and Geology of Lake Ontario. 7 



with which it is covered, was deposited by the waters, and the 

 stones everywhere indicate by their shape the abrasion and 

 agitation caused by that element. All along the western rivers 

 and lakes there are small mounds and heaps of gravel of a 

 conical form, erected by the fish for the protection of their 

 spawn : these fish-banks are found at the foot of the ridge on 

 the side toward the lake ; on the opposite side none have been 

 discovered. All rivers and streams which enter the lake from 

 the south have their mouths affected with sand in a peculiar 

 way, from the prevalence and power of the northwesterly winds. 

 The points of the creeks, which pass through the ridge, cor- 

 respond exactly in appearance with the entrance of the streams 

 into the lake. These facts evince beyond a doubt that Lake 

 Ontario has receded from this elevated ground ; and the cause 

 of this retreat must be ascribed to its having enlarged its for- 

 mer outlet, or to its imprisoned waters (aided probably by an 

 earthquake) forcing a passage down the present bed of the 

 St. Lawrence." To this 1 have only to add, that the general 

 height of this ridge appeared to me to be more than thirty 

 feet above the adjoining land, at least in its western portions. 

 At Lockport its height must be eighty to a hundred feet, and 

 is made by two embankments with rounded edges and sloping 

 fronts. The canal mounts the ridge at this point, as beino- 

 that of least elevation in that vicinity, as 1 am informed, and 

 from the ascent being greatly facilitated by a ravine which saves 

 a good deal of excavation. 



Mr. Comstock, an overseer on the canal, told me that after 

 having removed the soil from the rock cm the summit of the 

 ridge, its surface was every where found to be grooved and 

 channeled in a N.E. or E.N.E. direction. Hence, says Mr. C, 

 Lake Erie once discharged by this outlet also. At Lewiston, 

 seven miles from the lake, this River Niagara cuts through this 

 ridge at its highest level of 370 feet. From this place the 

 ridge proceeds in a series of gentle curvatures to the west end 

 of the lake, to form the hilly district about Burlington Bay, 

 whose most striking eminences are Flamborough and Burling- 

 ton Heights. On its route westward it gradually approaches 

 the lake, and at Grimsby is only a mile distant, and so re- 

 mains as far as Stoney Creek, when a small departure from 

 the lake shore takes place to the north-west. 



In the space west of the Niagara this ridge is an abrupt 

 and uniform elevation of about three hundred feet in height, 

 surmounted by a tolerably level country, and having at its base 

 a strip of rich low land whose north border is washed by the 

 lake. It is commonly faced, and especially on the lower por- 

 tions, by banks of red clay, sometimes pure, or of sand with a 



few 



