Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/187

 The land in this state is generally well timbered. The principal growth is the several kinds of oak, {83} sugar and curled maple, walnut, beech, black and white ash, birch, hickory, bass, sassafras, and several other kinds. One cannot but regret the loss of so much excellent timber, as is destroyed in our new settlements by clearing.

All the western waters are well stored with fish and fowl. Those of the former in Lake Ontario are principally white fish, and black bass; and in some of its tributary streams, there are salmon; but they are of an inferior quality. In the west too, large quantities of sugar are made from the sap of the maple; and in the woods are found bee hives containing an almost incredible quantity of honey. A kind Providence has also provided for our brethren of the west, innumerable salt springs, which produce fine white salt. This article can, in some cases, be bought at the works, at twenty cents a bushel.

The day after leaving Niagara Falls, I arrived at Black Rock, proceeded on to Buffalo, and following a creek of this name, crossed a bay of Lake Erie on the ice. I should have crossed the Niagara at Black Rock, for the purpose of viewing Fort Erie, but the wind was so high that no boat could have reached the opposite shore. This was a great disappointment to me. My heart had prepared a laurel for the warrior's tomb.—The graves of Gibson and Wood tell us how to die for our country.[38] The pri-*