Various announcements in the American papers of a large vessel,
constructed for the purpose of passing the Falls of Niagara, have
terminated in very unsatisfactory accounts of the manner wherein the
ship descended. All descriptions, hitherto, are deficient in exactness;
nor do we know for what purpose the experiment was devised, nor why
certain animals were put aboard the condemned ship. The latest
particulars are in the following letter to the printers of the “Albany
Daily Advertiser:”--
“_Buffalo, Sept. 9, 1827._
“I would have written yesterday some few lines on the subject of the
‘_Condemned Ship_,’ but it was utterly impossible. The public-houses at
the falls were so thronged, that almost every inch of the floor was
occupied as comfortable sleeping apartments. My companions and myself
slept upon three straws for a bed, and had a feather turned edgeways for
a pillow. At about two o’clock p.m. the word was given ‘she comes, she
comes,’ and in about half an hour she struck the first rapid, keeled
very much, and lost her masts and spars, which caused her again to
right. Imagine to yourself a human being on board, and the awful
sensations he must have experienced on her striking the rapid, which
appeared for a moment to the beholders to be her last; but, as I
observed before, on her masts giving way, she again righted, and was
turned sideways, in which course she proceeded to the second rapid,
where she struck and stuck about a minute, and it seemed as though the
elements made their last and desperate effort to drive her over this
rapid. She was thrown completely on her side, filled, and again righted,
and proceeded on her course. Here let me remark, there were two bears, a
buffalo, a dog, and several other animals on board. The bears now left
the wreck and laid their course for shore, where they were caught, and
brought up to Mr. Brown’s hotel, and sold for five dollars a piece. The
buffalo likewise left the schooner, but laid his course down the falls,
and was precipitated over them and was killed, as was said, by a spar
falling across his back; as for the other animals, it is not known what
became of them. The vessel after going over the second rapid was turned
stern foremost, in which way she was precipitated over the mighty
falls, and when about half way over her keel broke, and in a few seconds
she was torn to fragments. There were probably from thirty to fifty
thousand spectators who witnessed this novel and imposing spectacle.”
It appears from the same paper that “the perpendicular height of the
falls, was then taken by actual measurement, from the new bridge
recently erected from the west end of Goat Island, extending to the
Terrapin rocks, eight hundred feet from the shore. The mode adopted in
ascertaining the depth, from the brink of the fall to the surface of the
water below, leaves no room to question its correctness. A piece of
scantling was used, projecting from the railing of the bridge over the
edge of the precipice, from which was suspended a cord with a weight
attached, reaching fairly to the water in a perpendicular line. The
length of the cord to the surface of the water at the brink was thirteen
feet one inch--from this to the water below, on accurate measurement,
the distance was found to be a hundred and fifty-three feet four inches.
These facts are duly certified to us by several gentlemen, natives and
foreigners, and by Mr. Hooker, the superintendent of Goat Island. We are
told, this is the first successful attempt that was ever made to
ascertain the perpendicular descent by actual measurement. Heretofore it
has been done by observation.”
Kalm, the Swedish traveller and naturalist, who was born in 1715, and
died about 1779, visited the Falls of Niagara in August 1750, and he
being, perhaps, the first distinguished writer who seems to have written
concerning them with accuracy, his account is subjoined, divested of a
few details, which on this occasion would not be interesting.
When Kalm saw these astonishing waters the country was in the possession
of the French. By the civility of the commandant of the neighbouring
fort, he was attended by two officers of the garrison, with instructions
to M. Joncaire, who had lived ten years at the “carrying place,” to go
with him and show and tell him whatever he knew. He writes to this
effect in a letter to one of his friends at Philadelphia:--“A little
before we came to the carrying-place the water of Niagara river grew so
rapid, that four men in a light birch canoe had much work to get up
thither. Canoes can go yet half a league above the beginning of the
carrying-place, though they must work against a water extremely rapid;
but higher up it is quite impossible, the whole course of the water, for
two leagues and a half up to the great fall, being a series of smaller
falls, one under another, in which the greatest canoe or bateau would in
a moment be turned upside down. We went ashore therefore, and walked
over the carrying-place, having, besides the high and steep side of the
river, two great hills to ascend one above the other. At half an hour
past ten in the morning we came to the great fall, which I found as
follows:--
“The river (or rather strait) runs here from S.S.E. to N.N.W. and the
rock of the great fall crosses it, not in a right line, but forming
almost the figure of a semicircle, or horse-shoe. Above the fall, in the
middle of the river, is an island, lying also S.S.E. and N.N.W. or
parallel with the sides of the river; its length is about seven or eight
French arpents, (an arpent being a hundred and twenty feet.) The lower
end of this island is just at the perpendicular edge of the fall. On
both sides of this island runs all the water that comes from the Lakes
of Canada, viz. Lake Superior, Lake Misohigan, Lake Huron, and Lake
Erie, which are rather small seas than lakes, and have besides a great
many large rivers that empty their water into them, whereof the greatest
part comes down this Niagara fall. Before the water comes to this island
it runs but slowly, compared with its motion when it approaches the
island, where it grows the most rapid water in the world, running with a
surprising swiftness before it comes to the fall; it is quite white, and
in many places is thrown high up into the air! The greatest and
strongest bateaux would here in a moment be turned over and over. The
water that goes down on the west side of the island is more rapid, in
greater abundance, whiter, and seems almost to outdo an arrow in
swiftness. When you are at the fall, and look up the river, you may see
that the river above the fall is everywhere exceeding steep, almost as
the side of a hill. When all this water comes to the very fall, there it
throws itself down perpendicular. The hair will rise and stand upright
on your head when you see this! I cannot with words express how amazing
this is! You cannot see it without being quite terrified; to behold so
vast a quantity of water falling abrupt from so surprising a height!
“Father Hennepin calls this fall six hundred feet perpendicular; but he
has gained little credit in Canada; the name of honour they give him
there is _un grand menteur_, or “the great liar.” Since Hennepin’s time
this fall, in all the accounts that have been given of it, has grown
less and less; and those who have measured it with mathematical
instruments find the perpendicular fall of the water to be exactly one
hundred and thirty-seven feet. M. Morandrier, the king’s engineer in
Canada, told me, and gave it me also under his hand, that one hundred
and thirty-seven feet was precisely the height of it; and all the French
gentlemen that were present with me at the fall did agree with him
without the least contradiction. It is true, those who have tried to
measure it with a line find it sometimes one hundred and forty,
sometimes one hundred and fifty feet, and sometimes more; but the reason
is, it cannot that way be measured with any certainty, the water
carrying away the line.
“When the water is come down to the bottom of the rock of the fall, it
jumps back to a very great height in the air; in other places it is as
white as milk or snow; and all in motion like a boiling caldron. When
the air is quite calm you can hear it to Niagara fort, six leagues; but
seldom at other times, because when the wind blows the waves of Lake
Ontario make too much noise there against the shore. The gentlemen who
were with me said it could be heard at the distance of fifteen leagues,
but that was very seldom. When they hear, at the fort, the noise of the
fall louder than ordinary, they are sure a north-east wind will follow,
which never fails: this seems wonderful, as the fall is south-west from
the fort; and one would imagine it to be rather a sign of a contrary
wind. Sometimes it is said, that the fall makes a much greater noise
than at other times; and this is looked on as a certain mark of
approaching bad weather or rain; the Indians here hold it always for a
sure sign.
“From the place where the water falls there rises abundance of vapours,
like the greatest and thickest smoke, though sometimes more, sometimes
less: these vapours rise high in the air when it is calm, but are
dispersed by the wind when it blows hard. If you go nigh to this vapour
or fog, or if the wind blows it on you, it is so penetrating, that in a
few minutes you will be as wet as if you had been under water. I got two
young Frenchmen to go down, to bring me from the side of the fall, at
the bottom, some of each of the several kinds of herbs, stones, and
shells, they should find there; they returned in a few minutes, and I
really thought they had fallen into the water: they were obliged to
strip themselves, and hang their clothes in the sun to dry.
“When you are on the other or east side of Lake Ontario, a great many
leagues from the fall, you may every clear and calm morning see the
vapours of the fall rising in the air; you would think all the woods
thereabouts were set on fire by the Indians, so great is the apparent
smoke. In the same manner you may see it on the west side of Lake Erie a
great many leagues off. Several of the French gentlemen told me, that
when birds come flying into this fog or smoke of the fall, they fall
down and perish in the water; either because their wings are become wet,
or that the noise of the fall astonishes them; and they know not where
to go in the darkness: but others were of opinion, that seldom or never
any bird perishes there in that manner, because, as they all agreed,
among the abundance of birds found dead below the fall, there are no
other sorts than such as live and swim frequently in the water, as
swans, geese, ducks, waterhens, teal, and the like; and very often great
flocks of them are seen going to destruction in this manner. As
water-fowl commonly take great delight in being carried with the stream,
so here they indulge themselves in enjoying this pleasure so long, till
the swiftness of the water becomes so great that it is no longer
possible for them to rise, but they are driven down the precipice and
perish. They are observed when they are drawing nigh to endeavour with
all their might to take wing and leave the water, but they cannot. In
the months of September and October such abundant quantities of dead
water-fowl are found every morning below the fall, on the shore, that
the garrison of the fort for a long time live chiefly upon them. Besides
the fowl they find several sorts of dead fish, also deer, bears, and
other animals, which have tried to cross the water above the fall; the
larger animals are generally found broken to pieces. Just below, a
little way from the fall, the water is not rapid, but goes all in
circles and whirls, like a boiling pot, which, however, does not hinder
the Indians going upon it in small canoes a fishing; but a little
further, and lower, begin the other smaller falls. When you are above
the fall, and look down, your head begins to turn. The French, who have
been here a hundred times, will seldom venture to look down, without, at
the same time, keeping fast hold of some tree with one hand.
“It was formerly thought impossible for any body living to come at the
island that is in the middle of the fall: but an accident that happened
twelve years ago, or thereabouts, made it appear otherwise. Two Indians
of the Six Nations went out from Niagara fort to hunt upon an island in
the middle of the river, above the great fall, on which there used to be
abundance of deer. They took some French brandy with them from the fort,
which they tasted several times as they were going over the
carrying-place, and when they were in their canoe they took now and then
a dram, and so went along up the strait towards the island where they
proposed to hunt; but growing sleepy they laid themselves down in the
canoe, which getting loose drove back with the stream farther and
farther down, till it came nigh that island that is in the middle of the
fall. Here one of them, awakened by the noise of the fall, cried out to
the other that they were gone! They tried if possible to save their
lives. This island was nighest, and with much working they got on shore
there. At first they were glad; but when they considered, they thought
themselves hardly in a better state than if they had gone down the fall,
since they had now no other choice than either to throw themselves down
the same, or to perish with hunger. But hard necessity put them on
invention. At the lower end of the island the rock is perpendicular, and
no water is running there. The island has plenty of wood; they went to
work then, and made a ladder or shrouds of the bark of lindtree, (which
is very tough and strong,) so long, till they could with it reach the
water below; one end of this bark ladder they tied fast to a great tree
that grew at the side of the rock above the fall, and let the other end
down to the water. By this they descended. When they came to the bottom
in the middle of the fall they rested a little, and as the water next
below the fall is not rapid, they threw themselves out into it, thinking
to swim on shore. I have said before, that one part of the fall is on
one side of the island, the other on the other side. Hence it is, that
the waters of the two cataracts running against each other, turn back
against the rock that is just under the island. Therefore hardly had the
Indians begun to swim, before the waves of the eddy threw them with
violence against the rock from whence they came. They tried it several
times, but at last grew weary, for they were much bruised and lacerated.
Obliged to climb up their stairs again to the island, and not knowing
what to do, after some time they perceived Indians on the shore, to whom
they cried out. These hastened down to the fort, and told the commandant
where two of their brothers were. He persuaded them to try all possible
means of relief, and it was done in this manner:--The water that runs
on the east side of this island being shallow, especially a little above
the island towards the eastern shore, the commandant caused poles to be
made and pointed with iron, and two Indians undertook to walk to the
island by the help of these poles, to save the other poor creatures or
perish themselves. They took leave of all their friends as if they were
going to death. Each had two poles in his hands, to set to the bottom of
the stream to keep them steady. So they went and got to the island, and
having given poles to the two poor Indians there, they all returned
safely to the main.
“The breadth of the fall, as it runs in a semicircle, is reckoned to be
about six arpents, or seven hundred feet. The island is in the middle of
the fall, and from it to each side is almost the same breadth. The
breadth of the island at its lower end is two thirds of an arpent,
eighty feet, or thereabouts.
“Every day, when the sun shines, you see here from ten o’clock in the
morning to two in the afternoon, below the fall, and under you, where
you stand at the side of the fall, a glorious rainbow, and sometimes
two, one within the other. I was so happy as to be at the fall on a fine
clear day, and it was with great delight I viewed this rainbow, which
had almost all the colours you see in a rainbow in the air. The more
vapours, the brighter and clearer is the rainbow. I saw it on the east
side of the fall in the bottom under the place where I stood, but above
the water. When the wind carries the vapours from that place, the
rainbow is gone, but appears again as soon as new vapours come. From the
fall to the landing above it, where the canoes from Lake Erie put
ashore, (or from the fall to the upper end of the carrying place,) is
half a mile. Lower the canoes dare not come, lest they should be obliged
to try the fate of the two Indians, and perhaps with less success.
“The French told me, they had often thrown whole great trees into the
water above, to see them tumble down the fall. They went down with
surprising swiftness, but could never be seen afterwards; whence it was
thought there was a bottomless deep or abyss just under the fall. I am
of opinion that there must be a vast deep here; for I think if they had
watched very well, they might have found the trees at some distance
below the fall. The rock of the fall consists of a grey limestone.”
So far is Kalm’s account; to which may be added, that the body of water
precipitated from the fall has been estimated to be nearly seven
hundred thousand tons per minute!
* * * * *
A recent traveller, Miss Wright, departing from the falls of the
Gennesse river, for the purpose of seeing the Falls of Niagara, alighted
in the evening at a little tavern in the village of Lewiston, about
seven miles short of the place she was proceeding to. She heard the roar
of the waters at that distance. Her description of the romantic scene is
surprisingly interesting; viz:--
----In the night, when all was still, I heard the first rumbling of the
cataract. Wakeful from over fatigue, rather than from any discomfort in
the lodging, I rose more than once to listen to a sound which the
dullest ears could not catch for the first time without emotion. Opening
the window, the low, hoarse thunder distinctly broke the silence of the
night; when, at intervals, it swelled more full and deep, you will
believe, that I held my breath to listen; they were solemn moments.
This mighty cataract is no longer one of nature’s secret mysteries;
thousands now make their pilgrimage to it, not through
“Lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and caves of death,”
but over a broad highway; none of the smoothest, it is true, but quite
bereft of all difficulty or danger. This in time may somewhat lessen the
awe with which this scene of grandeur is approached; and even now we
were not sorry to have opened upon it by a road rather more savage and
less frequented than that usually chosen.
Next morning we set off in a little waggon, under a glorious sun, and a
refreshing breeze. Seven miles of a pleasant road which ran up the ridge
we had observed the preceding night, brought us to the cataract. In the
way we alighted to look down from a broad platform of rock, on the edge
of the precipice, at a fine bend of the river. From hence the blue
expanse of Ontario bounded a third of the horizon; fort Niagara on the
American shore; fort George on the Canadian, guarding the mouth of the
river, where it opens into the lake; the banks, rising as they
approached us, finely wooded, and winding now hiding and now revealing
the majestic waters of the channel. Never shall I forget the moment
when, throwing down my eyes, I first beheld the deep, slow, solemn tide,
clear as crystal, and green as the ocean, sweeping through its channel
of rocks with a sullen dignity of motion and sound, far beyond all that
I had heard, or could ever have conceived. You saw and _felt_
immediately that it was no river you beheld, but an imprisoned sea; for
such indeed are the lakes of these regions. The velocity of the waters,
after the leap, until they issue from the chasm at Queenston, flowing
over a rough and shelving bed, must actually be great; but, from their
vast depth they move with an apparent majesty, that seems to temper
their vehemence, rolling onwards in heavy volumes, and with a hollow
sound, as if labouring and groaning with their own weight. I can convey
to you no idea of the solemnity of this moving ocean. Our eyes followed
its waves until they ached with gazing.
A mile farther, we caught a first and partial glimpse of the cataract,
on which the opposing sun flashed for a moment, as on a silvery screen
that hung suspended in the sky. It disappeared again behind the forest,
all save the white cloud that rose far up into the air, and marked the
spot from whence the thunder came.
Two foot-bridges have latterly been thrown, by daring and dexterous
hands, from island to island, across the American side of the channel,
some hundred feet above the brink of the fall; gaining in this manner
the great island which divides the cataract into two unequal parts, we
made its circuit at our leisure. From its lower point, we obtained
partial and imperfect views of the falling river; from the higher, we
commanded a fine prospect of the upper channel. Nothing here denotes the
dreadful commotion so soon about to take place; the thunder, indeed, is
behind you, and the rapids are rolling and dashing on either hand; but
before, the vast river comes sweeping down its broad and smooth waters
between banks low and gentle as those of the Thames. Returning, we again
stood long on the bridges, gazing on the rapids that rolled above and
beneath us; the waters of the deepest sea-green, crested with silver,
shooting under our feet with the velocity of lightning, till, reaching
the brink, the vast waves seemed to pause, as if gathering their
strength for the tremendous plunge. Formerly it was not unusual for the
more adventurous traveller to drop down to the island in a well-manned
and well-guided boat. This was done by keeping between the currents, as
they rush on either side of the island, thus leaving a narrow stream,
which flows gently to its point, and has to the eye, contrasted with the
rapidity of the tide, where to right and left the water is sucked to the
falls, the appearance of a strong back current.
It is but an inconsiderable portion of this imprisoned sea which flows
on the American side; but even this were sufficient to fix the eye in
admiration. Descending the ladder, (now easy steps,) and approaching to
the foot of this lesser fall, we were driven away blinded, breathless,
and smarting, the wind being high and blowing right against us. A young
gentleman, who incautiously ventured a few steps farther, was thrown
upon his back, and I had some apprehension, from the nature of the
ground upon which he fell, was seriously hurt; he escaped, however, from
the blast, upon hands and knees, with a few slight bruises. Turning a
corner of the rock (where, descending less precipitously, it is wooded
to the bottom) to recover our breath, and wring the water from our hair
and clothes, we saw, on lifting our eyes, a corner of the summit of this
graceful division of the cataract hanging above the projecting mass of
trees, as it were in mid air, like the snowy top of a mountain. Above,
the dazzling white of the shivered water was thrown into contrast with
the deep blue of the unspotted heavens; below, with the living green of
the summer foliage, fresh and sparkling in the eternal shower of the
rising and falling spray. The wind, which, for the space of an hour,
blew with some fury, rushing down with the river, flung showers of spray
from the crest of the fall. The sun’s rays glancing on these big drops,
and sometimes on feathery streams thrown fantastically from the main
body of the water, transformed them into silvery stars, or beams of
light; while the graceful rainbow, now arching over our heads, and now
circling in the vapour at our feet, still flew before us as we moved.
The greater division of the cataract was here concealed from our sight
by the dense volumes of vapour which the wind drove with fury across the
immense basin directly towards us; sometimes indeed a veering gust
parted for a moment the thick clouds, and partially revealed the heavy
columns, that seemed more like fixed pillars of moving emerald than
living sheets of water. Here, seating ourselves at the brink of this
troubled ocean, beneath the gaze of the sun, we had the full advantage
of a vapour bath; the fervid rays drying our garments one moment, and a
blast from the basin drenching them the next. The wind at length having
somewhat abated, and the ferryman being willing to attempt the passage,
we here crossed in a little boat to the Canada side. The nervous arm of
a single rower stemmed this heavy current, just below the basin of the
falls, and yet in the whirl occasioned by them; the stormy north-west
at this moment chafing the waters yet more. Blinded as we were by the
columns of vapour which were driven upon us, we lost the panoramic view
of the cataract, which, in calmer hours, or with other winds, may be
seen in this passage. The angry waters, and the angry winds together,
drove us farther down the channel than was quite agreeable, seeing that
a few roods more, and our shallop must have been whirled into breakers,
from which ten such arms as those of its skilful conductor could not
have redeemed it.
Being landed two-thirds of a mile below the cataract, a scramble, at
first very intricate, through, and over, and under huge masses of rock,
which occasionally seemed to deny all passage, and among which our guide
often disappeared from our wandering eyes, placed us at the foot of the
ladder by which the traveller descends on the Canada side. From hence a
rough walk, along a shelving ledge of loose stones, brought us to the
cavern formed by the projection of the ledge over which the water rolls,
and which is known by the name of the Table Rock.
The gloom of this vast cavern, the whirlwind that ever plays in it, the
deafening roar, the vast abyss of convulsed waters beneath you, the
falling columns that hang over your head, all strike, not upon the ears
and eyes only, but upon the heart. For the first few moments, the
sublime is wrought to the terrible. This position, indisputably the
finest, is no longer one of safety. A part of the Table Rock fell last
year, and in that still remaining, the eye traces an alarming fissure,
from the very summit of the projecting ledge over which the water rolls;
so that the ceiling of this dark cavern seems rent from the precipice,
and whatever be its hold, it is evidently fast yielding to the pressure
of the water. You cannot look up to this crevice, and down upon the
enormous masses which lately fell, with a shock mistaken by the
neighbouring inhabitants for that of an earthquake, without shrinking at
the dreadful possibility which might crush you beneath ruins, yet more
enormous than those which lie at your feet.
The cavern formed by the projection of this rock, extends some feet
behind the water, and, could you breathe, to stand behind the edge of
the sheet were perfectly easy. I have seen those who have told me they
have done so; for myself, when I descended within a few paces of this
dark recess, I was obliged to hurry back some yards to draw breath.
Mine to be sure are not the best of lungs, but theirs must be little
short of miraculous, that can play in the wind, and foam, that gush from
the hidden depths of this watery cave. It is probable, however, that the
late fracture of the rock has considerably narrowed this recess, and
thus increased the force of the blast that meets the intruder.
From this spot, (beneath the Table Rock,) you _feel_, more than from any
other, the height of the cataract, and the weight of its waters. It
seems a tumbling ocean; and that you yourself are a helpless atom amid
these vast and eternal workings of gigantic nature! The wind had now
abated, and what was better, we were now under the lee, and could admire
its sport with the vapour, instead of being blinded by it. From the
enormous basin into which the waters precipitate themselves in a clear
leap of one hundred and forty feet, the clouds of smoke rose in white
volumes, like the round-headed clouds you have sometimes seen in the
evening horizon of a summer sky, and then shot up in pointed pinnacles,
like the ice of mountain glacières. Caught by the wind, it was now
whirled in spiral columns far up into the air, then, re-collecting its
strength, the tremulous vapour again sought the upper air, till, broken
and dispersed in the blue serene, it spread against it the only silvery
veil which spotted the pure azure. In the centre of the fall, where the
water is the heaviest, it takes the leap in an unbroken mass of the
deepest green, and in many places reaches the bottom in crystal columns
of the same hue, till they meet the snow-white foam that heaves and
rolls convulsedly in the enormous basin. But for the deafening roar, the
darkness and the stormy whirlwind in which we stood, I could have
fancied these massy volumes the walls of some fairy palace--living
emeralds chased in silver. Never surely did nature throw together so
fantastically so much beauty, with such terrific grandeur. Nor let me
pass without notice the lovely rainbow that, at this moment, hung over
the opposing division of the cataract as parted by the island, embracing
the whole breadth in its span. Midway of this silvery screen of shivered
water, stretched a broad belt of blazing gold and crimson, into which
the rainbow dropped its hues, and seemed to have based its arch.
Different from all other scenes of nature that have come under my
observation, the cataract of Niagara is seen to most advantage under a
powerful and opposing sun; the hues assumed by the vapour are then by
far the most varied and brilliant; and of the beauty of these hues, I
can give you no idea. The gloom of the cavern (for I speak always as if
under the Table Rock) needs no assistance from the shade of evening; and
the terrible grandeur of the whole is not felt the less for being
distinctly seen.
We again visited this wonder of nature in our return from Lake Erie; and
have now gazed upon it in all lights, and at all hours,--under the
rising, meridian, and setting sun, and under the pale moon when
“riding in her highest noon.”
The edge of the Table Rock is not approached without terror at the
latter hour. The fairy hues are now all gone; excepting indeed, the
rainbow, which, the ghost of what it was, now spans a dark impervious
abyss. The rays of the sweet planet but feebly pierce the chill dense
vapour that clogs the atmosphere; they only kiss, and _coldly_ kiss, the
waters at the brink, and faintly show the upper half of the columns, now
black as ebony, plunging into a storm-tossed sea of murky clouds, whose
depth and boundaries are alike unseen. It is the storm of the elements
in chaos. The shivering mortal stands on the brink, like the startled
fiend
“on the bare outside of this world,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.”[404]
[404] Views of Society and Manners in America; by an Englishwoman,
1821, 8vo.
* * * * *