4-28 Dr. Bigsby's Sketch of the Topography 



and on the same level contain prodnctt^, orthocerce, trilobites, 

 &c. They are tolerably copious ; and although weak at the 

 surface are more concentrated below, where they are no longer 

 diluted by rains and infiltrations. The following are the situa- 

 tion of the springs of which I have received intelligence ; but 

 I confess that I have not hitherto made sufficient inquiries. 



In the centre of the township of Elizabeth's Town, on the 

 east of the primitive band crossing the lake of the Thousand 

 Islands, there is a spring (Gourlay, vol. i. p. 511); another, 

 together Avith gypsum, in Ei'nestTown on the shores of the lake 

 (Gourlay, vol. i. p. 483); another in Sophia's Burg on Prince 

 Edward's Peninsula (Gourlay, vol. i. p. 146). Besides many 

 smaller salt licks, in front of lot, No. 10, in concession B of 

 the township of Murray, one and a half to two miles N.W. 

 from Quinte Portage, there is a saline spring which discharges 

 as much as a common pump. It has been penetrated for six- 

 teen feet, and yields about a peck of salt for every seventy gal- 

 lons of water; but it is supposed to be weakened at present by 

 the stagnant brackish water which surrounds the spring in 

 patches for a quarter of a mile square. 



There are several salt springs in the township of Percy, 

 county of Northumbei'land, at which much salt was made du- 

 ring the war between Great Britain and the United States. 

 Thei'e are several also in the township of Whitby, in the East 

 Riding of the county of York, issuing from clay and increasing 

 in strength with the depth from which they are raised. Others 

 are at Chinkecushe on the River Credit in the township of To- 

 ronto; in the seventh concession of Esquising; and many about 

 Burlington Bay; and at St. Catharine's on the west shore of 

 the lake ; some of which are worked, and will be noticed here- 

 after. Nothing but capital, and a little practice, is wanting 

 for them to be as productive as the saline springs of the State 

 of New York. 



The unbroken continuity to at least three miles beyond 

 Quinte Portage of the carboniferous limestone of Kingston, 

 incumbent on gneiss, renders it very difficult to account for the 

 presence of salt in Ernest Town, AdolphusTown, and in Mur- 

 ray. I think that in this interval I have seen the rock in un- 

 disturbed horizontality at least every three miles, and charac- 

 terized by its peculiar organic remains in the clearest manner. 

 Amono- them are, coniilaria, Llandilo, and trilobites {Asaphus) 

 turhinitce, jwoductcE, orthocerce. 



This difficulty is felt particularly in Murray, whei*e the car- 

 boniferous limestone is quite near, and I believe floors the low 

 marsh in which the springs appear. 



To suppose that the strata at and for three miles west of 



Quinte 



