140 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



Boulder Till 26 feet. 



Blue Clay 48 " 



Clay and Black Sand 5 " 



Ked Shales 341 " 



Limestone and Grits 550 " 



Total Depth 1600 « 



The record of the charncter of the lower portions of the boring 

 was not 2:iven. The "limestone and grits" represent rocks of 

 the Hudson River formation. The record nlso stated that at 

 290 feet from the surface there was a thin bed of sandstone with 

 a flow of gas and water; at 300 feet there was a flow of water 

 rising eight feet above the surface ; at 970 feet there was a heavy 

 flow of gas. This imperfect record is unfortunately all that 

 remains of much money that was expended in seeking for a supply 

 of water for the town. The secretary of the Well Company has 

 since died, and the complete record is lost. However, it serves 

 a purpose, and by connecting the levels of the mouth of the well 

 {which is 139 feet ;ibove Lake Ontario) with the adjacent 

 Medina beds, we are enabled to calculate the thickness of the 

 whole formation. 



Other wells have been sunk to a considerable depth, years ago, 

 but unfortunatelv their lo&s are not in existence. One, at an 

 oil refinery, east of Hamilton, was sunk into the Medina shales, 

 or perhaps just through them, when a sufficient supply of water 

 was obtained, but which was strongly alkaline (see analysis below). 

 At 40 feet from the surface (about 275 from top of the Medina 

 series) a thin bed of sandstone was found. Another thin bed of 

 sandstone comes to an out-crop at Burlington, on the northern 

 side of the bay of the same name. The beds found at these two 

 places are probably of the same horizon although their con- 

 tinuity is broken by the cause which originated Burlington Bay. 



There was another important well sunk to a depth of 1009 

 feet, at the Royal Hotel, Hamilton, but though some water was 

 procured by me and then analysed, the record of the boring was 

 lost in a burning building. The eastern part of Hamilton is 

 situated almost directly on Medina clays; but the surface of 

 these is covered to a considerable thickness in the western part 

 of the city by drift, which partly fills a Pliocene valley. (See a 

 future paper on Surface Geology.) 



The character of the Medina shales is shown by the following 

 chemical analysis. The specimen chosen was typical of the 



f 



