112 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CAN A BA \ 
indeed it is highly probable that this was the 
case, for it is a fact well ascertained, that the 
falls have receded very considerably since they 
were first visited by Europeans, and that they 
are still receding every year ; but of this I shall 
have occasion to x speak more particularly pre~ 
sently. 
It was at an early hour of the dpy that we 
left the town of Niagara or Newark, accom^ 
panied by the attorney-general and an Officer 
of the British engineers, in order to visit these 
stupendous Falls. Every step that we advanced 
towards them, our expectations rose to a higher 
pitch ; our eyes were continually on the look 
out for the column of white mist which hovers 
over them; and an hundred times I believe, 
did we stop our carriage in hopes of hearing 
their thundering sound: neither, however, was 
the mist to be seen, nor the sound to be heard, 
when we came to the foot of the hills; nor 
after having crossed over them, were our eyes 
or ears more gratified. This occasioned no 
inconsiderable disappointment, and we could 
not but express our doubts to each other, 
that the wondrous accounts we had so fre¬ 
quently heard of the Falls were without foun¬ 
dation, and calculated merely to impose on 
the minds of credulous people that inhabited 
a distant part of the world. These, doubts were 
nearly confirmed, when we found that, after 
