206 NIAGARA FALLS. 



Lake Erie is elevated 541 feet above the tide 

 water at Troy, and Lake Ontario 206 feet. 



From Lake Erie to Fort Schlosser there is a 

 fall of 15 feet 



To Lewiston, say 332 



To Fort Niagara, say 334 



The upper strata of this region from Lake 

 Erie to Lewiston, are formed of calcareous rock 

 of various kinds, which rests upon sand stone^ 

 chiefly red and friable, and which reposes on red 

 clay, chiefly indurated. In comparing the appear- 

 ances of stone with the stratified levels, the con- 

 tinuity and identity of the former will be obvious.^ 



The chasm at the bottom of the cataract is 347 

 feet deep of water. A beautiful white substance 

 is found here — supposed by the vulgar to be a 

 concretion of foam, consolidated by the power of 

 w^ater — but it is carbonate and sulphate of lime, 

 which has been reunited after being in a state of 

 solution. The lamellar gypsum found here is 

 very fine, as well as the white amorphous. 



The recessioa of the falls from Lewiston and 

 Queenston, is easily explained on this geological 

 view of the country. The fragile materials which 

 compose the foundations of the great calcareous 

 rocks are continually and gradually wearing 

 away by the action of water, and by a partial 

 exposure to the s^tmosphere ; the removal of tfefe 



