76 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
No more need be said regarding the more general move- 
ment, but the alleged disturbance or tilting of the northern 
shore of Lake Ontario brings the matter close to ourselves, and 
as in former years, when [| stayed at Winona during the past 
summer, I paid particular attention to the lake level, noting 
minor changes at some points and considerable ones at others, 
and still entertaining the views expressed in a former paper, 
viz:—that Lake Ontario was certainly encroaching on the south 
shore. This was not perceptible on a first glance from that 
portion of the park where I was standing, but on looking and 
taking in a wider range along the lake westward (only a 
slight breeze was blowing at the time), I saw the water level 
was considerably higher than it was the previous year, in fact, 
one found it impossible to get along the shore dry-shod, where 
no difficulty was experienced at the same time last year in walk- 
ing below the high bank. A little to the west between Winona 
and Hamilton, a farmer assured me the lake was encroaching 
on his land, and he lost at the rate of four feet, on an average, 
annually. At the park itself and to the east beyond it, a very 
slight change has been remarked in the lake level. Owing to an 
alteration in the current, the prevalence of winds in a particular 
direction, or other cause, the sand-bank at the margin is increas- 
ing and forming a barrier to the advance landward. A line of 
heavy boulders from the fields above, around which the gravel 
accumulates, may further retard the progress. A few placed by 
the writer by way of experiment, were not removed by shore ice 
in spring. He was informed, however, they would probably be 
taken away in boats for building purposes. 
The Erie clay, capped by a slight covering of surface soil, 
is a stiff, greasy deposit, containing many polished and striated 
pebbles and boulders. In certain places it offers considerable 
resistance to wave action, but in hot, dry weather, the face ex- 
posed to the sun’s influence, disintegrates more quickly than 
one may imagine. The frost penetrating above, aided by this 
weathering process, keeps the bank (20 feet in one field, as 
measured) quite perpendicular, It seems evident from this cir- 
cumstance, hat while the water is sapping below, the weather- 
