64 On the Falls of Niagara. 



Now it is evident, that the water would be confin- 

 ed behind this slope, until it arose high enough to 

 pass over its most depressed part, and then escape by 

 pouring over the precipice. This depression was at 

 the present Landing, or Queenstown, and there first 

 commenced the Falls of Niagara. At that period, it 

 is clear, both from reasoning, and from the face of 

 the country, that Lake-Erie was far more exten- 

 sive than at present, and that it has, ever since, been 

 gradually diminishing in size, by the washing away 

 of the soil and stone, over which the river passes. 



In the first place, I will mention a fact which is 

 absolutely necessary to be known, in order to fully 

 understand the history of those falls ; a fact which 

 seems to have entirely escaped your author's obser- 

 vation, and thus proved the source of all his errors 

 on the subject. 



The strata of rock, which compose the elevated 

 part of the superior country, is remarkably hard from 

 the surface to a considerable depth, after which it is 

 as remarkably soft and yielding, losing, by long im- 

 mersion in water, almost all power of cohesion. A 

 knowledge of this fact (and I see not how he came to 

 avoid noticing it) would, I am persuaded, have con- 

 vinced the author of the Description, that, in a given 

 length of time, it might be worn away, not merely 

 nine miles, but even ninety times nine, provided the 

 given period was sufficiently extensive. I am also 

 surprised, that he should say, that there is no vestige 

 of this rock remaining. 



