Science, Geology and Physics 



to both histories. The river sprang from a great geologic revo- 1889 

 lution, the banishment of the dynasty of cold, and so its lifetime 

 is a geologic epoch; but from first to last man has been the wit- 

 ness of its toil, and so its history is interwoven with the history of 

 man. The human comrade of the river's youth was not, alas, 

 a reporter with a note-book, else our present labor would be 

 light. He has even told us little of himself. We only know that 

 on a gravelly beach of Lake Iroquois, now the Ridge road, he 

 rudely gathered stones to make a hearth, and built a fire; and 

 the next storm breakers, forcing back the beach, buried and 

 thus preserved, to gratify yet whet our curiosity, hearth, ashes 

 and charred sticks. 



In these Darwinian days, we can not deem primeval the man 

 possessed of the Promethean art of fire, and so his presence on 

 the scene adds zest to the pursuit of the Niagara problem. What- 

 ever the antiquity of the great cataract may be found to be, the 

 antiquity of man is greater. 



GILBERT, Grove Karl. The history of the Niagara river. (Ann. 

 rep'ts of the Smith, inst. 1890. Gen. app. Pp. 231-257.) 



Taken from the sixth annual report of the Commissioners of the State 

 Reservation at Niagara. 



Recent changes at Niagara Falls. (Sci. Am., April 6, 1889. 1889 

 60:216.) 



Account of heavy fall of rock. 



Recession of the Falls. (Ann. rep'ts of the com'rs of the state reserv. 1889 

 at Niagara. Albany: 1889. 5:56-64.) 



Contains extracts from Tyndall and Lyell together with an account of 

 other great cataracts of the world. 



SHALER, NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE. Aspects of the earth. N. Y.: i 8 89 

 Scribner. 1889. Pp. 161-163. Shaler 



The Niagara cataract is used as an illustration of falls due to inclined 

 strata, as " perhaps the noblest of all such geological accidents " the 

 author tells us. 



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