THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I33 



tioned ridge is the summit of the Niagara hmestone, and the latter a 

 recent deposit of clay and sand. On the whole, it is perfectly safe to 

 reckon a fall towards Lake Erie of fifty feet in twenty-five miles, or 

 two feet to the mile southward, while the dip of the Niagara group 

 is uniformly twenty-two teet to the mile. Moreover, throughout the 

 greater part of this area, the underlying rock is conspicuous by 

 absence, a few places near Buffalo, one near Hagersville, and one or 

 two on the Grand River, affording the only known outcrops of Onon- 

 daga, Oriskany or Corniferous groups. This certainly points to an 

 increase of sediment to the southward, as well as to an uplift mak- 

 ing the escarpment the northern margin of the area now covered 

 by South Lincoln, Welland, Monck, South Wentworth, and Haldi- 

 mand counties, omitting for the present, counties lying further west. 

 A second feature of interest is that ridges of clay or of sand cross 

 this area from east to west or nearly so, between which lie stretches 

 of marsh or swamp, in which these creeks take their rise, together 

 with sundry other creeks now flowing southward. These marshy 

 areas and sand and clay ridges point to a former northward exten- 

 sion of Lake Erie, of which, as has been already stated, the edge of 

 the escarpment was the northern boundary. A third point of 

 interest is that in no part of this area does the land rise higher than 

 five hundred feet above Lake Ontario. The creeks referred to then, 

 rise in a marshy area, cut off by sand and clay ridges from Lake 

 Erie, and they have been thus compelled to take a northerly 

 direction. 



If we now similarly trace the creek running through Glen 

 Spencer, and the Grindstone Creek, back to the summit, we shall 

 find their sources in an immense rocky and stony swamp, known as 

 the " Beverly Swamp," in which also rises Fairchild's Creek, flowing 

 southwesterly through the extreme west of Wentworth and through 

 North Brant to the Grand River. Moreover, the Twelve and the 

 Sixteen Mile Creeks of Hal ton County may be traced to this same 

 source. In this area, covering North Wentworth, part of Halton, 

 part of Waterloo, and a small piece of South Wellington Counties, 

 we find the same well-marked features as in the preceding, namely, 

 the highest part of the surface at or near the the summit of the 

 escarptiient, and the slope greater than that of the strata ; also a 

 swampy area, diversified by ridges of stratified gravel, some stretch- 

 ing east and west, others north and south. As a contrast, however, 



