The falls of Niagara are much visited by strangers, as during our short stay there we met with several persons who were examining them. There is a large tavern on each side of the river, and in the _album_ kept at one of these, I observed that upwards of a hundred folio pages had been written with names within five months. Immediately before reaching Kingston, we descended a steep ridge or step in the country. Opposite to this place is Queenstown, on the Canadian side of the river. Both these towns are at the lower end of the portage of Niagara. The chasm through which the river runs from the falls to this place, renders it highly probable that the cataract once poured itself over the ridge just noticed, and that it has subsequently made its progress upward to its present place. It would be interesting to ascertain the relative levels of the ridge above Kingston, and the old beach of Lake Erie, that has been observed in the great prairie. Late in the evening we stopped at Youngstown, a small village near the confluence of the river {295} Niagara with Lake Ontario. At this place I heard the noise of the falls, which were eighteen miles distant. On the 18th, I crossed the river to the town of Niagara, now called Newark. On the United States side of the mouth of the river stands the old fort Niagara; on the Canadian side is Fort George, of later erection. The 18th was a day of much parade there; the governor of the upper province being engaged in reviewing the troops of the garrison. The banks of the river Niagara are, at its mouth, about sixty feet high, and the ground in the neighbourhood forms a delightful plain, but the people are said to be much afflicted with ague, a complaint common to both sides of the river. In the afternoon I went on board a large steam-boat, called Fronteniac, which then sailed for Kingston. Toward evening we saw the spray over the falls of Niagara. It did not then appear to be a blue smoky-coloured, and almost transparent vapour, as when I was near it on the 18th, but a dark-coloured dense cloud. This fact agrees well with the opinion that asserts the vesicular formation of clouds, and with the observation familiar to every one, that clouds appear to be dark-coloured and opaque at a distance, and that when they actually approach and fall in the form of rain, their dark colour and opacity disappear. The waters of Lake Ontario indicate great depth by their dark green colour. It is reported that a line of 350 fathoms has been let down in various parts without finding a bottom.[165] The islands are low, and covered with small timber, and the shores rocky. Salmon abound in the lake, and in some of its tributary streams.