Abstract
WHEN we quote an author whose views coincide with our own, we are apt 10 speak of him as an authority on the subject; but when we dissent from the views we quote, we are not so apt to recognise the high authority of that author. This reflection on a phase of mental bias is suggested by a personal experience with reference to the age of Niagara Falls. The geologists and others who have discussed the length of post-glacial time may be rudely classed as minimists, maximists, and agnostics. Within the past five years I have been frequently and approvingly quoted by the minimists as estimating the portion of time consumed by the Niagara River in cutting its gorge at 7000 years, and the reputation thus acquired has not been noted without personal appreciation. But self-complaisance in that regard has been somewhat impaired by the thought that the honour is ill-founded, and that the insecurity of its foundation would sooner or later be discovered. Not less disturbing was the fear that when the maximists or agnostics took their turn at writing, I should be classed with the goats instead of the sheep. There can be no doubt that the manly and in every way proper course would have been followed had I years ago disclaimed the glory accidentally thrust upon me; but it is easy to bask in the sunshine of even unmerited applause, and conscience was too weak to determine action until another motive was added by a blow from the agnostic side. In his recent book Dr. James Geikie, after quoting me as an authority for the 7000-year estimate, adds that “all such estimates are in the nature of things unreliable.” I now hasten to declare that I never said or thought that the period in question was about 7000 years. What I did incautiously say was, in effect, that the time allowance for the cutting of the gorge would be about 7000 years if the rate of the cutting were uniform, but that there was good reason to believe the rate had not been even approximately uniform.
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GILBERT, G. The Niagara River as a Geologic Chronometer. Nature 50, 53 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050053a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050053a0
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