Evening star., 1897-05-31
NIAGARA BLASTED AWAY.
A New Theory as to the Recession O1
the Great Waterfall.

A New Theory as to the Recession Of
the Great Waterfall.
From the Philadelphia Record.
What seems to be an entirely new idea as
to the cause Of the recession of the
Horseshoe Fall Of Niagara is being ex-
plotted at Niagara For years men of SCI
ence have held 1t was the falls that ex-
cavated the great and beautiful Niagara
gorge, and they trace its origin way back
to the glacial period. In imagination they
picture the time when the river of Niagara
was unknown. They tell of lakes. and pic
ture the waves washing up against the
Lewiston mountain until, time passed,
they beat their way through the high bluff
and thus were the inland seas now known
as Lakes Erie and Ontario connected.
Gradually the great gorge was excavated.
Backward, ever backward, crept the falls,
until by the time a white man first looked
on them, about 1878, they had arrived at
the point near which they have become a
delightful attraction for the human race,
and where they have watched their grad
uai retroceSSion and made record of the
work of moving backward.
This was certainly so until a few days
ago. when John c. Level, proprietor of the
state reservation van service at the
falls, presented an entirely new theory,
and one which seems to have entirely es-
| capped the watchfulness of all others. Mr..
Level has been careful watcher of the
Niagara river and falls for many years
and the other day, when Prof. c. X. Gill
bert of the United States geological sur-
vey was at the falls, Mr.. Level called his
attention to his IDEAS 1t is Mr.. Levels
notion that explosions of compressed air,
accumulated from natural causes beneath
| the sheet of falling water, and in the rocky
! chamber behind the falls, account for the
crumbling and wearing away of the soft
| shale rock, which in turn allows the break
! ing away of the heavier and harder
stratum Of limestone. Mr.. Level expresses
| the belief that when the compressed air
has reached q certain degree OF density
/ behind the sheet of water it forces its way
with great violence through the water to
! the front, at the same time sending great
| clouds of spray high in the air and strik-
| ing with great force against the soft
stratum of shale, wearing it away. Among
the proofs to support his ideas Mr.. Level
| to be found at periods of every few seconds
| throughout the day and night, depending
| largely on the atmospheric conditions.
Mr.. Level points out as well-estab-
| about as 1t is in the rapids above the
Horseshoe Fall will necessarily become
heavily charged with air, and that the
pressure of high winds would necessarily
| increase the tendency to this result. The
water in this condition reaches the brink
| of the Horseshoe Fall and makes the leap
| over the precipice into the gorge below.
This action in a large degree. Mr.. Level
| claims, forces the air out Of the water.
| and the combined pressure Of the water
and the pressure of the atmosphere from
| without sends this air behind the falling
| sheet of water, where it is compressed in
| the chamber caused by previous excava-
| tions from the same cause, and the pres
sure in this natural air chamber becomes
| so great every few seconds that air ex-
| plosions occur every little while, the in
| fuence of which Is to crumble the shale.
All who have looked on the beautiful