NIAGARA FALLS. 207 



sub-Strata will necessarily produce a precipitation 

 of the super-incumbent rocks into the watery gulf. 

 The progress of this operation is obvious — the 

 immense bodies of ice which are carried down 

 from Lake Erie, must also be a powerful auxilia- 

 ry, and frost and earthquakes unquestionably 

 contribute greatly to the production of these 

 results. 



If below the outlet of Lake Erie, any chasm 

 should be produced by earthquakes or any other 

 cause which would remove the lime stone rocks, 

 and enable the water to reach the soft sand stone 

 and red clay, the fissure would enlarge, and in 

 course of time the whole intervening rocks would 

 be swept away, and Lake Erie would plunge into 

 Lake Ontario. The great plateau, or table land, 

 below Lewiston, would then be deluged, and the 

 age of Deucalion would visit this portion of the 

 great western region. 



At the feet of great falls of water and in the 

 bosom of sequestered ravines, the devotee of natu- 

 ral science generally finds a fertile field of Inv.es- 

 tigation. This cataract however does not furnish 

 many interesting specimens of mineralogy, but 

 its neighborhood is rich in botany. The banks 

 of the river about the falls are lined with white 

 pine and cedar. One of the latter was pointed 

 out to me which leans terrifically twenty feet over 



