Niagara River and Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario : a series of one hundred and fifty-three original etchings

NIAGARA

RIFER AND FALLS

FROM

Lake Erie to Lake Ontario

A SERIES OF

One Hundred and Fifty-three Original Etchings

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ETCHED ON COPPER BY AMOS W. SANGSTER

FROM HIS OWN DRAWINGS

Edited iiv JAMES W. WARD, Librarian Grosvenor Library

BUFFALO, N. Y.

PUBLISHED BY THOMAS T. FRYER
1886

BUFFALO, N. Y.
Art-Printing Works ok Matthews, Nortiirui- & Co

"MUI OF J III "buffalo morning EXPRESS."

1886.

INDEX

VOL. I

VIGNETTES.

No. i.

2.

3-

4-
5-
6.

7-
8.

9-

10.

ii.

12.

13-
14.

15-
16.

17-
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.

23-

24.

25.
26.

French Creek. No. 27.

Calm — Tow on Lake Erie. " 28.

First Sail on Lake Erie. Scene from mouth of Buffalo " 29.

Creek in the year 1679. " 3°-

Revolving Light at Entrance to Niagara River. " 31.

Buoy in Niagara River. " 32-

Life-boat Coming in from Wreck — Lake Erie. " 33.

A Quiet Spot — Above Village of Fort Erie. ' 34-

Old Fort Erie Ruins — South End. " 35-

Looking down the River from Old Fort Erie. " 36.

Old Wind Mill. (Now removed.) " 37-

Patience. " 3^-

Ruins of Old Fort Porter— North Side. " 39-

" ' —South Side. " 40.

Episcopal Church — Fort Erie. Built of Stones from Old ' 41-

Fort Erie.

River Bank — Near Fort Erie. " 42.

The River Road — Canada. " 43-

Elevator — Buffalo Harbor. " 44-

Squaw Island — American Side. " 45-

Old Bridge — River Road — Canada. " 4^.

Garrison Road to the River — Canada, " 47-

A Glimpse of Lake Erie from Fort Porter. " 48.

A View of Strawberry Island — American Side. " 49-

River Road, below International Bridge — Canada, " 5°'

The Beginning of Niagara — Ice Period. " 5'-

A Point of Tonawanda Island. " 52-

Beaver Creek in i860, Grand Island. " 53

Tonawanda Harbor.

Tonawanda Island, Looking Towards the Falls.

River Bank, Tonawanda,

North End Grand Island.

A Glimpse of American Shore from Tonawanda Island.

Fisherman's Cottage, Black Rock, American Side.

Under The Willow, Niagara River.

Black Creek, Canada.

Mouth Chippewa Creek, opposite La Salle.

Catholic Seminary, above Horse-shoe Falls Canada.

A Mile above the Falls, American Shore.

Chippewa Harbor, after a Fire, Canada.

A Relic of the Past, Canada Shore.

Old Mill Race in the Rapids, American Side.

The Road to the Sulphur Spring, above Horse-shoe Falls,

Niagara Park, Canada.
A Walk Through Goat Island.
Terrepin Point. Horse-shoe Falls.
A Relic of Old Fort Schlosser,
Under the Cliff, Goat Island.
Cascade, below Terrapin Point.

A Glimpse of the Falls from Maid of the Mist Landing.
Old Mill Race above the American Falls.
The Wreck in the Rapids.

A Glimpse of the American Falls from Goat Island.
The Canada Shore near Chippewa.

A Glimpse of the Horse-shoe Falls from Sister Island.
A Quiet Spot above American Falls.

iDcdiccitcd

I3b petmfsslon

TOtb 6rcat TRcspcct

Tfie Horn iurover ^IcvcluniJ

president of tbe Tnniteo States

tin jfiu-n.-'

Tfie clrtist.

INTRODUCTORY

OF THE WORK OF ART here presented to the public, little need be said. Nothing
in the way of apology, not much in explanation. It may as well be left to speak for
itself. It simply offers to the lovers of nature, and to students of art, a selection of original
etchings, all by the same hand, of the splendid scenery of Niagara River. Pictorial illustrations
of this beautiful and wonderful River, it may be thought, and truly enough, are no novelty.
Pictures and descriptions of its marvelous scenery, its mystic legends, and its historic memorials,
are undoubtedly — I might be excused for saying, unfortunately — numerous enough, and quite
familiar to the world.

By pen and pencil, by brush and graver, by canvas and photograph, its more prominent and
best known attributes and prospects, especially those in the neighborhood of the Great Cataract,
have been often narrated and delineated ; and its many features of sublimity and loveliness have
been from time to time the inspiration of poets and artists, and the bewilderment of impetuous
enthusiasts, since that distant day when its first-known civilized discoverer tell on his knees, in
speechless emotion, before the unparalleled magnificence and loveliness of the awful torrent.

But "a thing of beauty" is fascinating, certainly in great part, because its varying charms,
like those of the moon, or like the group of cloud pictures heliographed in tints of flame around.
the setting sun, are diversified and revived by constantly occurring changes and surprises. It is
true that the fame of Niagara, Queen of Waterfalls, has been made known, in all tongues, to all
people. Poets and painters of every measure of audacity, and of various degrees of fitness and
fidelity, have ventured on the task of representing, intelligently, its most popularly attractive,
and therefore best known, features. But, nevertheless, it is surprisingly true that the pictorial
literature of this unparalleled River is meagre and defective. Scarcely excepting so much of it,
the greater part, in fact, as is devoted to the Cataract itself and its surrounding or associated
scenery.

But were it not so, the present work could exhibit a substantial reason for its existence,
and stand upon its originality, inasmuch as it is the only one ever yet attempted, strange as
it may appear, possessing its especial characteristics; that is, it is the only one that embraces

in its scope the entire River from Lake to Lake, or that presents the views selected for
reproduction, in the effective form of etchings — a form of the graphic arts that secures to
the artist capable of making use of it a vitality and freedom of spirit and expression obtainable
by no other method.

Niagara River, or Falls, is a theme of which no one will grow weary; considered, even,
in its most usual and familiar aspects. It is a story that never will be fully told; a panorama
never to be quite unrolled. Its beauty is so luxuriant and affluent, it can be seen only in
parts, and described in parts. Few can comprehend it in its entirety. The eye of the observer,
wearied with the magnitude and profusion of its allurements, soon comes to rest upon some-
minor picturesque detail, and he enthusiastically exclaims, " How beautiful ! " Hut another
feature of equal fascination soon captures his attention, and of that also his instant impression
is, How beautiful I But he can rarely give an account of his impressions. In fact, a view
may be equally beautiful to different observers, but for quite different reasons ; depending
not only upon personal mood and temperament, but also upon actual changes of appearance,
due to changes in the angles of observation, to the ever-varying conditions of sky, and
cloud, and atmosphere, to the frequent temporary intrusions of unusual objects, and also to
variations of a more permanent character, so often occurring, in the direction and quantity of
water, and in the positions and aspects of the River's overhanging rocks and banks. To
detect and properly estimate, pictorially, such subtle effects as these, is the province of the
experienced artist, whose trained eye is capable of selecting the best features, at the most
favorable moments; who knows that the Book of Nature is not to be read hastily and super-
ficially; and whose fidelity to truth restrains his fancy; and obliges him to authenticate his
impressions by repeated observations. It is only the artist that is able to discern that this
erratic and wonderful River, though it maintains a characteristic constancy and unity, never-
theless, develops its diversified scenery in ever-recurring and unexpected variety. Many an
admired touch of an artist's hand is due to the fascination and inspiration of a casual glance;
like a meteor's burst,

" Ere we have said
Look! look! how beautiful! — 'tis fled."

But the artist seizes the effect in its flight, and his pencil gives it similitude and duration.

He gives expression and form, simply, to a momentary conception. He cannot, if he would,

prevent so much of his personality from entering into his work. Some writer, somewhere,

speaks of the "sympathetic absorption1' -I should rather say revelation — "of an artist in his

subject." There is more of an artist than his tablets and pencil. Touches of ravishing

beauty, harmonious associations, abrupt and surprising contrasts, light in darkness; all such

effects, that excite our admiration and delight, are the artist's thoughts vivifying and illuminating

his work. What we admire in the sketch is the artist's idea; what he felt when he drew it.

The satirist says truly:

" He ne'er will as an artist shine
Who copies Nature line by line."

Of the principles to which I have here incidentally referred, these drawings by Mr.
Sangster, now for the first time brought to the notice of the lovers of art and nature, may
be regarded as at once the suggestion and the illustration. They are artistic productions that will,
I think, find eager acceptance as the conscientious and sympathetic work of a true and patient
searcher after Nature's spontaneous and unembellishcd beauty; and their attractiveness has been
further enhanced by the elegant method he has adopted for their reproduction. For it must

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be remembered that all the views presented in this superb collection have been drawn and
etched from Nature by Mr. Sangs tor's unaided hand; to whom, indeed, the art-world is
indebted not only for the original drawings and the engraving of the prints, but, as well, for
the entire conception of the whole plan of the work. In fact, the production of these lovely
views of the Beautiful River has been his cherished dream and hope for many years; to the
realization of which hope he has devoted days and nights of laborious but alluring exploration.
He has wandered along its shores from Lake to Lake, drifted upon its restless waters, scaled
its precipices, and dreamed in the shadows that lie upon its spray-sprinkled slopes. He has,
in a word, studied Niagara, in all seasons and under all conditions; selecting points touched
with ideal beauty, and rejecting what was common-place and trivial. The result, there is
reason to believe it will be conceded, has been as successful in execution as the plan was
felicitous in conception. To all familiar with the varied scenery of Niagara, the spirit and
fidelity of these sketches will require no confirmation but their own recollections. To those
to whom the wonders of Niagara are still to be revealed, I can only offer the assurance that
these charming pictures are actual views of the points and places intended to be represented.
To all, the work will have especial merit as a really charming collection of specimens of the
effective and popular art of the etcher; an art comparatively new in America, and hitherto
unapplied to Niagara. This work will also pleasantly serve to introduce to those to whom he
may be still unknown, the name and work of an artist whose versatile ability has already
obtained wide-spread acknowledgment.

It should be added, in conclusion, with reference to the press-work of these sheets, that the
etchings were entrusted by Mr. Sangster to the tried and skillful hand of Mr. J. H. Daniels, of
Boston, the leading plate-printer of the United States. The letter-press work is from the well-
known art-printing house of Matthews, Northrup & Co., of Buffalo, and exhibits the high
degree of perfection already attained by the printer's art in this City.

JAS. W. WARD.

Grosvenor Library,

Buffalo, N. V'.. Sept. l. l886.

"'3

THE SCENERY of the low-lying belt of shore land that bounds the lower portion of
Lake Eric where its rapidly descending waters, flowing between the visibly
approaching shores of the United States and Canada, become the Strait, or River, or
Niagara, makes no pretension to boldness or sublimity ot feature, and has even been
described as devoid ot any picturesque interest or beauty; a reproach, however, that will
scarcely be conceded. Indeed, many really charming effects can be pointed out in the
prospect; many pleasing nooks discovered; groups of trees, concealing beneath their
shadows the limpid waters of the coves and pools that indent the boulder-strewn shore ;
green patches of brush overhanging billow- washed beaches; sandy knolls and rocky dykes,
against which the rippling surf of the Lake beats and splashes continually; tranquil and
misty byways veiled in soft combinations of light and obscurity; the whole forming a con-
nected series of agreeable and harmonious pictures, stretching across the distant horizon, as
seen from either bank of the broad and rapidly flowing River; embracing in its graceful
sweep many objects and features of a local nature, that add essentially to the variety and
picturesqueness of the general landscape.

With the pleasure inspired by the view of a wide expanse of water, lying in repose,
there is always associated a placid and soothing sentiment of beauty peculiar to itself, and
to which all minds are confessedly susceptible; broken and agitated water, irrespective ot its
surroundings, possesses, transcendently, a spirit-stirring charm, the influence of which no frank
soul can resist.

In fact, the view of Lake Erie from any point in the vicinity of Buffalo will always be
found impressive and pleasing. The shadow-dropping clouds that skirt the distant horizon —
the spray and sparkle of the laughing ripples, skipping over the rocks and breaking musically
upon the shelving beaches — the gray undulating hills, just visible in the misty distance —
the towering light-houses and beacons that assure the storm-driven mariner of refuge and

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security — the ceaseless
shifting and drifting
hither and thither of in-
numerable sail-boats and
steamers — the hazy blue
of the visible atmos-
phere that veils and
softens the distant in-
land slopes and downs
— the curious display
of soaring spires and
tower-like stacks that
silhouette the smoking
city on the clear gray
sky, especially at even-
ing— the lovely reflec-
tions in the gently-
ruffled water of the
many-tinted and ever-varying cloudlights, that stream over the surface in vanishing and
rapidly interchanging glimpses of blue and green and golden yellow bands — surely phenomena
and occurrences like these must produce pictures of unwearying variety and charm; awaken-
ing in the observer a sense of quiet and restful beauty that swells at moments into
admiration and delight.

And under ruder aspects — for the Lake has its humors and does not conceal its irasci-
bility, and the winds are not always gentle with it — and when the storm and the tempest
assail it, and the wind-burdened clouds sweep down impetuously upon the terrified water,
and the wild gale, cracking its whips of spray, plunges into the vainly wrestling billows,
tearing their snowy crests into strings and flocks of foam, then old Erie leaps and roars
for joy, and resumes her traditional majesty and glory, terrific to encounter, but exhilarating
to witness. The tattered waves hurled by the riotous gale against the rocky walls of the
beacon in the outer bay, spring in showers of spray entirely over the lantern, and further
on break in long lines of bubbling cascades against the protecting break- waters of the
inner harbor. Standing upon one of the city piers, if one will make sure of his head,
in a tempestuous hour like this, the Lake on its rollicking revels is a sight worth seeing.

And it is fraught with dangers as well. Dangers imminent and insidious; as thou-
sands of wrecked "toilers of the sea" could testify. The bottom of the Lake is strewn with
the relics and debris of many a deplorable disaster, destructive alike to life and property.
Many a shattered hulk lies muttering its
weird dirge of warning, and bleached and
fractured spars stalk like spectral sentinels
all along the shore.

In view of the many hazards that
attend the navigation of die Great Amer-
ican Lakes, and moved with sympathy for
the oft-imperilled mariner, much interest
of an organized nature has been awakened
in behalf of all such as may be exposed

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from day to day to these frequently recurring dangers. In the prosecution of this humane
work individual enterprise has happily received the support and co-operative assistance of the
General Government, and storm-signal posts and life-saving stations, equipped and manned
in the most efficient manner, and supplied with every requisite, and with all approved
expedients, are stretched, at convenient and carefully-chosen distances apart, along the whole
line of the Lake coast.

In these ever-ready and philanthropic measures for the safety and rescue of the shipwrecked
mariner the City of Buffalo has also had its share; it is one of the National life-stations,
of the first-class, and Capt. D. P. Dobbins, one of its honored citizens, and inventor of the
justly celebrated life-boat that bears his name, himself highly experienced in all coasting and
maritime matters, is Superintendent of the Ninth United States Life-Saving District, which
includes the shores of Lake Erie in its widely extended jurisdiction. The ingeniously-con-
structed boat which Capt. Dobbins has contributed to this important service is considered, by
experts familiar with its peculiar merits, to be one of the most perfect of its kind. In the
confident words of its designer, it is "self-righting, self-bailing, and insubmergible." It is
strong, portable, easily managed, and may be speedily launched through the most violent surf,
carrying with easy control fifty or more persons. Having been successfully tested upon
occasions of great severity of weather, and under conditions of extreme peril, this unrivalled
boat has been pronounced by competent official authority, superior to all others with which
it has been brought in competition. No higher commendation can be conferred upon any
invention designed for practical service in the affairs of life, than the assurance, from actual
experience, that it will thoroughly perform its duty. This testimony has been frequently
bestowed upon Capt. Dobbins' life-boat, by persons quite competent to estimate properly the
difficulties and dangers to which it has on several occasions been exposed ; always proving

itself staunch and trustworth

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TO ONE taking only a hasty glance over the eventful history of the eastern end of
Lake Erie, there will appear, with marked prominence, three graphic occurrences, dis-
tantly consecutive, it is true, but locally related, and of notable interest in connection with the
romantic annals of Buffalo. They would seem to be entitled to brief mention here. Of
but slight mention indeed, anywhere, heretofore.

There was a time, long passed out of present recollection, when these shore-lines of
the Lake and the low head-lands of the River presented a very different appearance from
what they do now. When the astonished gaze of the early explorers of these mysterious
and unknown waters first fell upon the amazing scene, these hillsides and banks were
covered to the water's edge with a dense and almost impenetrable forest: the gnarled and
rocking branches of majestic oaks, beeches, and tall lindens and maples, were tangled
together in an intricate mass by the cable-like stems of the grape, the celastrus, the
ampelopsis, and other woody climbers, beneath the shadowy shelter of which prowled the
bear and the wolf and the catamount and other predaceous animals. The whole prospect
was wild and treacherous. Birds of prey hovered over the breezy tree-tops, and innumer-
able water-fowl swam unconcernedly in the reedy marshes of the coves and bayous of the
Lake. But for fuel and food, for security and shelter, and other needs and conveniences
of man, all this has long since disappeared.

But two hundred years ago, this dark leafy curtain of the primeval forest still cast its
shadows over the sandy flats that obstructed the mouth of Buffalo Creek, warning the too
adventurous pioneer of the perils and infections it so sombrely concealed. With such sur-
roundings, one day in August, in 1679, an Indian, of the confederated tribes that then had
possession of this wild region of the Lakes, stood upon a hillock of sand, in a sunlit clearing
near the mouth of the sluggish Creek, leaning upon a dilapidated French fire-arm, gazing
fixedly at an object that held him motionless with surprise and wonder. White caps were
gamboling gaily over the wind-broken surface of the water; rabbits were burrowing under
the fallen leaves, and squirrels were frisking over the swaying branches of the adjacent
trees, beneath which, on a lichen-covered log, a red fox, with his nose upon his paws, lay
crouching in similated slumber. The man's figure, dressed in the scanty costume of his

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people, was inclined forward in the eager attitude of curiosity and astonishment. And,
indeed, what he saw there, would have compelled the attention of a much more experi-
enced observer, had one been there to witness the strange event then taking place.

It was Robert La Salle's great day; the day of his triumph over accumulated disasters
and discouragements; a triumph over difficulties and oppositions that only a brave and
patient heart could have survived. What the genius of the intelligent and energetic adven-
turer had devised, his perseverance had finally accomplished. Indian canoes, and such trivial
craft as he had discovered paddling about the shores of the Lake, he saw clearly enough
could be of no service in any serious attempt at navigation, and he determined to construct
a small schooner for the purpose. Procuring with much difficulty, and after many dis-
couraging delays, the requisite material, and hauling it, by aid of some sailors and Indians,
to a point a few miles above the Falls, about, as seems most probable, where the village
stands that now bears his name, he set his men to work; and after many days of incredible
patience and labor, the vessel was finished and launched into the swift current of the
River. Here new difficulties and delays awaited the enterprise, for the little schooner's sails
we're no match for the descending force of the rapids. Tow lines manned by stout arms
came to the rescue, and succeeded in dragging her to a point, where, finally, the approving
winds from the west filled her white sails and bore her, in triumph, upon the unfriendly
waters of the Lake. Truly was it a day of wonder. The event then disclosed was one
of far-reaching significance; the fore-runner of results impossible to have been imagined by
the simple savage who stood there in sullen amazement, muttering his monotonous croak of
wonder and distrust.

The comely and trimly-rigged little schooner, with her fair suit of sails filled with the
freshening breeze, sped gallantly upon her adventurous course. Pennants fluttered from her
foretop — banners waved from her prow — and the roar of cannon and musketry pealed from
her careening deck, arousing old Erie's astonished echoes from their primeval slumbers. And

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so began the navigation and commerce of the Great American Lakes. Not, it is sadly
necessary to add, without disaster. Infuriated Erie resented the intrusion. "La Griffon"
reached Green Bay in safety, but on her return voyage was lost; as was supposed, in a
storm; but there was no man left to tell the tale.

A little over a hundred years brings us to another interesting event, in the stirring
history of Buffalo Creek. It was in 1791; time had wrought its whirl of chances and
changes, and many things had happened. The influences of the new civilization were mak-
ing themselves felt in various ways, not always exemplary. The march of improvement
had penetrated the wilderness. Much of the primeval forest had disappeared; the clearing
about the Creek had been greatly extended; and a goodly and cultivable land was begin-
ning to attract speculation and enterprise. And one day, and upon the same spot upon
which the Iroquois had stood and watched the progress of the booming "Griffon" speeding
to its deplorable fate, stood now another and quite different figure. It was that of a man
as different in character as in figure. He stood there with an eye to business inducements,
and being a man of foresight and decision, and captivated by the encouraging prospect of
navigable waters and broad pastures, and weary with his tedious and adventurous journey
from the sterile and pixy-haunted crags of the Hudson, he determined, with honest Dutch
assurance, to plant himself and his potential fortunes, then and there, upon the wretched
sand-bank upon which he stood pondering. The outlook was not exhilarating ; concurrent
probabilities were not in the ascendant. But everything must have a beginning, even
Buffalo; and having made up his mind, and deliberately sketched his plans, he sent East
for the needed material, and dug out his boulders and hewed his timber, and soon saw
completed a good and sufficient house, with a roomy shop for trading purposes attached —
the first structure in the resemblance of a house erected by a white man on the site of the
present goodly City of Buffalo. Around him, relieved here and there by a few not very
extensive clearings and a passable road or two, was the wilderness, and his only neighbors
were some nomadic families of Seneca Indians, constituents of the Great Sachem of the
Wolves, the renowned and really princely Red Jacket; a "wide-awake" man, but whose
territorial rights do not seem, in those early days, to have been of that self-evident sort that
the too rapaciously enterprising pale-faced land-jobbers of the period felt under very urgent

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obligation to respect. But there was peace in the land, and recognized rights of domain,
and possession, of some definable sort; and it came to pass, at all events, about a hundred
years ago, that one Cornelius Winne, a sturdy and responsible adventurer from the region of
the Catskills, quietly established his abode and his business on the banks of Buffalo Creek,
with all needed papers, and the possibilities and potencies of the future City of Buffalo, in
the capacious pockets of his "bulbous-bottomed" breeches.

One hundred and eleven years, of memorable import in the chronicles of nations,
intervened between the passage of the first sail-boat across the mouth of Buffalo Creek and
the erection of the first white man's dwelling upon its wind-swept bluffs. Subsequent
events moved more rapidly. The village of the Creek began soon to assume an air of
pretension and importance ; houses and inhabitants multiplied, roads began to be called streets,
and neighbors talked encouragingly about the prospects of trade and crops; evidently Cor-
nelius had done a good thing. But prosperity did not come at a bound ; it was a day of
small things for a while, and progress was still slow. But there was pluck and confidence,
and encouraging results began to appear, when war came, and with it confusion and trouble.
And there was mustering of men, and marching to battle in defence of the frontier; 130
men from the heroic little village, old and young, went out upon the war-path. And the
invaders came upon the defenceless town, and there was terror and flight, and bloody con-
flict, for miles around, with Indians and English; and the vision of "a lieutenant with a
squad of men" rushing about in the midst of the shrieking panic and terror with flaming
fire-brands, which soon laid the town in ashes — only half a dozen houses escaping the con-
flagration. The disaster was cruelly disheartening, and the loss seriously crippling. But the
courage and energy of the inhabitants did not fail them. Though war was still devastating
the frontier in all directions, they took friendly counsel together, swept up the ashes, and
joined hands and means for the rebuilding of the town, and, as usual, on a better and
broader scale. And when, after another year of calamity and bloodshed, peace was pro-
claimed in the land, Buffalo was visibly once more on the road to assured prosperity.

Three years after these occurrences, and about twenty-eight from the day the judicious
Winne, building wiser than he knew, laid in solitude the foundation of the City of Buffalo,
and upon the same spot upon which he had stood, enveloped in smoke, forecasting the
probabilities of his project, one day in August, a little flaxen-haired boy, apparently in
charge of a buxom Indian girl, who squatted by his side in the warm sand, sat upon the
end of a storm-splintered log that lay half buried in the sand, watching, with more than

A

childish interest, the slow and labored motion of a small steamboat struggling up the rapid
current of the River, which, for many hours, so feeble was the power of the little craft's
over-taxed energies, resisted and delayed its passage into the Lake. But the boat, the
"Walk-in-the- Water," the first vessel moved by steam to engage in the already active and
thrifty commerce of the Lakes, possessed a special attraction for the boy, as he sat there
watching its approach, less interested in its spasmodic efforts to overcome the refractory
current of the River than in the bold and curious figure-head it bore at its prow. It was
an object he had seen before, as appeared by the piece of paper that lay upon his knees,
upon which, as the astonished group of villagers that stood around him had slyly discovered, he
had drawn, with the stump of a pencil, a rude but really obvious sketch of the figure-head
that had so absorbed his attention. This incident of the infant artist, associated as it is with
three memorable epochs in the eventful annals of Lake Erie — the first sail-boat on its
waters, the first house on the site of Buffalo, and the first steamboat at its dock — gains an
additional interest in the fact that this historical boy, born in Buffalo in the midst of the
calamities and desolations of war, was James H. Beard, whose natural tendency to art, thus
precociously exhibited, and cultivated and expanded in after life with that patience and energy
of purpose that characterizes true genius, brought him at last the honor and fortune due
to an artist, whose acknowledged ability has so largely contributed to the advancement of
American art.

It would have gratified a pleasant fancy, ii I could have left it on record here, that
the distinguished painter I have alluded to was the first resident artist to exercise his talents
in the, then nascent, but auspicious, held of Buffalo fine arts. But it is quite clear that he
will have to share the honor with the unknown, but doubtless very respectable, sculptor
whose dexterous hand chiseled the shapely figure-head that first inspired his awakened genius.
What a curious coincidence of relationship is here presented to one's imagination. Genius
and steamboat ; both started together on their respective and unrevealed careers ; and they
had a parallel and cotemporaneous development; keeping pace in historic importance, and,
though by distinct and special paths, winning high places in the world's esteem. One expands
into a splendid fleet of steamships, transporting the produce and wealth of nearly half the
American continent, from end to end of our great inland water system — and the other, with
concurrent ambition, and intent only on its own alluring inspirations, attaining the goal of
success and recognition towards which it struggled.

The short-winded " Walk-in-the- Water," for the prospective needs of steam-navigation,
was scarcely more capable than the inexpert child for the work of an artist; but the immense
enginery and traffic of the Lakes was the outgrowth of that unpromising beginning, as the
accomplished artist was evolved from the artless boy.

c*l

AS WE MUSINGLY SAUNTER along the gravelly banks of the Wonderful River, it is impos-
iV sible to put aside the reflection, that the interest we feel in its amazing annals, written and
unwritten, recent and retrospective, is inseparably connected with by-gone and archaic times and
occurrences, which seem to supersede all the more prosy and local considerations that first invoke
our interest, and carry us back in fancy to far-off prehistoric eras and conditions, that charm and
bewilder us, as if by some occcult and irresistible spell. To this subtle influence, we willingly yield
ourselves captive, until we stand, in imagination, in a world of the past; awe-struck, in the presence

of the grand and gorgeous reality of a fully developed and exuberant life; so far distant on time's
appalling track, that our knowledge of it is derived only from unearthed vestiges, and the self-
impressed records and memorials concealed in stony tablets that lie beneath the soil that now
supports a floral and animal existence of quite another and feebler character.

Of the presence of a vast and wide-spread ocean of ice, that for many long ages sub-
merged and devastated
the entire northern half
of our continent, I have
already pointed to the
unmistakable evidences.
But we may also know
if we read aright the
same unimpeachable re-
cord, that long before
these invading moun-
tains of ice crept from
their arctic beds and
ground their irresisti-
ble and destructive way
down the gentle decliv-
ity of the continent, the
entire region thus for
untold ages smothered
and overwhelmed in
this crystal mantle, was
basking in a genial cli-
mate, and exulting in a
vitality so luxuriant and
glorious that the entire
northern territory was
profusely covered with a
rank and gigantic vege-
tation ; consisting ot de-
ciduous trees of immense
growth, rugged vines and
flowering plants of lavish
variety, generally of spe-
cies known now, with
a few significant ex-
ceptions, only by their
buried and transformed
remains; or still more
unmistakably, by the
perfect and beautiful
impressions of their leaves and seeds stamped upon the shaley rocks and compressed clays, that
then formed the rich soil in which they grew. All this splendor of arborial growth is not only
quite unknown in the same region now, — grand and luxuriant as we know the vast forests of
the north and west to be — but is unsurpassed in profusion and beauty by that of any existing
richness of forest growth on the face of the globe.

Impressed with the startling thought that the spot upon which we now stand, and all the
vast territory north of us, was once and for many resplendent ages, thus arrayed in the glory
of this gigantic vegetation, till the ice torrents and arctic glaciers poured down upon it and
swept it from existence, have we only a smile for the homely Hans-Breitian question, where is
that forest now? And still more astounding, where are the superb and stately creatures that
roamed and ruled beneath its verdant shelter? And before what human eyes was all this majesty
of beauty and vigor displayed? The dead past has buried its dead well; some silicified relics and
crumbling bones, some cave-preserved skulls, and teeth, some exquisite impressions in the rocks

and solidified sands — these alone tell the marvellous story of the vanished pageant; so utterly
has all this transcendent glory departed. And when was this, will it further be asked? He
who attempts to measure time-distance, in the ever receding direction of such mighty phenomena
as these, with the delusive methods of historical chronology, will find, when wearied with his
trivial computations, that he has but stepped beneath the outlving shadows of the impenetrable
wilderness, whose majestic mystery still baffles and restrains his temerity.

But we must leave these far-ofT periods. We cannot tarry to see these ice-crags melt away,
nor wait till the dismantled earth re-clothes itself in its garments of green; nor shall we linger
to watch the infant Niagara plunge over its craggy barrier into the slowly sinking Ontario, some-
where about the present site of Lewiston. These are interesting epochs in Niagara's ancient records,
and the last one brings us down to within twenty thousand years of our own time, and may
be regarded as comparatively recent. As we hasten on we get glimpses now of nomadic hordes
of stone-chipping savages, wandering beneath the newly grown forests, and along the reed and
fern covered banks of turbid streams, hunting the mastodon and the bison, and gigantic stags
and bears, that then roamed in herds over this whole northern land. We must speed down the
centuries; making no attempt to count them, until we reach the period when our proud and
ancient River, had excavated inch by inch its long deep canon, back through its massive bed of
limestone and grit, to about its present position between the two Lakes. On the way we hear
of the Eries and the Hurons, and the Algonquins and Iroquois, and other invading clans of the
aboriginal inhabitants of the North, endeavoring to exterminate each other in their long and bloody
struggle for supremacy, and for the possession of the vast Canadian Wilderness. Further down the
stream of time, we find at last more peacefully disposed tribes occupying the lands bordering on the

«**?- , , ; -

River; and then we meet with European
missionaries and explorers, with their allies
and satellites the traders and fortune-hunters,
traversing the wilderness in pursuit, not sig-
nally successful, of mineral and territorial
wealth, and the subjugation of the confiding
and defenseless inhabitants. Following in the
wake of these intrepid adventurers, we dis-
cover also thrifty bands of British traders and
m\ trappers, bringing merchandise of various

sorts; trinkets and blankets, powder and

whiskey, and other civilizing agencies for the

I' \\ I moral suasion of the aboriginal intelligence.

tLW Knavery and strife follow in due time; and the

interposition of military protection becomes
necessary; and block-houses are erected and
garrisoned, and picketed posts are established
along the principal roads and water-courses,
as places of shelter and refuge, alike for tra-
ders and explorers, and armed troops.

It was under such prudential necessity
as this, that at length Fort Erie came to be
established on the thickly-wooded banks of
the Lake that gives it its name. There
seems to be no definite mention of this ill-starred Fort at an earlier date than 1764; though there
are intimations and traditions of an earlier origin; indeed, there is a probability of its having
been in existence in some ambiguous state, at the period of Pouchot's visit to Canada in 1761.
It was at first a very insignificant affair; a rough wooden structure built by the English as a trading
post, and a place of refuge when too hotly pursued by their enemies the French and their Indian
allies. Accessible accounts of its subsequent history are singularly meagre, and very contradictory,
but none the less, traditionally and anecdotically, interesting. There are reasons for the belief that
it has not always occupied its present site; a probability
that in a measure helps to explain the otherwise quite
unaccountable discrepancies that occur in the few maps
and narratives that remain as records of its early history.
Near the close of the last century we find it described,
wherever it may have stood at that period, as a con-
struction so weak and unserviceable, that the military
authorities determined to remove it "some distance" up
the Lake. It was doubtless in this inefficient condition,
when the Duke de la Rochefoucault saw it, who described
it as merely *' some roughly formed wooden houses, sur-
rounded with tottering palisades," and without ramparts
or any other protective works. "The term 'Fort/" he
adds, "cannot with any correctness be applied to the
place." The American Colonel Procter, then recon-
noitring in this portion of the frontier, in a despatch to
the Secretary of War, in 1791, informs him that the
British had already, at that date, "laid the foundations

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for a new fortress some distance higher up the Lake, beyond the reach of thirteen-inch shells;
not being able to maintain their present position." It would seem to be a fact, therefore, that
the "quadrangular walls of stone," of which we still see the decayed remains, and the other
"strong works" which the British, in 1806, certainly constructed somewhere, were erected on the
"new foundations" referred to by Colonel Procter. But the evidence obtainable on this point
lacks definiteness and is somewhat conflicting. The most interesting events connected with the
chronicles of the Fort, however, are those that illustrate the important part it played in the
military operations on the northern frontier during the war of 18 12. When President Madison's
flying ponies carried to the alarmed backwoodsmen, the unwelcome news of the declaration of
war against Great Britain, the Fort was in possession of a small British garrison. But its
supplies being quite inadequate for its defence, and the British commander of the frontier forces
fearing an attack from the American side, and needing the men elsewhere, in the spring of 18 13,
ordered its abandonment and destruction. The magazines and other important portions of the
structure were accordingly blown up and demolished. Soon after its evacuation it was taken
possession of by an effective body of American troops who crossed the River from Buffalo and
Black Rock, under command of Colonel Preston. The new occupants immediately set about
the work of repair, and soon had the shattered structures restored, and the whole position strength-
ened and enlarged. But the Americans could not long spare the men required for its defence,
and in a few months it was again abandoned. Not long after, a small British garrison resumed
possession, and held it without molestation until the beginning of July 18 14, when Major-General
Brown, then in command of the troops at Bufralo and Black Rock, acting under direction of the
Secretary of war, and aided by Generals Scott and Porter and the regiments under their com-
mand, crossed the River with a force of 3,000 men, and by a well devised maneuvre, and under
cover of the night, captured it without the necessity of firing a shot; the garrison surrendering
on summons. Thus like a foot-ball, on the Niagara campus, was this stranded waif of fortune,

■*# * m-ijU wu

subject to the chance claim of every new comer, tossed back and forth between the contending

parties engaged in the brief struggle for the control of the Canada frontier. It was the scene

and the occasion of many a bloody conflict, and was witness to the prowess and valor of

many a gallant heart,

"that found on Erie's gore-stained beach,
An honored bed."

Having thus secured possession of the Fort, on the following day, General Brown, re-
garding this invasion as the first effectual step in the then proposed "conquest of Canada,"
with 3,000 men, commenced his adventurous and eventful march down the River towards
Fort George; the momentous consequences of which movement he could in no wise have
conjectured. He did not reach the British stronghold at the mouth of the River; but the
ghastly and decisive occurrences at Chippewa Creek, Lundy's Lane, and finally at Fort Erie
again, rendered the accomplishment of that purpose unnecessary. As is too well known to
justify the repetition of the narrative in detail here, on this march, and at the points just
named, took place in that fearful summer of 18 14, the pluckiest and most intrepidly sus-
tained struggles of the war. Although shattered and disordered by the bravery and severity
of the American attack, the British commander, General Drummond, was tempted by the
arrival of reinforcements to rally his retreating troops for another attempt to recover the ground
lost at Lundy's Lane; but again, and finally, were his weary veterans repulsed. Fortified by
nerve and resolution, writes Mr. Holley, Niagara's poetic and trusty historian, the grim in-
spiration of English obstinacy and Scotch tenacity, rallied for this last attack. "It was made
with desperate energy with both bullets and bayonets, the latter being often crossed under
the ghastly sheets of flame that fitfully illumined the thick darkness that enveloped them.
But neither obstinate courage, nor tenacious endurance availed. The fierceness of the struggle

- - bl - i^'ai

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made it short; and when it ceased, our war-grimed soldiers, after twelve hours of incessant
fighting, found themselves masters of the field; it being midnight when the din of battle
ceased. The hour was made still more impressive by the deep diapason of the Great Cat-
aract, which sounded its ghostly dirge for the dead, and its solemn chorus to the groans of
the wounded and dying."

Both sides suffered severe and about equal losses. It was probably the most appalling
and obstinate engagement of any recorded in history. The American Generals, Brown and
Scottj were seriously wounded, and the troops were ordered to retire to Fort Erie. General
Drummond followed with a strong force soon after, and laid the place under siege, taking
his position two miles below the Fort, and behind a thick shelter of trees; under conceal-
ment of which he erected his batteries and planted his siege guns, in active preparation for
an early and sharp attack; to which, after numerous irritating and annoying skirmishes with
the American pickets and reconnoitering parties, he finally advanced, on the 14th of August,
and towards midnight commenced the assault with deadly impetuosity. A fierce and disas-
trous conflict, lasting throughout the night, fitfully illuminated by the incessant blaze of cannon
and the flashing of musketry, resulted in driving back the distracted and frustrated assailants;

both parties suffering fearful losses. For
the combatants were equally matched in
bravery and endurance. In the narrow
space, "a dreadful interval," the contend-
ing lines,

" * * front to front presented,
Stood in terrible array."

The Fort at this time was in com-
mand of General Gaines, supported by
the brigades of Generals Ripley and Peter
B. Porter. The vigor and determination
of the assailants, led by General Drum-
mond in person, was appalling. Again
and again forced back into the woods by
the unyielding energy of the besieged, four
times the British regulars rushed upon the
blazing wall of fire that held them at bay.
The deafening reports of muskets and ar-
tillery, writes Major Douglas in his reminiscences, "were blended in one continuous roar;"
not unlike the rattling "double-drag of a drum-corps." The unrelieved horror of the wild
havoc was suddenly intensified, in the very height of the tumult, by the accidental explosion of
one of the magazines adjoining a stone bastion temporarily in possession of the besiegers. The
effect of this startling disaster was tremendous and decisive; being fatal to a large number of
the British assailants. The on-rushing troops, thus suddenly arrested and thrown into disorder,
were with little difficulty driven from the field by the promptly renewed activity of the Amer-
ican batteries. After the necessary attention to the dead and wounded, the Americans were soon
engaged in the work of re-constructing the battered and demolished batteries and walls of the
Fort; for the British commander had by no means abandoned his intention to retake it at all
hazards. During three weeks following this repulse, he several times renewed the attempt, and
with such energy and determination that by the first week in September, his battalions were well
advanced towards the walls of the Fort, and obstinately handled night and day. To its brave
and imperilled defenders, the situation became alarming. Its weak defences were rapidly giving
way under the terrific bombardment to which the place was exposed. The destruction of the
garrison seemed inevitable. In this emergency, the engineering skill and military genius of
of General Peter B. Porter came to the rescue. A plan of action, previously devised by him
was now accepted by the council of officers to whom it was submitted and energetically carried
out. Under the General's direction it was determined to make a sally in force upon the as-
sailants, capture their numerous batteries, and by a sudden and simultaneous charge upon
the several divisions of their really formidable lines, drive them from their position. Every
detail of the movement was carried out, with such precision and promptness, that the besiegers,
taken by surprise, and overwhelmed by the celerity and impetuosity of the attack, gave way, and
were forced back to their encampment. The strife was hot and deadly, but of brief duration;
and the achievement one of the most splendid in the history of modern warfare. Three days
after the British troops were marched to Fort George, and the Americans remained in possession
of their prize. The following month the troops were removed to winter quarters at Buffalo, and
the Fort torn to pieces and demolished; and in this useless condition it fell again into the hands
of its rightful proprietors. And thus ends, told here with compulsory brevity,

"this strange eventful history."

UPON a prominent rock-supported, though not very steep, bluff, that rises quite a fair
height above the Niagara shore, and stretches like a green ridge along the south-
western corner of the city, stand the unpicturesque ruins or Fort Porter; a place of far
more importance, topographically, and of greater capabilities as a post of defence, than
would be supposed from a view of its present abandoned and dilapidated condition; a con-
dition, happily, soon to be remedied; the Secretary or War having ordered its immediate
restoration and enlargement, with a view to its permanent and efficient occupancy, by a
competent body of U. S. Troops.

Naturally, and especially since the beautiful green esplanade adjoining it on the east
has been attached to the City Park System, the position is very attractive and pleasing;
affording a charming variety of beautiful prospects, and many far-reaching views of both
Lake and River. It is the one chief point of picturesque interest to which all visitors to
the City are taken by their resident friends. And its many beauties justify the surprised
exclamations of del ight and admiration bestowed upon it by complaisant strangers. In
whatever direction the eye of the sympathetic observer turns, over land or over water, there
springs to view a succession of pictures of singularly diversified attractiveness and brightness.
It is a glorious place for the loiterer and dreamer; for there is a lavish supply of such stuff
as dreams are made of associated with the surrounding region, which, as far as the view
extends, in almost any direction, is fertile in reminiscences of exploration and adventure,
and prolific in traditional and provincial lore. Vestiges of vanished generations; memories
of heroic deeds; ever green chronicles of illustrious and honored names; the wonder- waking
trail of the spectral past; such are the inspirations that come to us from every bank and
rock, and grove and pathway, that enters so pleasingly into the composition of the tranquil
landscape. But occurrences and activities of more recent dates have also left here their
impress, and equally invite our attention and contribute to our enjoyment. We see, at
this moment, the broad stream before us enlivened by passing water-craft, of different de-
scriptions; ferry boats, sailing yachts, and small row-boats, scudding and paddling and
steaming about in considerable numbers. The small boats and sculls, just here, have a
pretty hard and struggling time of it, as the current of the River at this point begins
to move with increased rapidity; rushing down its impatient and perilous course, in fact,

at the rate of over seven miles an hour; though before it reaches Grand Island, some ten
miles below, its velocity becomes reduced to only two and a half miles an hour; and there
the small boats have a more comfortable crossing.

Just below us, on the River, and drifting towards the International Bridge, that spans
the River so gracefully and lightly, about a mile farther down, we see a fine sight; a
fleet of five large and shapely barques heavily-laded with sawn lumber. The vessels move
easily with the current, but they are attached by long tow-lines to each other, and from
the bow of the leader to the bustling, smoke-enveloped little tug, that keeps them in line
and aids their progress. If we turn to the left, towards the Lake, we shall see, just enter-
ing the head of the River, another smoking tug, dragging into the current, three other
similar vessels, also deeply loaded with lumber, the broad piles of which completely cover
the decks. These indications of business activity, and especially of the enormous trade in
lumber of which this short River is the principal channel, are but instances of similar
spectacles to be seen on these waters, and even, at times, of still greater magnitude, almost
every day, for six months of the year. These vessels are on their way to Tonawanda, a

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busy town of rapidly advancing importance, situated on the River bank at the mouth of
Tonawanda Creek, about ten miles below our present position. This stirring place, is the
great lumber mart of the State, from which is annually distributed, by water and rail, over
500,000,000 feet of lumber, chiefly pine in the shape of heavy timber and rough planks
and boards; though a large proportion of it first goes through the local manufacturing
establishments. This remarkable town, already distinguished for its enterprise, and for the
large capital and shrewd intelligence engaged in the management of its immense annual
business, is one of the surprises and commercial curiosities of our beautiful River, and
well repays the visitor's inspection of its massive piles and heaps of sweet-smelling wood,
and its humming saw mills, and huge rattling factories of boxes and shingles, and planed
flooring. This is an activity in which, of course Buffalo takes a hand, and much of
the business is under the management of men who have their residence in that city.
The fleet of barques that attracted our notice a few moments since, are now approaching
the Bridge, the revolving girder, or draw of which, is, as we see, already turning on its
central pivot pier to admit them. It is worth noting how smoothly and firmly the draw,

362 feet in length, swings on its turn-table, without sag
or deflection of any kind. The whole structure is an
unusually perfect example of the Pratt quadrangular Truss
Bridge; a superstructure of riveted wrought iron, resting
on heavy cut stone piers. There are six of these piers,
and two massive abutments for the shore ends. The
entire length of the roadway of the bridge is 3,652 feet,
about one third of which is by embankment across Squaw
Island. This fine Bridge, the only entrance into Canada
of the immense transportation business of the Grand
Trunk Railroad, was built by English capital, under the
supervision of the principal contractor, Col. C. S. Gzowski
of Toronto, aided by an able staff of Engineers, of
which Mr. E. P. Hannaford was chief. The structure
has been much, and very deservedly, admired, for its plain
but elegant simplicity, no less than for its thoroughly
tested strength and stability. Its erection was determined
on, and even commenced, under the most discouraging
difficulties, and in spite of much openly declared and
persistently urged opposition. But there was a will en-
listed in the enterprise, that could only be deterred by
the impossible; and the genius and energy of the prin-
cipal promoter and contractor of the undertaking, Col.
Gzowski, finally triumphed over all obstacles, both natu-
rul and frivolous, and in less than three years from the
removal of the first barrow of earth, the work was ac-
complished; and on the 27 th day of October 1873, the
first locomotive, under direction of an engineer of the
Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada, crossed the bridge
without a throb or tremor.

Returning to our point of view upon the green and
breezy escarpment of the Fort terrace, we observe still
other, and equally interesting evidences of affluence and
business thrift and enterprise, that invite inquiry, and
testify to the vast amount of energy and shrewdly direct-
ed tact, that for so many busy years has been engaged
in devising and directing the various industries by which
all this solid and splendid prosperity has been achieved.
A village of one or two thousand pioneer settlers, how-
ever industrious, however high and hopeful in their ex-
pectations, could never lave become, in the period of
two generations, an influential city of two hundred and
fifty thousand people, without the co-operation of saga-
cious heads with willing and dexterous hands. Skillful
labor was needed, truly enough; not much can be ac-
complished, in this world, without that; but the nimble
functions of foresight and push were quite as indispen-
sable, to enable any community to bring into existence
such mighty agencies as are to be discerned even within
the limited scope of our present range of observation.
We see steamboats of every capacity hurrying to and
fro on Lake and River ; and bustling and screaming
tug-boats, dragging out of the city harbor half a score
of heavily freighted vessels, of all burdens, varying from

\

300 tons to 3000, which are soon to be
delivered over to the treacherous, but
generally favorable, gales of the open
Lake; while at our feet flow the quiet
waters of the broad and world-renowned
Erie Canal, the broadest, longest, deepest,
and most commercially serviceable, artifi-
cial water-way on this continent, consider-
ing only the part it has performed,
during the 60 years of its life, in the
eastward transportation of the annual
produce of the vast grain fields and
timber forests of the West. Reflect-
ing on the drowsy plodding toil of this
lowly ally of human enterprise it may
be allowed to have fulfilled the promises
of its projectors, and to have well earned,
at last, its freedom: freedom, as at pre-
sent, for whoever chooses to navigate its
peaceful current; the freedom of a public

highway.

Its great rival, the splendid steel-linked, knightly Railroad, that runs by its side for over
350 miles, whose echoing trumpet-blasts of warning and defiance hourly proclaim it the
master of the situation, and champion of the road, claims our notice also, as a feature of
some consequence in the circuit of our present survey. The New York Central Railroad
beyond all cavil, deserves its world-wide celebrity. In strength of construction, and in per-
fection of appliances, as well as in methods for effecting security and speed, and comfort of
travel, this superb road has no superior on this continent. It has four steel tracks, reaching
from Buffalo to the Hudson River, two for freight transportation and two for the exclusive
use of passenger trains; a provision which insures safety from collisions, and greatly expe-
dites the transit. The high position attained, and the conceded success of this grand high-
way, which connects the Great Rivers and Lakes of the western half of our country with
the sea-ports of the Atlantic, are commensurate with the thoroughness of its organization and
the excellence of its management. The portion of the road here seen, is only its special
diversion to Niagara Falls; to which place the Erie Railroad, which skirts the city along

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its eastern and northern boundary, and the Grand Trunk Road of Canada, which, with the
popular Canada Southern, crosses the International Bridge from Black Rock to the quiet
little village of Victoria, on the opposite bank of the River, also run frequent daily trains
to and from Buffalo. Travel by railroad between these two points began, it should be
mentioned, in 1836, which was eleven years after the arrival at Buffalo of the first boat to
reach the city by the Erie Canal; an event duly celebrated by powder and banners and
speeches. The general aspect or the whole surrounding landscape as viewed from the
River, or from our present position upon this fine bluff, was quite different, fifty years
ago, from what it is now. And there was no Fort here at that time; not even a battery;
though the eligibility of the situation for the purposes of a National military post, had
already attracted the attention of Col. Jos. G. Totten, Chief of U. S. Engineers; but it
was not until the spring of 1841, after a more thorough and careful survey of the site,
that its purchase was recommended by the War Department, and authorized by an act of
Congress, which appropriated for the purpose the sum of $50,000. The land was held by
several private owners, citizens of Buffalo, and was sold to the Government in parcels,
at an aggregate cost of about $20,000, including the two story embattled stone residence
of Col. James Mackaye to whom about two thirds of the tract purchased by the U. S.
had belonged. The final transfers of the whole tract of about 28 acres to the possession
of the United States, including the title acquired by patent from the State of New
York, of the portion it held under its original Canal reservations, were not completed
till the fall of 184.2. Work upon the construction of the Fort was commenced the
following year, under the personal supervision of Capt. W. D. Eraser of the U. S.
Engineers, who, after many retarding vexations, delivered the structure ready for occu-
pancy, to the War Department, in the fall of 1846; the stone mansion of Col.
Mackaye, becoming, with some few alterations, the residence and head-quarters of the
commandant of the Post, as it still continues to be.

The Fort proper, or redoubt, rather — for it had neither the magnitude nor the strength
of a fortress — consisted of a deeply sunk keep, or tower, sixty feet square, and over seventy
feet in height, from the bottom of the excavation in which it stood. It was built
of cut stone columns, and covered with six feet of earth, resting on a thick coating of
mastic and gravel, its exposed surface smoothly finished with green sodded turf. This cen-
tral tower, or redoubt, was surrounded on all sides by a quadrangular walled breast-work
and parapet, provided with flagged traverse circles for carrying an intended armament of 32
guns. Along the inner sides of this parapet, was laid a banquette, or covert-way, connected
by draw-bridges to the central redoubt, which was two stories in construction, and its walls

1*X X

r*v»

_ XL.

pierced by loop-holes in each of its four sides, for the use of musketry. Within this tower
were the men's quarters, and the magazines and store-rooms for a garrison of three hundred
men. The whole work, but little more than a well constructed, casemated, bomb-proof
battery, was designed for an armament of 39 guns; 13 on each of the two sides that
commanded the Lake and the River, 3 on each of the other sides, 3 on its north-eastern
angle, and one on each corner of the central tower, in connection with its bomb-proof
roof. By this disposition of its armament, every approach to the Fort, by land or water,
would have been guarded, securely enough, against the advance of infantry and light
artillery; but under seige, or any serious and well-equipped attack, by land or water, no
commander would be willing to expose his men to the destructive assaults of the missiles
and appliances of modern warfare, in so insecure a shelter. Its defensive strength, however,
was never put to trial ; nor were the guns supplied by the War Department for its
armament, ever mounted. They lay piled up about the walls, and in other parts of
the city, unused, till 1862, when they were removed to Washington, and were soon
effectually heard from in the active part they afterward took in the defense of the Union.

During the war the place remained simply a garri-
soned rendezvous and recruiting station for the United
States troops; while the open ground around it was utilized
as a temporary drilling camp for State volunteers. By a
fire, at night, which originated in some accident, in
one of the storage rooms of the redoubt, on the 24-th
of November 1863, it was burnt, and its usefulness, for
any defensive purposes, quite destroyed; and it has
remained a ruin ever since. After 1 5 years of disuse
and abandonment — excepting the use of the barracks for
temporarily quartering U. S. troops, withdrawn from active
service at other posts, — the War Department has at last
ordered the restoration and improvement of the place,
a work, which is not, however, to include the recon-
struction of the keep, or tower. It is quite probable,
rather, that what remains of that structure, will be
entirely removed, and the place put in condition to be
maintained, with more suitable and sightly quarters, for
officers and men, as a garrisoned post; but in a shape
more effective and creditable than ever before, not with-
standing the demolition of the so called Old Fort; the
memory of which, and of its many pleasant associations,
must long be perpetuated by its familiar and honorable
name; which will, of course, still remain attached to
the post, whatever destiny may attend it.

But we must tarry no longer on this interesting
spot, though much remains to be pointed out. We may
take a parting glance, as we descend, at the two steam
vessels about to pass through the gate of the bridge.
One is quite large, and is over-crowded with its hilarious
company of excursionists; the other, a small and hand-
some craft, has apparently but few people on board.
These boats are on their way to Grand Island, a
green and beautiful spot, that lies in the middle of
the River, just in the angle where it takes its sudden
trend to the north, about four miles distant from this
point. The larger boat is bound for the open groves of
the Island, while the smaller and more graceful yacht
is carrying its quieter party of members and visitors
to the tasty and attractive house and grounds of the
Falconwood Club, that beautify the southwestern corner
of the Island. We shall have more to say of this
Island in the next part.

.* <*lsj?

XLIII

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XLIV-

CONTINUING our rambling glance at the many points of interest that present them-
selves to view all along the pleasant banks of our resplendent and wayward River,
we find that our reveries are more in harmony with the evidences it affords of present
prosperity and industry, and with the sweet and salutary influences of its verdant and
luxuriant natural aspect, diversified and enlivened, as we now view it, by a rapid succession
of interposed objects, alternating with its more indigenous beauties; mill and hamlet, villa
and meadow, creek and forest, river and railroad; — all these prove of more immediate in-
terest to us than the stern and gory events, and ghostly recollections, of its turbulent and
peril-haunted past. Deeds of prowess and devotion, and harrowing adventures of trial and
triumph, are recalled, it is true, with impressive vividness, at every step of our way; but
the beauties and activities of the life that surrounds us on every side, prove to us that
Nature has still the strongest hold upon our sympathies, and contributes the most to our
present enjoyment. Nature is so varied and complex in her attractions — so overflowing
with ever-renewed delights — so abundant in resources — so spontaneous and inventive in sur-
prises— so veracious and genuine — so generous and benignant — so ready and responsive to
all demands upon her ingenuity, be it for dew-drop or cataract, — truly, when we consider
it, the tiresome caprices and mischances of man and his doings disturb but little the pure
and restful inspirations that come to all who yield confidingly to her benign persuasions.

t'£<**\

But we are admonished by a peremptory persuasion of another and more practical sort,
that other and more prosy considerations await our reluctant attention. The course of our
life, like the diversified scenery that here surrounds us, is but an interlacing, if sometimes,
alas, it be not rather a confusion, of facts and fancies; and to facts we must return, the
most conspicuous one before us this moment being the beautiful Island, with a brief
reference to which we closed our last number.

About three miles below Black Rock, the River, greatly reduced in speed, widens
out to more than double its width at Buffalo, and divides into two unequal streams, which
form and enclose the sandy mound of table land known as Grand Island; the widest of
the two streams and the main channel of the River, passing to the Canadian shore, leaving
the Island separated only by the narrower branch from the American shore; on which ac-
count, chiefly, it was conceded, by the British and American Boundary Commissioners, in
1822, to belong by natural chance as well as by international usage, to the United States;
and so the prize fell to the State of New York, and it is now rapidly gaining favor in
general estimation, as the most desirable and attractive residence town within the boundaries
of Erie County. All circumstances, and innumerable local advantages, indicate unmistakably
the already dawning accomplishment of this high and not improbable expectation. The
charm of its insular and salubrious position — its beautiful bird-enlivened groves, and green,
undulating downs — its aquatic facilities — its proximity to the Falls — its exemption from the

annoyances and disfigurements incidental to the trade and traffic of a business mart, which
it never can become — the luxuriance of its vegetation — the space it affords for parks and
gardens, and the convenience of local food supplies — the ready access assured to all desired
Railroad facilities, — and its nearness, for all trading and commercial purposes to the City
of Buffalo — all these influences point unerringly to the fulfilment at no distant day, of the
destiny assured for it by Nature herself.

This fine Island, which lies opposite Tonawanda with which it is connected by ferries,
has an extent in area of about eight miles in length and a breadth averaging from five to
six and an elevation, at its highest point, of over 50 feet above the River. It affords
many delightfully picturesque views of both shores, and especially lovely ones of the River,
which, after passing Buckhorn Island, a copsy little affair which lies near its northwestern

**.$. a*\

corner, expands into the appearance of a small lake, whose smooth and quiet waters seem
to attain here a breadth of over eight miles; after a gentle flow of about three miles in a
northerly direction, they reach the rocky decline of the Grand Rapids, rushing down which,
with swiftly accelerated velocity, they presently take their tremendous plunge over the pre-
cipitous walls of the Horse-shoe cliffs, on their tumultuous and rollicking way to the
Atlantic Ocean.

In the early period of the settlement of this part of the State, this Island, then in
possession of the Seneca Indians, was densely covered with a forest of valuable timber trees,
the cutting and utilization of which by the pioneer settlers on the American margin of the
River, occasioned many angry and dangerous contentions with the savage proprietors, which
were only terminated by the purchase, by the State of New York, in 18 15, of the ad-
mitted legal title to the property remaining in the aboriginal owners. Soon after this there
were quite extensive clearings made, by enterprising white-oak cutters, in several parts of
the Island, which came in the course of a year or two to be occupied by a lawless bandit
sort of confederacy of American and Canadian Squatters, employed ostensibly in wood-cut-
ting and shook-shaving, for which they had acquired no license, an industry that required
but little capital, and found a ready market in the settlements. This illicit business was
really prosecuted with considerable though rather intermittent activity, and with no littJe
profit. The enterprise was winked at for a long time by the State authorities, but becom-
ing more and more troublesome and disorderly, after numerous formal complaints, and several

peaceful and therefore ineffectual movements for the suppression of the factious confederacy,
more active measures were determined upon, and in 1819, an armed detachment of State
troops, under command of the gallant Col. Benjamin Hodge of Buffalo, crossed the River
in canoes and invaded the clearings. After a brief and feeble show of resistance they
sacked and broke up the camps and drove the contumacious constituency from the Island,
chiefly to the Canadian side of the River. It was three years after this, the stave shaving
business having been resumed under more legal auspices, that the Boundary Commission
confirmed the possession of the Island to the United States.. It has ever since proved an
attractive place of resort for huntsmen and fishermen as well as for idlers and pleasure-
seekers: being a capital place, in the words of Mr. L. F. Allen, one of its earliest and
most widely known citizens, for that " listlessness and laziness so congenial to squatter and
roving life;" especially during its wilderness period, when its thickets abounded in deer,
rabbits, and squirrels, and were not infrequently visited by bears, foxes, and wolves, its sedgy
shores swarmed with duck, and all the wild birds of this region, and its encircling waters
also yielded an unlimited supply of the finest fresh water fish to be caught in the world.
Truly was it a "paradise for sportsmen" and explorers, and a tempting free tramping ground
for vagabonds and squatters.

The most curious and unique episode that attaches itself with some significance to the
romantic history of the Island, relates to the ambitious but infelicitous undertaking of Mr.
Mordecai M. Noah, a learned and upright Jewish citizen of New York, to secure its posses-
sion for the establishment, beneath its breezy groves, of a new Hebrew Community, open to
the faithful from every corner of the earth. He conceived the possibility of founding on

this secluded spot, by purchase of as much
territory as might be needed, and the ex-
pected personal co-operation of his fellow-
Israelites throughout the world, a broad city
of residence and refuge, under the control
of a central judicial government, of the
ancient type; exclusively for the ownership
and occupancy, of people of that faith from
all lands. Infatuated with this pretentious
project, he imagined that the scheme, if
once properly authenticated and boldly pro-
mulgated, and with the proposed city once
fairly planted upon ostensibly consecrated
foundations, would attract to its support by
thousands, the people for whose benefit and
solace its erection was intended. Perhaps,
if the main conditions of the undertaking
could have been fulfilled, it would have
done so. The plan was not wholly un-
reasonable, nor the hope of its really honest deviser wholly visionary. But the details and
preliminaries of the project were incoherent and impracticable, and the measures adopted for
its realization premature and ill-judged. He began at the wrong end. He dreamed of a
city without a people; he should have collected a people who required a city. The scheme
assumed at once that taint of vagueness and visionary speculation, which, however unjustly
to the man and to the integrity of his really fraternal purpose, prevented and repulsed at
once, the very authenticity and co-operation from within the borders of the Jewish told,
which alone could have assured him that general concurrence which was essential for its
success. It failed from inherent arrogance. As the specious sophistry of an excentric dream-
er, an individual speculator, the guise it at once assumed, in the view of those most im-
mediately interested, it was rejected without discussion. Its author had no affiliated co-labor-
ators, no sanction excepting that of a few outsiders, not of his own religious persuasion, who
could have had, and really had, no part or lot in the matter. What sincere concern could one
whose daily prayer was for the conversion of "Jews and Turks," and all other "infidels," to
a religion which they denied and rejected, have in a movement to endow a community whose
vital purpose was to be the propagation and perpetuity of the Jewish faith and polity ex-
clusively? Surely none. What Mr. Noah needed, to render possible the stability of the frail
fabric of his imagined metropolis, was the patronage and counsel of his own people. But
this utterly failed him, and his assumption of the functions of a "Judge in Israel," or even
of that of a director, was impugned and derided throughout the world. Personally, Mr.
Noah was a man of impressive bearing and cultivated and cordial manners, and was esteemed
for his many excellent and generous qualities; he was a man of ability and sound impulses,

■ ' ~_ Ll.

M,

kind-hearted, capable and trust-worthy, in all his relations with his fellow-men. He was
educated to the law, and served his country creditably in the capacity of Consul at the
city of Tunis, and afterwards held the office of Judge in one of the Criminal Courts of
the City of New York; in which place he died, in 185 1, at the age of sixty, lamented
by all who knew him, even by those who, excusably enough, had indulged in many a
sly joke and jeer, over the inflated inscription sculptured upon his abandoned and paradox-
ical "corner-stone," so ostentatiously and vainly consecrated, as the nucleus of his chimerical
"City of Ararat," now, henceforth, and finally, to rest where it now does, among the
curios in the museum of the Buffalo Historical Society. So true is it, as Grand Island
will always hereafter remind us, that

The wisest and the best of men
Will fool a little, now and then.

Grand Island, — once threatened with the appellation of White Haven, if the Post-
master General had not, in 1839, refused to establish a Post-office upon it by that name,
"because it was so near Tonawanda," — derives its more appropriate and now assured
name, with a slight euphonic change, from that given to it by the Seneca Indians, who
simply called it what it was, "the Great Island;" Tonawanda, lying opposite, being in
their estimation, the "Little Island." Half a dozen other small islands lie scattered about
in its neighborhood; Navy Island, — which is the English equivalent of its French designa-
tion, "Isle de la Marine," they having utilized it for ship-building purposes, called also
by the Senecas, "Big Canoe Island" — belongs to Canada: it lies at the north-western
corner of its grander neighbor, and has been discreditably notorious as the sequestered
rendezvous and skulking-ground for rebels against the Canadian Government, and their
accomplices, such marauding tramps, as were found to be purchasable by copious allow-
ance of whisky, and who could so be made available for almost any casual scrubby job
of rascality and plunder. Some lawless Americans being detected in this fancy for taking
a hand in promiscuous and disorderly enterprises of this sort, some fifty years ago, that
alert and experienced frontiersman, and wary soldier, General Winfield Scott, got his vigi-
lant eye upon them, and he marched down upon them one day, when they soon scattered
beyond all chance of rally, or even of discovery. It is quite true, rarely, that the wicked
flee when no man pursueth, but the wretched instance referred to demonstrated clearly
enough that they fly well when a loyal defender of his country's honor gets after them.
A vigorous cannonading from the Canadian shore swept through the Navy Island woods, and
the "incident was closed." Of the other Islands referred to, Tonawanda, on the American

side, at the mouth of the Creek of the same name, though small, is a place of consider-
able and rapidly rising business importance; Beaver, a copsy little affair, near the south-
western corner of the larger Island, in the Canadian branch of the River, is the pleasant
seat of a small private club; Buckhorn and Strawberry are low grassy islets, of interest only
as they add variety and delicate touches of prettiness to the gentle and peculiar beauty of
the low scenery of this really attractive portion of the River.

Wherever the eye turns it is arrested by some object revealing the locality of some
spot of by-gone interest; some fading memorial of vanished times. For we here stand at
the chief converging point, the fertile cradle and source, of the romantic though often con-
jectural annals and traditions of the pioneer explorations and discoveries in the perilous
solitudes of our northern frontier. On the bushy borders of these waters, and underneath
the lofty forests of majestic oaks and pines that once adorned these circling shores, now
covered with a vegetation of more recent growth, dwelt communities of peoples known to
have become quite extinct before the appearance in this region of even the predecessors of
the Indian tribes who were discovered here by the first European explorers of the American
interior. Here, as we glance around, we encounter innumerable mementos of the presence
and doings of those unshrinking and audacious adventurers. Here, we are reminded at every
turn, what a blending and interweaving of romance and recollection, of mystery and con-
jecture, as well as of struggle and disappointment, make up for us the glowing but only
half told story of the opening and planting of this much coveted region of the Lakes; a
story illustrated by many gallant personal exploits, and many chivalrous enterprises, as well
as overshadowed by narrations of much personal suffering and many cruel wrongs and mis-
fortunes. For our River was for a long period the principal and best know feature, the
one grand geographical landmark, of all this vast northern wilderness, and formed the very
outskirt of the rude and experimental civilization, that accompanied the slow and timid
advance of the pioneer occupation of this portion of the country. On the western shore of
the Lagoon, at the mouth of the Creek
from which it derives its name, and a short
distance below Navy Island, we note the
manufacturing village of Chippewa, where
our Gen. Scott won his epaulettes in the
memorable struggle between the British and
American forces in 1814, as before related.
Nearly opposite, on the eastern shore, lies in
poetic and dreamy repose, the unambitious
little village of La Salle, whose name, of
which more will be said in our next, like
the fair face of the pretty maid in the story,
is its fortune, which is not in riches, but in
honor — and also its raison d'etre.

Diagonally opposite Navy Island, on
the American shore, lies what little there
is now to be seen of what was once a
place of some service to the early scouts
and settlers along the then heavily wooded
margin of the River, and known as Schlos-
ser's store-house and dock, a landing-place
for fishermen, and for ferry-boats crossing
the River from Grand Island and the Can-
adian shore. It is a place of slight impor-
tance, mentionable now chiefly as the meet-
ing ground for the Fenian bandits, on the
occasion of the Navy Island fiasco before
alluded to, and a hiding-place for supplies.

LIU.