150 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



to have arisen that the deep channel of the river Niagara 

 below the falls had been excavated by the cataract. In Mr. 

 Bake well's " Introduction to Geology," the prevalence of 

 this belief has been referred to. It is expressed thus by 

 Professor Joseph Henry in the " Transactions of the Albany 

 Institute: " * " In viewing the position of the falls, and the 

 features of the country round, it is impossible not to be im- 

 pressed with the idea that this great natural raceway has 

 been formed by the continued action of the irresistible 

 Niagara, and that the falls, beginning at Lewiston, have, 

 in the course of ages, worn back the rocky strata to their 

 present site." The same view is advocated by Sir Charles 

 Lyell, by Mr. Hall, by M. Agassiz, by Professor Ram- 

 say, 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 whirl- 

 pool, trend to the northeast, and after a little time gradu- 

 ally 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 memory 

 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 begin its 

 retrograde course? To minds disciplined in such researches 

 the answer has been, and will be At the precipitous de- 

 clivity which crossed the Niagara from Lewiston 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 be- 



* Quoted by Bakewell. 



