No. 4.] SPENCER — SURFACE GEOLOGY. 225 



burg Railway at an altitude of 397 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. Fair- 

 child'.s creek is now of moderate size meandering through tho 

 drift for a width of two mile.«!. This drift is stratified clay. 



Country between the Grand Rirer and Ditndas Valleys. — 

 The watershed between these two present drainage systems is at 

 only a short distance south-west of Copetown, and the distance 

 in a direction from the Fairchild's to the Dundas side of this 

 divide is less than seven miles, with an average altitude of less 

 than 480 feet. The highest point that I have levelled is 492 

 feet above Lake Ontario. On receding westward from the 

 divide, the country gradually descends to the Fairchild's creek. 

 The region between the divide and the Grand river is traversed 

 from north-west to south-east by a considerable number of 

 streams, nil with relatively large valleys, cut in the drift, since 

 the present system of drainage was inaugurated in interglacial 

 or modern times. 



The country from Jerseyville (about 465 feet above hike) 

 slopes gradually to the Grand river, from six to eight miles 

 distant to the southward. 



On examination, it may be seen that the country is too high 

 to permit the Fairchild's creek or Grand river, as they are at 

 present situated, to flow over the height of land into the upper 

 portion of the Dundas valley. As referred to before, the Niagara 

 limestone forming the summit of the escarpment at Aneaster and 

 eastward has a height of about 500 feet. These beds dip at 

 only about 25 feet in a mile (to about 20 degrees west of south) 

 arid are not generally covered by a great thickness of drift, but 

 in many places are exposed on or near the surface. Westward 

 of Anciister these limestones are nowhere to be found, but the 

 country is only covered with drift. At a short distance west of 

 this village, we find streams flowing north-easterly and easterly 

 with very deep valleys in the drift, indicating the absence of the 

 floor of limestone to w depth of over 220 feet below the surface of 

 the escarpment. On going westward we find that the streams 

 have not cut to an equal depth, but are still running deeply 

 throuirh drift. 



On reaching the divide west of Aneaster village, we find that, 

 the valleys, excavated out of the drift belonging to both the Dun- 

 das valley and Grand river drainage, inosculate at an elevatioQ 

 ToL. X. p No, 4. 



