Niagara Falls 



1855 A translation taken from the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 



Desor Sciences of Neuchatel, 1854. It reviews the opinions of other writers on 



Niagara, discusses the future of the Falls and gives a chart and cross- 

 sections. 



In fine, the retrocession of the Falls of Niagara, however 

 rapid it may appear to us, is not the less the effect of a slow 

 action, like all the grand operations of nature. I believe that we 

 shall be within the bounds of truth by applying the figure of 

 annual retrogradation popularly adopted, to centuries. 



It surely is nearer fact, to estimate the Southern movement of 

 the Niagara cataract at three feet in a century, rather than at 

 three feet in a year. 



We then conclude that with Mr. Hall and with more reason 

 than he, not only that there is nothing to fear for Lake Erie, but 

 that notwithstanding the far-fetched calculations and predictions 

 of the white man, Niagara, in his time will lose none of its height, 

 none of its majestic beauty, but will continue to be for ages what 

 it has been from all time for the red man, who wandered of yore 

 on its banks, the most magnificent of cataracts — the thunderer 

 of waters. The volume of its flood may in the course of time 

 undergo some diminution, which cannot then be a subject of 

 regret, as it will be caused by the extension of agriculture and 

 civilization in the basin of the great Lakes, and from the vast 

 marshes which feed the sources of Lake Superior, giving place 

 to the softer features of cultivated fields and productive lands. 



1856 



1856 GlBBES, L. R. Remarks on Niagara Falls. (Proc. .A. A. A. S. 



Gibbet (Aug. 1856.) 1857. 10: P t. 2, 69-78.) 



Written in the form of a letter addressed to Professor James Hall, 

 president of the association. The letter deals with Desor's views on the 

 recession of the Falls and the duration of such recession, and offers the 

 theory of " unequal resistance " as an explanation of the " inequalities 

 of recession." 



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