THE Hamilton association. 35 



with a thickness in lower Ontario of over 4,000 feet, and after these 

 we have a few formations of the Devonian with a thickness of 600 

 feet, the most recent of which are probably older than lake Huron, 

 lake Erie or lake Ontario. 



Now from the close of the Laurentian system considerable areas 

 of our so-called New Ontario have been dry land ; and what length 

 of time elapsed in the interval between the end of the Laurentian 

 age and the deposition of the Chemung and Portage beds, which 

 are the most recent of the lower Ontario formations, we may possi- 

 bly conceive when it is ascertained that the aggregate thickness of 

 the rocks is 18 to 22 miles. Or if we take only the period from the 

 close of the Nipigon formation, during which fully three- fourths of 

 the New Ontario was dry land, and all except the pre-Cambrian por- 

 tion of lower Ontario was under the sea, we find that enough time 

 had elapsed for the deposition of strata more than a mile in thick- 

 ness. And that time must have been relatively long, as none of the 

 rocks are of igneous origin ; all are sedimentary. 



Obviously therefore, when looked at from the geological point 

 of view, the title of the New Ontario is something of a misnomer. 



How does it appear when looked at in the light of modern his- 

 tory, of written documents and annals ? 



its human history. 



There are few places in southern Ontario whose beginnings can- 

 not be found within the limits of a century. Fort Frontenac, on 

 the site of Kingston, was built in 1673, ^"d Fort Rouille, on the 

 site of Toronto, about 1750, and these were the only important posts 

 in our part of the country during the French occupation. There 

 were no settlements worthy of mention excepting those on the De- 

 troit river until after Canada had been acquired by the British ; and 

 then the earliest were those formed by the loyalists at the close of 

 the American war for independence. Kingston and Niagara were 

 the first towns, and they date their origin from 1783. The first 

 houses in Toronto were built in 1794, and the town plot of Hamil- 

 ton was not laid out until 1813. 



But in the New Ontario of the north the fur traders, both 

 French and English, began active business more than two centuries 

 ago, and many forts and posts were established throughout the re- 



