20

NEW SETTLERS.

CHAP. I.

occasion did not fail, for it made directly for a ravine, in the bottom of which was a stream that would lead it in time to the Genesee River, and this would carry it to its native lake, if it escaped destruction at the falls below Rochester, where the celebrated diver, Sam Patch, perished, after he had succeeded in throwing himself with impunity down several other great waterfalls. There is a fresh-water tortoise in Europe (Terrapena Europea), found in Hungary, Prussia, and Silesia, as far north as lat. 50° to 52°. It also occurs near Bordeaux, and in the north of Italy, 44° and 45° N. lat., which precisely corresponds with the latitude of Lake Ontario.

In moist places along the lake shore, and in the lanes and high roads, we saw numerous yellow butterflies (Colias philodice-C. Europoma of some authors) very like a British species. Sometimes forty clustering on a small spot resembled a plot of primroses, and as they rose altogether, and flew off slowly on every side, it was like the play of a beautiful fountain.

On our way home through the woods we stopped at the cabin of some new settlers near the lake, many miles from any neighbours, in the midst of a square clearing covered with blackened stumps, where not a single tree or shrub had been spared. The view was bounded on every side by a dense wall of dark wood striped with white by the vertical lines of the numerous tall and straight trees without side branches, and supporting a dark canopy of foliage. When we admired the forest, the settler's wife was pleased, but said, sighing, that she could not get her children to see any beauty in trees. They had never known the old

country, nor other friends, and were happier than she and her husband could be, though in their worldly concerns they were thriving, and had every reason to feel content, except when attacked by the ague, so common in the newly-cleared grounds.

22

FALLS OF NIAGARA:

СНАР. 11.

CHAPTER II.

Distant and near View of the Falls of Niagara.-Whether the Falls have receded from Queenston to their present Site.-Geographical Features of the Region.-Course of the River above and below the Falls.-Recent Proofs of Erosion.-Historical Data in the Works of Hennepin and Kalm.-Geological Evidence derived from Fluviatile Strata or Remnants of an old River-hed in Goat Island and elsewhere.-Difficulty of computing the Rate of the retrograde Movement.-Varying Hardness and Thickness of the Rocks undermined.-Future Recession.-Age of the Drift and Limestone Escarpments.-Successive Changes which preceded and accompanied the Origin of the Falls.-Reflections on the Lapse of past Time.

Aug. 27.-WE first came in sight of the Falls of Niagara when they were about three miles distant. The sun was shining full upon them-no building in view-nothing but the green wood, the falling water, and the white foam. At that moment they appeared to me more beautiful than I had expected, and less grand; but after several days, when I had enjoyed a nearer view of the two cataracts, had listened to their thundering sound, and gazed on them for hours from above and below, and had watched the river foaming over the rapids, then plunging headlong into the dark pool, and when I had explored the delightful island which divides the falls, where the solitude of the ancient forest is still unbroken, I at last learned by degrees to comprehend the wonders of the scene, and to feel its full magnificence.

Early in the morning after our arrival, I saw from the window of our hotel, on the American side, a long train of white vapoury clouds hanging over the deep

chasm below the falls. They were slightly tinted by the rays of the rising sun, and, blown slowly northwards by a gentle breeze from the pool below the cataract, which was itself invisible from this point of view. No fog was rising from the ground, the sky was clear above; and as the day advanced, and the air grew warm, the vapours all disappeared. This scene reminded me of my first view of Mount Etna from Catania, at sunrise in the autumn of 1828, when I saw dense volumes of steam issuing from the summit of the highest crater in a clear blue sky, which, at the height of more than two miles above the sea, assumed at once the usual shape and hues of clouds in the upper atmosphere. These, too, vanished before noon, as soon as the sun's heat increased.

Etna presents us not merely with an image of the power of subterranean heat, but a record also of the vast period of time during which that power has been exerted. A majestic mountain has been produced by volcanic action, yet the time of which the volcano forms the register, however vast, is found by the geologist to be of inconsiderable amount, even in the modern annals of the earth's history. In like manner, the Falls of Niagara teach us not merely to appreciate the power of moving water, but furnish us at the same time with data for estimating the enormous lapse of ages during which that force has operated. A deep and long ravine has been excavated, and the river has required ages to accomplish the task, yet the same region affords evidence that the sum of these ages is as nothing, and as the work of yesterday, when compared to the antecedent periods, of which there are monuments in the same district.

24

COURSE OF THE RIVER

CHAP. II

It has long been a favourite subject of discussion whether the Falls were once situated seven miles farther north, or at Queenston. The ideal bird's-eye view given in the frontispiece may assist the reader who has not visited the spot to form a tolerably correct general notion of the geographical configuration of this country, which is very simple. The view has been constructed from a sketch published by Mr. Bakewell, in Loudon's Magazine for 1830, into which the geological representation of the rocks, as they appear on the surface and in the ravine of the Niagara, has been introduced from the State Survey by Mr. Hall.* The platform, in a depression of which Lake Erie is situated, is more than 330 feet above Lake Ontario, and the descent from a higher to a lower level is sudden and abrupt at the escarpment called the Queenston heights. The strata throughout this whole region are nearly horizontal, but they have a gentle dip to the south of 25 feet in a mile. This inclination is sufficient to cause the different groups of rock to crop out one from beneath the other, or come up to the surface in parallel zones, which may be traced for a great distance east and west through the state of New York and Canada. (See Map.) They all consist of different members of the Silurian series, the uppermost or newest being those nearest to Lake Erie. (See section fig. 4., p. 37.) In the bird's-eye view, the Niagara is seen bounded by

Mr. Bakewell gave me his original sketches in 1841, and I conceived the idea of combining his pictorial view with a geological representation of the rocks before I gave a lecture on the Niagara district at Boston, in October, 1841, in which, and in planning some of the other diagrams, and in discussing the theory of recession, I was assisted by Mr. Hall.