IS Mr. Fairholmc on the Falls of Niagara 



years to remove the solid contents at the same rate : but as 

 in the case now before us, only about half the cube is to be re- 

 moved^ we may fairly conclude that the work would be com- 

 pleted in one half the time, or in about 4500 years*. 



Having attained this very interesting and remarkable re- 

 sult, which I cannot help thinking is beyond the reach of 

 cavil, or of serious dispute, the mind naturally refers to the 

 probable state of things before the commencement of this great 

 natural operation ; that is, and necessarily must be, before the 

 existence of the North American lakes, and before the cal- 

 careous beds which now cover the plains of that vast conti- 

 nent were elevated above the sea in which it is admitted they 

 must have been deposited. We find in the phaenomena of 

 Niagara one of the most striking corroborations of that evi- 

 dence which history and the traditions of all lands, civilized 

 and savage, have handed down to us, and which the fossil re- 

 mains of animals of the same species, and buried under cir- 

 cumstances precisely similar on the level of the present sea, 

 and at 10,000 feet above its surface, so distinctly illustrate. 

 The theories of many able geologists have been distinctly op- 

 posed to the fact of the Mosaic Deluge ; and one very talented 

 author, for whose abilities I have a high respect, has in a late 

 publication candidly announced, that he has " no hesitation in 

 saying, that it has never been proved to have produced a single 

 existing appearance of any kind, and that it ought to be 

 struck out of the list of geological causes." I make no re- 

 mark upon this passage ; and I only quote it for the purpose 

 of showing the opinions of high authorities that are abroad 

 upon this subject. It will give me the greatest pleasure to be 

 set right in the arguments which I have ventured to draw 

 from various distinct, and otherwise unaccountable, sources in 



* A cause and effect in some degree similar may evidently be traced on 

 a large proportion of our secondary coasts, where, though a precipitous 

 range of cliffs is now commonly found, a regular continuance of the ex- 

 isting slopes must at some former period have extended to the surface of 

 the water, and formed the margin of the ocean's bed. We see this clearly 

 demonstrated wherever such secondary heights have been protected from 

 the'continued action of the waves, and the aiding corrosion of the atmo- 

 sphere, by the forms of bays, and the lowness of the sea-beach, common 

 in such situations. In such circumstances we often find a sloping eleva- 

 tion in its perfect form on one hand where the sea has never acted upon 

 it, and with a precipitous cliff on the other, although a long extent of 

 gradual inland slope assures us that this sudden and precipitous cliff has 

 not always existed. We can perceive the annual progress of this corrod- 

 ing action, and if we, therefore, carry on the outline pointed out by the 

 regularity of the inland slope, until it touch the surface of the ocean, we 

 shall have a case of gradually receding destruction, extremely similar in 

 effect, though different in cause, to the remarkable cataract we arc now 

 considering. 



