Niagara Falls 



1831 progressive subsidence of the waters of Ontario. These waters 

 stoneh e u h wou ^ soon clear themselves a passage through the superficial 

 diluvium, and the manner in which the whole gorge has been 

 excavated from Queenstown to the point now occupied by the 

 cataract, is attested by what we observe going on in our own 

 day. The loose friable shale is loosened and washed out by the 

 re-action of the fallen waters, and the superincumbent limestone 

 losing its only support, yields to the weight of the water, and 

 falls into the gorge. The well known Table Rock is an instance 

 of this. The shale has been completely washed out from beneath 

 it, and great portions of it have fallen, as other parts belonging to 

 the edge of the cataract are constantly doing. It is also particu- 

 larly deserving of notice, that the limestone beds immediately 

 above the shale, are much thinner at the opening of the gorge, 

 and the rock less capable of resisting attrition, than the superior 

 beds which are so well compacted with chert, and which the 

 cataract is now approaching. That the greatest portion of the 

 rock which has hitherto fallen, has been comminuted, and washed 

 away by the stream, as the whole of the shale has been, appears 

 not unreasonable, and may account for the absence of a great por- 

 tion of the fragments. There is scarce a single circumstance con- 

 nected with this majestic cataract, which does not assist in the 

 explanation of its retrocession.. 



As to the period which has elapsed since the waters first began 

 to open the gorge, it is difficult to open a plausible ground upon 

 which a reasonable calculation could be made; but there is one 

 circumstance connected with them, which marks a difference of 

 progress, at certain points of their retrocession. The distance 

 from Queenstown to the falls, is between six and seven miles by 

 the line of the gorge, the average breadth of which on approach- 

 ing the falls, is about 1200 feet. By a reference to the plan, it 

 will appear, that up to the period when the waters which fall on 

 the American side, first divided Goat Island from the main land, 

 the whole force of the river Niagara, was exerted in one volume, 

 upon a surface of 1200 feet in extent, forming the width of the 



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