and the Reasonivgs of some Authors respecting them. 291 



fore the twenty-one miles are travelled over, the softest, there 

 can be little doubt that the present single and majestic fall will 

 divide itself into several cataracts at successive elevations. Nia- 

 gara will then be almost a counterpart of Trenton Falls, but 

 with far more magnificent dimensions. 



In conclusion, it may be well to notice another false impres- 

 sion of Mr Fairholme. He speaks of the fossil remains of the 

 Elephant and Mastodon of North America being deposited when 

 the waters of Niagara were first set in motion, that is, accord- 

 ing to him, when this section had just emerged from the ocean ; 

 and he attributes their position, and their shattered state, to the 

 rush of waters simultaneously, by his account, with that emer- 

 gence. To make, in this manner, those races of animals equally 

 ancient with our coal-fields, may consist with Mr Fairholme's 

 peculiar views of celerity of deposition in strata, but no geolo- 

 gist who examines the features of this continent can acquiesce 

 in such a theory. The diluvial, or more properly alluvial, de- 

 posites in which such organic remains invariably occur in North 

 America, cover alike all our formations, even the newest tertia- 

 ry, and are of course separated from the coal formation as to 

 time, by a vast series of intervening periods. 



It is therefore quite erroneous to consider as contemporaneous, 

 two events so distinct as the appearance of the coal, and the for- 

 mation of the diluvium. 



About the shattered state of these remains, it may be obser- 

 ved, that in the majority of cases, the skeletons of the mastodon 

 have been found remarkably little broken or displaced, sometimes 

 standing erect, with all the bones in their natural relations, in 

 the morasses where the animals perished. Now these morasses 

 overlie the true diluvium. In a report on the geology of North 

 America, lately made by the author to the British Association, 

 at its request, an attempt has been made to prove that those 

 races perished on this continent, not by the general deluge, but 

 by catastrophes and accidents of a still more recent date. 

 ♦ * * * * 



Remark by the Editor. — Among the causes that may pro- 

 duce the drainage of the upper lakes, it is obvious, that even 

 a moderate heaving by an earthquake might at once crack the 

 strata that now form the barrier of Lake Erie, and over which 



