66 F. B. TAYLOR—ORIGIN OF GORGE OF WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS. 
its head this section is an almost placid pool. apparently of great 
depth. 
ScHEMES OF INTERPRETATION 
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GENERAL STATEMENT AS TO HYPOTHESES OF ORIGIN 
We have now before us a brief description of the principal characters 
of the gorge from the Horseshoe fall down to Wintergreen flat. Except 
in the case of the Upper Great gorge, it has been the purpose of the 
writer to set forth the facts as far as possible without any coloring from 
theories of interpretation. To this end nothing has been said as yet 
about the particular conditions that obtained during the making of any 
of the lower sections. : : 
The conditions which prevailed during the making of the Upper Great 
gorge are so manifest that they were given above when the characters of 
that section were described. The whole of the section appears to have 
been made by the great cataract at substantially the same volume as 
now and without material variation; and to-this interpretation there 
seems to be no alternative nor any ground for exception, but for the 
gorge of the Whirlpool rapids, the Eddy basin, and the Whirlpool basin 
more than one explanation has been suggested. With regard to the 
Hddy basin, however, the writer is not aware that any one has noted a 
genetic distinction between it and the contiguous sections above and 
below. Whether in the minds of students of Niagara this short section 
has hitherto been regarded as a part of the gorge of the Whirlpool rapids, 
or as a part of the Saint Davids gorge, or as a genetically independent 
section, does not appear with entire certainty. In the view of the writer 
it is independent and belongs with the Cove section. Its characters 
seem quite clear as to its own origin, and if they are here correctly inter- 
preted it then becomes a decisive factor in the interpretation of the gorge 
of the Whirlpool rapids; but these relations will be discussed more fully 
below. 
One of two principal hypotheses has generally been assumed as the 
basis of explanation for the making of these parts of the gorge. In ac- 
cordance with one, it is assumed that the whole gorge, excepting always 
the Whirlpool basin, has been made by the modern or postglacial river 
Niagara, and that the varying magnitude of the gorge in different sec- 
tions is due to variations of volume. In accordance with the other, not 
only the Whirlpool basin, but the gorge of the Whirlpool rapids, includ- 
ing the Eddy basin, are supposed to have been made by a small stream, 
and therefore to be mainly of preglacial age, and to have been merely | 
cleared of drift, with perhaps a little deepening and widening by the 
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