And, even as to the minds of the Aborigines who dwelt far from it, the triple importance of Niagara was that it necessitated a long Land Carriage or Portage in their canoe voyages, that it was a famous "trading place," and, that it was the only source of supply of those famous "Erie Stones"; even so, to the mind of Docteur Gendron, their main importance lay, not in their imagined grandeur, but in the authenticated statement, that it, and it alone, produced a stone or powder, efficacious in the treatment of certain ills; which was undoubtedly a very welcome and a very decided addition to the probably very limited stock of his Materia Medica. Thus, Niagara, which to-day is famous the World over, for its Scenery, for its Botany, for its Geology, for its History, for its Hydraulic works, and lastly (and almost equally with its Scenery), for its Electrical developments, has also, through Docteur Gendron's "hasty letter"—written in 1644 or 1645—a distinct, and a very, very early claim to a place in the annals of the Healing Art—as it was known and practiced on the Continent of North America, during the first half of the 17th Century; and also therefrom another distinct proof that the locality was an Aboriginal Center of Trade.
This "Trade" in those "Erie Stones" must have been a most important thing for those Savages,—the Onguiaahras—who dwelt close to the Cataract at that time, and prior thereto.
It is further a most interesting fact, that the "Trade" therein was the first recorded trade ever carried on at Niagara; and it is also most interesting to recall, that this first Trade, at this famous spot, was in an article used for the relief of human suffering,—a simple remedy, furnished by Nature, and "all ready for use."
That Niagara product; which, possibly long before Columbus landed at San Salvador, probably during all the 16th, certainly during the 17th Century; made the locality famous, far and wide; was among the earliest known of America's healing remedies. It was evidently a leading, and a much-sought-for, prescription among the Aborigines. To-day, it has no value whatever. It is still to be found in abundance in the immediate vicinity of the Falls, in the Gorge below them; but no one seeks to gather it, save as a curiosity.
But, in those early days, among the ignorant and phenomenally superstitious Savages, those "Erie Stones," to be "found only at Niagara," seemed to them a special gift from the Great Spirit to his children. To the Savages, they were, veritably, "Big Medicine."
Their fame lasted for many a year. They were gathered and traded in—yes, and used—even until the middle of the 18th Century. As late as 1787, their reputation still clung to the great Fall.
That year, Capt. Enys, of the 29th Regiment, British, was at Niagara, and wrote of them—they were no longer called "Erie Stones," but the substance was known as "petrified spray of the Falls,"—
"On our return" [from the base of the Fall, and walking along the water's edge, under the cliff], "we employed ourselves in picking up a kind of stone, which is said to be the Spray of the Fall, petrified, but whether it is or no, I will not pretend to determine; this much I can say, that it grows, or forms itself in cavities in the cliff, about half way to the top, from whence it falls from time to time; its composition is a good deal like a piece of white marble which has been burnt in the fire, so that it may be pulverized with ease. Whatever may be its composition, it does not appear that it will bear to be exposed to the air, as some pieces which seem to have fallen longer than the rest are quite soft; while such as had lately fallen are of a much harder nature."
Robert McCauslin, M.D., who, during and after the War of the Revolution, spent nine years at Niagara—undoubtedly as British Post Surgeon at Fort Niagara,—furnished a scientific paper entitled, "An account of an earthly substance, found near the Falls of Niagara, and vulgarly called the Spray of the Falls," to Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton; and he, on October 16, 1789, communicated it to the American Philosophical Society; in whose Transactions it was subsequently published. Dr. McCauslin specially noted, that
"This substance is found, in great plenty, everywhere about the bottom of the Falls; sometimes lying loose among the stones on the beach, and sometimes adhering to the rocks, or appearing between the layers upon breaking them. The masses are of various sizes and shapes, but seldom exceed the bulk of a man's hand. Sometimes they are of a soft substance and crumble like damp sugar; while other pieces are found quite hard, and of a shining, foliated appearance; or else opaque and resembling a piece of burnt allum. It often happens that both these forms are found in the same mass. Pieces which are taken up whilst soft soon become hard by keeping; and they are never known to continue long in a soft state, as far as I have been able to learn."