NIAGARA 211 



fessor Ramsay, indeed by most of those who have inspected 

 the place. 



A connected image of the origin and progress of the 

 cataract is easily obtained. Walking northward from the 

 village of Niagara Falls by the side of the river, we have 

 to our left the deep and comparatively narrow gorge, 

 through which the Niagara flows. The bounding cliffs of 

 this gorge are from 300 to 350 feet high. We reach the 

 whirlpool, trend to the northeast, and after a little time 

 gradually resume our northward course. Finally, at about 

 seven miles from the present falls, we come to the edge of 

 a declivity, which informs us that we have been hitherto 

 walking on table-land. At some hundreds of feet below 

 us is a comparatively level plain, which stretches to Lake 

 Ontario. The declivity marks the end of the precipitous 

 gorge of the Niagara. Here the river escapes from its 

 steep mural boundaries, and in a widened bed pursues 

 its way to the lake which finally receives its waters. 



The fact that in historic times, even within the mem- 

 ory of man, the fall has sensibly receded, prompts the 

 question, How far has this recession gone ? At what point 

 did the ledge which thus continually creeps backward be- 

 gin its retrograde course? To minds disciplined in such 

 researches the answer has been, and will be At the pre- 

 cipitous declivity which crossed the Niagara from Lewis- 

 ton on the American to Queenston on the Canadian side. 

 Over this transverse barrier the united affluents of- all the 

 upper lakes once poured their waters, and here the work 

 of erosion began. The dam, moreover, was demonstrably 

 of sufficient height to cause the river above it to submerge 

 Goat Island; and this would perfectly account for the find- 

 ing, by Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Hall, and others, in the 



