vicinity. A massive stone wall, 80 feet square, adorned with military figures and trophies at the corners, 27 feet in height, surrounds the monument, leaving space for a grass-plot and walk on the inside of the inclosure.

The following is the inscription:

Upper Canada has dedicated this Monument
to the memory of the late

Major-General Sir ISAAC BROCK, K.B.,

Provisional Lieut.-Governor and Commander of the Forces in this Province, whose remains are deposited in the vault beneath. Opposing the invading enemy he fell in action, near the Heights, on the 13th October, 1812, in the 43d year of his age, Revered and lamented by the people whom he governed, and deplored by the sovereign to whose service his life had been devoted.

The last words of Major General Brock, when he fell mortally wounded by a musket-shot through the left breast, were, "Never mind, my boys, the death of one man-I have not long to live Thus departed one of the many noble spirits that were sacrificed on this frontier during the war of 1812.

The village of NIAGARA is advantageously situated on the Canada side, at the entrance of the river into Lake Ontario, directly opposite Fort Niagara, on the American side. It contains about 3,000 inhabitants; a court-house and jail; one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, one Methodist, and one Roman Catholic church; ten hotels and taverns, and twenty stores of different kinds; also, an extensive locomotive and car factory. This is the most noted place in Canada West for building steamboats and other craft navigating Lake Ontario. Here is a dockyard with a marine railway and foundry attached, capable of making machinery of the largest description, and giving employment to a great number of men. It is owned by the "Niagara Dock Company." Steamers leave daily for Toronto, etc.

FORT GEORGE, situated a short distance south or up-stream from the mouth of the river, is now in ruins. This was the scene of a severe contest in 1813, in which the Americans were victorious. A new fort has been erected on the point of land at the mouth of the river, directly opposite old Fort Niagara on the American side. The new fortification is called Fort Massasauga.

The whole frontier on the Canada side, from Fort George to Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, was occupied by the American army in 1814, when occurred a succession of battles of the most determined and brilliant character.

206

NIAGARA RIVER,

ITS RAPIDS, FALLS, ISLANDS, AND ROMANTIC SCENERY.

"Majestic stream! what river rivals thee,

Thou child of many lakes, and sire of one-
Lakes that claim kindred with the all-circling sea-

Large at thy birth as when thy race is run!
Against what great obstructions hast thou won
Thine august way-the rock-formed mountain-plain
Has opened at thy bidding, and the steep
Bars not thy passage, for the ledge in vain
Stretches across the channel-thou dost leap
Sublimely down the height, and urge again

Thy rock-embattled course on to the distant main."

THIS most remarkable and romantic stream, the outlet of Lake Erie, through which flows all the accumulated waters of the Upper Lakes of North America, very appropriately forms the boundary between two great countries, the British province of Upper Canada on the one side, and the State of New York, the "Empire State" of the Union, on the opposite side. In its whole course, its peculiar character is quite in keeping with the stupendous Cataract from which its principal interest is derived.

The amount of water passing through this channel is immense; from a computation which has been made at the outlet of Lake Erie, the quantity thus discharged is about twenty millions of cubic feet, or upward of 600,000 tons per minute, all of which great volume of water, 20 miles below, plunges over the Falls of Niagara.

The Niagara River commences at Bird Island, nearly opposite the mouth of Buffalo harbor, and passes by the site of old Fort Erie and Waterloo on the Canada side. At the latter place a steam ferry-boat plies across the river to Black Rock, now forming a part of the city of Buffalo. It is here proposed to con

struct a railroad bridge across the stream, about 1,800 feet in width.

SQUAW ISLAND and STRAWBERRY ISLAND are both small islands lying on the American side of the stream, near the head of Grand Island. The river is here used in part for the Erie Canal, a pier extending from Squaw Island to Bird Island, forming a large basin called Black Rock Harbor.

GRAND ISLAND, attached to Erie Co., N. Y., is a large and important body of land, about ten miles long from north to south, and seven miles wide. This island is partly cleared and cultivated, while the larger portion is covered with a large growth of oaks and other forest trees.

The ship or steamboat channel runs along the bank of Grand Island to nearly opposite Chippewa, where the whole stream unites before plunging over the Falls of Niagara, being again separated at the head of Goat Island. From this point the awe-struck traveler can scan the quiet waters above, and the raging rapids below, preparing to plunge over the cataract. CAYUGA ISLAND and BUCKHORN ISLAND are small bodies of land belonging to the United States, situated immediately below Grand Island.

NAVY ISLAND, lying opposite the village of Chippewa, 18 miles below the head of the river, is a celebrated island belonging to the Canadians, having been taken possession of by the sympathizing patriots in 1837, when a partial rebellion occurred in Upper and Lower Canada.

TONAWANDA, 11 miles below Buffalo, is situated at the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, opposite Grand Island. The Erie Canal here enters the creek, which it follows for several miles on its course toward Lockport. A railroad also runs to Lockport, connecting with the New York Central Railroad, extending to Albany. A ship canal is proposed to be constructed from Tonawanda to some eligible point on Lake Ontario, thus forming a rival to the Welland Canal of Canada.

SCHLOSSER'S LANDING, two miles above Niagara Falls village, is a noted steamboat landing, opposite Chippewa, from whence