430 Dr. Bigsby oti the Geology of Lake Ontario. 



occurring in some of the layers is inconceivably great, but they 

 are too small to allow of the determination of the genus. 



Such are the rocks of the north shore of this lake. We 

 have seen that their examination is greatly embarrassed, if not 

 altogether prevented, in the western half of the interval be- 

 tween Kingston and York, by morasses and extensive deposits 

 of alluvion. The same obstacles, I learned, exist from York to 

 the head of the lake ; so that, discouraged also by the state of 

 my health at the time I was in that neighbourhood, I did not 

 proceed on the north shore further west than the last-named 

 town. 



The south side of the upper end of the lake, constituting 

 part of the district of Niagara, I have examined carefully. I 

 found the rich and beautiful stripe of low land between the 

 lake and what is called the " mountain," to be underlaid by 

 saliferous sandstone, in extremely thin and soft strata, red, 

 green and blue, and very argillaceous. It is visible on the 

 River Niagara at the Gorge of Queenston, and in the river 

 bank at the town in great thickness. Many of the creeks be- 

 tween the Niagara and Burlington Bay have worn their way 

 down to it ; and the bi'ackish waters called " deer-licks" are not 

 uncommon. I visited one of these, three quarters of a mile 

 W. by N. from the village of Stoney Creek. It is in a hollow, 

 and is merely a quantity of muddy brackish water on a bottom 

 of blue clay, evidently much frequented by animals, from the 

 trampled state of the herbage and smaller trees around it. 

 These strata come very fairly into view at Big Creek, eleven 

 miles west of the village of Grimsby on the Forty-mile Creek. 

 There are here two salt-works on a very small scale, belonging 

 to Messrs. Kent and Macdougal. They are only a few hun- 

 dred yards apart, and are both in a hollow, formed by the 

 creek, but now, at least in autumn, deserted by it. The sa- 

 line rock shows itself in a high scarp and some small crum- 

 bling ledges, and is quite in the usual form. Mr. Macdougal's 

 ■works yield sixty-five bushels per week (1824), and could pro- 

 duce a hundred if necessary. The water is very weak, and 

 scanty. The spring may be pumped dry in an hour. There 

 is a well for the first twelve feet, and then a bore for seventy 

 feet further. Mr. Kent's spring is in the same circumstances 

 as the one just described. These few particulars I obtained 

 from one of the workmen on the spot. 



At the flourishing village of St. Catharine's, twelve miles 

 fromQueenston, there is another salt-work, close to the Twelve- 

 mile creek, whose bed is 100 to 120 feet below the average 

 level of the country, and flanked by steeps of red clay, sand, 

 and quartz pebbles. It is in the red saliferous rock. The 



boring 



