THE QUARTERLY 
POURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
APRIL, 1875. 
I. NIAGARA. 
GLACIAL AND Post-GLAcIAL PHENOMENA. 
By Tuomas BELT, F.G.S. 
HE glacial phenomena of the district of Niagara have 
been so often described, and the cause of, and the 
time occupied in, the excavation of the river gorge, 
so often discussed, that I did not expect, when, on Christ- 
mas-day, I made my first visit to the great falls, to have any- 
thing new to record, but went quite prepared to acquiesce 
in the conclusion that has been received for more than thirty 
years, that the whole of the gorge, from Queenstown to the 
falls, has been excavated since the glacial period. Since 
this theory was first advanced, many geologists have visited 
the district, and, so far as I can learn, no one has called in 
question this verdict ; it has been accepted as an esta- 
blished fact, and various calculations of the time necessary 
to excavate the gorge have been made, throwing back the 
occurrence of the glacial period from 30,000 to 300,000 
years ago. 
It was with great surprise, therefore, that I found, that at 
first sight this conclusion was not evident, and that, on 
further examination, it was not tenable. I feel that in 
having to oppose the theory that the gorge of Niagara has 
been excavated since the glacial period, I shall be adding 
another scientific heresy to the many that are recorded 
against me; but the heresies of to-day are the truths of 
to-morrow, and I shall at least give my reasons for believing 
that my explanation of the problem ought to be classed in 
the latter, and not in the former category. 
The question of the excavation of the gorge cannot be 
clearly understood without some knowledge of the glacial 
deposits, and I shall in the first place describe the glacial, 
and afterwards the post-glacial phenomena. So many 
authors have written on the subject, that I shall only men- 
tion those from whose works I have obtained information of 
VOL. V. (N.S.) Ss 
