Erie Stones or pierres Erienes are rocks used in First Nations (Native American) traditional medicine.
Francois Gendron,[1] the French Jesuit surgeon at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons mission, first described its use in the 1640s in letters later published in 1660.
Gendron described the sources of these stones as being at the base of Niagara Falls and that a local Native American group settled there and traded this item to other First Nations communities.
[1] There is also debate among historians whether he actually visited the area to collect samples or was supplied with them and a description of their location from Native American traders.
Below the dolomite the Rochester Shale is impenetrable to the seeping water causing it to flow horizontal and emerge and run down the rock face of the gorge.