600 
have been produced by a projection of the Table Rock. In the de- 
scription Father Hennipen states, that this smaller cascade fell from 
west to east, and not like the other two, from south to north. 
Seventy-three years afterwards, in 1751, a letter on the Falls, by 
Kalm, the Swedish botanist, was published in the ‘Gentleman’s Ma- 
gazine.’ It is illustrated by a plate, in which the third Fall is omit- 
ted; but the writer states in a note, that at that point the water 
was formerly forced out of its direct course by a projecting rock, and 
turned obliquely across the other Fall *. 
Mr. Lyell then proceeds to show what are the geological evidences 
of the former prolongation of the river’s bed, on a level with the top 
of the ravine through which the Niagara now flows. The existence 
on Goat Island of strata of marl, gravel and sand, containing fossil 
freshwater shells, was known before Mr. Bakewell’s paper on the 
Falls was published, and they have been more recently described by - 
Mr. Hall+; and Mr. Lyell states, that he was very desirous of 
ascertaining how far they extend on the banks of the river, or 
whether they could be detected below the present Falls. On the 
south-west side, in a cliff 12 feet im perpendicular height, a bed of 
gravel, 7 feet from the surface, contains eight species of fluviatile 
and one of terrestrial shells, determmed for the author by Dr. 
Gould of Boston, the whole of the former now living in the wa- 
ters of the Niagara, and some of them even in the rapids. At the 
south-west extremity of Goat Island this deposit must be 24 feet 
thick, and it rests on the Niagara limestone. On the right bank 
of the river, opposite the island, are two river-terraces, one 12 feet 
above the stream, and the other 12 feet higher; and both have 
been cut out of this freshwater formation. In making a mill-dam 
some years ago, the same species of shells as those on Goat Island 
were thrown out, and Mr. Lyell had still an opportunity of col- 
lecting them. He was also shown a tooth of the “Mastodon Ameri- 
canus,’ which, with another tooth and a bone of the same animal, 
were discovered in the deposit 13 feet from the surface. From in- 
formation given to the author by Mr. Hooker, the guide, the forma- 
tion was found half a mile farther down the river, at the summit of 
the lofty precipice, 6 feet deep and composed chiefly of gravel. It 
contained in abundanee Cyclas rhomboidea, Valvata tricarinata and 
Planorbis parvus. ‘This patch of gravel demonstrates, therefore, the 
former position of the river at a level corresponding to that of the 
present summit of the cataract, and half a mile below the existing 
Falls. It proves however, Mr. Lyell says, much more; for im order 
that such a fluviatile deposit should have been accumulated in water 
tranquil enough to allow those shells to exist, there must have been 
a barrier farther down; and he is of opinion it may be safely placed 
as low as. the Whirlpool, or three miles from the present Falls. If 
* The author has observed distinct signs of recession in strata of the 
Silurian and Devonian epochs at the Falls of the Genessee in Rochester 
and at Portage, at the Fall of Allen’s Creek below Le Roy, near thé town 
of Batavia, and at the Falls of Jacock’s river, three miles north of Genessee. 
+ Report for 1838; 
