R. Bakewell on the Falls of Niagara. 85 
_ Art, XI.— Observations on the Falls of Niagara, with reference to 
the changes which have taken place, and are now in progress ; by ~ 
. BAKEWELL. 3 
In a recent work entitled “A Manual of Coal, and its Topog- 
raphy, by J. P. Lesley, Topographical Geologist,” the author 
under the head of “Theory of Denudation,” makes some re- 
marks which are intended to shew that the Falls of —_ 
have undergone little or no change during the last one hundred 
and seventy-eight years,—with the exception of the lateral fall by 
Table rock, represented in Father Hennepin’s drawing taken in 
1678,—and he draws the conclusion that the ravine from Lewiston 
to the Falls was not caused by the action of the river. He says 
that “the only change in the Falls since Father Henne in’s day 
oc 
neighborhood, in assigning three feet per annum as the rate of 
Tetrogression of the Falls. In the years 1829, ’46, ’51 and 66 I 
te changes which have taken place since 1829, proving conelu- 
sively I think, that there is a slow onward r ion of the 
Falls—that the cataract of N iagara once a over the preci- 
— at Lewiston, as I have en eee: - Lew a ein vee 
/@grams previously published. My object in this communie: 
tion is to Seralabexe thecwiete sau entertained, and to exhibit, 
not what the Falls are supposed to have done in past, but 
what they are now doing. And let me first say, that my allu- 
Sion to Hather Hennepin’s drawing had reference solely to the 
noise then produced by the Fall, as shewn by the hands of one 
of the persons in the view being placed on the ears; that further, 
I never saw the drawing by Kalm; and as to the reports of old 
men,—when at the Falls in the year 1829, I was informed 
Mr, Forsyth, the proprietor of the Pavilion Hotel on the Can- 
ada side, that during his residence of forty years the Falls had 
Teceded forty yards, 
