The Fall is supposed to have been originally at the table-land near
Lewiston; and indeed, from the nature of the ground, and its present
condition below the Falls, no reasonable objection can be entertained to
that supposition. The upper part of the cliffs is composed of hard
limestone, and underneath is a bed of schistus. Now this schistus is
continually worn away by the water's dashing against it. This leaves the
upper part, or immediate bed of the river, without foundation. When,
therefore, from extraordinary floods, the pressure of the incumbent fluid
becomes more than usually great, the rock gives way; and thus, gradually,
the Falls have receded several miles.

I at length ascended the stairs, and popped my head into the shanty, _sans
ceremonie_, to the no small amazement of the cunning compounder of
"cock-tails," and "mint julaps" who presided at the bar. It was clear that
I had ascended the stairs, but how the deuce I had got down was the
question. I drank my "brandy sling," and retreated before he had recovered
from his surprise, and thus I escaped the volley of interrogatories with
which I should have been most unsparingly assailed. I walked for some
distance along the Canadian heights, and then crossed the river, where I
met my friend waiting my return under a clump of scrub oak.

We had previously determined on visiting the Tuscarora village, an Indian
settlement about eight miles down the river, and not far from Ontario.
This is a tribe of one of the six nations, the last that was admitted into
the Confederation. They live in a state of community; and in their
arrangements for the production and distribution of wealth, approach
nearer to the Utopean system than any community with which I am
acquainted. The squaws told us that no Indian there could claim any thing
but what was contained within his own cabin; that the produce of the land
was common property, and that they never quarrelled about its division. We