Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/327

 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 find