Spencer.] '^'^^ [March 18, 



tion of the ice was towards the south-west, the waters from the melting 

 glaciers could scarcely flow up an escarpment many hundreds of feet in 

 height. Even if the Niagara escarpment did not exist elsewhere, the non- 

 parallelism of the striae, and edges of the escarpment with their angular 

 summits, is sufficient to yn'ove the non-glacial origin of the valley in the 

 hard limestone rocks. Moreover, at the eastern end of the narrower por- 

 tion of the valley, there are two concave curves facing the lake, which of 

 necessity would have been removed if such a gigantic grinding agent had 

 been moving up the valley. 



This glacier-origin of the valley being an absolutely untenable hypothesis, 

 I sought for some fluviatile agent capable of effecting the present configura- 

 tion of the region. At the time, no idea occurred that even the great valley 

 of the present is only a miserable remnant of one of gigantic proportions 

 obscured by hundreds of feet of drift. The question arose, could Lake 

 Erie have ever emptied by this valley ? This suggestion did not hold its 

 ground for any length of time, because the present levels are all too high. 

 Near Gait, the traces of the true origin first presented themselves. A branch 

 of the Great "Western Railway extends from Gait southward for about four 

 miles in the valley of the Grand river, after which, without making any im- 

 portant ascent, it passes into the broad older valley, described above as that 

 in which Fairchild's creek now flows. After a careful examination of the 

 region, and of the railway levels, I came to the conclusion that this was an 

 old buried valley. It then became apparent that if the Grand river had 

 occupied the site of the Fairchild's creek, that the latter probably flowed 

 down the Dundas valley, and that the Grand river, being one of the largest 

 of the rivers of Ontario, might have been a sufficient cause for the great 

 excavation at the western end of Lake Ontario. Having procured all the 

 levels that bore on the subject which were available, it became necessary 

 to connect several places myself by instrumental measurements, which 

 work was accomplished last July, with the aid of Prof. Wilkins. As 

 the whole floor of Niagara limestones is absent, as has previously been 

 shown, the proof that the ancient Grand river flowed down the Dundas 

 valley was completed, and of this discovery there was published a local 

 notice last August. Significant and interesting as this fact was, relative to 

 the change of systems in our Canadian drainage, a still more important 

 issue was involved. When taking the levels between the Dundas valley 

 (modern) and the Grand river, it was found that the whole calcareous floor 

 was removed from a basin several miles in width, and that all the wells 

 were sunk to a considerable depth in the drift before water could be 

 obtained. On glancing at the map it will be seen that the Grand river 

 from Brantford to Seneca meanders through a broad course, wliich in its 

 ancient basin is several miles in Avidth, but that from Seneca the valley is 

 narrower, and the course of the stream more direct, as far as Cayuga. At 

 Seneca the valley is two miles wide, and seventy-five feet deep. Also the 

 bed of the Grand river at Seneca is in drift which is only 37 feet above 

 the lake into which it now empties. As has been pointed out in the section 



