The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-07

agree, however, that the broad and deep
gorge from Clifton to the present falls
was made by a cataract carrying the full
supply of water. This, which biologists
say is the most readily interpreted part
OF the gorge has now come to an end
at the present falls, and the character Of
the channel hereafter can only be con-
Jectured.
Niagara, it seems, is now at critical
stage. The river has reached the second
OF the points where a rectangular turn
is made, and the gorge behind the falls
is changing. A short channel consider
ably narrower than that of the last sec
ton, is being cut by the Horseshoe fall,
and that fan itself is narrowing. This
narrownesS of the channel is due to the
concentration of water in the center Of
the stream. ts
Goat island, which divides the Horse
shoe from the American fall, and the
other Islands as well, owe its existence to
this concentration of the water, for at
one time all of these islands were sub
merged by the current. The channel
above the horseshoe fall has been cut TO
more than fifty feet below the summit of
Goat island at the falls while the upner
end of the island is still at the level of
the water in the river. The effect will
be that the island as an island in time
viii disappear.
1t lies on one side of the main mass of
water, which, rushing forward, passes it
and strikes the Canadian bank from
which it is DETECTED toward the center
Oh the cataract, InaC portion DelnS thus
deepened and worn back most rapidly, as
may be observed from the upper walks of
the Canadian park, where in many cases
the shores have been ballasted and 9TH
erwiSe protected from the current.
In an earlier period, when the falls were
farther north and before the central
part Of the stream had been deepened to
its present extent, the water then at the
level of the river above Goat island food
ed what is now Queen Victoria park, and
carved from the glacial hill the pro-
nounced conCave wall which now bounds
the park on the west. A local eddy,
probably in very recent times, carved the
steep and semi-circular cliff which in
closes the Dufferin islands.
In a thousand years from now and at
the present rate of recession of the falls,
it is calculated by the biologists whose
views are set forth by Prof. Grabau, that
the Horseshoe falls will have reached
the upper end of Goat island, and that
! will end the American falls. These haV-
ing a smaller erosive force will have re-
! ceded only about half way to the Goat
island bridge in that time. The Horse
/ shoe falls will draw off the water from
the American falls, and all of the ISL
andS will then be joined by dry cham
mel to the mainland, an event which,
Prof. Grabau says, was anticipated only
as far back as 1S4S, when owing to an
ice blockade in the Niagara river near
Buffalo the American falls were deprived
of all its waters for a day. Should a
dam be built in the Niagara river the
effect might be the same
This is not the first time in the history
of Niagara that the falls have been df-
Vided. Long ago when the falls We're at
Fosters flats, almost seven miles be-
low their present situation, it is sup
/ posed that a narrow island, comparable
to Goat island, in the river bed cut the
falls in two. The foundations of the ISL
and, which has since crumbled away,
are to be seen in the ridge which divides