Niagara Falls 



1818-19 the falls, that the river has at some former period scooped out 

 Duncan jj^ cha^g^ through the solid limestone, from Queenston, about 



seven miles below, to the position of the present cataracts. 

 Below Queenston, the ground on both sides of the river is very 

 nearly of the same level with the banks of lake Ontario, but 

 at that town it rises with a sudden and steep slope crossing the 

 river at right angles to its channel, and continuing gradually to 

 increase in elevation, till it attains the height of lake Erie. At 

 Queenston the inner surface of the banks first becomes precipitous 

 and broken; and mineralogists of whose accuracy and fidelity 

 there can be no doubt, have ascertained, by minute inspection, 

 that the strata on the opposite sides of the river correspond exactly 

 with each other, and scarcely vary to the situation of the present 

 falls. From these premises it has been concluded, that the waters 

 of the Niagara formerly ran down the face of the heights of 

 Queenston, — that the rocky material at last gave way under the 

 continued attrition, and that the cataract gradually worked its 

 way backward, till it separated into two at the present position. 

 Not only so, but that this process has continued with the most 

 unvarying regularity, accomplishing very nearly the same number 

 of inches in the same space of time. This backward motion 

 however, if any such there be, is at present amazingly slow, and 

 it is therefore decided, with unhesitating certainty and coolness, 

 that the world must have existed, and the waters of the Niagara 

 been at work, for a much larger period than six thousand years. 

 With the same facility of hypothesis and assertion, they have 

 decided upon its future as easily as upon its past operations. It 

 is inevitably certain, we are assured, that it will gradually saw 

 its way twenty miles farther and drain lake Erie, and going 

 backward three hundred miles, take up its temporary residence 

 below Detroit. It is needless for us at present to pursue it 

 farther. 



But if we grant, that there was a time when the water from 

 lake Erie first made a breach in Queenston heights, these 

 theorists cannot refuse, that there must have been a previous time 



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