8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ■ 



of the modern river in the region of the falls themselves, but this 

 is a mile and a half wide. Its section is shown beneath the drift 

 in Fig. 8. • . 



Indeed, there was no ancient outlet of the Erie basin in the 

 vicinity of Niagara River, but the ancient drainage course was 



Fi(!. 6.— Section across the Narrows just 

 North of the Railway Bridges {dd^ 

 Fig. 9). i, Original bank of tlie river ; 

 r, surface of tiie river ; L O, level of lake ; 

 floor of canon eighty feet below lake 

 level. 



Fio. 7. — Section Half a Mile from the 

 End of the Canon {{/ff, Fig. 9). bb, Ter- 

 races of river at the original level ; L O, 

 level of Lake Ontario ; bottom of river 

 about eighty feet below the surface of 

 Lake Ontario. 



discovered about fifteen years ago to have been some forty miles 

 farther west, where is now the buried channel of the ancient 

 Erigan River, terminating in the extreme western end of Lake 

 Ontario. Thus the necessity of a preglacial Niagara River was 

 removed. 



To describe the features of the Niagara River more accurately, so as to 

 interest special readers, it may be added that from Lake Erie to the rapids 

 above the falls the river is from half a mile to more than a mile vpide, and 

 flowing at the surface of the country with banks only a few feet high. The 

 gorge is thirty-six thousand five hundred feet long and varies from nine 



hundred feet to fourteen 

 "^^^^^^^^'^'^ — ■ hundred feet wide at the top, 



and it is three hundred and 

 forty feet deep near the out- 

 let. The width of the river 

 itself at the narrows is only 

 three hundred feet and four 

 hundi'ed at outlet of whirl- 

 ]>ool, although elsewhere 

 nuich broader. The rubbish 

 in the chasm forms loose 

 heaps of broken rock, which 

 is constantly falling from 

 the sides, and building up 

 sloping banks along the wa- 

 ter's edge, where the rains and river are constantly washing them away, 

 and thus fhe canon is slowly being widened into a connnon form of an old 

 valley. The river, both near the foot of the falls and seven miles below, 

 at the outlet of the gorge, is nearly one hundred feet in depth, descends 

 fifty feet by the rapids above the falls, which leaps one hundred and 

 Hfty-(>ight fe<'t into the abyss, fronj which it further desceiuls another 

 hundred and ten feet by the rapids below the falls. These features are 



Fio. 8. — Section at the Site of the Falls, siiowinc 

 THK Transverse BURIED Tonawanda Valley, F, cut 

 out ol' limestones for breadth of a mile and a luilt and 

 de[)tli of ninety feet: rectangular shading represents 

 the Niagara limestones; L O, level of Lake Ontario; 

 F, foot of falls. 



