Smith's Canadian gazetteer - ElectricCanadian.com

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travellers to that side, by painting everything to be seen there in the brightest
colours, and throwing all points of interest on the Canadian side into the shade.
One-and-tvrenty pages of this precious production are taken up with what the
compiler calls a "chronological table, containing the principal events of the
late war between the United States and Great Britain;" the whole of which
might be summed up in four words "ice licked the British." To sell this
pamphlet on the other side, in order to gratify the inordinate vanity of his
countrymen, might answer the purpose of the author very well, and prove a
profitable adjunct to his trade in Malking sticks ; but to send it over to Canada
to be sold, is a piece of impudence almost unparallelled, even among the free and
vulependent citizens.
The principal hotels on the Canadian side are the Clifton House and the
Pavilion Hotel; both of which are at present under the same management.
There are several other houses in the immediate neighbourhood; and parties
wishing to stay for a few weeks, for tlie purpose of enjoj'iug the scenery of the
Falls and the surrounding neighbourhood (probably the most magnificent in the
world), will have no difficulty in procuring accommodation in private boarding
houses. The " Cataract House," on the American side, is a large building,
kept by an American general; therefore, those who liave any ambition to visit
a house kept by an American (jemral, may have an opportunity of doing so.
The Falls are two miles from Chippewa, and seven from Queenston; between
which places a railroad has been constructed, and during the summer cars run
daily, conveying passengers to the Falls. The Falls, however are very magnificent
in the winter, and equally well worth seeing, the rocks at the sides being
encrusted with icicles, some of them measuring perhaps fifty or sixty feet in
length. During the winter stages run daily from St. Catharines to Cliippewa,
whence private conveyances may be obtained to the Falls. Occasionally, from
the immense quantity of ice carried over the Falls, the channel becomes con>pletely
choked and blocked up a short distance below the Falls, so as to become
passable for foot passengers. This was the case during the winter of 1S4.5-6,
when a path was marked out across the ice opposite the Clifton House ; and some
enterprising Fanhec, inteut on money -making, erected a shanty on the ice in
the centre of the river for the sale of refreshments.
Three miles below the Falls is a whirlpool, which is caused by a sudden bend
in the river, and which is also well worth visiting; and four miles below the
whirlpool is the village of Queenston. Here the river becomes navigable for
.steamboats; the current is still rapid, but not sufficiently so to impose any
obstacles in the way of steamboats ; and seven miles lower down, at the motuh
of the river, where it discharges itself into Lake Ontario, is the town of Niagara.
From Lake Erie to the rapids, a distance of sixteen miles, the fall of the
river is not more than twenty feet ; in the rapids, in a quarter of a mile, the
fall is forty feet ; at the Falls, one hundred and sixty-four feet; and between
the Falls and Queenston, a distance of seven miles, one hundred and one feet.
The Falls of Niagarj are supposed at one time to have been situated at the
Queenston Heights, and to have gradually receded, from the wearing away of
the rocks.
NIAGARA.
{Formcrh) called Nk-w.\rk.)
The District Town of the Niagara District, in the township of Niagara,
situated at the entrance of tlie Niagara River, forty-eigbt miles by land from
Hamilton, and thirty-six by water from Toronto. Niagara is a very old town,
and was for five or six years the capital of the country. It was settled by
Colonel Simcoe, when Lieutenant Governor of the province, and was incorporated
in the year 1845. It has been a place of cotisiderable trade, ])efore the
oj>ening of the Welland {^anal. On the east side of the town is a large military
reserve. About half a mile up the river are the ruins of Fort George, where
tlic remains of General Brock were originally interred; they were removed iu,