on the south-west side, forty-six miles from its head, after having crossed with a general north-by-west course the intervening isthmus, at that point twenty-six and a half miles broad, direct. This isthmus is a portion of the Canadian peninsula, slightly described in the Chapter on Lake Erie in our last No. It stretches easterly from hence, with enlarged boundaries, to the hills of the north limits of Pennsylvania, and of the north and east parts of New York. At present I am only concerned with the neighbourhood of the river Niagara. It is here divided into two levels; the upper advancing from Erie to within seven. miles of Ontario. At that distance, it lowers at once in a steep slope, 370 feet high at Queenston, skirting, at various heights, the whole south shore of Ontario, under the name of the "Parallel Ridge," and, without any very striking change of size in the interval below, bordering the lake. During the first twenty miles of the upper level from Lake Erie, on both sides of the Niagara, the land is moist, and so flat, as scarcely to assign a direction to its streams. It is elevated but little above Lake Erie, and might be inundated in the spring, were the vernal rise of water as great as in the rivers Ottawa and St. Lawrence. On the Canadian side of the Niagara, and probably on the American also, there is close to it a border of raised ground, varying in breadth from half a mile to two miles, or more. At the above assumed distance of twenty miles, a very gentle swell commences between Chippewa village and the Falls, and continues waving and in mounds to the brow of the great Queenston slope. It extends westward to the head of Lake Ontario, and is most conspicuous in the group called the "Short Hills," twelve miles from Queenston. Easterly, likewise, at the back of the "parallel slope," this gradual swell is equally perceptible. The lower level of this interval, comparatively of narrow breadth, is fertile and undulating, watered by numerous rivulets, which descend from above, through woody ravines. For the purposes of description, I shall divide the river Niagara into two parts, as being above or below the Falls, which are twenty-one miles from Lake Erie. I shall commence with the first of these. At the head of this river, both shores of Lake Erie are shallow, and have sandy beaches: the Canadian side is fringed extensively with rocky reefs; the American sends out a long spit of sand at the mouth of Buffalo Creek. All this division of the river is contained by banks of brown. loam and clay, mixed now and then with angular fragments of black limestone. At its head they are rather high, and are separated from it by slips of marshy or sandy ground; but they gradually subside nearly to the level of the stream in its course to Chippewa, (eighteen and a half miles,) when a rapid ascent commences. The direction of the Niagara for three miles from Lake Erie is north, and then bends round to the north-west for two miles, when it is divided into two narrow and distant channels, to within three and three-quarter miles from the Falls, by a very large island. From the foot of this island to the Falls, the river runs west-by-north. The current for the first three or four miles from the head is swift, especially from near Bird Island to below Black Rock, where it is seven miles per hour. It is smooth in that space, but is much agitated internally. From thence to near the Falls the rate is uniform and moderate. The decline in level from the head of the river to Chippewa is said to be fifteen feet, but upon what authority I know not. I have few data for the depth of this division of the river: Volney states it generally to be fifteen feet. It is, however, by no means great; and particularly at the lower end, where the shores and islands are often marshy. In the rapids of Black Rock it cannot exceed thirty feet. General Porter is constructing a basin for shipping of great length there, and occupying a quarter of the breadth of the river: its containing walls rest upon horizontal rock. The breadth of the river varies much, as is seen from the following statements. Its fluctuations, intermediate to those given below, may be best observed on the map. About the Falls, I may remark, it is a wide expanse, more like a lake than a river. * American Commissioner under 6. 7 a. treaty of Ghent. Head of the Niagara at Bird Island Opposite General Porter's house at Black Rock At Strawberry Island, nearly a mile below Squaw At Tonnewanta Island At the lower end of Grand Island Miles. 1.125 .375 .75 1.25 1.5 7.122 2.758 1.263 1.125 .75 This division of the river only contains islands. They are twenty-eight in number; for the most part low and swampy, and finely wooded with sugar-maple, elm, oak, and linden trees, when raised a few feet above water-mark. Their length is usually parallel to the river. Bird Island, at the head of the Niagara, is a mere ledge of chertzy limestone, opposite Fort Erie, and 400 yards from the east shore it is from 200 to 250 yards long; and is occasionally used as a shelter from the lake storms. Squaw Island, a mile and three-quarters below, is close to the American shore, 1880 yards long, by 540 yards in greatest breadth; it is low. Strawberry Island, 1500 yards lower down, and near the American shore, is a mile and a quarter long, by a quarter in average breadth. Frog Island, a swamp 300 yards long, is midway between the east bank and the head of Grand Island. Grand Island is five miles from Lake Erie. As before stated, it creates a great bifurcation of the river. It has always been stated to be twelve miles long, and erroneously: the mistake has arisen from making the estimate along the circumference of the island, close to which (but on the main) the high road passes. On the American shore, this distance is, in fact, thirteen miles and three-quarters, and on the Canadian twelve miles and a quarter. It is seven miles and a half long, and six miles and a half in greatest breadth. Its form is an irregular oval, narrowing greatly upwards. It is only partially cultivated. Its banks rise to the height of from five to twenty feet, and gradually sink towards the interior; much of which is occupied by morass, which in spring forms a series of ponds. It is heavily timbered, where dry. It contains 17,924 acres, according to the survey of the Boundary Commission. Grand Island occupies nearly all the interval between the banks of the river, the channels on either side being small, and varying but little. That on the east is only 513 yards broad, three-quarters of a mile above Tonnewanta Island; and 660 yards in the breadth of the west channel, three-quarters of a mile below Beaver Island. These are the narrowest places. I have now to notice in succession,-Beaver Island, on the west side, and three-quarters of a mile from the head of Grand Island-it is oblong, and rather less than half a mile in length; it is 350 yards from Grand Island: the stripe of marsh, 2000 yards long, called Rattlesnake Island, close to the east shore, near the head of Grand Island: Tonnewanta Island, east of, and opposite the middle of Grand Island-it is close to the main, and is rather more than half a mile long. The next is Cayuga, near to the American bank, and to the lower end of Grand Island; it is oval, narrow, and 2060 yards long. Buckhorn Island follows; it is on the east of, and very near Grand Island. It is marshy; 2000 yards long, 400 yards broad at the head, and tapering to a point below. Navy Island is 600 yards from the Canadian shore. It is semicircular; 2000 yards long, and half a mile in greatest breadth : it contains 304 acres. Except a few small ones close to the Canadian shore, it is the only island in this river adjudged by the Commission to Great Britain. Grass Islands, and a few patches of marsh, need not be mentioned here. In a round islet, on the Canadian side of the river, somewhat more than a mile below Chippewa, is a much indented, woody islet, a quarter of a mile in diameter. There is a flat, gravelly islet, surrounded by shallows, 440 yards above the centre of the Horse-shoe Fall; and 300 yards above the Table Rock, on the west side, is a curved, low island of pines, 375 yards long, close in shore. Goat, or Iris Island, is triangular in shape; its base of 400 yards in length, being on the same line with the Cataract. is half a mile long; and is flat, fertile, and covered with fine clumps of trees: its soil is fine light brown clay, beneath gravel of rolled limestones, and primitive pebbles. About its middle, between it and the American main, there is a round islet, which It serves as a point of support for two bridges, connecting Iris Island with the main. On the same side of the river, nearer the Falls, there are seven other islets, growing pines; and near the top, and on the west side, are two others. No streams of consequence enter the Niagara below the Falls; those above are few, and are sluggish creeks, the discharges of extensive swamps. Of these, the principal are, French, Black, Chippewa, and Tonnewanta Creeks. I shall only notice the two last. Chippewa Creek (or the Welland) pours a dark, discoloured water into the Niagara, nineteen miles from Lake Erie. It rises near the head of Lake Ontario, and passes through a plain, forty or fifty miles long, containing a number of morasses. In this distance, its trifling current varies in its direction with the state of the Niagara. If the winds have caused an elevation in the waters of Lake Erie, (and of the Niagara, by consequence,) the current ascends the Chippewa, and vice versû. The Tonnewanta is much the greatest stream on the American shore. It rises on the south side of Genesee county, in the state of New York, and is sixty-five miles long, extensive marshes skirting the lower twenty miles. It enters the Niagara near the middle of Grand Island, together with Ellicott's Creek, which comes from the country south of the lower end of Lake Erie. At Chippewa, we enter from the south the portion of the river more particularly appertaining to the Falls-distant from them two miles and a quarter. A change here commences in the features of the stream. Its ample breadth is sensibly diminished. On the British shore, a ripple in the accelerated current is perceived; and at Bridgewater, one mile lower down, it dashes and foams over a succession of ledges, which are most conspicuous opposite the head of Iris Island. Below this, the water moves with equal swiftness, but smoothly, over pebbly shallows, until it precipitates itself into the great chasm of the Cataract. On the American shore, the rapids begin at a point nearly corresponding with those on the Canadian side. They are very strong at the head of Iris Island; and from thence to the brink of the Falls, leap from ledge to ledge with great fury. |