the high and perpendicular banks, resembling a bay. The current, which
is extremely rapid, whenever it reaches the upper point of this bay,
forsakes the direct channel, and sweeps wildly round the sides of it;
when, having made this extraordinary circuit, it regains its proper
course, and rushes with perturbed velocity between two perpendicular
precipices, which are not more than 400 feet asunder. The surface of the
whirlpool is in a state of continual agitation. The water boils, mantles
up, and wreaths in a manner that proves its fearful depth, and the
confinement it suffers; the trees that come within the sphere of the
current are swept along with a quivering, zigzag motion, which it is
difficult to describe. This singular body of water must be several
hundred feel deep, and has not hitherto been frozen over, although in
spring the broken ice that descends from Lake Erie descends in such
quantities upon its surface, and becomes so closely wedged together,
that it resists the current, and remains till warm weather breaks it up.
The whirlpool is one of the greatest natural curiosities in the Upper
Province, and its formation can not be rationally accounted
for."--Martin's _History of Canada_, p. 139.]

[Footnote 136: "This inland sea, though the smallest of the great chain
with which it is connected, is of such extent, that vessels in crossing
it lose sight of land, and must steer their way by the compass; and the
swell is often equal to that of the ocean. During the winter, the
northeast part of Ontario, from the Bay of Quinte to Sacket's Harbor, is
frozen across; but the wider part of the lake is frozen only to a short
distance from the shore. Lake Erie is frozen still less; the northern
parts of Huron and Michigan more; and Superior is said to be frozen to a
distance of seventy miles from its coasts. The navigation of Ontario
closes in October; ice-boats are sometimes used when the ice is _glare_
(smooth). One, mentioned by Lieutenant de Roos, was twenty-three feet in
length, resting on three skates of iron, one attached to each end of a
strong cross-bar, fixed under the fore-feet, the remaining one to the
stern, from the bottom of the rudder; the mast and sail those of a
common boat: when brought into play on the ice, she could sail (if it
may be so termed) with fearful rapidity, nearly twenty-three miles an
hour. One has been known to cross from Toronto to Fort George or
Niagara, a distance of forty miles, in little