THE HISTORY OF THE NIAGARA RIVER. 237 



about its margin a record of its existence. That record is wonderfully 

 clear, and the special training of the geologist has not been necessary 

 to the recognition of its import. The earliest books of travel in west- 

 ern New York describe the Ridge road, and tell as that the ridge of 

 sand and gravel which it follows was even then recognized by all resi- 

 dents as an ancient beach of the lake.* In the Province of Ontario 

 the beach was examined and described by the great English geologist, 

 Charles Lyell, during his celebrated journey in Araerica,t and it after- 

 ward received more careful study by Mr. Sandford Fleming,| and by 

 the geologists of the Canadian Survey.§ In western New York it was 

 traced out by the great American geologist, James Hall, duriug his survey 

 ofthegeologyofthefourthdistrictoftheState.il Within a few years more 

 attention has been given to detail. Prof. J. W. Spencer has traced the 

 line continuously from the head of the lake at Hamilton, past Toronto, 

 Windsor, and Grafton, in the vicinity of Belleville,^ beyond which 

 point it is hard to follow. South of the lake, I myself have traced it 

 from Hamilton to Queeustown and Lewiston, thence to Rochester, and 

 all about the eastern end of the basin to Watertown, beyond which 

 point it is again difficult to trace. Southeast of the present margin of 

 Lake Ontario there was a great bay, extending as far south as Cayuga 

 Lake, and including the basin of Oneida Lake, and it was from this 

 bay that the discharge took place, the precise point of overflow being 

 the present site of the city of Rome. For this predecessor of Lake On- 

 tario Professor Spencer has proposed the name of Iroquois. 



Putting together the results of his survey and of my own, I have 

 been able to prepare a map (PI. ii) exhibiting with a fair amount of 

 detail the outline of the old lake. It will be observed that the north- 

 eastern portion of the shore is not traced out. In fact it is not trace- 

 able. The water was contained on that side by the margin of the 

 glacier, and with the final melting of the ice all record of its shore 

 vanished. 



The form and extent of Lake Iroquois, and the form and extent of 

 each other lake that bordered the ice front, were determined partly by 

 the position of the pass over which the discharge took place, and by the 

 contour of the land; but they were also determined to a great extent 

 by the peculiar attitude of the land. 



* C. Schultz, jr. Travels on an Inland Voyage - - - in the years 1807 aud 

 1808, New York, 1810, p. 85. 



De Wit Clintou. Discourse before the New York Historical Society, 1811, p. 58. 



Francis Hall. Travels in Canada and the United States in 1816 and 1^17, Boston, 

 1818, p. 119. 



t Travels in North America in the years 1841-'42. New York, 1845, vol. 2, pp. 86, 87. 



t Sandford Fleming. Notes on the Davenport gravel drift. Canadian Journal, new 

 series, vol. 6, pp. 247-253. 



§ Geological Survey of Canada, report to 1863, pp. 914, 915. 



II Natural History of New York. Geology, Part iv, pp. 348-354. 



H Communicated to the Philosophical Society of Washington, to he published, in 

 vol. 11 of the Bulletin of the Society. 



