George Warburton - The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1

"The remarkable post of Michillimackinack is a beautiful island or great rock, planted in the strait of the same name, which forms the connection between Lakes Huron and Michigan. The meaning of the Indian word Michillimackinack is Great Turtle . The island is crowned with a cap 300 feet above the surrounding waters, on the top of which is a fortification. If Quebec is the Gibraltar of North America, Mackinaw (the vulgar appellation for this fort) is only second in its physical character, and in its susceptibilities of improvement as a military post. It is also a must important position for the facilities it affords in the fur trade between New York and the Northwest."—Mr. Colton's American Lakes , vol. i., p. 92.

The value of canals and steam navigation may be judged of from the fact that, in 1812, the news of the declaration of war against Great Britain by the United States did not reach the post of Michillimackinack (1107 miles from Quebec) in a shorter time than two months; the same place is now within the distance of ten days' journey from the Atlantic.

"So clear are the waters of these lakes, that a white napkin, tied to a lead, and sunk thirty fathoms beneath a smooth surface, may be seen as distinctly as when immersed three feet."—Colton. vol. i., p. 93.

"The St. Clair (according to Dr. Bigsby) is the only river of discharge for Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, which cover a surface of thirty-eight and a half million of acres, and are fed by numerous large rivers. Other able observers are of opinion that the Missouri and the Mississippi receive some of the waters of Superior and Michigan. Many persons think that a subterraneous communication exists between all the great lakes, as is surmised to be the case between the Mediterranean and the Euxine."—Montgomery Martin.

"The Lake Erie is justly dignified by the illustrious name of Conti, for assuredly it is the finest lake upon earth. Its circumference extends to 230 leagues; but it affords every where such a charming prospect, that its banks are decked with oak-trees, elms, chestnut-trees, walnut-trees, apple-trees, plum-trees, and vines, which bear their fine clusters up to the very top of the trees, upon a sort of ground that lies as smooth as one's hand. Such ornaments as these are sufficient to give rise to the most agreeable idea of a landscape in the world."—La Hontan, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 343 (1683).

"Le nom que le Lac Erié porte est celui d'une nation de la langue Huronne, qui était établie sur ses bords et que les Iroquois ont entièrement détruite. Erié veut dire Chat, et les Eriés sont nommés dans quelques relations la nation du Chat. Ce nom vient apparemment de la quantité de ces animaux qu'on trouve dans le pays. Quelqes cartes modernes ont donné au Lac Erié le nom de Conti, mais ce nom n'a pas fait fortune, non plus que ceux de Condé, de Tracy, et d'Orléans, donnés au Lac Huron, au Lac Supérieur, et au Lac Michigan."—Charlevoix, tom. v., p, 374 (1721).

"In extreme depth Lake Erie varies from forty to forty-five fathoms, with a rocky bottom. Lakes Superior and Huron have a stiff, clayey bottom, mixed with shells. Lake Erie reported to be the only one of the series in which any current is perceptible. The fact, if it is one, is usually ascribed to its shallowness; but the vast volume of its outlet—the Niagara River—with its strong current, is a much more probable cause than the small depth of its water, which may be far more appropriately adduced as the reason why the navigation is obstructed by ice much more than either of the other great lakes. As connected with trade and navigation, this lake is the most important of all the great chain, not only because it is bordered by older settlements than any of them except Ontario, but still more because from its position it concentrates the trade of the vast West. The Kingston Herald notices a most extraordinary occurrence on Lake Erie during a late storm (1836). A channel was made by the violence of the tempest through Long Point, N. Foreland, 300 yards wide, and from 11 to 15 feet deep. It had been in contemplation to cut a canal at this very spot, the expenses of which were estimated at £12,000. The York Courier confirms this extraordinary intelligence, stating that the storm made a breach through the point near the main land, converted the peninsula into an island, and actually made a canal 400 yards wide, and eight or ten feet deep, almost at the very point where the proposed canal was to be cut, and rendered nothing else now necessary in order to secure a safe channel for the vessels, and a good harbor on both sides, than the construction of a pier on the west side, to prevent the channel being filled up with sand."—Montgomery Martin.

"The Horse-shoe Cataract on the British side is the largest of the Falls. The curvatures have been geometrically computed at 700 yards, and its altitude, taken with a plumb-line from the surface of the Table Rock, 149 feet; the American fall, narrowed by Goat Island, does not exceed 375 yards in curvilinear length (the whole irregular semicircle is nearly three quarters of a mile), its perpendicular height being 162 feet, or 13 feet higher than the top of the Great Fall, adding 57 feet for the fall. The rapids thus give only a total of 219 feet, which is less than many other falls; but their magnificence consists in the volume of the water precipitated over them, which has been computed at 2400 millions of tons per day, 102 millions per hour! A calculation made at Queenston, below the Falls, is as follows: The river is here half a mile broad; it averages 25 feet deep; current three miles an hour; in one hour it will discharge a current of water three miles long, half a mile wide, and twenty-five feet deep, containing 1,111,400,000 cubic feet, being 18,524,000 cubic feet, or 113,510,000 gallons of water each minute."—Montgomery Martin's History of Canada .

"The total area of the four great lakes which pour forth their waters to the ocean over the Falls of Niagara is estimated at 100,000 square miles."—Montgomery Martin.

Colonel Bouchette observes, that, according to the altitude of the sun, and the situation of the spectator, a distinct and bright iris is soon amid the revolving columns of mist that soar from the foaming chasm, and shroud the broad front of the gigantic flood. Both arches of the bow are seldom entirely elicited, but the interior segment is perfect, and its prismatic hues are extremely glowing and vivid. The fragments of a plurality of rainbows are sometimes to be seen in various parts of the misty curtain.

Symptoms of the Falls are discerned from a vast distance. From Buffalo, twenty miles off, two small fleecy specks are distinctly seen, appearing and disappearing at intervals. These are the clouds of spray arising from the Falls; it is even asserted that they have been seen from Lake Erie, a distance of fifty-four miles.—Weld, p. 374.

The sound of the Falls appears to have been heard at the distance of twenty or even forty miles: but these effects depend much on the direction of the wind, and the tranquil or disturbed state of the atmosphere. Mr. Weld mentions having approached the Falls within half a mile without hearing any sound, while the spray was but just discernible.—Weld, p. 374.

"The shores of Lake Erie, though flat, are elevated about 400 feet above those of Lake Ontario. The descent takes place in the short interval between the two lakes traversed by the Niagara Channel. This descent is partly gradual, producing only a succession of rapids. It is at Queenston, about seven miles below the present site of the Falls, that a range of hills marks the descent to the Ontario level. Volney conceives it certain that this must have been the place down which the river originally fell, and that the continued and violent action of its waves must have gradually worn away the rocks beneath them, and in the course of ages carried the Fall back to its present position, from which it continues gradually receding. Mr. Howison confirms the statement, that, in the memory of persons now living in Upper Canada, a considerable change has been observed. The whole course of the river downward to Queenston is through a deep dell, bordered by broken and perpendicular steeps, rudely overhung by trees and shrubs, and the opposite strata of which correspond, affording thus the strongest presumption that it is a channel hewn out by the river itself."—H. Murray's Historical Description of America , vol. ii., p. 466.