ox CANADIAN PLEISTOCENE FLORA AND FAUNA. 523 



The Scarborough wells were dug on the shore of Lake Ontario, beneath 

 the cliff ; but on account of the delay of the well-diggers the first one was 

 not started till the middle of November, and, owing to stormy weather 

 during the latter part of November and the first week of December, it had 

 reached only 20 feet below the level of the lake when waves began to 

 break in and the well had to be abandoned. The section disclosed 3 feet 

 of bluish stratified clay with peaty layers and a thin sheet of clay iron- 

 stone, closely resembling the overlying peaty clay which rises about 90 

 feet above the lake. Below this, blue clay without peat, but having some 

 thin layers of coarse gray sand interbedded, extended about 18 feet below 

 the lake, when a foot or two of dark reddish clay with sandy layers 

 occurred. No fossils of any kind were obtained except a small amount 

 of peat near the surface. 



The second well was sunk at Price's brickyard, four or five miles north- 

 east of the first one, nearly a mile north of Lake Ontario, and about 30 feet 

 above the lake level. This well reached a depth of 21 feet 9 inches, when 

 a stratum of water-bearing sand was encountered and the well quickly 

 filled. With the powerful flow of water came quantities of combustible 

 gas. The section displayed practically the same features found in the 

 Scarborough well, but a little wood was found at a depth of 10 feet below 

 the surface, or 20 feet above Lake Ontario. Numerous rounded pebbles 

 were obtained in the clay, a point of difference from the overlying peaty 

 clay, which rarely contains pebbles. 



The third well was sunk at the foot of the Scarborough cliff, not far 

 from the first, during the fine weather of the latter part of May of the 

 present year. This last attempt proved much the most successful of the 

 three, though not all that was hoped for was accomplished, since the 

 Hudson River strata underlying the whole region were not reached. At 

 the depth of 44 feet water-bearing sand was reached, and the well filled to 

 the level of the adjoining lake. 



Fifteen feet below the lake level somewhat sandy layers of clay were 

 found to contain two species of Sphaerium, and in one case also a Unio 

 shell, unfortunately too badly preserved to be determined. From this to 

 the bottom, 41 feet below the lake, fragments of shells and pieces of wood 

 were sparingly obtained. The lower sandy layers of clay from this well 

 are reddish, and correspond closely in appearance to the beds disclosed in 

 the excavation of Gaol Hill, near the Don, where wood and leaves of warm- 

 climate trees had been obtained. From this fact, and the additional facts 

 that coarse sand and unios have never been found in the Scarborough 

 peaty clay beds, there seems no doubt that the third well passed out of the 

 peaty clay into the unio sands and clays characteristic of the warm-climate 

 beds. It may be looked on as proved that the deposits containing fossils 

 indicative of a warm climate underlie conformably the peaty clays charged 

 with leaves, &c., proving a cold climate. 



Another item of information obtained during the winter confirms the 

 conclusion reached above. Professor Goldwin Smith has been good enough 

 to give details of a well sunk some years ago at The Grange, in the 

 southern part of Toronto, where, after passing through 30 feet of tough 

 clay, a bed of sand was reached furnishing a great flow of water. The 

 well-diggers found a small log of wood in this sand. 



A similar find is reported by an old well-digger from a well on Wilton 

 Avenue, between The Grange and the river Don. 



We may conclude that sands containing wood and unios like those 



