Niagara Falls 



1886 



Hovey 



1886 



Pohlman 



1886 



Winchell 



ice period, Lakes Erie and Ontario subsided together until 

 separated by the Lewiston escarpment; then the drainage of the 

 first found its way through the drift deposits along the ancient 

 river valleys between Buffalo and Lewiston. Owing to the slow 

 subsidence of Lake Ontario, there never was a fall of any kind at 

 Lewiston, but the river excavated its gorge thence to the whirl- 

 pool along an old shallow valley, as a rapid. Here it met the 

 pre-glacial Tonawanda, along which the fall of the Niagara 

 receded to its present site." 



I have thus tried to do ample justice to Dr. Pohlman's views 

 on account of their originality, the very great interest they 

 awakened in the geological section, and, let me add, because 

 they seem to be sustained by the facts in the case. ... It 

 should be stated, however, that some of the more conservative 

 geologists, among whom may be named Prof. James Hall, adhere 

 to the older theories. 



Pohlman, Julius. The Niagara gorge. (Pre-glacial erosion along 

 the course of the Niagara.) (Proc. A. A. A. S. Aug., 1886. 35 :221- 

 222.) [Abstract] 



In this paper the author advanced the opinion that a small 

 ancient water-basin existed between the parallel east-west out- 

 crops of the Niagara and the corniferous limestone in the neigh- 

 borhood of the falls owing to the excavation of the softer shales 

 of the intermediate Onondaga group. . . . The drainage of 

 this lake was, he considered, into the valley of Ontario. . . . 

 The popular opinion that the Niagara river has cut its own gorge 

 all the way from Lewiston to the Falls is, in the author's opinion 

 erroneous, for when the recession reached the whirlpool it found 

 the old gorge of the Tonawanda and quickly cleaned it out. 



Winch ell, Alexander. Walks and talks in the geological field. 

 N. Y.: Chaut. Press. 1886. P. 43. 



The high flood of the lakes must have been 182 feet higher 

 than the escarpment or wall of rock back of Lewiston, through 

 which the Niagara river has cut its gorge. Undoubtedly, this 



576 



