THE niSTOEY OF THE NIAGARA RIVER.* 



By G. K. Gilbert. 



The Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The 

 shore of Erie is more than 300 feet higher thau the shore of Ontario; 

 but if yon pass from the higher siiore to the lower, you do not descend 

 at a uniform rate. Starting from Lake Erie and going northward, you 

 travel upon a plain — not level, but with only gentle undulations — until 

 you approach the shore of Lake Ontario, and then suddenly you find 

 yourself on the brink of a high bluff or clifl" overlooking the lower lake, 

 and separated from it only by a narrow strip of sloping plain. The 

 bird's-eye view in Plate i is constructed to show the relations of these 

 various features, the two lakes, the broad plateau lying a little higher 

 than the shore of Lake Erie, the clifl", which geologists call the Niagara 

 Escarpment, and the narrow plain at its foot. 



Where the Niagara River leaves Lake Erie at Ruflalo and enters the 

 plain, a low ridge of rock crosses its path, and in traversing this its 

 water is troubled; but it soon becomes smooth, spreads out broadly, 

 and indolently loiters on the plain. For three-fourths of the distance it 

 can not be said to have a valley, it rests upon the surface of the plateau; 

 but then its habit suddenly changes. By the short rapid at Goat 

 Island and by the cataract itself the water of the river is dr(>pi)ed 200 

 feet down into the plain, and thence to the clifl" at Lewiston it races 

 headlong through a deep and narrow gorge. From Lewiston to Lake 

 Ontario there are no rapids. The river is again broad, and its channel 

 is scored so deeply in the littoral plain that the current is relatively 

 slow, and the level of its water surface varies but slightly from that of 

 the lake. 



The narrow gorge that contains the river from the Falls to Lewiston 

 is a most peculiar and noteworthy feature. Its width rarely equals the 

 fourth of a mile, and its dei)th to the bottom of the river ranges from 

 200 to 500 feet. Its walls are so steep that opportunities for climbing 

 up and down them are rare, and in these walls one may see the 



•This essay contains the substance of a lecture read to the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science at its Toronto meetinj^, August, 1889. (From the 

 Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, 

 1888-'89. Transmitted to the legislature January 22, 1890. pp. fil-84.) 



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