NOTES ON THE DAVENPORT GRAVEL DRIFT. 249 
gentlemen have submitted their views on the origin and progress 
of the formation which encloses Toronto harbour, as ‘well as the 
adjoining sheet of water, Ashbridge’s Bay. They nearly all agree: 
that it is a deposit due to the continued action of the waves on the 
Scarborough Heights. Professor Hind very fully discussed the- 
matter in an elaborate paper published in the Canadian Journal (first 
series) ; and the writer laid two papers on the subject before the 
Institute at an earlier period. It will not be necessary to go over 
the arguments given in the articles referred to. They seemed per- 
fectly conclusive when applied to the ridge or shoal, island ‘or 
peninsula, or whatever it may be called, in front of Toronto harbour. 
They are equally applicable to the Davenport gravel ridge, with Lake 
Ontario high enough to wash it, and if we are satisfied that the 
development of one formation is caused by the waves of the present’ 
lake, acting through a long course of years, in undermining the 
heights of Scarborough and in giving to the débris a progressive 
westward motion, we can have no difficnlty in coming to a similar 
conclusion with regard to the formation of the Davenport gravel 
ridge, viz.: that it was gradually produced by the mechanical action 
of the waves of Lake Ontario when it stood at about 170 feet above 
its present level; that the materials of which the deposit is mainly 
composed are the insoluble portion of the débris formed by the de- 
structive action of the waves on the terrace which stretches ‘parallel 
to Lake Ontario and crosses Yonge street about half a mile north of 
Yorkville ; that these materials have been transported westerly to 
their present resting-place by the singular progressive motion given 
to all beaches, under certain conditions, by the waves. 
Admitting this to be the true history of the Davenport gravel 
deposit, and there can be little doubt of it unless it be assumed that 
‘the forces of nature have been entirely changed in their character 
as well as their mode of action, we are yet somewhat puzzled to 
account for some peculiarities in the stratification which are seen on 
‘a close inspection of the sections formed by the railway cuttings. 
The gravel is not deposited in horizontal beds, as is generally the 
case with sub-aqueous formations, nor is it laid, as one would natu- 
rally expect to find it on accepting the foregoing theory as satisfac- 
‘tory, that is to say, in thin beds dipping southerly, or from the shore 
towards the water, as if they had been thrown up one over another 
on the inclined plane of the beach by the storms of the former Jake. 
