No. 5.] SPENCER — SURFACE GEOLOGY. 295 



High Beach near Waterdoion. — Beginning with the beaches 

 at the highest altitudes, about the immediate vicinity of Lake 

 Ontario, there is an extensive deposit of sand and fine gravel near 

 the village of Waterdown, on the top of the Niagara escarpment, 

 at an elevation of 500 feet (estimated) above the lake. 



High Beach near Ancaster. — On ascending the Dundas valley 

 to the watershed between it and the Grand river, about a mile 

 west of Ancaster village, there are several deposits of stratified 

 sand and fine gravel on the summits or sides of the hills at an 

 elevation of 440 feet (estimated) above the lake. At one of the 

 exposures of these deposits, there is an oblique bedding dipping 

 23 degrees to the south-eastward. False bedding is very common. 

 These beaches are more or less composed of well water-worn 

 pebbles of the Hudson river formation. At the same elevation 

 but south of the Grand river, near Seneca village, there is an- 

 other gravel deposit. 



Highest Beach at Dundas. — Our next beach is the small 

 remains of a terrace found at the height of 335 feet (levelled) 

 above the lake, on both sides of the mouth of Glen Spencer. The 

 elevation was levelled on the eastern side of the Glen. As only 

 a very small fragment remains, fringing the older rocks, it is 

 possible that it may have formerly extended somewhat higher. 

 This is the beach in Dr. Bell's report to the Canadian Geological 

 Survey, estimated at 318 feet. This deposit consists of rounded 

 pebbles of the Niagara limestone, with which are associated peb- 

 bles of the Hudson river period and a few others of crystalline 

 rocks. Much of this deposit has been artificially removed in 

 making the railway embankment across Glen Spencer, near the 

 Dundas station. 



Another Beach at Ancaster is found on the sides of one of 

 those so-called " sheep's back" northward from Ancaster. It is 

 probably at the same elevation as the last terrace described at 

 Dundas (335 to 360 feet above the lake). It is composed of 

 very fine gravel and s;ind, derived more or less from both Hud- 

 son river and Niagara rocks, together with many angular beds of 

 Niagara limestones and shales. The exposure of this deposit is 

 on the south side of a spur or ridge which rises nearly 100 feet 

 higher. As the ridge is covered with soil it is only at the pits 

 where the gravel has been removed for road purposes that sec- 

 tions can be seen. Above the gravels there is a deposit of clay 

 containing many angular slabs of Niagara limestones and shales. 



