Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/169

 gloom of the cliffs, and the melancholy incident I have just related, would subject Queenston heights to the suspicion of any people more under the influence of imagination than the Canadians are, and make them conjure up half a dozen bleeding sentinels at the top of the precipice every night after sunset.

"At the ferry, the Niagara river is twelve hundred and fifty feet in breadth, and from two to three hundred in depth. The current is very rapid, and the wreathing and perturbed appearance of the water shews that its course is much impeded by the narrowness of the channel, which must be entirely composed of rocks ; for, other- wise, the continual and rapid attrition of such a large river as that which flows through it, would undermine and wear away the banks, and thus gradually enlarge and widen its course. I could not survey this noble stream without awe, when I contrasted it in the state in which it flowed before me, with the appearance it has when mingling with the ocean. I recollected having beat about the mouth of the St. Lawrence during two days, and having been alarmed by the prospect of shipwreck, while in the vessel that conveyed me to Lower Canada ; but now the waters which formed the dangerous gulf all passed silently before me, within the narrow limits occupied by the Niagara river. The St. Lawrence derives but a small pro- portion of its torrents from tributary streams, the Ottawa being the only river of great magnitude that joins it. The rivers Chaudiere, Saguenai, Pepechaissinagau, Black River, &c, are trifling indeed, when compared with that into which they discharge themselves.

" The Niagara river is subject to those periodical alterations in height, which, as I have already mentioned, occur in the lakes. This can be satisfactorily proved by the wharfs at Queenston, some of which are five feet higher above the surface of the river than they were in the year 1817, and also by the water marks left on the perpendicular sand banks near the ferry.

"General Brock was killed at the battle of Queenston heights, and the place where he fell was pointed out to me. The Canadians hold the memory of this brave and excellent man in great venera- tion, but have not yet attempted to testify their respect for his virtues in any way, except by shewing to strangers the spot on which he received his mortal wound. He was more popular, and more beloved by the inhabitants of Upper Canada, than any man they ever had among them, and with reason ; for he possessed, in an eminent degree, those virtues which add lustre to bravery, and those talents that shine alike in the cabinet and in the field. His

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