Niagara has had many admirers. Some, in their descriptions, have been borne very far by fancy; others have given occasional circumstances as the general. The precipice which produces the cataract was said to be not less than six hundred feet. This was an account of an early tourist. It does not, in reality, exceed one hundred and sixty feet. "The noise is such," says Father Hennepin, "that people distant from it several miles cannot hear each other speak." At some seasons, and at particular times, the roar of the cataract is very loud, and is heard for many miles; but it would be exceeding strange if found so deafening as indicated by the above account. "As the traveller advances," says _Howison_, "he is frightfully stunned by the appalling noise, clouds of spray sometimes envelop him, and suddenly check his faltering steps; rattlesnakes start from the cavities of the rocks; and the scream of eagles soaring among the whirlwinds of the cataract, at intervals, announce that the raging waters have hurled some bewildered animal over the precipice." These intervals, at present, are very long. When the red man gazed exclusively upon the cataract, it is supposed it was of greater height than now. Not only, indeed, of greater height, but that it was differently located. The intelligent geologist maintains that the falls were once at Lewiston, and that they must eventually recede to Lake Erie. Thus, any poetical apostrophe to Niagara which sings, "As creation's dawn beholdst," &c., loses its verity. As years wind on, the falls must gradually become less grand as their height decreases; and, "Lake Erie being drained, they will sink to the wild beauty and hoarse roar of the rapids." Accurate observation proves that the falls wear backward a trifle over a foot each year, having receded forty-two feet in the last forty years. Many thousands of years have gone by since the falls were on the borders of the Ontario, and over another hundred thousand years must pass ere they retire to the sister lake. At the efflux from Lake Erie, Niagara River is three-quarters of a mile wide, and from forty to sixty feet deep. Its current flows at the rate of seven miles an hour. As it proceeds, the river widens and imbosoms Grand and Navy Islands, which terminate in points a mile and a half above the falls.