154 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
large, well-rounded granite, or gneiss boulder, had become fast 
jammed about two-thirds the way through the tunnel. The erratic 
must have been perhaps one and a-half tons in weight, and there 
would seem to be no possibility of a current of water having formed 
in modern times of sufficient power to force the monstrous pebble 
into its present imprisonment. At varying distances from the river 
edge, in the same locality, are outlying isolated pinnacle like masses 
of stratified limestone, some of them with a base of several roods of 
superfices, which are apt to excite the curiosity of an observer, and 
suggesting in his mind that the whole region around was once a con- 
tinuous area of these ancient rock layers, and that denudation 
agencies have formed the now fertile pastoral and arable surround- 
ings. The rock strata all through the Elora region shows innumer- 
able perpendicular fissures, as if since the deposition and hardening 
of the horizontal beds the entire formation had been violently dis- 
turbed and shaken by subterranean upheavals. 
The local Elora geological theorists differ in opinion as to the 
original cause of the tremendous Grand River chasm there existing, 
whether water-worn or of volcanic earth eruptions? Is there not 
probability of both these agencies having contributed? The jutting 
promontories or miniature capes are much worn away below high- 
water mark, and the curious pillar-like rock left standing in mid- 
stream at the Elora Falls is so eroded near the water level and below 
as to have become now quite top-heavy looking, and with portions 
of the same cedar shrubbery and botanical growths as still are to be 
seen on the near-by river margin, thus testifying unequivocally that 
the intervening space was once occupied by the continuous lime- 
stone layers, and the testimonial relic monument seems destined to 
topple over by the assaults of the ice masses that strike it with such 
force and impetuosity at the period of the spring break-up. Lime- 
stone is more easily corroded by rain water than many other sorts 
of either sedimentary or primary igneous rocks. The river chasm 
has curves, and varies much in width. Some narrow rifts give but 
faint tokens of grinding abrasion from the river current. The prob- 
lem presented is interesting from the point of view of mental culture, 
elevating and profitable in the science of logic and tracing of cause 
and effect. The large object lessons written everywhere on the earth’s 
surface compel inferences and inuendoes that are never to be forgotten 
or treated with indifference or disdain as “‘finger-pointing” to wisdom. 
a a ee ee ee ee 
