Spencer.] ^^^ [March 18, 



river from Brantforcl eastward, is generally excavated from the drift deposits, 

 although occasionally one side of the valley shows rocks of Onondaga 

 formation, exposed by the removal of the drift in modern times. It is also 

 desirable to call attention to the fact that in the region of Brantford, much 

 of the Onondaga Formation is shaly and forms the surface country rock, 

 covering a broad belt, whilst from Seneca eastward, the surface ot the 

 country is more generally covered with Coniferous limestone. 



Country between the Grand River and Dundas Valleys. The watershed 

 between these two present drainage systems is at only a short distance south- 

 west of Copetown, and the distance in a direction from the Fairchild's to 

 the Dundas side of this divide is less than seven miles, with an average 

 altitude of less than 480 feet (the same as that of the Fairchild's creek as it 

 crosses the Great Western Railway). The highest point that I have 

 leveled is 493 feet above Lake Ontario. On receding westward from the 

 divide, the country gradually descends to the Fairchild's creek, .which, as 

 it crosses the Brantford and Harrisburg Railway, is 407 above the lake. It 

 is considerably lower where it enters the Grand river. The region between 

 the divide and the Grand river is traversed from north-west to south-east 

 by a considerable number of streams, all with relatively large valleys, cut 

 in the drift, since the present system of drainage was inaugurated in Post 

 Glacial times. 



The country from Jersey ville (about 465 feet above lake) slopes gradually 

 to the Grand river, from six to eight miles distant to the southward. 



On examination, it may be seen that the country is too high to permit 

 the Fairchild's creek or Grand river, as they are at present situated, to flow 

 over the height of land into the upper portion of the Dundas valley. As 

 referred to before, the Niagara limestone forming the summit of the es- 

 carpment at Ancaster and eastward has a height of about 500 feet. These 

 beds dip at only about 25 feet in a mile (to about 20 degrees west of south) 

 and are not generally covered by a great thickness of drift, but in many 

 places are exposed on or near the surface. Westward of Ancaster these 

 limestones are nowhere to be found, but the country is only covered with 

 drift. At a short distance west of this village, we find streams flowing 

 north-easterly and easterly with very deep valleys in the drift, indicating 

 the absence of the floor of limestone to a depth of over 250 feet below the 

 surface of the escarpment. But on going westward we find that the streams 

 have not cut to an equal depth, but still running deeply through drift. 

 Eventually we reach the divide, after which we find that other systems of 

 streams also cut deeply in the drift running in a south-easterly direction to 

 join the Grand river ; but the Niagara limestone is absent from a consider- 

 able extent of country. 



On the northern side of the Dundas valley the escarpment after reach- 

 ing Copetown is buried by the drift. Although the line of buried clifi*s 

 recedes somewhat to the northward of the Great Western Railway, yet 

 there are occasional exposures, as at Troy and other places in Beverly and 

 Flamboro, where the underlying limestones come to the surface. At 



