Whilst we were detained here by contrary winds, we regularly went on shore after breakfast to take a ramble in the woods; oftentimes also we amused ourselves with the diversion of hunting squirrels with dogs, amongst the shrubs and young trees on the borders of the lake, thousands of which animals we found in the neighbourhood of the fort. The squirrels, alarmed by the barking of the dogs, leap from tree to tree with wonderful swiftness; you follow them closely, shaking the trees, and striking against the branches with poles. Sometimes they will lead you a chace of a quarter of a mile and more; but sooner or later, terrified by your attentive pursuit, make a false leap, and come to the ground; the dogs, ever on the watch, then seize the opportunity to lay hold of them; frequently, however, the squirrels will elude their repeated snaps, and mount another tree before you can look round you. I have seldom known them to be hurt by their fall, notwithstanding that I have many times seen them tumble from branches of trees upwards of twenty feet from the ground.
In our rambles we used frequently to fall in with parties of the Seneka Indians, from the opposite side of the lake, that were amusing themselves with hunting and shooting these animals. They shot them principally with bows and blow-guns, at the use of which last the Senekas are wonderfully expert. The blow-gun is a narrow tube, commonly about six feet in length, made of a cane reed, or of some pithy wood, through which they drive short slender arrows by the force of the breath. The arrows are not much thicker than the lower string of a violin; they are headed generally with little triangular bits of tin, and round the opposite ends, for the length of two inches, a quantity of the down of thistles, or something very like it, is bound, so as to leave the arrows at this part of such a thickness that they may but barely pass into the tube. The arrows are put in at the end of the tube that is held next to the mouth, the down catches the breath, and with a smart puff they will fly to the distance of fifty yards. I have followed young Seneka Indians, whilst shooting with blow-guns, for hours together, during which time I have never known them once to miss their aim, at the distance of ten or fifteen yards, although they shot at the little red squirrels, which are not half the size of a rat; and with such wonderful force used they to blow forth the arrows, that they frequently drove them up to the very thistle-down through the heads of the largest black squirrels. The effect of these guns appears at first like magic. The tube is put to the mouth, and in the twinkling of an eye you see the squirrel that is aimed at fall lifeless to the ground; no report, not the smallest noise even, is to be heard, nor is it possible to see the arrow, so quickly does it fly, until it appears fastened in the body of the animal.
The Seneka is one of the six nations which formerly bore the general name of the Iroquois Indians. Their principal village is situated on Buffalo Creek, which falls into the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, on the New York shore. We took the ship’s boat one morning, and went over to visit it, but all the Indians, men, women, and children, amounting in all to upwards of six hundred persons, had, at an early hour, gone down to Fort Niagara, to partake of a feast which was there prepared for them. We walked about in the neighbourhood of the village, dined on the grass on some cold provisions that we had taken with us, and in the evening, returned.
BUFFALO CREEK.
Opposite to the mouth of Buffalo Creek there is a very dangerous sand bar, which at times it is totally impossible to pass in any other vessels than bateaux; we found it no easy matter to get over it in the ship’s long boat with four oars on going into the creek; and in returning the passage was really tremendous. The wind, which was westerly, and of course impelled the vast body of water in the lake towards the mouth of the creek, had increased considerably whilst we had been on shore, and the waves had begun to break with such fury over the bar, that it was not without a considerable share of terror that we contemplated the prospect of passing through them: the commodore of the King’s ships on the lake, who was at the helm, was determined, however, to cross the bar that night, and accordingly, a strict silence having been enjoined, that the crew might hear his orders, we boldly entered into the midst of the breakers: the boat now rolled about in a most alarming manner; sometimes it mounted into the air on the top of the mighty billows, at other times it came thumping down with prodigious force on the bar; at last it stuck quite fast in the sand; neither oars nor rudder were any longer of use, and for a moment we gave ourselves over for lost; the waves that rolled towards us broke on all sides with a noise like that of thunder, and we were expecting that the boat would be overwhelmed by some one or other of them every instant, when luckily a large wave, that rolled on a little farther than the rest without breaking into foam, let us again afloat, and the oarsmen making at that moment the most vigorous exertions, we once more got into deep water; it was not, however, until after many minutes that we were safely out of the tremendous surf. A boat, with a pair of oars only, that attempted to follow us, was overwhelmed in an instant by a wave which broke over her: it was in vain to think of attempting to give any assistance to her crew, and we were obliged for a time to endure the painful thought that they might be struggling with death within a few yards of us; but before we lost sight of the shore we had the satisfaction of beholding them all standing in safety on the beach, which they had reached by swimming.
After having been detained about seven days at Fort Erie, the wind veered about in our favour, the signal gun was fired, the passengers repaired on board, and at half an hour before sun-set we launched forth into the lake. It was much such another evening as that on which we left Kingston; the vast lake, bounded only by the horizon, glowed with the rich warm tints that were reflected in its unruffled surface from the western sky; and the top of the tall forest, adorning the shores, appeared fringed with gold, as the sun sunk down behind it. There was but little wind during the first part of the night; but afterwards a fresh breeze sprang up, and by ten o’clock the next morning we found ourselves forty miles distant from the fort: the prosperous gale, however, did not long continue, the sky became overcast, the waves began to roll with fury, and the captain judging it advisable to seek a place of shelter against the impending storm, the ship was put about, and with all possible expedition measured back the way which we had just made with so much pleasure. We did not return, however, the whole way to Fort Erie, but run into a small bay on the same side of the lake, about ten miles distant, sheltered by Point Abineau: by three o’clock in the afternoon the vessel was safely moored, and this business having been accomplished, we proceeded in the long boat to the shore, which was about two miles off.
POINT ABINEAU.
Point Abineau is a long narrow neck of land, which projects into the lake nearly in a due south direction; on each side of it there is an extensive bay, which affords good anchorage; the extremity of the point is covered with rocks, lying horizontally in beds, and extending a considerable way into the lake, nearly even with the surface of the water, so that it is only in a few places that boats can approach the shore. The rocks are of a slate colour, but spotted and streaked in various directions with a dirty yellow; in many places they are perforated with small holes, as if they had been exposed to the action of fire. The shores of the bays, on the contrary, are covered with sand; on digging to the depth of a few feet, however, I should imagine that in most parts of the shore the same sort of rocks would be found as those seen on the extremity of the point; for where the sandy part of the shore commences, it is evident that the rocks have been covered by the sand which has been washed up by the waves of the lake: the northern shore of the lake abounds very generally with rocks of the same description.
REMARKS.
On the western side of Point Abineau the strand differs in no wise, to appearance, from that of the ocean: it is strewed with a variety of shells of a large size; quantities of gulls are continually seen hovering over it; and during a gale of wind from the west, a surge breaks in upon it, as tremendous as is to be seen on any part of the coast of England. The mounds of sand accumulated on Point Abineau are truly astonishing; those next to the lake, that have been washed by the storms of late years, are totally devoid of verdure; but others, situated behind them, towards the center of the point, seem coeval with the world itself, and are covered with oaks of the largest size from top to bottom. In general these mounds are of an irregular form; but in some places, of the greatest height, they are so even and straight that it appears as if they had been thrown up by the hand of art, and you may almost fancy them to be the old works of some vast fortification. These regular mounds extend in all directions, but chiefly from north to south, which demonstrates that westerly winds were as prevalent formerly in this part of the country as they are at the present day. I should suppose that some of these mounds are upwards of one hundred feet above the level of the lake.