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Show j10 TRAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: an awful iJ a of the power of that mighty Being who commanded the waters to flow. · Smce t11 c I• a 11s- o f N ·La gara were firfi difcovcred they have rcccdctl very con 1r:1 d cr..1 l)l y , owinoo- to the difrupturc of the rocks which form the 1'1prccl ptcc. 1e r·ocks, "·• t bottom are firfl: loofened b.y the confiant ac-tion of the water upon them; they are afterwards earned awa~, anrl thofc at top being thus undermined, arc ~oo~ broken by the wetght of th~ water ru {}1 1·1 1 g ove1· them '. even w1thm the memory of many of thv prcfent inhabitants of the country, the falls hav~ _reced ed fcvcral yards. The commodore of the King's vcfrels on Lake Ene, who had been em- Joyed on that lake for upwards of thirty years, informed me, that when he firfl: came into the country it was a common praCtice for young men to go to the iOand in the middle of the n11l s ; tl_1 at aftu ~ining there, they ufed frequently to dare each other to walk mto the nver toward certain large rocks in the midfl: of the rapids, not far from the edge of the falls; and fometimcs to proceed through the water, _even beyond thcfc rocks. No fuch reeks arc to be fecn at prefcnt; and wer a man to advance two yards into the river from the ifland, he would be in vitably [wept away by the torrent. It has been conjeCtured, as I before mentioned, that the Falls of Niagara '"'ere originally fituated at ~ecnl1own; and indeed the more pains you take to examine th~ courfc of the river from the prefcnt f.tll s downward, the more reafon 1s there to imagine that fuch a c0nj cCl::urc is well fonndcd. From the precipice nearly down to ~ccnf1own, the bed of the river is {hewed with hu.·ge rocks, and the banks arc broken and rugged; circumfbnces wlllch p1 inly denote that fomc great difruption has taken place along t~is part of the river; and we need be at , no lofs to account for 1t, as there are evidct t marks of the aCl::ion of water upon the fides of the banks, and confiderably above their prcfcnt bafes. Now the river h as never been known to rife ncar thcfe marl·s during the greatefl: flood s; it is phin, ther :fore, that its bed mufl: have been once much more elevated than. it is at prcfent. Below Q!_ee!lfl:own, however, there arc no traces on the banks to lead us to imagine that the level of the water was .ever much higher there than it IS now. The fuddcn increafe of the depth F A L L S 0 F N I A G A R A. ckpth of the river jull: below the hills at ~ccnfl:own, and its ft 1d en ex-panfion there at the fame time, feem to indicate that the water mu fl for ll great length of time have fallen from the top of tht: hill s, and th : have formed that cxtcnfive deep bafin below the villar-e. In t 1e r iver, a mile or two above ~ecnfiown, there is a tremendous whirlpool, owi ng to a deep hole in the bed; this hole was probably alfo formed by the waters falling for a great lengLh of time on the fam fpot, in confcquencc of the rocks which cornpofcd the then precipice having remained firmer than thofc: at any other pbce did. Tradition tell · u , that the great £11l, inficad of having been in the form of a horfc D1oc. once projeCted in the middle. For a century pafl:, howcv r, it ha rcmaint:d nearly in th prcfcnt form ; and as the ebullition of the water at the bottom of the cataraCt is fo much greater at the center of tlli · f:lll than in any other part, and as the water confcqucntly aCl::s with more force there in undermining the precipice than at any other part, it is not unlikely that it may rcm:1in nearly in the fame form for ages to come. At the bottom of the Horfc-{)1oe Fall is found a kind of white concrete fubfl:ance, by the people of the country, called fpray. Some perfons hav fuppofed that it is formed from the earthy particles of the water, which defcendino-, owing to their gre:~t fpccific gravity, quicker than the other parti lcs, adhere to the rocks, and arc there formed into a mafs. This concrete fubfian , c has precift:ly the appcar;lnce of petrified ti oth; and it is remarkable, th~t it i found adhet ing to thofc rod ~ againfi which the gr atcfi quant"tics of the froth, that floats upon the water, is wa{hcd by the eddie . \Ve clid not think of afccndiog the cliff till the evening was fJr advan cd, and had it been pol1ible to have found our \vay up in the dark, I verily believe we lhould have remained at the hvtt m of it until midnight. J uil: as we left the foot f the great [dl rhc fun br [ throngh the clouds, and one of the mofl: beautiful and pcrfl:Cl rainbows tlut ever I beheld was exhibited in the fpray that ar ic from the J;ll l. It is only at evening and morning that the rainbow is l~en in perfd Yt n; for the l1anks of the river, and the ileep precipic ' , ihallc the fun from the !jnay at the bottom of the fall in the middle of the (by. At a littk T t di fLtn c · |