Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-01-07
PROBABILITIES OF NIAGARA.
Changes That Are Liable to Take Placs
Estimated on the Past

Changes That Are Liable to Take Place,
Estimated on the Past.
il the rate of retrocession remains during
the next 800 years as it has been for the last
forty five years, the inner edge of the Horse
shoe Fall will have passei 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,
celebrating the American Fall entirely and
Transforming Goat Island into peninsula,
on which the smaller islands of today, Bath,
Luna, Chaplin, etc.. will ap pear as little hill
tops
The fall will then, perhaps, be higher than
today because the present descent of fifty
feet over the rapids viii be added to the
height of the cataract, min US the number of
feet needed to give the necessary current to
the river below, which al present is fifteen
feet to the mile. Considering that even now
tho Horseshoe Fall no longer recedes south
bus more east than south, which recession
will be more easterly vet in the course of
time it will have to travel about five
miles in that direction before the
Niagara shale which now occupies the lower
half of the face of the fall, is under water;
and the retrocessiop by means Of undermin-
ing 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 a
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 tumble
down with corresponding, change III the ap-
pearance of the edge of the falls Then the
changes will be accompls ned simply by the
eroding power of the water and the falls will
remain near the northern end of Grand Island
for practically unlimited time. We thus
see that after the falls of today have receded
perhaps three quarters of a mile there will
be only one fall; when thai one fall has tray.
eled east and south four miles more and
reaches Grand Island, it W II again be divided
into an American and Canadian cataract
this time separated by Grand Island, and
like the falls of today, tie 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 fall.
at Buffalo must be abandoned, for from that
point OF Grand Island to the city of Buffalo
only rapids can exist on account of the nature
of the underlying rock which is soft
AS the retrocession of the Falls of Niagars
began in what may be called geologically
the most recent period, the time necessary
for 1t to arrive at its present site has had 8
very important bearing upon the question Of
the age of man on the A nerican continent
| As long as it was cons dered necessary t,
claim several hundred Chousand years for tn,
age of Niagara aloEe, tho age of the human
race had TO be computed at perhaps half 6
| million Of years. no mat Ter how little sucl
high figures agreed with other discoveries
the rocky gorge of the Niagara always pre-
sented an insurmountable obstacle against
| any reduction of time. But since we have
discovered that after all he work of excsva
tion could have been accomplished in per.
haps 5000 years, our computation of the age
of the human race has Sc tied down to rea
sonable figures, which & We to the beds OF
| sand and gravel in which the Oldest human
implements have been found ON age of per
haps 10000 TO 10000 years, and anthropolo,
gists claim that all the facts so far collected
agree well with the latter figure -Professor
Julius Pohlman