its name from a venerable goat which long resided upon it; other animals had been landed at the same time with the goats, but they could not survive the first winter, when every thing on the Island is incrusted with ice from the frozen spray of the Falls.

Coldrakes is assured that much of the Island has fallen down since he first was acquainted with it. He offered to conduct me there, but I trembled at the offer; and was not the better reconciled to it by his relation of the following adventure:

That he and a companion, crossing from Fort Schlusser, had the misfortune to break an oar; from the agonized spectators, help was vain;they saw the boat hurried along by the current, and put up an ejaculatory prayer for their lost friends. Life is dear; and perhaps there is not an axiom better worth acting upon than that "whilst there is life there is hope!"

Under similar circumstances, an Indian was seen to shroud his head in his blanket-extend himself in the bottom of his canoe-resign himself to the mercy of the stream, and dash down the current! The most careful search was made below, but neither the body of the Indian, nor a fragment of his canoe was to be found.

The remaining oar was left in the hands of Coldrakes; this he instinctively, as it were,

plied to leeward with all the skill and strength which his spirits, aroused and quickened by his desperate situation, supplied him with: fatigue he felt not-if he had, the moment lost in changing the oar into his friend's hands, would have been destruction. Coldrakes' back was fortunately to the danger, yet he saw no hope in the stupor of his companion: he perceived, however, the boat slanting towards the shore. In shooting the first Rapid she almost filled. Straining every nerve, he brought the boat to rub the banks;--she took the ground;-he had just strength to spring on land; but when he cast a wild look at the yawning abyss, roaring for its prey, he felt his heart sink within him; and he afterwards confessed, that had the same terrors come over him whilst exposed to the danger, he never should have escaped it.

Coldrakes pointed out to me the spot where the boat was stopped by a small projection of the land; it is now the entrance of the Millrace, and not apparently one hundred yards above the Falls. Had they passed that particular point, their destruction was inevitable.

I gathered a few wild plums, of the size of the damson, but of a reddish orange colour; they were well flavoured. We saw a number of very large ant-hills, on which a Bear had left the print of his paws, and other marks of his

having searched them for a favourite food. Their track is very similar to that of a Hare. Bears live in the clefts of the rocks below the Falls, as do also Wolves; and I may add Rattlesnakes, which are found in great number and extraordinary size. Coldrakes assured me that he had killed one having twenty-four rattles. I never heard of one having more than eighteen, and very few people have seen them with as many as fourteen. It is known, however, that there are few old snakes but what have lost some of the joints of the rattle by accidents; they are very brittle. The usual antidote for the bite of the Rattlesnake is the Broad Leaf Plantain. Mr. Wm. Cuyler gave an Indian a valuable consideration to show him what his tribe considered as the best antidote; the Indian showed him the Wild Solomon's Seal. Coldrakes said that he knew none equal to what he called Poor Robin's Plantain, and which he described as only growing in mountainous countries.

Captain Lawton met us at Fort Schlusser on our return. He re-crossed the River at the same time with us, but instead of poling up the shore, he pulled his canoe directly across-an act of temerity in which no one has yet dared to vie with him. Mr. Steadman remembers when no boat or canoe dared even venture so low down as Chippawa.

Wild Fowl, alighting high up the river, are sometimes, in the night, carried down the Falls: not seeing their danger, they allow the stream to carry them too far, its rapidity and descent not allowing them to take wing. Ducks and Gulls acquainted with the Falls, have been seen within one hundred yards of the pitch, but they are careful to swim with their heads. down the stream, for with their breasts to the current, they cannot take wing.

Mr. Steadman assured me that the Niagara River increases in depth, and consequently that the volume of water which passes the Falls is considerably augmented. Formerly the River opposite to Chippawa was very low in the Summer months; and Mr. S. remembers having once seen the bed of the River dry from the Fort Schlusser side to the bar running from the South point of Goat Island. The channel in this part of the River is now fifteen feet in depth. Saw a Fishing-hawk with a large fish in its claws.

In the evening took a walk three miles along the Banks of the Chippawa Creek, navigable forty miles for bateaux, and settled the whole of that distance. This creek divides the town of Chippawa.-No clouds; powerful sun; pleasant air.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24th.

Walked before breakfast to the Rapids; spray light and parted.-No clouds; hazy.

After breakfast rode to Bender's, four miles; put up my horse and followed the path to Mrs. Simcoe's Ladder, so called from having been

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"From the foot of Simcoe's Ladder you may walk along "the strand for some distance without inconvenience; but as you approach the Horse-Shoe Fall, the way becomes more ❝and more rugged. In some places, where the Cliff has crum"bled down, huge mounds of earth, rocks, and trees, reaching "to the water's edge, oppose your course; it seems impossible "to pass them; and, indeed, without a guide, a stranger would never find his way to the opposite side; for, to get there, it is necessary to mount nearly to their top, and then to crawl on your hands and knees through long dark holes, where passages are left open between the torn-up rocks and trees. There is nothing whatsoever to prevent you from passing to the very foot "of the great Fall; and you might even proceed behind the "prodigious sheet of water that comes pouring down from the top "of the precipice," &c. &c.

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"I advanced within about six yards of the edge of the sheet of "water, just far enough to peep into the caverns behind it; but "here my breath was nearly taken away by the violent whirl"wind that always rages at the bottom of the Cataract, occa"sioned by the concussion of such a vast body of water against "the rocks. I confess I had no inclination at the time to go "farther; nor, indeed, did any of us afterwards attempt to ex"plore the dreary confines of these caverns, where death seemed "to await him that should be daring enough to enter their "threatening jaws. No words can convey an adequate idea of "the awful grandeur of the scene at this place. Your senses are appalled by the sight of the immense body of water that

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