.1. \V. SPENI i:i: — ANCIENT SHORE PHENOMENA. 



the various kinds of gravel deposits, which resemble or are related to beach 

 Btructure,and aol to consider their occasionally doubtful origin or distribution. 

 Exclusive of the beds of sand, which are intimately connected with the 

 stratified clays, or included in the drift accumulations themselves, and the 

 ancient shores already described, the following groups of gravels and 

 Bands Bhould be noticed, some of which are covered with the stony clay of 

 the upper till : 



I. Tht gravels and sands which are buried beneath the upper drift deposit*. 

 These may lie divided into (a) buried beaches ; and (b) more or less irre 

 nlar beds ami ridges of gravel ami sand, often of earthy texture, having a 

 more or leas tumultuous structure, and resting beneath accumulations of the 

 upper till. 



II. Surface accumulations of gravels and sands, forming ridges, mounds 

 and plains. These are in the form of (a) the so-called osars and kames; 

 (b) other ridges and mounds resembling the last, but having a position cor- 

 r< sponding to that of beaches, in front of more elevated plains or drift hills, 

 "i- of the accumulations included in group 16; and (c) gravel plains. 



I a. — Hitherto, the buried beaches have not been distingui-hed from 

 other bed- of gravel and sand intercalated within the drift formations. As 

 Mich accumulations, whose structure is the same as that of modern beaches, 

 are only exposed in sections cut through the surface deposits by streams or 

 artificial excavations, all of the knowledge that we can, at present, bope to 

 acquire, is the recognition that there were beaches, now covered by drift, 

 older than those upon the surface of the country. When beds of gravel 

 and Band are met with in borings, it is not always possible to distinguish 

 those which arc buried beaches from others which are intercalated with drift 

 deposits. The -t ructure of the buried beaches docs nol show that tumultuous 

 crumpling, so commonly seen in the next kind of accumulation- 1 1 I,). In 

 some place- the gravels are found cemented into conglomerates. Thin layers 

 of -tony clay, constituting the upper till, which cover- vast areas of the 

 country throughout the lake region, often rest conformably uj the un- 

 disturbed .-uiface- of the buried beaches, that may have a thickness of 

 twenty feel or more. Excellent example- of buried beaches may be seen 

 along the Au Sable river, near Lucan, Ontario, where the overlying drifl 



clay is only four or six feel thick. When the covering is thin, there i- 



letimes b liability of mistaking these older beds for those belonging to 



the beach epoch proper. 



I b. -The internal structure of this kind of gravel and sand deposits Bhows 



atification, winch may be regular in one place, but the beds - i become 



tumultuous, that is, the beds become irregular, bent or twisted, and confused. 

 Tic material- are apt to be somewhat earthy. Throughout these Layers 

 tier.- may ocmr occasional boulder- of large Bize, and pockete of gravel, 



