138 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 



channels in the rocks which form their beds. One 

 of the most beautiful instances of the effects of run- 

 ning water that we ever witnessed is in the town 

 of Bennington, Vt. A small stream of water, about 

 a rod in width, has worn a perpendicular passage 

 in limestone to the depth of from 40 to 70 or 80 feet ; 

 and in some places the opposite walls are so near 



lake, the river is almost on a level with its banks, and a rise of 

 ten feet, it is supposed, would lay under water the adjacent flat 

 portion of Canada, as well as New-York. The river is about 

 three quarters of a mile wide, and just above the falls it is a mile 

 wide, 25 feet deep, and has a descent of 50 feet in half a mile. 

 This declivity hurries on the water with astonishing velocity, 

 down what are called " the Rapids," till, at the very verge of 

 the cataract, it is divided by Goat Island into two currents ; the 

 one on the Canadian side being about 600 yards wide, and that 

 on the American side 200, while the breadth of the island is 500 

 yards. The height of the fall is about 170 feet. The rock near- 

 est the surface is transition limestone, deposited in horizontal 

 strata, from 70 to 90 feet thick. Beneath this is shale, of a soft- 

 er texture, which decays and crumbles away more rapidly, leav- 

 ing the limestone to project over the stream, as at Table Rock. 

 Bet ween the sheet of water and the rock itself is, as near as 

 we could judge when we visited the place in 1834, about 40 or 

 50 feet, though it must be acknowledged that the noise, the 

 tremendous blasts of wind and water, and the semi-darkness of 

 the place, are not very favourable to correct observation. The 

 effects of the incessant gusts of wind and water in decomposing 

 the shale, are too obvious to need remark. 



Immediately below the falls the river flows along the bottom 

 of a huge trench, which has been cut into the horizontal strata 

 during the lapse of ages. The walls are perfectly perpendicu- 

 lar, and the river cannot be seen till we approach the edge of 

 the precipice. The pool into which the cataract is precipitated 

 is 170 feet deep. During the last 40 years, the latter has worn 

 away about 150 feet of the rock, so that the falls have receded 

 that distance. It is the general opinion, that the falls were once 

 at Queenstown, and that they have gradually retrograded to 

 their present position, about seven miles distant. But it is easy 

 to calculate, that if they have never receded more rapidly than 

 during the last 50 years, it would have taken 10,000 years to 

 have accomplished the distance. At the present rate, it will 

 require 30,000 years for the falls to reach Lake Erie (25 miles 

 distant), so that we need not stand in any particular fear of a 

 deluge for some time to come. 



