The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1842-04-07
mr.. Lyells Lecture the Recession or the
Falls OF Niarar.

mr. LyeAPs Lecture on the Recession OF the
Falls or Niagara
Mr' LyeTs lecture last night, contained very few
facts, and may be disposed of in brief notice
lie SAID tho geological antiquarian had TO csms
10 the New w GRID to get an accurate knowIedos of
the Oldest rocks. The pyramids were thing of
yesterday compared to the Niagara imes,one :
Even the granite has been formed since that rock
which is the oldest in the crust of the earth Ths
most striking feature in the Niagara region ia ,hs
escarpment of the inland cliffs one at Queens,ow,
and one at Black Rock. These are found in ali
countries, and have been ancient sea cliffs. Tn.
Black Rock cliff once reached to Grand Island
but was worn away by the action of the sea
after this the cliff at Queenstown was heaved
up from beneath the sea they were denud-
ed by the waves beating againnt them aud
washed bacls to where they now are. The Ridge
Road is sand bank that wac once the outer border
Of Lake OnarIos But the Black Rock eseapement
has no relation to Lake Ontario; it extends to the
hudson, and It's features not local to this part
Of North America. All these rocks, the Block rock
aug Niagara llmeAone we've formed under the sea-
issegard TO the recession Of Niagara, Mr. LyelI
saiu' 'nat the river had certainly cut its way back
,ioin 'ne Whirlpool, three miles below where the
'a"s now are, and that the whole Lody of water
once 'el over the rocks al the whirlpool He
SPOKE o. the great changes still going on in the share
Va TIC '.s; the American fall wasgetting to be like
crescent, and the AorsesSh getting straight.
The recession now lis foo, IN a wear and
therefore 1t had taken 1900 years for the falls
to go back from the whirlpool to. their present
position. In 1915 Fatiier Hennisea saw them /.
and there was then third fall or cascade on
the Canada side, which fell across the Horse shoe
Fall from ives: to east. In $780, Karl. a Dane.
saw them and all this was gone; but IN his
letter in the Gent Mag for l75l, he says there had
beena thirdfal bat the rocks had all tumbled down.
One great argument that the falls were miles farther
down is that on the top of the limestone at the falls
on Goat Island, and on each shore there is fresh
water formation twenty five feet thick !; 1t contains
shells, muscles with the valves united, that have
been quietly deposited in still water. Three spe.
cies OF the melana, one Of the lmnia, one of the
panorbis and one of the vavasa are found buried in
this deposte; and all these species are found now
living In the still water near Grand Island Half a
mile below the falls also found these shells in the
soil above the limestone. So that the falls must
have been so far below this spot, as to place it out
OF the reach of rapids, and to make the waters in
which this deposlte was made, as still and calm as
tiioy How arc AZ EIdnQ Island. And II they have
cut their wey up miles from the whirlpool in Is 600
years, why net have receded 7miles in $1,000 years.
Though when the falls were al Lewistown, there
were several falls, is now seen at Rochester in
the Genesee Falls fall over the hard quartz ore
sand at the bottom; one over the hard protean
group; one over the lime stone mastodon's tooth
was found twelve feet down in the freshwater de-
post opposite the falls; this mastodon tooth was
there when the falls were at the whirlpool, and
twelve feet of mud and sand were afterwards de-
posted on it by the river. This will give us an i'm
mense number of years, in which to effect the re.
cession of the falls
MIR. LyELL concluded by saying, that the reunion
in the cliff near Lockport was merely one of those
bays where the sea broke farther into the land.
He also said that perhaps in the course of the next
coo years. the falls would recede two miles more.
and that then they would be only eighty feet high,
and fall over a solid mass of limestone, and would
take an immense time-ages, to get back to Lake
Erie, and drain that. The dip of the beds was
twenty five feet in mile; and the slope Of the river
,hi.sss. ts., IN aile so that every mile the falls
weqI Dack, .ney issl Iotsy fs.t a. hsight. When
at Lewis.own they were nearly four Hundred feet
high