64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



line. Everywhere it is easily recognized, here as a cliff, there as a high strand 

 line (sti'andwall), then again it develops into a spit or a dike — an old sandbank — 

 across the front of a little valley. We were thns convinced that we were following 

 the same higher shore continually. After following it for forty-five kilometers we 

 measured its height at Cooksville, finding it forty-five meters above the lake, and 

 when I was visiting the interglacial deposits at Scarboro' Heights with Prof. Cole- 

 man a few days later, I met the Iroquois shore line sixty-nine meters above the 

 lake. It I'ises, therefore, thirty-five meters within a distance of seventy-five kilo- 

 meters as the bird flies,, that is to say in round numbers 0.5 m. per kilometer in a 

 northeasterly direction. The old surface of the lake as shown by the Iroquois shore 

 line is inclined towards the present one at an angle of almost two minutes. It is 

 out of the question that such an inclination of a water surface could exist, or that 

 at the time of the formation of the Iroquois line the surface of the lake could differ 

 to such an extent from that of to-day. We must therefore assume that since the 

 origin of that shore line the district has been tilted up by a movement of the earth's 

 crust. This is the same movement indicated by the beach lines in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. Canadian geologists have found that the marine formations here ascend 

 in the direction toward southwest. Their greatest height (250 m.) is reached in 

 the neighbourhood of Quebec. This is the middle point in a great arch-like up- 

 heaval, which has affected the whole St. Lawrence region along with the great 

 lakes of North America since the ice age, and which, as Gilbert has lately shown, 

 is still going on. 



The excursion with Gilbert, several trips around Toronto under Prof. Coleman's 

 guidance, finallj'^ an excursion which a number of members of the British Association 

 took to Niagara Falls on August 22nd, all gave me an excellent opj^ortunity 

 to learn the character of the shore of Lake Ontario. It is gently rolling and cleared 

 to such an extent that only a few patches of the original primeval forest remain. 

 Everywhere stretch waving fields of grain, the well-to-do farmers' houses are often 

 hidden in orchards, and indeed even the vine is successfully cultivated in Canada 

 in the Niagara Falls district. The soil is almost everywhere fruitful. It is formed 

 for the most part from the glacial deposits of the ice age, which are distributed 

 over flat Silurian strata. On the northern shore of the lake these strata are of 

 shale, on the south they are of limestone, giving a configuration to the country like 

 that of the Swabo-Franconian Jura. This is the Niagara limestone formation at 

 the foot of which Lake Ontario occupies a position similar to that of the Neckar 

 district at the foot of the Rauher Alp. At the point where the Brock monument 

 is built upon it, giving a wide lookout, this peculiar situation of the lake was very 

 well shown on Aug. 22nd by Prof.. Wm. Morris Davis, the distinguished American 

 physical geographer. He expressed the opinion that the land surface around Lake 

 Ontario, as indeed in all the region of the great lakes (except Lake Superior) has 

 the features of a steppe-like landscape formed by subaerial denudation, and not 

 much modified by glaciation, although the latter, as the disclosures at Scarboro' 

 show, has been twice repeated. It has blocked up the old water-courses, as for 

 example, a valley that coming from the west emptied into the lake near Hamilton. 

 The rivers have thus been obliged to find new channels, and have not yet fully cut 

 them out. The mighty Falls of Niagara bear witness to the youthfulness of its 

 course. It has not yet cut through the Niagara limestone formation. 



The various trips on Lake Ontario were only a prelude to the great excursions 

 which were arranged for the members and guests of the British Association after 

 its close. There were four of them. They all had as their objective point the 

 island of Vancouver on the west coast of the British Dominion of Canada, but to 

 send all the numerous participants thither at the same time would not only have been 

 mechanically impossible, but also from scientific reasons impracticable. For a 

 scientific excursion to be instructive must be strictly limited in its numbers. Con- 

 sequently the company was divided into groups, each of which had a specialist as 

 guide. One left Toronto as early as the 26th, conducted by Dr. Wm. Saunders, 

 director of the Experimental Farms of Canada. It was specially intended for 

 botanists and geologists. The next day the geologists and geographers set out. 

 Our guide was the distinguished geologist of Canada, Dr. G. M. Dawson, who 

 presides over the Geological Survey with equal practical intelligence and scientific 

 breadth of view, He had himself explored a great part of our route, and as the 



