1853.] 



REVIEWS. 



163 



of deposit is mainly attributable to the action of tbe above-named 

 streams, that it would surprise me much if a scientific examination of 

 the bar should fail to prove the iiarticles entering into its composition 

 to te rojireseutatives in miuature of Uie same geological formation as 

 obtains aloug and below the Flamborough Heights." 



In this proposition, then, Mr. Shauley first declares that "when the 

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

 a calm after one, " the bar is denoted by a white muddy streak," with 

 the water on either side of it clear and micolourcd." Now we presume, 

 that as '■the discoloration of the waters of the Humber and otlier 

 westerly streams "indicates that they are surcharged with the debris 

 of the regions they ha^e ti'aversed," the absence of this discoloration on 

 the margins of the bar (and especially under the circumstances stated) 

 would appear to denote that such debris has not been carried thence, 

 and by those waters, for how could "the waters on either side" remain, 

 eren during a gale, in a translucent state, if at the same time they were 

 the vehicle of transportation for the discolouring matter referred to, 

 and in other places so apparent ? But in the process of such a tj'ans- 

 poilation, a distance varying from Jive io twenty miUs, with a depth of 

 water raryiug from sixty io one hundred fed, are involved ; and it seems 

 very questionable, if it may not be stated as an impossibility, that the 

 materials of which the Peninsula is formed (sand and gravel) could for 

 such a distance, and over such a depth of comparatively still waters, 

 be " held in suspension, and drifted down" to theii' present position. 

 Were the deposit of an argillaceous nature, and did the winds prevail 

 from the south-west, there might be some grounds for such a supposi- 

 tion ; but as neither of these is consistent with fact, we conceive there 

 are none. 



Again, in a subsequent paragraph (and after having attributed the 

 bar to "the effect of the counter ercrrcnis of the lake and the River Don") 

 Mr. Shanley says, whilst the lake and its tributaries are united in 

 blockading tlie enti'ance of the Port, there is a less potent but insidious 

 and patient enemy busy at its Eastern extremity — the River Don." 

 " Doubtless the evils to be apprehended from the action of this stream 

 are disi-anl and insignijicani ; * * * but having more than once heard 

 the opinion expressed, that an effect beneficial to the chaimel, in aiding 

 to keep it unobstructed, is due to the influx (we presume c/Hux is 

 intended) of the Don water, I wish liere to recoi'd my dissent from 

 such opinion, being convinced that * * * the oidtcard currenis uhich do 

 exist at seasons, are to be traced to an entirely different source" Now, the 

 Don seems to be a very fickle or very accommodating River. First we 

 have its current conflicting with the lake waters at the bar, and thus 

 forminfi it, and then we have it insidiously retiring to "the eastern ex- 

 tremity of the bay" and "busy" in another service: first, it is 

 described as "dischai-ging its watere " at the bar," in a contrary direc- 

 tion" to that of a south-westerly wind, and immediately afterwards, 

 " the outward currents are attributable to an entirely different source !" 

 Far from attempting to disentangle this mystery, we shall not even 

 essay to determine which " current " of this "conflicting" argument 

 is the true one. Indeed, we are inclined to doubt both, for if the out. 

 ward cun-ent be not due to the Don, it must, we suppose, be due to the 

 wind ; and if to tht wind, inasmuch as its influence would be common 

 to both currents, simultaneously impelling them in the same direction, 

 there could be no "conflict." A wind driving the Lake waters west, 

 would drive the Bay waters out, and westerly ; whilst a wind impel- 

 ling the Lake waters east, would drive them into the Bay, and thence 

 easterly. We cannot understand the proposition, and should be glad 

 to see it explained. 



But it is said that " the conflicting currents " (we mean of the watere, 

 not the argument) result in " a teutral line, where the precipitation of 

 the suspended matter actually takes place." One current, however, 

 that of the Dou, has been unceremoniously dismissed to "the eastern 

 extremity of the bay," and the other, and that the most potent, is 

 attributed to the influence of the south-west, which is certainly not the 

 prevailing wind : as surely therefore ,ts the wind changes, the neutral 



line between the two cun'ents (for we must recall the Don to get the 

 conflict) changes with it, and hence the precipitation is distributed far 

 and wide, — or is chiefly in the line of the prevailing wind, and there- 

 fore not where it is said to b& 



There are other and very cogent reasons, inducing us to doubt that 

 the peninsula is the deposit of the streams to the westward, or (as 

 Mr. Shanley suggests) " the geological representative in miuature of the 

 Flamborough heights." We believe the Peninsula to be, in superior 

 geological formatiou, the representative of the Scarborough heights ; 

 and if so, then undoubtedly it is a deposit from the eastward, brcught, 

 not as Mr. Shanley says, by the River Dou, for that would involve a 

 geographical impossibility, but by the lake watei's, under the influence 

 of south-easterly gales. And again, before the commencement of such 

 a deposition as that suggested from the west, the Don, it is fair to infer, 

 must have had a free run into the lake ; when therefore it conflicted 

 with a stronger cuiTent from the west, it must have been turned 

 easterly ; and as the neutral line would of course take the same direc- 

 tion, the deposition would have been easterly also. Now, the current 

 of the Don outwards has been turned westerly, and the deposition, it 

 is admited, has been and still it westerly ; it is reasonable to conclude, 

 therefore that the strongest lake cuiTents have been from the east — and 

 if from the east, then undoubtedly the Peninsula i^annot be a deposit 

 from the westerly sti'eams. Besides, to suppose that the deposit has 

 been from the west, is to suppose either that the two currents first met 

 at the bar, and that the deposition has been thence easterly, or that they 

 met at the eastern limit of the peninsula, and that the deposition has 

 been thence westerly, in the teeth of the strongest current: but the former 

 is contrary to fact, and the latter an impossibity : we have therefore to 

 account m some other way for this formation and its progress. 



And this brings us to the fifth proposition in Mr. Fleming's list, and 

 to the consideration of his papers named in our heading. 



Mr. Fleming contends that the peninsula is jointly a delta of the Don 

 and a drift fi-om the eastward. This theory he has propounded after a 

 very complete, and apparently a very accurate instrumental survey of 

 the bay and the peninsula, including soundings within and without, 

 and sections from various points of the city front, on lines southerly 

 through the bay and peninsula to the lake. He has moreover trans- 

 ferred, from charts of various dates, the form and condition of the 

 peninsula, by which, in connection with his own more recent surveys, 

 he professes to elucidate the manner of its extension, and to these he 

 has appended charts of the other natural harbours of our lakes where, 

 in his opinion, the same agencies have been exercised to a similar 

 result 



Many of our readers will remember the occasion on which these 

 papers were exhibited some two years since. The authorities of the 

 city — the Mayor, and members of the Corporation, the Harbour Com- 

 missioners, and others officially interested in the subject, were invited 

 to be present, and some of them did attend the reading of the papers, 

 and the discussions which ensued upon them, in the rooms of the 

 Canadian Institute. We think we are correct in saying, that the gene- 

 ral impression then was that Mr. Fleming had succceeded in establish- 

 ing the ti'uth of his propositions ; at any rate it is certain, that the 

 valuable information, which, he had collected, was acknowledged to 

 have given the first practical direction to this important enquiry. Our 

 limits will not permit us to make any very lengthened reference to Mr. 

 Fleming's labors, nor is it necessary, as in combating Mr. Shanley 's views, 

 we have in a great measure adopted those of Mr. Fleming. He contends 

 that the groundwork of the peninsula was a delta of the Don, formed on 

 the subsidence of Lake Ontario from a high to its present level, and the 

 consequent scour of the region now represented by its valley : — that 

 this delta has afforded a base for the drift fi-om the highlands of Scar- 

 borough, which formerly occupied a much more southerly position than 

 at present ; and that under the influence of the south-westerly gales, it 

 has continued to augment, the deposition being westerly, until, m 



