The profile of the bed of the Niagara along the gorge ([Fig. 39]) shows alternating deeps and shallows which cannot be accounted for, except in a single instance, by the relative hardness of the rocks of the river bed. The deeps do not exceed that at the foot of the Horseshoe Falls at the present time. When the gorge was being cut along the shallows, how did the Falls compare in excavating power, in force, and volume with the Niagara of to-day? How did the rate of recession at those times compare with the present rate? Is the assumption made above that the rate of recession has been uniform correct?
The first stretch of shallows below the Falls causes a tumultuous rapid impossible to sound. Its depth has been estimated at thirty- five feet. From what data could such an estimate be made?
Suggest a reason why the Horseshoe Falls are convex upstream.
At the present rate of recession which will reach the head of Goat Island the sooner, the American or the Horseshoe Falls? What will be the fate of the Falls left behind when the other has passed beyond the head of the island?
The rate at which a stream erodes its bed depends in part upon the nature of the rocks over which it flows. Will a stream deepen its channel more rapidly on massive or on thin-bedded and close- jointed rocks? on horizontal strata or on strata steeply inclined?
Fig. 40. A Stream in Scotland
In what ways is the bed now being deepened?