148 , JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



ing on the till the water filtered into the cutting and caused trouble. 

 The ground rises to considerable height between Ray and Queen 

 streets, at this point the cutting is thirty-two feet, the upper twenty- 

 two feet being coarse red gravel and boulders, a few Hudson river, 

 but mostly of granite and Niagara limestones and sand stone, very 

 much mixed, much larger than are found in the concrete, but well 

 rounded. This formation runs to Hess street, but just before reach- 

 ing Hess street we come across two more springs, and the material 

 laying on the till is a coarse sand, causing the banks to give way, and 

 from this to Caroline street is very sandy, in which are bands of 

 large boulders, mostly of limestone and sandstone, — I found one or 

 two from the Chert,, and many kinds of granite and a few Hudson 

 river boulders. As we approach Bay street these layers of boulders 

 become more frequent above the sand that overlays the till, and be- 

 fore Bay street is reached they become concreted by the infusion of 

 lime, and from here to Park street the whole depth had to be blasted. 

 Between Bay and Park is evidently an old lake beach, a continua- 

 tion of the Burlington Heights, which cross King, Main, Jackson 

 and Hunter streets, crossing the cutting at an oblique angle at the 

 Central School, and thence crossing James at Young and Robinson 

 streets, reaching the mountain at Maclaren's. From Bay street it 

 reaches the level at Charles street. This gives a general idea of the 

 cutting. I will now make some general remarks about the lowest 

 bed, the till. 



This blue till is sometimes called Erie clay, but for what reason 

 I do not know, as the glaciers appear to have come from the north- 

 east, and I should judge that this clay was from the grinding down 

 of the Trenton and Uiica shales and the Hudson river rocks, as all 

 the portions of stone found in this clay appear to come from these 

 rocks, with here and there portions of granite and other rocks. This 

 boulder till is a uniform homogeneous mass, showing no trace of 

 lamination, but breaking away in perpendicular columns. The frac- 

 tions of stone found in this till are always sub angular, and lay in 

 every direction, sometimes on their edges or at an angle at which 

 they had been driven, they are worn quite smooth on their flattened 

 faces, and the glacial scratches are well marked on most of them. I 

 have not found a rounded water-washed pebble, although I have 

 watched over thousands of tons. Resting on this there is two feet 



