NOTES ON THE DAVENPORT GRAVEL DRIFT. 251 
with the ascertained facts, as careful surveys clearly show that the 
deposit is gradually approaching the main shore; and the second, 
although it has not to my knowledge been confirmed by actual exca- 
vations, cannot be called in question. 
In this manner, it is thought, the peculiar dip of the strata at the 
Davenport gravel pits may be accounted for; but to perfect the 
analogy we must assume that the whole deposit was at one time 
cousiderably farther to the south. 
Nor does this appear to be assuming too much when we reflect 
that the Davenport terrace, before being exposed to the long-con- 
tinued destructive action of the waves, must have extended consider- 
ably farther southward, and hence the gravel spit, also, would be in 
a corresponding position. As the terrace gradually receded, or in 
other words, as the waves undermined the clay banks and the lake 
thus encroached upon the land, supplying fresh material for the 
extension of the spit, so also would the spit recede simultaneously 
with its extension westward, and, in this manner, produce the 
peculiarly inclined stratification, which at first sight appears not 
a little puzzling. Whether this theory be correct or not, it has at 
least the recommendation of being consistent with observed pheno- 
mena. 
With regard to the character of the gravel found in the Davenport 
and Carleton pits, it varies in size from coarse sand up to pebbles 
one and two inches in diameter; the largest proportion of the deposit, 
however, consists of gravel under half an inch in diameter. There 
is nothing in the character of the materials composing the deposit 
inconsistent with the supposition that they at one time occupied a 
position in the drift clays of which the terrace is formed, or that 
they have travelled along its base (the former beach of Lake Ontario) 
impelled by the mechanical action of wind and waves. Indeed there 
is every argument to show that such has actually been the case. 
The particles of gravel are similar in character to rocky fragments 
found imbedded in the terrace, and they are rounded, which implies 
that they have been subjected to a rolling action in the water. The 
_ deposit is entirely free from clay (except in nodules hereafter referred 
to) which shows that the materials have not been deposited like ordi- 
nary.sediment on the bottom of a lake. The entire absence of all 
large stones, or boulders, would likewise indicate that the materials 
have been brought by forces insufficient for the removal of these 
