The attack was made on General Scott's brigade, which was principally engaged in the open plain, and he signalized himself at the head of them. Lieutenant-Colonel Pierson commanded the British advance. Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon and the Marquis of Tweedale were wounded at the head of their regiments. The action was short; the British line being checked in an attempt to charge, retreated and were closely pursued, but gained the bridge, and passing over the creek, took a position behind the entrenchments, which they maintained, and from which they opened a fire that checked the pursuit. Without attempting to cross the creek, General Brown returned to his camp, and General Riall moved towards Queenston, whence he proceeded to Fort George, and thence to the 20 mile creek on the route towards Burlington heights, to prevent General Brown from gaining that post.

The river, or as it is sometimes termed, the strait of Niagara, presents to the senses and the mind more sublimities and interesting scenes, perhaps, than any other water or tract of land of only 11 leagues of extent. But the most prominent of all its objects, is the grand fall, the sublimest cataract in the known world. This has been so often described, that a description of it now is a beaten topic; yet it seems to be an essential article in Sketches of Upper Canada.

It is situated 18 miles below lake Erie, and 15 above Ontario. Two miles higher up the Chippawa or Welland creek falls into the Niagara, from the west. From Fort Erie down to Chippawa the land

is level, and the road is nearly straight, running along the bank, which is agreeably but not loftily elevated above the water. The view is delightful.

The Chippawa having passed over a plain of 40 miles, and through a number of swamps and strata of discolouring earth, is a sluggish, dark water, not very fit for culinary uses, or even for washing, and as it meets the clear rapid stream of the Niagara, instead of intermixing with it, it pushes along near the shore, and forms a very visible contrast. It can be traced all the way down to the falls. A distant murmuring sound is heard like that of waves breaking against the sea shore. Below Chippawa the current begins to quicken, and soon becomes too rapid to be entered without hazard. The neighbouring inhabitants say that deer, squirrels and other animals, attempting to swim across are carried down. Geese and ducks, which happen to light in the water there, are unable to rise upon the wing again; and even fishes in their own element are hurried down to destruction*. The bank appears to ascendt by the increase of its distance from the descending surface of the stream. The velocity is accelerated, and the noise swells upon the ear. The river bends a little to the left, rushing

* During winter gulls are seen flying constantly over the rapids, and occasionally diving down to the water. I have thought that they picked up fishes fluttering in the overpowering stream. -R. G.

+ It does ascend considerably, perhaps 50 or 60 feet from Chippawa to the height above the falls. The river descends 55 feet in the same distance.-R. G.

down among rocks and precipices covered with foam, dashed up in various forms and colours. Beyond these foaming rapids, at the distance of half a mile, a cloud of vapour is seen to rise; but the river disappears.

A mile or more above the falls, a portion of the river, consisting principally of the Chippawa waters, is separated from the main channel by an island. On this detached branch of the stream, by the side of the rapids, mills are erected, known by the name of the Bridgewater mills, and a little further down was a flour mill, called Birch's mill. From the island upwards there was a line of floating timbers, so fixed as to turn into the mill stream logs coming down singly from the Chippawa, along the left bank. It was afterwards found more safe to float the logs down in small rafts.

These mills (Bridgewater) were burned by the American troops after Lundy's Lane battle.

Where one of the Bridgewater mills stood, near the place of the flume, there is a burning spring, known before the mill was erected and now open to view. It emits a vapour of some bituminous or combustible quality. A candle applied near the water excites a flame, which burns for some minutes. The blaze is clearly perceptible in the day time, and is said to be much more visible in the night. It is also said, by those who have made experiments more leisurely than I had an opportunity of witnessing, that it will produce such a degree of heat as to cause water placed over it, in a suitable vessel, to steam and even to boil.

F

By Birch's mill seat, there are several houses on a flat low meadow between the water's edge and the high bank. At this spot you have a romantic, but too close a view of the rapids. In appearance they are thought to resemble those of the Longe sault in the St. Lawrence near Cornwall.

Ascending the bank again, you pass along the road, which as you come against the falls diverges to the left. You leave it and turn to the right. From the high banks you have various but partial and imperfect views of the falls. To see them advantageously it is necessary to go down a muddy winding, weedy ravine, to the Table rock, nearly 100 feet lower than the upper bank. This rocky platform spreads to the extent of a quarter of an acre or more*. It projects over the cavern below the cataract, and runs up to the side of the precipice, which you can approach so near as to wash your hands in the water a few feet above it. It is nearly on a level with the top of the mass of water immediately above the great pitch. It is supposed to be a part of the very ledge over which the water is precipitated, but which is worn down a number of feet below its original level.

The Table rock is checkered with a variety of seams and fissures, some of them wide enough to admit a man's hand. Innumerable names and initials of visitors are inscribed on it, many of them with the dates of their visits.

* A large piece of this projecting rock gave way in autumn, 1818, and fell into the river.-R. G.