NIAGARA FALLS; RECESSION OF. 71' 



action of the spray driven violently by gusts of 

 wind against the base of the precipice. In 

 consequence of this disintegration portions of 

 the incumbent rock are left unsupported, and 

 tumble down from time to time, so that the 

 cataract is made to recede southwards. The 

 descent of huge rocky fragments of the under- 

 mined limestone at the Horse-shoe Fall in 1828, 

 and another at the American Fall, in 1818, are 

 said to have shaken the adjacent country like an 

 earthquake." 



In particular districts the simple dissolving 

 power of water produces alterations of the most 

 serious kind. One of the most interesting 

 examples of this kind fell under the observation 

 of the writer in the salt districts of Cheshire, 

 and it is probably unique of its kind. The 

 reader is, doubtless, aware that at a certain 

 depth beneath the soil in these districts, exist 

 vast beds of common salt. Some of these are 

 worked in the usual manner by mining, shafts 

 being bored down to them, and the salt being 

 then dug and blasted out. By this means, the 

 hard, impure substance, called " Eock Salt," is 

 procured. But ordinary table salt is obtained 

 in a different manner. In various parts of the 

 districts, what are called brine springs have 

 been found; these are simply springs of water 

 charged with a large quantity of salt, and are 



