

Niagara Falls 



1908 Niagara River forms one of the best, if not the best, means 



Hulbert Q f studying the lapse of time since the Ice Age. Finding, as stu- 



dents do here, the best material in existence for this study, leads 

 to exhaustive scientific analysis of every clue presented by the 

 Cataract and the deep Gorge it has cut for itself through the solid 

 lime rock and Niagara shale forming its bed. 



We are prone to look upon the great wonders of the world as 

 destined to last as long as the earth itself. We do not realize 

 that the mountains, miles in height, are slowly crumbling before 

 our eyes, or realize that the rivers are carrying them slowly 

 toward the sea, filling the lakes and lower portions of land along 

 their courses. These slow but ceaseless forces are continually at 

 work, reducing the surface of the earth to that of a level plain 

 and at the same time depriving the land of its lakes by filling 

 their depressions with silt. The winds and the waters, together 

 with the wearing power effected by frost, are the forces struggling 

 at this great leveling task. The work is partly done; in many 

 of the older regions the lakes and elevations have almost entirely 

 disappeared. Other parts of the land are comparatively new; 

 and it is here that one sees the rough mountain or the deep canyon 

 of the river; sufficient time not having elapsed to wear away the 

 elevation in the one case nor the steep banks in the other. 



One needs but to look at a relief map of the Niagara district 

 to note the Falls and the outline of the Gorge to see at once 

 that this is a comparatively new region or, at least, that the forma- 

 tive forces which gave it its present characteristics were at the 

 highest stage of their career when the lands to the south had 

 almost reached their present stage. These facts can be observed 

 by any person visiting the Niagara district; it does not require a 

 geologist to trace roughly their course. 



Questions naturally arise in calculating the age of Niagara. 

 If, as all the facts seem to indicate, this river has had a very 

 recent beginning, what then did it do before it occupied its 

 present course? What will be its final destiny? What will 

 happen when it has worn its Gorge back to Lake Erie ? Or will 



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