American Scenery, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic natureWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
American Scenery, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
United States -- Description and travel
Niagara is the outlet of several bodies of water, covering, it is
estimated, 150,000 square miles! Dr. Dwight considers the Falls as part
of the St. Lawrence, following that river back to the sources near the
Mississippi; and, doing away with the intermediate names of St. Marie,
Detroit, St. Clair, Iroquois, and Cataraqui, he traces its course
through the lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, as the Rhone is
followed through the Lake of Geneva, and the Rhine through Lake
Constance. In this view the St. Lawrence is doubtless the first river in
the world. It meets the tide of the sea four hundred miles from its
mouth, which is ninety-five miles broad; and to this height fleets of
men of war may ascend and find ample room for an engagement. Merchantmen
of all sizes go up to Montreal, which is six hundred miles from the sea;
and its navigation for three thousand miles is only interrupted in three
places,—Niagara Falls, the rapids of the Iroquois, and the part called
the river St. Marie. The St. Marie is navigable for boats, though not
for larger vessels; a portage of ten miles (soon to be superseded by a
ship canal) conveys merchandise around the Falls of Niagara, and the
rapids of the Iroquois present so slight a hinderance, that goods are
brought from Montreal to Queenston for nearly the same price as they
would pay by unobstructed navigation.
It is necessary to remember the extent of the waters which feed Niagara,
to conceive, when standing for an hour only on the projecting rocks, how
this almighty wonder can go on so long. Even then,—that these inland
seas lie above, tranquil and unexhausted, scarce varying their
high-water mark perceptibly, from year to year, yet supplying, for
_every_ hour, the “ninety millions of tons,” which, it is estimated,
plunge over the cataract,—it affords you a standard for the extent of
those lakes, to which the utmost stretch of the mind seems scarcely
competent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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