Page:Wonderful magazine of strange adventures, singular occurrences, and remarkable incidents.pdf/20

 approached the rapids; the foxes, &c., were also running up and down, but nothing was seen of them after after schooner passed over. The only live animals of the crew that passed over the falls were two geese; they were taken up unhurt. Major Fraser obtained one, and an English gentleman purchased the other for two dollars.

The calculations are various as to the number of persons assembled on both shores. Some estimate them as low as fifteen, and others at thirty thousand. The greatest body of people were on the American side. Goat Island for a considerable distance exhibited a dense column of persons, and the bridge erected from Goat Island, which is upwards of a hundred feet over the rapids, was also crowded, and temporary booths, made with the boughs of trees, skirted both shores. As we passed down the Niagara, we had a full view of the whole distance from Buffalo, of the hundreds of vehicles of all descriptions passing towards the Falls, and as the weather had been uncommonly hot and dry for a long time, the roads presented uninterrupted columns of dust as far as the eye could extend. In fact, so much larger was the assemblage of persons than was anticipated, that notwithstanding the proprietors of public houses had laid in an unusual supply of refreshments, they had not sufficient for one half the people, and  were unable to obtain a mouthful of any thing. You may judge of the situation of matters, when I assure you, that I stopped at Forsyth's about