1853.] 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OP TORONTO. 



147 



at Toronto, This advantage will be still further increased by the 

 addition which will, no doubt, be made in other parts of' the 

 United States to the number of stations. 



These circumstances render it peculiarly desirable that the 

 observations at Toronto should not be suspended ; and the under- 

 signed are instructed to express to your Lordship the earnest 

 wish entertained by the Acadeni}"-, that the requisite appropria- 

 tions for their continuance should be made by Her Majestj''s 

 Government, and the hope that the Royal Society will exert its 

 great influence to this end. 



We ha\e the honour to remain. 



With the highest respect, 

 Your Lordship's obedient servants, 

 EDWARD EVERETT, 

 WM. CRANCH BOND, 

 A. GUYOT, 

 JOSEPH LOYERING, 

 JON. P. HALL, 



Committee. 

 The Earl of Rosse, 



President of the Royal Society. 



Notes on the Geology of Toronto : by H. Y. Hind, Professor of 

 Chemistry in the ITniTerslty of Trinity College. 



(Kcad btjore the Canadian Imtitute, January 22nd, 1853.^ 

 Mr. President, and Gentlemen, — 



I must beg of you to accompany me on an imaginary trip to 

 the shores of Lake Ontario, where the scene of our enquiries 

 may be near the low cliff which rises abruptly from the waters 

 of the Lake about a quarter of a mile to the west of the New 

 Garrison. Standing at the base of the cliff, which at some places 

 is nearly perpendicular, we may see a belt of yellowish clay about 

 fifteen feet thick reposing upon numerous thin layers of rocks. 

 We will select a spot where a very narrow beach of pebbles and 

 shingle affords us standing room; the watere of the Lake, to 

 our right and to our left, washing the low range of stratified 

 rocks before us. The total height of the cliff, or rather bank, is 

 about 20 feet. The uppermost layer of greyish sandstone rock 

 immediately beneath the clay is about five feet from the Lake 

 level, but if we progress westward towards the Humber, we 

 shall find that it dips in that direction as well as to\vards the 

 south, and either disappear below the waters of the Lake or is 

 covered and concealed by superiniposcd yellow clay and sand. 

 If we examine into the history of the yellow clay we shall find 

 that it is of veiy recent origin, and belongs to what is termed the 

 Drift formation. A careful search will assure us that it contains 

 the remains of vegetables and animals whose species still live 

 upon the face of the earth. In the City of Toronto, well-diggers 

 have frequently found branches and even trunks of trees at deptlis 

 varying from ten to forty feet in the Drift formation. It 

 is not my intention to dwell upon the nature of the Drift as 

 developed near Toronto, it is sufficient for present purposes to 

 note the epoch during which it accumulated, and which is 

 known geologically under the name of the Tertiary period. But 

 what of those narrow bands of sandstone and shale which under- 

 lie the drift, and which present such marked features of regular 

 stratification? they belong to what are tei-med Lower Silurian 

 rocks ; a name which plunges us at once into the almost illimitable 

 field of geological speculation and history. When we see the 

 clay reposing so evenly upon the sm-face of that narrow band of 

 sandstone, we naturally suppose that some short period after the 

 stripe of hard rock had been established by the slow process of 

 deposition at the bottom of a lake or sea, the yellow clay was 

 drifted upon it by the action of some violent current, at a time 

 when the land around us was covered by the waters of the lake. 



Not so, however. Geologists inform us that countless ages passed 

 away between the formation of the narrow stripe of sandstone 

 and the superimposed Drift clay. 



But how do they know it ? Examine the narrow stripe of 

 sandstone, separate a small block with a chisel from the layer of 

 blue shale upon which it reposes, and we see below it numerous 

 round bodies, which upon examination appear to be delicately 

 organized, and to possess a beautiful cellular structure. They are 

 corals, and are to be found in vast numbere and of diversified 

 forms throughout those narrow bands of shale and sandstone. 

 If we examine more minutely lower layers of the shale, we shall 

 find numerous shells of many varieties, none however of kinds 

 known now to possess livmg inhabitants in any of our lakes or 

 seas. Upon further search we may discover a multitude of 

 obscure vegetable forms, called fucoids, some of them possessing 

 considerable dimensions, others smaller and less distinctly preserved. 

 In whatever remains of animals or vegetables we meet with, we 

 fail to recognize any alliance between them and those living 

 species with which we are familiar. We infer then, that a vast 

 difference in point of age exists between the Drift clays and the 

 subjacent rocks. But how great may we suppose this difference 

 in age to be ? What interval of time has elapsed between the 

 period when those ancient shells had living occupants, or those 

 fucoids grew in a brackish sea, and the date of the accumulation 

 of the vast mass of recent Drift which now presses upon them ? 

 In order to approach the answer to this question, we must refer 

 to geological writere for their descriptions of other kinds of rock 

 which are ascertained to be less ancient than the one we are now 

 contemplating, and to the science of Paleontology which treats 

 of fossil remains. 



Having now introduced you to the rocks which are exposed in 

 the neighbourhood of the New Garrison, and which form the 

 foundation of the whole country between Toronto and the Rivers 

 Rouge and Credit to the east and west, let us return to the 

 lecture room where we may study more at our ease the history 

 of those ancient deposits, and contemplate some of those remains 

 of organic life of which they are the vast and enduring sepulchre. 



Fii-st, then, with respect to the age of those rocks. 



I need not remind you that geological ages are very indefinite 

 periods of time, and relate to epochs in the histoiy of the world 

 which carry us far, very far beyond the period of man's histoiy. 



Geologists generally recognize thirteen groups of stratified or 

 fossiliferous rocks, each group containing several members or for- 

 mations which were probably deposited at different epochs at the 

 bottoms of extensive seas or fresh water lakes. Each group is 

 distinguished by numerous fossil remains which are peculiar to it. 

 The thirteen groups are divided into three grand divisions named 

 respectively, 



I. Tertiary or Cainozoic, containing three groups. 



II. Secondary or Mesozoic, containing four groups. 



III. Primary or Palseozoic, containing six groups. 



The Silurian constitutes the fifth group in descending order of 

 the Primary or Paljeozoic division. When we contemplate the 

 enormous thickness of the various groups of fossiliferous rocks, 

 and remember that they have all, most probably, been deposited 

 one after the other at the bottom of seas, we can scarcely form 

 any conjecture respecting the great antiquity of the rocks which 

 form the foundation of the Drift upon which this city reposes. The 

 members of this group are themselves of vast extent and thick- 

 ness. They have been found to exist in various parts of the 

 world, in Wales ('whence their name, as forming a part of the 

 ancient kingdom of the Silures,J in Bohemia, in Canada and in 

 the Valley of the Ohio and Mississippi, &c. Silurian rocks have 



