70 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. X. 



to Seneca, where the immediate bed is about quarter of a mile 

 wide, flowing at the southern side of a valley, more than two 

 miles wide, and 75 feet below its boundaries, which are 440 feet 

 above Lake Ontario. At Seneca the bed of the present river- 

 course is 365 feet above Lake Ontario or only 37 feet above Lake 

 Erie. (The H. & N. W. Railway levels give Lake Erie as 328 feet 

 above Lake Ontario, whilst the Report of the Chief Engineer of 

 the Welland Canal states that the difference of level is 326f feet. 

 As these two levels agree so nearly, and as the other figures refer 

 to the railway levels, I have followed them here.) Eastward from 

 Seneca the river continues to have its broad valley as far as 

 Cayuga. To near this town the waters of the Welland canal 

 feeder reach, at a height of about 9 (?) feet above Lake Erie. 



From Seneca to Cayuga the direction of the valley is nearly 

 south, but at the latter place it abruptly turns nearly to the east- 

 ward, and in a short distance it passes to a flatter country and 

 flows over Cornifcrous limestone. After a sluir2;ish flow, it enters 

 Lake Erie, (passing through a marshy country) at Port Maitland 

 more than fifteen miles in a direct line from Cayuga. It must 

 be remembered that, from Seneca to Cayuga, the valley is broad 

 and conspicuous. At only a short distance south of the river, at 

 Seneca, the summit of the country is occupied by a gravel 

 ridge. 



Returning to the valley of Fairchild's Creek, we find the stream 

 principally flowing in the former bed of the Grand River, aban- 

 doned a few miles below Gait since the Ice Age. This creek 

 crosses the Great Western Railway at a level of fifteen feet below 

 the crossino- of the Grand River, at a few miles to the westward. 

 Again, the Fairchild's Creek crosses the Brantford and Harrisburg 

 railway at an altitude of 407 feet above Lake Ontario, or a little 

 below that of the Grand River at Brantford, although it empties 

 into it a few miles east of the city just named. 



Fairchild's Creek is now of moderate size meandering through 

 the drift for a width of two miles. This drift is in part strati- 

 fied clay. The Grand River from Brantford eastward, is generally 

 excavated from the drift deposits, although occasionally one side 

 of the valley shows rocks of Onondaga formation, exposed by the 

 removal of the drift in modern times. It is also desirable to call 

 attention to the fact that in the region of Brantford, much 

 of the Onondaga Formation is shaly and forms the surfiice 

 country-rock, covering a broad belt, whilst from Seneca eastward 



