1881.] OLo [Spencer. 



Harrisburg the limestones are known to be absent for a depth of more 

 than 73 feet, as shown in a deep well in the drift. 



In the town of Paris one well came upon hard rock at 10 feet below the 

 surface, whilst another at 100 feet in depth, reached no further than 

 boulder clay. This last well must have been in a buried channel of Neith's 

 creek, as outcrops of gypsum-bearing beds of the Onondaga Formation 

 frequently occur near the summit of the hills. From what has just been 

 written, it is easily seen that the Niagara limestones are absent from a more 

 or less horizontal floor (which is over 500 feet above the lake, on both the 

 northern and southern sides of the Dundas valley) which continues from 

 Dundas westward to near Harrisburg, where it meets a portion of the 

 Grand River valley. But almost immediately west of Ancaster we find 

 streams running northward at right angles to the escarpment, and cut- 

 ting through drift to the depth of almost hundreds of feet. In fact, if we 

 draw a line from Dundas to northward of Harrisburg (a mile or two), and 

 another from Ancaster southward to the Grand river, we have two limits 

 of a region where the limestone floor has been cut away from an otherwise 

 generally level region. The southern side of this area is the south- 

 ern margin of the Grand River valley, between Seneca and Brantford, and 

 the western boundary is composed of Onondaga rocks east of Paris (which 

 perhaps forms an island of rocks buried more or less in drift). 



Additional proofs may be cited. About a mile south of Copetown a well 

 was sunk to the depth of 100 feet before water was obtained. At two 

 miles south east of the same village there is small pond only 240 feet above 

 Lake Ontario, or more than 360 feet below the neighboring escarpment. 

 This is in drift. Again, at a mile north of Jerseyville, the country has a 

 height of 465 feet, with a well in the surface soil to a depth of 40 feet. 

 A small rivulet flows in a valley a few hundred yards south of the last 

 named well which has a bed 435 feet above the lake. At about a mile west 

 of Jerseyville, the altitude is 468 feet with a well 53 feet deep. Again, at 

 about two miles west of the same village, near the county line, the altitude 

 is 460 feet, with a well 57 feet deep (the bottom being lower than the Fair- 

 child's creek more than three miles to the westward). About a mile north 

 of the last named station is a ravine 436 feet with the adjacent hills forty 

 feet higher, and rising in a mile or two to about 500 feet. All these wells 

 are in the drift. From exposures near Ancaster, it appears that the un- 

 stratified drift has not an altitude of much more than 400 feet. And as we 

 know that some o( these superficial beds are stratified clay, and over most 

 of the country just described not a boulder is to be seen, neither on the sur- 

 face nor in the material taken from the greater portions of the wells, it is 

 probable that the water is only obtained on reaching the more porous 

 boulder clay below. It has also been noticed that two wells, at least, are 

 100 feet deep before reaching water, therefore we may fnirly place this as 

 about the inferior limit of stratified superficial clays. By reference to the 

 accompanying map, it will be seen that westward of the meridian of Ancas- 

 ter there is an area of over 100 square miles, where the Niagara floor is 



