THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. ' 12Q 



as far as has been traced, is nine miles, six of which are under the 

 water of the Georgian Bay, and three covered by the thriving, enter- 

 prising city of the north, Owen Sound. Its depth is very uneven. 

 In some parts, not the deepest, the Niagara Hmestone is met with at 

 the surface ; in others rock is not reached until a depth of thirty or 

 forty feet has been gained. The valley, too, has been filled with 

 blue clay, brown clay, sand and gravel, by no means in regular 

 sequence, often stratified, and all capped with a series of terraces, 

 which reach the higher ground. However, to the writer's knowledge, 

 no minute survey of the valley has been hitherto attempted ; and it 

 may be that if this were done, some of the facts above stated might 

 be given more in detail. While, therefore, it were unsafe to specu- 

 late further, it may be stated that at present the region seems to 

 indicate a former area of high elevation, and drainage by means of a 

 river, the course of which greatly resembles that of the modern 

 Sydenham, but the volume of which was vastly greater. 



Apologising for digressing upon ancient river beds, let us take 

 our journey southward, following the escarpment. Here a series of 

 picturesque ravines and valleys meets us, some of which are due to 

 water erosion, and the others to the action of sub-serial causes upon 

 the joints and fissures of the limestone. Referring particularly to 

 the latter, it may be stated that large cracks and dangerous crevices 

 have resulted, here separating areas of rock which sometimes exceed 

 an acre, there tumbling down mass after mass of stone and boulder 

 in inextricable confusion ; in many cases too these crevices have in 

 course of time become interesting ravines, steep-walled and moss- 

 clad. Still, none of these rise to the dignity of true valleys, nor in 

 fact does any one until we reach the Beaver river, which, plunging 

 down a precipice of seventy-five feet at the Eugenia Falls, Artemesia 

 Township, Grey County, has excavated for itself a beautiful fertile 

 dale. The breadth of this valley is at its widest over three miles, 

 and the length about eight. This valley, so far as examined, which 

 examination has been but superficially done, appears quite modern 

 in geological time. So far as known, the deposits upon its flood- 

 plain are quite recent, and evidently have been derived from the 

 highland above. 



Traversing the highland in a general westerly direction at a dis- 

 tance of some twenty miles west from the above, and from ten to 

 thirty miles south of the Sydenham, are the beautiful valleys of the 



