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. 
Between 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 vvould 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. 
