16 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



shelf projecting above, and then the fall is perpendicular. Such is the case 

 at present ; the hard Niagara limestone overhangs in tables the soft shales 

 underneath, which at last are "worn away to such an extent as to undermine 

 the superincumbent rocks. Such was also the case at Queenston, where the 

 Clinton group formed the edge, with the Medina sandstone below. This 

 process has continued from the time when the Niagara fell directly into Lake 

 Ontario, to the present time, and will continue so long as there are soft beds 

 underneath hard ones. But from the inclination of the strata, this will not 

 always be the case. A time will come when the rock below will also be 

 hard. Then, probably, the Falls will be nearly stationary, and may lose 

 much of their beauty, from the wearing away of the edge, rendering it an 

 inclined plane. I do not think the waters of Lake Erie will ever fall into 

 Lake Ontario without any intermediate cascade. The Niagara shales are so 

 extensive that possibly at some future time the river below the cascade may 

 be enlarged into a lake, and thus the force of the falling water diminished. 

 But the whole process is so slow, that no accurate calculations can be made. 

 The Falls were probably larger and stationary for a longer time, at the 

 " Whirlpool " than anywhere else. At that point there was no division of 

 the cataract, but at the " Devil's Hole " there are indications of a lateral 

 fall, probably similar to what is now called the American Fall. At the 

 Whirlpool, the rocks are still united beneath the water, showing that they 

 were once continuous above its surface also."* 



Afterwards, some of us went to bathe by moonlight in the 

 " Hermit's Fall," a little cascade eight or ten feet in height, 

 between Goat Island and the islet at its upper end. It is so 

 called from a crazy Englishman who lived for some time in a hut on 

 the other side of the island, and was finally drowned in bathing at 

 this place. There is, however, little danger, as the water is shallow, 

 and just below the pool a large log extends across the stream, which is 

 only some twenty feet wide. The " Hermit " was probably tired 

 of his own society at last, as he had been already of other people's, 

 and took this method of getting rid of it. The place, indeed, one 

 could conceive might be dangerously attractive to one tired of life. 

 It is so shaded and shut off by the overhanging trees of the island, 

 that one might fancy it a mountain stream a hundred miles from any 



* The data on which these and the previous remarks on the geology of the Falls are 

 founded, are derived from Prof. James Hall's investigations in the New York State 

 Survey. A. 



