Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-17

age recession for the whole face of the
tails of about two and one-half feet
per annum; but as the central parts of
the curve, where the water is deepest,
retreated faster than the edges the
southernmost point of the Horseshoe
fall was found to have travelled south
about 200 feet since 1875, or about $50
Feet since 1S42-nearly nine feet every
year In view of such rapid changes
1t seems highly probable that the old
est pictures of the falls, which ALWAYS
place the Horseshoe fall considerably
nearer than they are to-day, are prac-
tlcaliy or at least partially correct.
Ii the rate of retrocession remains
during the next 500 years as it has
been for the last forty-five wears the
inner edge of the Horseshoe falls will
have passed to the east of Goat island
and as the line of deepest water is near
the Canadian shore all the waters of
the river will pass over the Horseshoe
fall, obiterating the American fall en-
tirely and Transforming Goat island
into peninsula, on which the smaller
islands of to-day-Bath, Luna, Chaplin,
etc.-will appear as little hilltops.
The fall will then perhaps be higher
than to-day, because the present de-
scent of fifty feet over the rapids will
be added to the height of the cataract,
minus the number of feet needed to
give the necessary current to the river
below, which at present is fifteen feet
to the mile. Considering that even
now the Horseshoe fall no longer re-
cedes south, but more east than south,
rul hi ni,
yet in the course of time, it will have
to travel about five miles in that direc-
ton before the Niagara shale, which
now occnpies the lower half of the face
of the falls, is under water and the re-
PROCESSION by means of undermining is
stopped. For at present the changes
that take place are due to the fact that
the upper eighty feet of the face is
formed of hard limestone, while the
lower eighty feet is composed of soft,
easily crumbling shale, which the spray
can wash away with ease to such an
extent that the everything limestones
lose their support, break off, and tum-
bic down with corresponding change
in the appearance of the edge of the
falls. Then the changes will be ac-
complished simply by the eroding
power of the water, and the falls will
remain near the northern end of Grand
island for a practically unlimited time.
We thus see that after the falls of to-
day have receded perhaps three-quar-
tiers of a mile there will be only one
fall; and when that one fall has travel
ed east and south four miles more and
reaches Grand island it will again be
divided into an American and a Cana
dian cataract, this time separated by
Grand islasd, and. like the falls of to-
day, the western branch will carry the
largest amount of water, will recede
faster, and be the lower of the two in
height. The hope of finally having
the falls at Buffalo must be abandoned,
for from that point of Grand island to
the city of Buffalo only rapids can ex-
list on account of the nature of the I'M
DERIVING rock, which is soft.
As the retrocession of the falls of
Niagara began in what may be called
geologically the most recent period the
time necessary for it to arrive at its
present site has had very important
bearing upon the question of the age
of man on the American continent. AS
long as it was considered necessary to
claim several hundred thousand years
for the age of Niagara alone the age of
the human race had to be computed at
perhaps half million of years; no
matter how little such high figures
agreed with other discoveries the rocky
gorge of the Niagara always presented
an insurmountable obstacle against
any reduction of time. But since we
have discovered that after all the
work of excavation could have been
accomplished in perhaps 5000 years
our computation of the age of the
human race has settled down to rea-
sonable figures, which give to the beds
of sand and gravel in which the oldest
human implements have been found
an age of perhaps 10000 to 10000
years; and anthropologlsts claim that
all the facts so far collected agree with
the latter figure.