Some scientists reason that the Falls of Niagara must have been formed
soon after the Glacial Epoch, and the time occupied in wearing the
rock back to the present position therefore furnishes a basis for
calculating the age of man on the earth, as he must have begun his
career since that epoch:
In an address in Washington before the United States Geological
Survey, Professor Gilbert gave the following interesting
information regarding the recession of the ground under Niagara
Falls: The estimate is that for the past forty-four years
the falls have receded at the rate of twenty-four feet in a
year. The Horseshoe Falls are at the head of the gorge and the
American Falls at the eastern side, but the time was when both
were together, before the little point called Goat Island was
reached. The recession is more rapid at the center than on the
sides. As the crest of the Horseshoe Falls retreats the water
tends to concentrate there, and the time will probably come when
the sides of the present falls will have become dry shores. The
gorge is known to be 35,500 feet long. A calculation has shown
that, on this basis, the falls began to wear away the rock of
the escarpment near Lewiston about 7,900 years ago.--_Public
Opinion._
(1964)