Chapter 20 9

9 "Our topic today is: cataracts, and erosion." Mr. Burnaby, who teaches ninth-grade science, has a simple but accurate map of the Niagara River on the blackboard at the front of his classroom.Mr. Burnaby had made many marks on the map with chalk (he must have a map in his head, too).Last week's topic was also written on the blackboard: erosion time erosion time Pointing to the map in chalk, Mr. Burnaby said, "The Falls are here now, in Niagara Falls, in our city, just over two miles from our classroom. But the Falls weren't always here. , and it won't always be here. The waterfall is moving."

About 20,000 years ago, the falls originated in Lewiston, just south of the city.That's not a long time in geological terms, but the erosion of the Earth is happening very quickly. "An inch equals a century? Yes! It's very 'rapid'." Mr. Chandler Burnaby's marvelous mastery impressed some bright students.Mr. Burnaby is a teacher in Niagara Falls Public Schools, teaching ninth grade science.He seems to be striding bravely through the cracks of geological age, and the chalk in his hand is like a talisman. Mr. Burnaby was the crush of some girls in the ninth grade (who was, it was no longer a secret).

Mr. Burnaby appeared with his own face and spoke with his own voice. These teenagers, who did not look much older than children, had to understand the terrible and heartbreaking truths of ages, mortality and human isolation in a godless universe and the The facts of those depravity and extinction.The red hands of the clock on the wall kept going round and round steadily, never stopping. Mr. Burnaby drew a line an inch long on the blackboard.On the blackboard, the line is so short that it is barely visible. "Yes. Just one inch is a century. But it's a slow and relentless wear-and-tear of 40 miles of riverbed. When we use man-made devices to stop erosion, Niagara Falls will Restart the movement. Someday it will move up against the current, across the Big Island, through Tonawanda, through Buffalo; someday, a very long time from now, Niagara Falls will It will be at the source of this canyon - Lake Erie (because in fact, the Niagara River is not a river, but a canyon connecting two lakes)."

Chandler really wanted a few of his students to absorb this knowledge and feel it in their courage as well.After they have learned it, they will naturally and even contemptuously believe that Niagara Falls is not eternal. A clever little boy asked, waving his hand, what would the city be called if Niagara Falls were to go away from here?Is it Niagara?No more waterfalls? "It's possible," said Chandler, "that it's not called anything anymore. Nobody comes here to take notes anymore. It's as if the greatest glaciers of the Ice Age, our city, and those other cities will Most likely already destroyed, buried under the jungle, and no longer inhabited. You have seen enough sci-fi movies to understand the plot. Everything is used up, and human civilization cannot pass on and Disappeared. Who knows where?"

His students stare at him.The classroom was unnervingly quiet. "Who knows where?" was the question that lingered in the air.When the bell rang for the end of get out of class, he dismissed them, but he had already frightened these young people, and he frightened himself.He fumbled to put the remaining bits of chalk into the tray under the blackboard.The chalk tip slid off and landed on his feet.