84 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
[June, 1890. 
Of course, all calculations on the antiquity of the 
earth are conjecture, still, some may be approxi- 
mately true. M. Poisson, supposing the tempera- 
ture of the globe was three thousand degrees at the 
moment when the solid crust began to form itself, 
has calculated about 108,000,000 years. But, if one 
admits that the original temperature was only 
fifteen hundred degrees, — a temperature more than 
sufficient to melt all the known rocks, — the time 
felapsed from the beginning of the solidificalion to 
the present would not have been more than 27,000,- 
ooe years. Undoubtedly this is yet an enormous 
length of time in comparison to what has been 
generally assigned to it by the Hebrew or Septua- 
gint texts of sacred history in times past. Astron- 
omy has revealed to us that the works of God have 
immensity in space ; geology teaches us that they 
have immensity in time. It is thus that all science 
contributes to the glory of the Eternal Creator, 
whose power and wisdom they gloriously show 
forth. 
«♦► 
fOriginal in Popular Science News-i 
FOSTER'S FLAT. 
BY H. J. SEYMOUR. 
This is the name given to seventy-five or a 
hundred acres of land situated something more 
than one-half of a mile down the river from the 
Niagara whirlpool. The river runs eastward at this 
place, and closely hugs the precipice on the Ameri- 
can side, the canyon being wide enough to admit of 
the flat between the river and the precipice on the 
Canada side. 
Intent on exploring this place for the first time in 
my life, early in May, two years ago, I proceeded 
down the river from the falls. Looking over the 
precipice below the bridges at the comparatively 
narrow stream at the rapids, as it foams and dashes 
along, it is difficult to believe that a stream of that 
size is capable of draining so large an area of the 
continent. The depth must be enormous and the 
rate of speed very great. As you arrive at the whirl- 
pool, yoii will notice that a high and wooded bank 
obstructs the hurrying waters, and the precipice 
along which you are walking is lost to view in the 
shade of a wood. Jf we follow up this precipice 
into the wood, we shall find that it ultimately dis- 
. appears under the clay, coming to view occasionally 
only in places where the brink has b?en laid bare by 
the flowing over it of small surface streams. These 
streams- unite, and have excavated a deep gorge 
opening out into the whirlpool, in a direction oppo- 
site that of the waters of the river. The waters of 
the river swash upon the pebbly beach at the foot 
of this earthy obstruction like the waves on the 
shore of the ocean. Baffled in their direct course, 
they are thrown into the utmost confusion. In 
some parts of this large expanse of waters called 
the whirlpool, the surface is dimpled with vorticqs, 
alternately appearing and disappearing, and in 
other places it is boiling up from the bottom, and a 
continual change of motion is going on in all parts 
of its surface. After making a confused circuit 
around in this cul-de-sac, the waters find a compara- 
tively narrow outlet, some sixteen rods or more up 
the stream on the eastern, or American side. 
With the purpose of following down the bank of 
the river on the Canadian side, we are compelled to 
go down the steep and difficult descent made by the 
precipice, cross the outlet of the above-mentioned 
wooded gorge, proceeding along the stony beach at 
the foot of the exceedingly steep clay-bank that is 
scared by extensive landslides, and up a still steeper 
ascent till we arrive at the top of the precipice on 
the other side of the old gorge. Proceeding up 
along beside the whirlpool a little way, to where the 
water finds its outlet, we find ourselves on the top of 
a high, angular cliff, called Thompson's Point. 
Gazing down stream we see the upper end of the 
before-mentioned flat. It appears like an obstruc- 
tion partly damming the river. It is heavily wooded 
at the upper end, and, as I drew nearer, I saw that 
it was covered with huge, loose rocks — many of 
them as large as an ordinary dwelling-house. Some 
of them had evidently recently fallen from the 
precipice, and, with their jagged edges and irregu- 
lar vertical crags and points in the air, presented an 
appearance of wildness and desolation. 
Presently I ca4ne to a V-shaped notch in the pi'eci- 
pice, in the apex of which was a ladder about 
eighteen feet long, reaching down to the talus 
below. Descending, I found tolerable walking 
along under the precipice. Yes, it was literally 
under the precipice, for the softer rock beneath had 
crumbled away, leaving the harder rock above jut- 
ting out over my head, in some places a distance of 
sixteen feet or more. Large masses were, in places, 
cracked and apparently loosened, just ready to fall. 
Bushels of a white efflorescence had fallen, in 
places, at the foot of the rock. Arrived at the 
upper end of the flat, I found the waters compara- 
tively quiet, but swirling around in moderate eddies. 
But where they pass the flat further on toward the 
American side, they plunge down rapids that ate 
steeper and more tumultuous than any that are in 
the river above. This fact has been amply attested 
by those who have navigated these rapids in barrels. 
Proceeding down stream some distance, I noticed 
that the bank of this flat was some twenty or thirty 
feet higher than the river, and that the flat was, 
apparently, never flooded. This is an indication of 
the great depth that must been excavated in the 
comparatively narrow bed of these rapids. That 
there is plenty of water-power here to do this exca- 
vating, is easily imagined as you gaze up the stream 
at the huge volume of water rushing towards you 
with all the foam and dash of a wild mountain 
torrent. The hardest rock must in time yield to 
such a force. We may take into the account, too, 
the fact that great bowlders must be occasionally 
rolled along its bed. 
There is a law that governs this work of erosion 
by water that this great canyon admirably illus- 
trates. It may be formulated thus : The rapidity 
of the flow of water down a declivity of a given rate 
of descent, is, in a measure, determined by the 
hardness or softness of the rock over which it flows. 
There is a long reach of quiet water extending 
from near the cantilever bridge up to the falls. 
This quietness results from the fact that there is an 
abundance of width and depth with moderate fall. 
But the cause of this width and depth is, that it has 
a soft bottom of shale that was easily pounded and 
washed out by the waters as the falls worked back- 
ward, leaving a channel both wide and deep. 
Looking at the sides of the canyon at the bridge, 
one can see where the stratum of shale dips down- 
ward under the water. The bottom of the river 
opposite this flat must consist of a pretty hard rock, 
according to this law. 
The surface of the flat is probably a fair illustra- 
tion of the condition of the bottom of the river, 
wherever the current is not strong enough to move 
great masses of rock. These huge fragments are so 
numerous and near together at the upper end of the 
flat that no woodman's road can crowd between them, 
and the primeval forest is but little disturbed. A 
most curious forest it is, with someof its trees, more 
than a foot in diameter, perched upon rocks twenty 
feet high. Lichens, moss, and mould freely accum- 
ulate on the rocks in the damp atmosphere, and 
squirrel-corn, leeks, sarsaparilla, spikenard, liver- 
wort, and all manner of wood-plants clothe many of 
the rocks with luxuriant verdure. A primitive 
forest, undisturbed by human interference, is, in 
these days, of itself worth going a long distance to 
see, especially in such a wild and rugged region as 
this. 
Although it is impossible to draw any very elabo- 
rate or definite conclusions concerning the age 01 
the Niagara canyon, there are one or two elements 
that might be taken into the account, that I will 
venture to suggest. One of these items for consid- 
eration is, that the time thus far consumed in exca- 
vating it may be divided into at least three periods : 
First, the period during which the waters exca- 
vated the old gorge that has its outlet at St. David's, 
several miles west of Lewiston. This was previous 
to the glacial and Champlain periods, during which 
this gorge was filled with drifts. 
Second, the period during which Foster's Flat was 
the bottom of the river. Of course, the falls must 
have been much less in height than they now are, 
and we naturally infer that there must have been a 
vastly greater volume of water at that time than at 
present, from the fact that the canyon is so much 
wider than is necessary for the passage of tlie waters 
at the present day. Given a less height of fall and 
a wider canyon, and a much larger stream is re- 
quired to produce the amount of excavation that 
we see. 
Third, a long period must have elapsed during 
which the waters have been excavating the hard 
rock so much lower than the surface of the flat. 
Another element for consideration that greatly 
complicates the work of estimating the age of the 
canyon, is the fact that there was a period of incal- 
culable time during which Lake Ontario was much 
higher than at present, and probably there was a 
time when they were so high that there could have 
been no falls between the two lakes. 
I would say, in conclusion, that a visit to Lewis- 
ton, Foster's Flat, the old gorge, and the whirlpool, 
as well as the upper rapids, should be made by all 
tourists who wish to make the most of a trip to 
Niagara Falls. 
Niagara Falls Center, Ontario, March 24, 1S90. 
SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 
For Prex^^enting Rust, coal tar and asphalte are 
much used by manufacturers of iron goo.ds. The 
articles are dipped while heated in a trough of 
melted tar and asphalte, mixed to make a tough 
coating. Tliis process is, no doubt, one of the best 
substitutes for galvanizing. 
An Italian journal describes a new pharo-light, 
which is said to be as powerful as the electric light, 
and the efficiency of which is not impaired by fog. 
A clock-work arrangement pours every thirty seconds 
ten centigrammes of powdered magnesium into the 
flame of a round wick lamp, producing an extremely 
brilliant flash of light. 
The State of Trance. — Prof. William James 
of Harvard, in his article on hypnotism, entitled 
"The Hidden Self," in the March Scribner, says: 
"I know a non-hysterical woman who, in her 
trances, knows facts which altogether transcend her 
possible normal consciousness — facts about the lives 
of people whom she never saw or heard of before. 
I am well aware of all the liabilities to which this 
statement exposes me, and I make it deliberately, 
having practically no doubt whatever of its truth. 
My own impression is that the trance condition is 
an immensely complex and fluctuating thing, into 
the understanding of which we have hardly begun 
to penetrate, and concerning which any very sweep- 
ing generalization is sure to be premature. A com- 
parative study of trances and subconscious states is 
meanwhile of the most urgent importance for the 
comprehension of our nature." 
