Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1870-08-17

HirINN1 ANT lNM lifINH
II will BE Remembered that The his.
tory Of Niagara. as Written by man,
goes back hardly two centuries 81
this time Father Henncpin, who up.
pears to be the first whito man who
over saw or ovca heard Of the falls,
discovered them whilc on his way
from the st. Lawrence TO the Upper
Mississippi. He has left an account
OF that "Prodigious Cadence of Wa
tcrs which falls down Of surprising
and astonishing manner, insomuch
that the Universe cannot afford its
parallel the Waters" he adds,
switch fall from this horrible preci.
picc do foam and boyle after tho
most hidcous manner imaginable,
making an outrageous Noysc more
terrible than that Of Thunder" The
good father rather exaggcrates the
"dismal roaring for he says the In-
dians were forced to abandon the
neghborhood lest they should be
dcaiened by the uproar; and in the
curious picture which he gives, tho
spectators are represented as holding
their hands 90 their cars 10 shut out
the roaring Of the cataract. But this
picture, aud the description which he
gives, show us tho appearance Of the
falls in his days The main fall--now
the "Ilorseshoc" c"-then ran in nearly
straight line from Goat Island TO
Table Rock This rock jutted far out
into the main stream, and was termi-
mated by bluff, which turned part
of the water directly back, forming a
lesser -cataract, which fell directly
facing the main fall a century after
this bluif had fallen away, as Table
Rock has done within few years,
hut its site was plainly disccrnable.
But Niagara's own rock engraved
record Of itself goes back into ages
compared with which the two centu-
rics ofits human history are but a
day. We can tell the precise appear
ance of the falls at almost any epoch
since when, some $4,000 years ago
the water plunged over the edge of
the bluff, just above Lewistown, six
miles below the present place. But
/ this descent of three hundred and IF
ty feet was not accomplished az Il
single leap; there mnst have been
three falls Of different heights, scpara-
ted by intervening rapids. The high
est single fall, ut any period, was
some 10000 years ago, when the cata-
ract was at the whirlpool, four miles
below the present falls. The fall was
then two hundred and forty feet high,
the whole body of water descending
in single sheet. And as the fall re-
cedes a little less than a foot year
about u mile in 5000 years-by ex-
amining the character of the rocks
and dip Of the strata, we can predict
the appearance which Niagra will pre-
sent Tor two hundred centuries, pro-
viuing that 10 the meantime no change
takes place in the present order Of ma
luro Thus, IN 5000 years the main
fall will be little above the head Of
Goat Island the American fall will
have disappeared, and Goat Island
will be an Island no longer. The
height of the fall will then be twenty
feet less than it now is. Another
5000 years and the height Of the fall
will be reduced by forty more feet
In 10000 more years the gorge will
have heightened back to the head OF
the rapids, and all that constitutes
the present Niagara will have disap-
pcared. There will be no great cata-
ract; but in its place rapid, with a
descent of two hundred and fifty feet
in four milcs.-Dr A. II. Guernsey, in
Home Journal.