NIAGARA FALLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 3

NIAGARA FALLS.

WORKING TOWARDS LAKE ERIE. Professor J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D., who has recently visited Niagara, says in the Star:” “The open secret of Niagara Falls is that Lake Ontario is some 300 feet below the level of Lake Erie, and that the river, instead of flowing seawards on an inclined plane or a series of rapids, has eaten into the relatively soft rock of the six miles of gorge, making a cliff which has gradually receded up the current. “Part of the recession, which has taken several thousand years to bring the falls to their present location,’' is due to actual wearing of the rock by ice blocks and stones carried bv the river in its grip, but most of "it is caused by undercutting of the cliff. There is rather softer rock below; it is eaten awaj, and then a slice of the cataract cliff slips down. The cutting back proceeds at a rate varying from 6 12 feet yearly, and it has been calculated that in 1000 years the falls will be a mile nearer Lake Erie. This vill he a, little hard on the new hotel. VYhat will happen when the cataract reaches .Lake Erie only geologists know. " “AY hen we arrived at the falls we were surprised to find that the whole surface of the river between the cataracts and the bridges was thickiv covered with heaped-up ice, so that one could have theoretically made one’s way across, after the fashion described so vividly in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ “Apart from grandeur and beauty, the most impressive feature of Niagara Falls is man’s mastery off them. It is, we suppose, a supreme instance of the transformation of gravitational energy. The energy of the rushing water is used to light the streets and drive the mills of towns 200 miles away and more. One is pleased to see that this justifiable utilisation is being associated with a genuine though by no means wholly successful endeavour to conserve the beauty of one of the greatest wonders of the world.’’