, 
geefe, ducks, water-hens, teal, and the like. 
And very often great flocks of them are feen 
going to deftrudtion in this manner : they fwim 
in the river above the fall, and fo are carried 
down lower and lower by the water, and as 
water-fowl commonly take great delight in 
being carry’d with the ftream, fo here they in- 
dulge themfelves in enjoying this pleafure fo 
long, till the fwiftnefs of the water becomes fo 
great, that ’tis no longer poffible for them to 
rife, but they are driven down the precipice, 
and perifh. They are obferv’d when they 
draw 
