It will not be difficult to understand why Buffalo has attained commercial
supremacy in Western New York, if you add to this never ceasing activity,
betokening business, the enormous canal traffic; for it is here where
innumerable canal-boats are weighted with the rich products of the west,
carrying a large floating population of boatmen's families.
Before selecting our mooring place in Buffalo Creek, which can be
navigated for about one mile, we sailed to the breakwater, a solid wall
several feet high, having a length of 4,000 feet, which was erected at the
expense of some millions of dollars for the protection of the city from
being flooded by the unruly waters of Lake Erie.
While the tanks of the yacht were being filled with the limpid water of
the lake, we ascended the stairs leading to the top of the protecting
wall; for we all were anxious to become acquainted with the nature of the
billows that were to carry us many miles westward and nearer to our far
destination.
It was a glorious sight unfolded before our eyes. We glanced at a huge
sheet of water, about 268 miles long, varying from thirty to nearly sixty
miles in width, with an area of 9600 square miles, whose elevation from
tide water is judged to be 564 feet.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42