Niagara Falls 



1887 An abstract of a paper read before the American Association for the 

 Spencer Advancement of Science in August, 1886, at Buffalo. The author 



reviews the observations and conclusions of himself. Dr. Pohlman, and 

 Professor Claypole to prove that the " St. David's Valley and such por- 

 tions of the channel as those ice-matched above the whirlpool which remain, 

 represent only the water course or water courses of local drainage before 

 the ice-age. This being the case, the ancient river did not recede deeply 

 into the Niagara escarpment, and we are led to the conclusion that the 

 canon of the Niagara river, above the whirlpool as below, is mostly of 

 modern origin throughout, and not to any great extent, an ancient drift- 

 filled gorge, re-excavated since the ice-age." 



1888 



1888 Pohlman, JULIUS. The life history of Niagara. (Trans, of the 

 Pohlmnn Am. Inst. Mining Engrs., Buffalo meeting, 1888. 17:322-338.) 



A history of the Niagara river, preglacial and glacial, and of the 

 recession of the Falls. The author thinks that " the falls as we see them 

 today, or in anything resembling their present form, can never have been 

 at Lewiston." He goes on to say: " It seems probable that the gorge 

 was eroded as rapidly as the waters of Lake Ontario subsided, and that 

 in its whole length of three miles there never existed at one time more than 

 one small fall, while the rest presented the appearance of the river as we 

 see it today — a long series of rapids." Mr. Pohlman holds that the 

 Niagara river, from Buffalo to the whirlpool, is of preglacial origin. 

 He thinks that " beginning the existence of the cataract about a mile and 

 a half northerly from the present site, the age to be assigned to the 

 cataract dwindles down to the quite respectable, but geologically speaking 

 small, number of perhaps three thousand years." 



1888 The retrocession of Niagara Falls. (Eng. news, Dec. 15, 1888. 



20:462.) 



Extract from paper by Professor Julius Pohlman. 



1889 



Falls of rock at Niagara. 



(Nature, Feb. 14. 



1889 Claypole, E. W. 



Claypole 1889. 39:367.) 



Account of two falls of rock at Niagara during January, 1 889, which 

 the author believes proves that recession is going on much more rapidly than 

 estimated by Sir Charles Lyell in 1 842. 



578 



