NIAGARA FALLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21365, 19 June 1931, Page 10

NIAGARA FALLS

RATE OF EROSION DECREASING An international board of engineers appointed in 1926 by Canada and the United States to study the past, present, and future of Niagara Falls has presented its final report with a message of reassurance to those who have predicted the extinction of Niagara as a great spectacle at a comparatively early date. The board finds quite umvarranted the statement that the most famous cataract of the Western world is “committing suicide ” by degenerating into a mere cascade. As a matter of fact, these engineers find that the cliff now is cutting back at a decreasing rate, that the rate will continue to decrease, that in a century or two there will be little apparent difference in the Falls and that inevitable recession will not endanger the Falls in less than 2000 years. Certain remedial steps are recommended for the even diffusion of water over the shallow rims of the great Horseshoe. In recent years a great deal of water has been diverted for power purposes, but it is claimed that by diverting to the flanks part of the deep stream which pours over the centre of the cataract the beauty of an even and far-flung torrent may be maintained for many centuries.