162 



REVIEWS. 



[1853. 



District of Athabasca, and of some Fossi! Shells (auricvla) from 

 St. Helena. 



Also, donations by W. E. Logan, Esq., F. K S., & G. S, late 

 President of the Institute, of the Official Illustrated Catalogue 

 of the Great Exhibition, and Hunt's Hand Book of the Great 

 Exhibition. 



Mr. Hirschfelder read a paper on Oriental Literature. 



REVIEWS. 



TOROHTO HARBOUR. 



1. A Report by Walter Shardey, Esq., CJS. Tormiio, January ^nd, 1853. 



2. A EepoH by Sir R. BmycasUe, 1843. 



3. A Paper read by Saniford Fleming, Esq., CE., before the Canadian 

 Institute. Toronto, June 1st, 1850. 



4. A Supplementary Paper read by S. Fleming before the Canadian 

 Institute. Toronto, March 22, 185 1 . 



5. A Letter (jmblished in " The Patriot,") signed " Kivas Ttilly." Toronto, 

 February lOfh, 1853. 



" In a multitude of Councillors there is (or ought to be) "nisdom." 

 Mr. Shanle}-'s Report, lately published, has had the effect of dii'ecting 

 general attention to the condition of the Toronto Harbour, upon the 

 eflficient maintenance of -which undoubtedly depends the Commercial 

 character and prosperity of the city. The subject is one, therefore, of 

 very general interest ; and as, in an engineering view, it is moreover 

 admitted to be one of very great difficulty and danger, it is of import- 

 ance that opinions given authoritatively should be subjected to rigid 

 scrutiny and frank reviewal. If we should iind it necessary to dissent 

 from the views of the authors of the above papers, they must remember 

 that those vie-ws have by their own acts become public property, 

 and that the higher the source from ■which they have emanated, 

 the more -worthy are they of criticism, even though it be adverse. 

 Everybody -who knows Toronto, knoTvs the Peninsula by which 

 its bay is nearly enclosed. Approach the city by -water, from -what 

 point he may, the stranger's eye rests upon this curiously shaped 

 spur; and as he quickly discerns its sheltering properties, and 

 to it attributes the excellence of the haven, so charmed is he by 

 the stiUness of the -waters -within, and so satistied is his mind by 

 the contemplation of an evident security, that he generally fails to 

 lament the narro-wness of the enti'ance, or to speculate upon the theory 

 of that formation -which is the cause of it. Some there are, of course, 

 •who, like Mr. Shanley, "standing on the deck of asteamer," or "look- 

 ing from the shore," have noticed " the plainly defined ontUnes of the 

 bar," -which, alas ! it requires not " the eye of an engineer " to dis- 

 cover. Nay. some grumbling and visionary alarmists have been looking 

 at it these twenty years past ; and although indulging in fearful pre- 

 dictions in regard to its future, (in -which they have been supported by 

 engineers, surveyors, et hoc genus omne, from tlie time of General 

 Simcoe to the present day) have failed to obtain a hearing, far loss to 

 induce a belief. "Truly," have exclaimed these disappointed savaus 

 " men are no propliets in their own country !" and therefore, -when Mr. 

 Shanley asserts tliat his acquaintance with the localit}' has been "short," 

 and that his knowledge of it is that of " a stranger," he takes his 

 course with the acuteness common to his countrymen, and "goes in to 

 ■win " on the acceptation of the same old proverb, extended to a belief 

 iu prophets from afar. 



Before attempting to prescribe a remedy, engineers, like physicians, 

 generally endeavour to ascertain the cause of tlie evil ; and having 

 satisfied themselves that the root an 1 manner of its action have been 

 discovered, they proceed to apply those preventive or remedial mea- 

 Burcs which they believe to be suited to tlie case ; but of course if the 



premises be erroneous the deduction -will be false, and the applications 

 made upon it will very probably be unsuccessful. 



This gives great importance to the inquiry, " How has this peninsula 

 been formed, and to whatcauses may the prolongation of tlie bai- at its 

 western extremity be ascribed ?" Upon a clear and satisfactory deter- 

 mination of these points probably depends the efficiency of the reme- 

 dial measures ; in its absence any measures so intended can but be 

 experimental, and may be worse than useless. 



Prior to 1850, four different theories of formation had been proposed, 

 which we find thus enumerated in Mr. Fleming's paper of that year: — 



1. That the Peninsula is an accumulation of diLft, carried across the 

 lake by the current of the Niagara River. 



2. That it has been formed, and that the shoal at the entrance of the 

 harbour is now in process of extension, by the influence of the opposing 

 currents of the Don, and the more westerly rivers, in contact, and the 

 deposition of matter on the neutral line between them. 



3. That it is a ledge of the rock underlying Toronto and the lake, 

 forming a check for the deposition o^ and now covered with alluvial 

 matter. 



4. That it is a deposition of the Tertiary period. Aud, 



5. That it is jointly a delta of the Don, and a drift from the east- 

 ward. 



The iirst of these propositions may briefly be dismissed as untena- 

 ble : the thii'd is at variance with the general Geological features of the 

 locality, and has been disproved by investigation ; and the fourth is 

 that suggested by Sir Richard Bonycastle, who states his belief " that 

 the Peninsula is one of the many ridges deposited at tlic bottom of a 

 vast lake, which existed before the present Ontario .nnd Erie were 

 formed out of its drainage," " and that it had probably not changed 

 its form or character since it emerged from the waters." No-w, 

 by reference to the papers and charts in the possession of the Canadisin 

 Institute, we find, that since Bonycastle -wrote, not only has the general 

 outline of the Peninsula been very considerably altered aud extended, 

 but that at one paiiicular point an ai'ea of upwards of thirty acres has 

 been added to that previously within the shore hue ; and as this recent 

 addition is in geological character a perfect fiic -simile of the portions 

 anterior to it, we may infer that both are due to the same causes, and 

 traceable to the same source, and therefore that the Peninsula is a for- 

 mation of the present epoch, and not a diluvian deposition. 



The second proposition is that which has found a supporter in Mr- 

 Shanley, who after stating that " on looking from tlie shore, when the 

 waters were beginning to be ruffled by a coming gale, or subsiding 

 into a calm after one, he has frequently viewed, with an engineer's eye, 

 the plainly defined outline of the bar, indicated by a white muddy 

 streak, whilst the waters on either side of it were clear and unco- 

 loured," — proceeds to record his opinion that "the sandbank is simply 

 the accumulation of the deposit brought down year after year by the 

 Humber, the Etobicoke, the Credit, the Sixteen, and other streams 

 discharging into the lake above this city ; all of which are subject to 

 great and sudden freshets, the discoloration of their waters at such 

 periods indicating that they ai'e surcharged with the debris of the 

 regions they have traversed, and which, held for a time in suspension 

 in the lake, isby the prevalence of south-westerlySwinds, drifted down 

 and finally precipitated along the ' peninsula ' which forms the south- 

 ern shore of the bay, and over the stiU submerged bar, which is fast 

 becoming its Western one." 



"To the effect," he continues, "ofthe counter currents, caused by the 

 prevailing winds down the lake, and the River Don, discliarging its 

 ■waters iu a contrary direction, 1 beUeve to be due the origin of the 

 Peninsula which encloses the bay, the precipitation of the suspended 

 matter natiu-ally taking place on the neutral line between the conflict- 

 ing currents ; and so well assured do I feel that this vast accumulation 



