PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON NIAGARA.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2524, 7 February 1877, Page 3

PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON NIAGARA.

I know it is thought very often that men of science are in the habit of drawing largely 'from' their imagination but it is -really not'i"so. The most" sober careful consideration- ■ of facts'forces upon you more^and* more determinedly the conriction that theory respecting tbat which 'we' haye this archroological evidence of ;a .of the past history of the, TjfoHd is pf „a duration which, in comparison 'w,ith the human i standard may, be regarded as almost absolutely infinite. o .'Tftk'e for- instance .the ca3e of the cataract of Niagara, where I hare been recently spending some time, so that I might fillmyself with the grandeur and beatrty of that' extraordinary natural phenomenon; it is quite easy to see that the'ifiasara River, Ha^forraed'its^own Valley (Iha* buf its Vay "back through the plateaVof j"ock"fr6m which it ; falls,fqr gome' sixf miles. There, is not the slightest difficulty in" seeing that.', The great; clifi from 5 which it' tumbles is formed of two kinds pf, rock, hard rock at the top, and soFtapck Underneath. water undergo eV^e^bfti, rook below when the solid stratum abave.falla over. - You cani trace the :gradual .excavation ofl the valley {bfc.six miles from "that' marvellous' block which- from!. Procter's monument overlooks the, plain.'of Ontario. Now the rate at which that work is going on has not been positively ascertained, but we may be"^perfectly certain (Fam,now speaking largely within limits) that work of cutting back does not go on at the rate sof a yard in a year. We have six miles of such cutting which wi!l bring "you back to a period of-10,000 years for the cutting back of Niagara alone. „It is an immaterial .matter to me now many years it is, but would be nearer much nearer the truth, if I had' said three or four times that2amount. What relation -does a period* oK that kind bear to the jast duration expressed'by = these- T.asiP lodges of strata^hicli^o'rm^the globe: We are. a people curious enough to form a very distinct calculation of^ this. The sides of'the k ravine through which Niagara its way are formed by .masses of alluvial' matter- which must be older than the river which has cut through it.' While in that alluvial matter you find rthe remains of shell fish, undistinguisbable from those which now inhabit the r lake, and, along with them you .find, a*have been found, the teeth of the/jmastodon, which we know from abundant evidence was an inhabitant of the-Country of North America at a comparatiyely-* recent period, the very last step of-that 5 long series of changes'of which tKe limestone,'upon which you are now standing, 1 ihdicates'one of,the older one's.' Thus it'follows that the whole work of Niagara, occupies one period of this vast duration of time, that 10,000 years,' or, whatever else it may have been," i& bat- the infinitesimal fragment of time,.'so far as the great phenomena of the globe .are concerned. During ..that vast'time the population of the globe 'has undergone a slow constant, and -gradual • change, one species giving-way, to-another. -We-have passed by slow and gradual methods without vast and sudden changes, into the state of thingsT whicli obtain__at present. I need not say that this view of the past history of thejglobfcip a, very different one from that which" is commonly taken. t It is so widely different that it is" absolutely im-possible-to effect any kjnd of parallel, far less any s rort of reconciliation between these two. r One of these must be true. The other is not.