"Chicago to the Sea." Eastern Excursionist / A complete guide to the principal eastern summer resorts, including: Niagara Falls, the White Mountains, Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, Montreal and Quebec, the New England sea beaches, etc., and how and when to enjoy them.

by William C. Gage

THREE SISTER ISLANDS.

These are connected with Goat Island and with one another by three handsome bridges, affording a magnificent view of the Rapids, the best, in fact, to be had from any point of observation. The scene presented from the outer island, as you gaze up the river, upon the vast expanse of foaming, turbulent water, seemingly threatening to overwhelm you and the ground on which you stand, and yet dividing as it passes you, or abating its fury as it reaches the shore at your feet, is one to fill the soul with admiration and awe, as, perhaps, no other view can do. The outlook from the bridges also awakens peculiar emotions. Standing only a few feet above the rapidly coursing torrent as it passes beneath you, the thought comes to the mind that here at least, “there is but a step betwixt time and eternity.” The fascination increases as the gaze is prolonged, and the mind which cannot be impressed with the sublimity of the scene, must be, like the soul devoid of music, “fit for treason, stratagem, and spoils.”

At the head of Goat Island, a little farther up the river, the view is quite expansive, commanding both banks of the stream, and the islands in the channel. Beginning at the right, the site of Fort Schlosser is seen about a mile away, marked by a small white building and a very large chimney. The name is associated with border history, the fort having been built by the French, afterward ceded to the English, and occupied as a military station by Captain Schlosser, from whom its later name was derived, the French having given it the title of Little Fort.

NAVY ISLAND,

Lying in the channel which sweeps around Grand Island on the Canada side, has an area of over three hundred acres, and is associated with Fort Schlosser in the annals of border history, having been made the rendezvous of the “Patriots” in the “Rebellion” of 1837, under the leadership of McKenzie, who, with about twenty-five or thirty followers, became disaffected with the Canadian authorities, and planted their standard here as a rallying-point. The American steamer Caroline, a small boat supposed to be in the service of the “Rebels,” was chartered to run between the islands and the American shore. Friday, Dec. 29, 1837, she entered upon her work of “ferriage,” and after a profitable day’s work was moved to the wharf at Schlosser’s Landing. The same night, a detachment of British soldiers, under command of Capt. Drew, seized her, set her on fire, and the little steamer went down the stream in flames, and plunged over the Canadian Fall. The crew, and some of the “patriots” who were on board, escaped to the shore, with the exception of one man, Durfee, who was killed by a pistol shot in attempting to escape.

GRAND ISLAND,

The largest in the River Niagara, is twelve miles in length, its breadth varying from two to seven miles. Its soil, unlike that of the islands nearer the cataract, is very fertile, and much of it is under cultivation. Its historic annals are less interesting than those just mentioned, although one enterprise has a monumental reminder, still in a good state of preservation. A gentleman who in the current vernacular of to-day would doubtless be entitled a “crank,” conceived the project of making this island a place of refuge for the scattered tribes of Israel. In 1825 he laid the corner-stone of the “City of Ararat,” and erected a monument with imposing ceremonies. The latter still serves to remind the visitor that “cranks” are not original with the present generation.

At the foot of Grand Island is a smaller one, of about three hundred acres, called Buckhorn Island. The channel between them is called “Burnt Ship Bay,” from the destruction of two armed supply vessels by the French garrison at Schlosser, near the close of the French war of 1759, to prevent their acquisition by the English. They were brought to this bay, and set on fire, and the circumstance is thus commemorated by the name of the bay.

Corner’s Island, Gill Creek Island and Grass Island, all of them small, lie near the American shore, and are important, commercially or historically.