THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 9I 



situate between the points struck by the floating ice at the bends, 

 the shores, though equally high, slope gently to the water's edge. 



Many of the swales and morasses, whose surplus waters find an 

 outlet to Big Creek, give indubitable evidence of having once been 

 ponds or shallow lagoons, that in course of centuries have been 

 gradually filled with indrifting and decomposing vegetable matter ; 

 also that their waters attained once a higher level than has been the 

 case since the bush was first settled by white people. In connec- 

 tion with this idea one may as well mention here an illustrative 

 incident. During the past dry summer (1888), a bush fire raged for 

 a number of weeks in a partly cleared, extensive tamarack swamp. 

 The three or four feet of black, superimposed peat was consumed by 

 the heat and the resultant ashes were blown away by the wind. 

 The unconsumable, sandy bottoms of the bog presented an interest- 

 ing appearance and reminded one of the uneven, eddy-worn surface 

 of a foreshore or muddy margin of the ocean, at some spot where the 

 tide had lately receded. 



On one occasion, whilst lately watching some ditchers at work 

 in the above swamp, it was noticed that a large portion of the rotten 

 vegetation, cut through by the spades of the workmen, consisted of 

 the still easily recognizable roots of Menyanthes trifoliata, although 

 in late years the watery element had not been in sufficient predom- 

 inance for that plant to flourish or exist in much profusion. 



The peculiar lofty knobs, mounds or isolated knolls that dot 

 the slopes of the Grand River valley a mile above Brantford, and 

 also occurring along the Mount Pleasant valley, are remarkable 

 geologic phenomena, and have worked much curious speculation as 

 to the agencies which aided in their formation and moulding. 



The extensive levels known as Burford Plains, a rich, loamy 

 area, 5 or 6 miles in diameter, resting on 50 to 60 feet of nearly 

 horizontal beds of rounded gravel, said gravel strata reposing on the 

 glacial or indurated boulder clay, have very distinct topographical 

 features compared with what is known as the Burford timbered lands. 

 The limits are defined by hilly land and ridges of mostly heavier 

 soil, and the glacial clay is generally struck in digging wells on the 

 timbered portions of Burford at a depth varying from 12 to 20 feet. 

 The flora, too, changes abruptly, and in an unmistakable degree as 

 the dividing line of the adaptations is crossed. 



The hydrographic changes induced by clearing and cultivating 



