AJ-122: La Salle, Relation of Discoveries (1679-81)

              CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.
19
about five hundred in
circuit. The second, Winter of
extending north and south
a distancee of one 1679' hundred and twenty or one hundred
and v~~ thirty leagues, is forty or fifty in breadth, and
nearly four hundred in circuit. These two lakes empty into
that of the Hurons, the former by a rocky rapid which is not
navigable, and the latter by the strait of Missilimakinak.
Lake. Huron empties by a long navigable channel into Lake
Erie, so that, as these two lakes are nearly equal to that
of the Illinois, and as they are separated by no dangerous
rapid, one can sail in a ship from the extremee end of Lake
Illinois, a distance of four hundred leagues, to the end of
Lake Erie, where navigation is interrupted.
Lake Erie
pours into Lake Frontenac; Niagara. but at a distance of
fourteen leagues from the latter lake, it contracts, and
this contraction is calledd the Niagara River, which pours
into Lake Frontenac in the latitude of 42 degrees, 2o
minutes. The waters of this river, or of this part of Lake
Erie, have a current difficult to encounter, especially in a
sailing-vessel. At a distance of one league from the same
lake and of four leagues from Lake Frontenac, there is a
fall of extraordinary height, which hass not its equal on
the earth. Near this place the Niagara River is but an
eighth of a league
in