282 Mr Rogers on the Falls of Niagara, 



always sound, have been, to say the least, curious. Believing 

 that the writers who have conferred upon Niagara its celebrity 

 as a geological wonder, have overlooked some particulars in the 

 surface of the surrounding region, essential to be known in spe- 

 culating upon its origin and age, I venture to state some views 

 which may, I conceive, tend to inspire salutary doubts in the 

 minds of those who are disposed to theorize upon this difficult 

 subject. 



The scenery of this mightiest of waterfalls has been so faith- 

 fully and vividly portrayed both by Captain Hall and Mr R. 

 Bakewell junior, that I shall content myself with referring those 

 who have not beheld it to the accounts given by those gentle- 

 men. 



The speculations, however, which these and other geologists 

 have entered into, concerning the mode in which the deep per- 

 pendicular valley below the Falls was formed, and their calcula- 

 tions of the time employed by the cataract in excavating this 

 ravine of seven miles in length, demand, I think, fresh examina- 

 tion. 



I am especially desirous of calling the attention of geologists 

 to the true nature of this remarkable valley below the Falls, as 

 it has recently been much discussed by foreign writers, some of 

 whom are in danger of misconceiving its theoretical bearings, 

 from their imperfect knowledge of the physical structure of the 

 region in which it occurs. 



Mr Fairholme, in particular, has indulged in some specula- 

 tions about the age of the Falls of Niagara, which more precise 

 conceptions of the geology of our lake region, I cannot but be- 

 lieve, would induce him to revise, and perhaps to retract. 



All who have investigated Niagara as a geological problem, 

 seem to have assumed it as a conclusion nearly self-evident, that 

 the Falls have necessarily been once at Queenstown ridgej and 

 that they have reached their present place, seven miles off, by 

 virtue solely of their own power of wearing away the rock. 

 This opinion (it is but an opinion) is the result merely of a 

 general contemplation of the scene, and not a deduction from 

 any researches of so rigorous and exact a character as seem re- 

 quisite to determine such a question. In the present meagre 



