We found a Water-beech tree (Platanus occidentalis) cut down near the road, measuring about five feet in diameter.
This day, and for some days afterwards, we met with islands in the river. The larger ones were cultivated, and turned into corn-fields and meadows.
We walked about five English miles along the river to-day, and found the ground, during that time, very uniform, and consisting of pure earth. I did not meet with a single stone on the fields. The Red Maple, the Water-beech, the Water-asp, the wild Prune-tree, the Sumach, the Elm, the wild Vines, and some species of Willows, were [[275]]the trees which we met with on the rising shores of the river, where some Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) grew wild.
Cohoes Fall, on the River Mohawk, 900 feet wide 75 feet high.
We passed the night about six miles from Albany, in a countryman’s cottage. On the west side of the river we saw several houses, one after another, inhabited by the descendants of the first Dutch settlers, who lived by cultivating their grounds. About half an English mile beyond our lodgings, was the place where the tide stops in the river Hudson, there being only small and shallow streams above it. At that place they catch a good many sorts of fish in the river.
The barns were generally built in the Dutch way, as I have before described them[77]; for in the middle was the threshing-floor, above it a place for the hay and straw, and on each side stables for horses, cows, and other animals. The barn itself was very large. Sometimes the buildings in the court-yard consist only of a room, and a garret above it, together with a barn upon the above plan.
June the 22d. This morning I followed one of our guides to the water-fall near Cohoes, in the river Mohawk, before it falls [[276]]into the river Hudson. This fall is about three English miles from the place where I passed the night. The country till the fall is a plain, and only hilly about the fall itself. The wood is cleared in most places, and the ground cultivated, and interspersed with farm-houses.
The Cohoes Fall is one of the greatest in North America. It is in the river Mohawk, before it unites with the river Hudson. Above and below the fall, the sides and the bottom of the river consist of hard rock. The river is three hundred yards broad here. At the fall there is a rock crossways in the river, running every where equally high, and crossing in a strait line with the side which forms the fall. It represents, as it were, a wall towards the lower side, which is not quite perpendicular, wanting about four yards. The height of this wall, over which the water rolls, appeared to me about twenty or twenty-four yards. I had marked this height in my pocket-book; and afterwards found it agreed pretty well with the account which that ingenious engineer, Mr. Lewis Evans, communicated to me at Philadelphia. He said, that he had geometrically measured the breadth and height of the fall, and found it nine hundred English feet [[277]]broad, and seventy-five feet high. The representation of this fall, which is here joined, has been made by Mr. Evans. There was very little water in the river at present, and it only ran over the fall in a few places. In such places where the water had rolled down before, it had cut deep holes below into the rock, sometimes to the depth of two or three fathoms. The bed of the river, below the fall, was of rock, and quite dry, there being only a channel in the middle fourteen feet broad, and a fathom or somewhat more deep, through which the water passed which came over the fall. We saw a number of holes in the rock, below the fall, which bore a perfect resemblance to those in Sweden which we call Giants Pots, or Mountain Kettles. They differed in size; there being large deep ones, and small shallow ones. We had clear uninterrupted sun-shine, not a cloud above the horizon, and no wind at all. However, close to this fall, where the water was in such a small quantity, there was a continual drizzling rain, occasioned by the vapours which rose from the water during its fall, and were carried about by the wind. Therefore, in coming within a musket-shot of the fall, against the wind, our cloaths were [[278]]wetted at once, as from a rain. The whirlpools, which were in the water below the fall, contained several kinds of fish; and they were caught by some people, who amused themselves with angling. The rocks hereabouts consist of the same black stone which forms the hills about Albany. When exposed to the air, it is apt to shiver into horizontal flakes, as slate does.
At noon we continued our journey to Canada in the canoe, which was pretty long, and made out of a white pine. Somewhat beyond the farm where we lay at night, the river became so shallow that the men could reach the ground every where with their oars; it being in some parts not above two feet, and sometimes but one foot deep. The shore and bed of the river consisted of sand and pebbles. The river was very rapid, and against us; so that our rowers found it hard work to get forward against the stream. The hills along the shore consisted merely of soil; and were very high and steep in some parts. The breadth of the river was generally near two musket-shot.