high, a precipice cut down,
not by itself, but by the Horseshoe Fall. The latter in 1842 was 159
feet high, and, as shown by the map, is already turning eastward, to
excavate its gorge along the centre of the upper river. P is the apex
of the Horseshoe, and T marks the site of the Terrapin Tower, with the
promontory adjacent, round which I was conducted by Conroy. Probably
since 1842 the Horseshoe has worked back beyond the position here
assigned to it.

In conclusion, we may say a word regarding the proximate future of
Niagara. At the rate of excavation assigned to it by Sir Charles
Lyell, namely, a foot a year, five thousand years or so will carry the
Horseshoe Fall far higher than Goat Island. As the gorge recedes it
will drain, as it has hitherto done, the banks right and left of it,
thus leaving a nearly level terrace between Goat Island and the edge
of the gorge. Higher up it will totally drain the American branch of
the river; the channel of which in due time will become cultivable
land. The American Fall will then be transformed into a dry
precipice, forming a simple continuation of the cliffy boundary of the
Niagara gorge. At the place occupied by the fall at this moment we
shall have the gorge enclosing a right angle, a second whirlpool being
the consequence. To those who visit Niagara a few millenniums hence I
leave the verification of this prediction. All that can be said is,
that if the causes now in action continue to act, it will prove itself
literally true.

*****

Fig. 6.

POSTSCRIPT.

A year or so after I had quitted the United States, a man sixty years
of age, while engaged in painting one of the bridges which connect
Goat Island with the Three Sisters, slipped through the rails of the
bridge into the rapids, and was carried impetuously towards the
Horseshoe Fall. He was urged against a rock which rose above the
water, and with the grasp of desperation he clung to it. The
population of the village of Niagara Falls was soon upon the island,
and ropes were brought, but there was none to use them. In the midst
of the excitement, a tall powerful young fellow was observed making
his way silently through the crowd. He reached a rope; selected from
the bystanders a number of men, and placed one end of the rope in
their hands. The other end he fastened round himself, and choosing a
point considerably above that to which the man clung, he plunged into
the rapids. He was carried violen