102 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



a large whale buried in the shingle. One vertebra alone was 

 a fair weight for a man to carry. A large Archain boulder (in 

 front of the village) which formerly was completely ■ under 

 water at low tide, is now uncovered, and even a portion of the 

 shore outside it exposed. The old fisher folk there imagined 

 the sea had receded about two feet in 30 years. The falling of 

 the water, however, is a manifest impossibility, as the relative 

 levels of the sea and land outside were unaltered. Not long- 

 since, Dr. Spencer, F.G.S., who has more carefully studied 

 the Field Geology of the Niagara District than any of us, posi- 

 tively asserts that changes are even here progressing in the 

 vicinity of Lake Ontario, which may threaten the stability of 

 the Ambitious Citv of Hamilton itself. Well, it may be so, 

 but what changes have taken place since our Niagara Rocks 

 became dry land, countless ages ago. No violent action in 

 the earth's crust here has put in an appearance. No earthquake 

 has ever impressed its presence on its undislocated, undisturb- 

 ed and untilted rocks. Elsewhere you will find massive beds 

 which once lay horizontally on ancient sea bottoms, elevated 

 and presenting the opposite position. 



You may think it perhaps an unpardonable omission on 

 my part not to instance the case of Port Royal, in Jamaica, 

 which was said to be swallowed up by an earthquake in 1692. 

 I know the place in question. Its destruction was not owing 

 to the sinking of the earth crust there, in the usual manner, 

 but to a series of tidal waves (caused by an earthquake), which 

 vv^ashed awav the loose sandy beach on which the inhabitants 

 erected churches and foundationless dwellings. 



The ancient Port Royal (like the modern one, of same 

 name), was built on this spit of sand called "The Palisades,"' 

 from the timber wharfs and crib work, piles, etc., used by the 

 inhabitants to prevent the material thrown up by the sea from 

 disappearing-. There was sufficient water at the wdiarf to al- 

 low vessels of 700 tons to come alongside. Sir H. de la Reche, 

 one of the best Field Geologists of his day (the Director of the 

 r>ritish Geological Survey), who was well acquainted with 

 Jamaica, remarks : "Had it been a general subsidence the 



