228 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



curve:3 on both sides) after which it graduilly increases in 

 width as it opens into Lake Ontario. The direction of the 

 axis of the valley is about N. 70*^ E. The summit edges 

 of the rock-walls on both sides are sharply angulir and not 

 rounded or truncated. This angularity is not due to frost action 

 since the Ice Age, to any extent, as is shown by the character of 

 the talus. The rocks of the summit are frequently covered with 

 ice markings, but I am not aware of any locality where they have 

 been observed as being parallel with the true direction of the 

 valley, but on all sides one cun observe them (sometimes at only . 

 small angles of less than 30 digrjes) m-iking conspicuous angles 

 with its axis. One exception may be made to this statement. 

 On a projecting ledge of Clinton limestone, at Ru-ssel's quarry, 

 near Hamilton, at a height of 254 feet above the lake, and 134 

 feet below the summit of the '• mountain," after the removal of 

 «ome t ilus, I observed that the surface was polished, but with 

 scratches so faint that they could scarcely be compared with 

 those of fine sandpaper on wood; and the direction, if determin- 

 able, was parallel with the overhanging escarpment. There are 

 many tributary cafi'jns, which are evidently of greater antiquity 

 than the Ice Age, which could not have excavated by the present 

 streams, and are at all sorts of directions compared with the 

 striated surface of the country. 



The topography of the lower lake regions precludes the idea of 

 .a glacier flowing down the valley to the north-eastward. Again, 

 as the direction of the ice was towards the southwest, the waters 

 from the melting glaciers could scarcely flow up an escarpment 

 many hundreds of feet in height. Even if the Niagara escarp- 

 ment did not exist elsewhere, the non-parallelism of the strise, 

 4ind edges of the escarpment with their angular summits, is suffi- 

 cient to prove the non-glacial origin of the valley in the hard 

 limestone rocks. Moreover, at the eastern end of the narrower 

 portion of the valley, there are two concave curves facing the 

 lake, which of necessity would have been removed if such a 

 ;gigantic grinding agent had been moving up the valley. 



This glacier-origin of the valley being an absolutely untenable 

 liypothesis, I sought for some fluviatile agent capable of eff"ecting 

 »the present configuration of the region. At the time, no idea 

 occurred that even the great valley of the present is only a miser- 

 able remnant of one of gigantic proportions obscured by hundreds 

 of feet of drift. The question arose, could Lake Erie have ever 



