as illustrating the Geology of North America. 23 



the fossil remains of many animals unnatural to America, but 

 all of which must have been deposited there at the period 

 when the waters of Niagara were first set in motion, and con- 

 sequently they must all have been laid where we now find 

 their shattered remains by the action of the universal deluge. 



It is unnecessary in this place to follow out at greater length 

 this simple and obvious line of reasoning, or to extend it by 

 analogy to other parts of the present dry lands of the earth. 

 No reader who is satisfied of its truth will have any diffi- 

 culty in applying it to every other district, and especially to 

 England, where our coal-fields, though less simple, are yet full 

 of proofs of diluvial action; and where our fossil remains of 

 land animals can always be simply accounted for upon this 

 principle, and upon no other that is not beset with difficulties, 

 and contradictions of the most glaring kind. I shall there- 

 fore conclude this paper with the testimony of the illustrious 

 Cuvier to the truth of the point for which I am now con- 

 tending, although he drew from it very different conclusions. 

 " I conclude," says he, " with M. de Luc, and with M. Dolo- 

 mieu, that if there be any fact well established in geology, it 

 is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and 

 sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated further 

 back than 5 or 6000 years. This revolution has, on the one 

 hand, ingulfed and caused to disappear the countries formerly 

 inhabited by men, and the animal species at present best known ; 

 and on the other, has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, 

 thus converting its channel into the now habitable earth" — • 

 Disc. Prelim in a ire. * 

 Ramsgate, July 23, 1833. 



Appendix. 

 Since the above paper was written, several months ago, 

 a doubt has been suggested to me, by some able observers 

 of the falls of Niagara, whether the section of the seven miles 

 down to Queenston from the falls can be properly regarded 

 as only the half of a solid oblong square, as above stated. 

 The general slope of the country is supposed to incline down- 

 wards from the falls, but not in so regular a manner as I had 

 been led to believe ; and it comes to a more abrupt and decided 

 termination near Queenston, at what are termed Queens- 

 ton heights, where the slope is more rapid, and where it 

 falls into the general level of the great plain of Lake Ontario. 



[* Some remarks by the Rev. W. D. Conybeare on Mr. Lyell's estimate 

 of the time occupied by the retrogression of the falls of Niagara from their 

 original to their actnal position, will be found in the Phil. Mag. and Annals, 

 N.S., vol. ix. p. 2G7 ; the subject is also noticed in vol. x. p.. 31 6. Mr. Lyell, 

 we observe, calculates that the retrogression occupied 10, 000 years. — Edit.] 



