On the Falls of Niagara. 65 



After what I have said, respecting the nature of 

 this bed of stone, it will not be expected, that the 

 whole bulk, answering to the channel, should be 

 found in broken masses, but only that portion which 

 is hard, and more durable. This we should expect 

 to find in the cavity below, formed by the washing 

 out of the soft and yielding rock, by the fall and agi- 

 tation of the water. Accordingly, we do find this 

 portion, and in this very situation. 



The extreme agitation of the water, through the 

 whole length of this unparalled channel, discovered 

 by its alternate bounding and plunging (which, in 

 some places, I am confident, I have observed to bound 

 to the height of at least twenty feet), most forcibly 

 points out the huge masses of rock, which, in vain, 

 oppose its course. 



Just within the entrance of Lake- Ontario, there 

 also lies a vast bed of stone, which can have no other 

 source for its origin, because the banks of the lake 

 are entirely destitute of rock ; and I have no doubt, 

 that there are vast bodies of rock buried beneath the 

 bed of the river, for some distance below the Land- 

 ing, perhaps, through its whole course, until it reaches 

 Lake-Ontario : for we actually find, as I have already 

 observed, a large quantity of rocks immediately within 

 that lake. 



I flatter myself, that it is already sufficiently evident 

 to you, that the rock has actually been worn away, 

 and that very decided vestiges of that rock are yet to 



VOL. I. PART II. I 



