Flora and Fauna 



from the top, and below this clay, a stratum of red sand stone, 1820 

 twelve or fifteen feet thick appears ; thence to the bottom of the clm,on 

 precipice red and blue indurated clay and stones of the same 

 colour, chiefly red. 



From Lake Erie to Fort Schlosser there is a fall of 1 5 feet 

 To Lewiston, say 332 



To Fort Niagara, say 334 



The upper strata of this region from Lake Erie to Lewiston, 

 are formed of calcareous rock of various kinds, which rests upon 

 sand stone, chiefly red and friable, and which reposes on red 

 clay, chiefly indurated. In comparing the appearances of stone 

 with the stratified levels, the continuity and identity of the former 

 will be obvious. 



The chasm at the bottom of the cataract is 347 feet deep of 

 water. A beautiful white substance is found here — supposed by 

 the vulgar to be a concretion of foam, consolidated by the power 

 of water — but it is carbonate and sulphate of lime, which has 

 been reunited after being in a state of solution. The lamellar 

 gypsum found here is very fine, as well as the white amorphous. 



The recession of the falls from Lewiston and Queenston, is 

 easily explained on this geological view of the country. The 

 fragile materials which compose the foundations of the great cal- 

 careous rocks are continually and gradually wearing away by the 

 action of water, and by a partial exposure to the atmosphere ; the 

 removal of the sub-strata will necessarily produce a precipitation 

 of the super-incumbent rocks into the watery gulf. The progress 

 of this operation is obvious — the immense bodies of ice which 

 are carried down from Lake Erie, must also be a powerful 

 auxiliary, and frost and earthquakes unquestionably contribute 

 greatly to the production of these results. 



If below the outlet of Lake Erie, any chasm should be pro- 

 duced by earthquakes or any other cause which would remove 

 the lime stone rocks, and enable the water to reach the soft sand 



447 



