29S THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



tjame railway cuttiiig, near its uortbern iiiargiii, there is a bed of 

 very fine i^ravel whose pebbles resemble those of Iludsoo river 

 formation, but no fossil remains prove positively that origin. As 

 the exposure of the limits of this gravel is not made, I cannot 

 sa}^ certainly w'hether it is the same age or DOt, but am inclined 

 to regard it as a marginal deposit on the side of the hill facing 

 the Dundas marsh at a heicjht of about 45 feet. 



Beach <tt the Level of \^ feet. — Of our next beach only a small 

 portion remains. It has a height of about 15 feet above the 

 Dun d MS marsh on the side of Beasley's hollow, just below the 

 Catholic cemetery, at Hamilton. It is composed of shell marl 

 made up of masses of broken shells, whose components will be 

 subsequently noticed, under modern deposits. 



Present Lahe Beach. — Our lowest and last beach is that of the 

 present lake level, and extends a few feet above its present shores. 

 The components of this beach fiom Toronto to Hamilton and 

 eastward to Grimsby, Beamsville and Niagara river are of Hud- 

 son river pebbles with a few Laurentian stones. In the region 

 of Hamilton tlie pebbles at the lake level in part have been 

 derived from the older beach of the same material at the level of 

 IIG feet. But the Burlington beach, separating the waters of 

 the bay of tha same name from Lake Ontario, could not have 

 been derived from these deposits by any agency working at pre- 

 sent. The Burlimiton beach is less than half a mile wide with 

 a mean height of 8 feet and deposited in water about 80 feet 

 deep. The present Burlington beach and the bed of the bay are 

 exactly a counterpart of what was happening when the lower 

 portion of the Dundas valley was submerged and formed a bay, 

 cut off iVom tlie lake by what now forms the narrow ridge of 

 Burlimitou Heights. 



Other Beaches in Ontario. — In 1837, Mr. Thomas Roy mea- 

 sured the beaches between Toronto and Lake Simcoe, having the 

 following elevations above Lake Ontario: — 110, 210, 282, 310, 

 34G, 402, 422, 592, 558, 52G, 682, 734, 704 feet respectively.* 

 Additional gravel beaches occur along the Northern railway af 

 f»00 feet, and on descending towards Georgian bay at 520, 388 

 and 354 feet above Lake Ontario. A still finer series of beaches 



* The elevations were copied from the Geology of Canada, where 

 elevations were given above sea; the Geological Survey places Lake 

 Ontario at 232 feet above high tide. 



