Journal of a Voyage across the Atlantic by George Moore
page 53 of 83 (63%)
page 53 of 83 (63%)
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my mind. However, we landed safe. Tired, and to bed.
_Monday_ morning.--Visited Mr. Barnett's Museum. Bought some sticks peculiar to Niagara, and Indian curiosities; and looked into the large camera obscura, which reproduced every sight at the Falls. Ascertained from Mr. B. that the Canada Fall is half a mile in circumference, and the American a quarter of a mile. The depth of the water on the verge of the Horseshoe Fall is twenty feet. The Falls can be heard from five to twenty miles, according to wind and atmosphere: it is said they have been heard at Toronto, forty miles. The quantity of water supposed to go over the Falls in one hour is 102,093,750 tuns. I must now take my leave of the Falls with regret, as my friend Mr. Stephenson called, and drove me to see a Canadian farmer. I was much pleased with his farm and husbandry, and his domestic fireside. He makes £50 a year by his bees, and grows almost everything that the family eats. We then drove to the burning springs in the Niagara River, and over to Chippeway, where Mr. S. has a saw-mill, of twenty-horse power, that will cut up 11,000 superficial feet of wood a day. Chippeway has 700 inhabitants. We left it per steamer, and saw the Rapids to great advantage before they dashed over the Falls. Here, to the right, is Navy Island, of 304 acres, which was occupied by Mackenzie, Van Ransselaer, and about 400 Patriots, in 1837-8, for five weeks. Their object was to collect recruits to revolutionize Canada. On the American shore, on the left, is Schlosser landing and wharf, where the _Caroline_ was moored when Capt. Drew, the commander of a squadron of five steamers, cut her out, towed her into the stream, set fire to her, and sent her over the Falls blazing. The patriots fled after this. M'Leod was tried by the Americans, and acquitted. Opposite Navy Island was the place where poor Usher lived that was shot by two Yankees, who suspected he knew of the _Caroline_ |
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