TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 745, 



would follow from any cause increasing the amount or velocity of the water, elevation 

 of the land, increased rainfall, &c, and each retrocession would increase the dis- 

 charging power of the river, thus tending to carry off the increased water supply. 

 The relation between the increased supply and the discharging power thus tends 

 through retrocession to equality and to balance. 



9. All the features of ^Niagara being dependent on the force of the waters 

 every attempt to diminish this force by what is ; known as the utilisation of the 

 Falls would change these features, and if the utilisation were carried to the extent 

 sometimes proposed these features would he destroyed. Abstract the vis viva from 

 the water and we have only a mass of inert matter. 



10. It may be questioned whether even the material argument in favour of 

 utilisation, great as it is, is so conclusively in favour of the utiliser as is often 

 supposed. It is admitted that Niagara has played no mean part in the geographical 

 evolution of this part of the continent, and it may be asked does it not now play 

 an equally important part in its preservation ? In the Niagara descent is generated 

 the impulse which commands the circulation both of the upper and lower lakes, 

 and hence to some extent the drainage, rainfall, and cultivation of their adjacent 

 areas of country. The Niagara impulse, some four and a half million horse-power,, 

 tends to move the waters down from Erie and to drive them through Ontario. If 

 this impulse be wholly or even largely withdrawn in the manner proposed, what may 

 he the effect on the circulation of this continental district. If this is not now a. 

 practical question the proposals now in the air may soon make it one. 



