﻿1851.] 



BIGSBY ON CANADIAN ERRATICS. 



231 



Lake Simcoe. Of Lake Simcoe I may here briefly say, that the west 

 sides of Cook's Bay and Kempenfelt Bay, thirty-two miles from Hol- 

 land's Landing, are encumbered to an extraordinary amount with very 

 large and rounded erratics, derived from the N. and N.W., which 

 extend also as far into the woods as we had time to venture. In the 

 latter bay I saw much loose labradorite and most of the loose rocks 

 that were seen at the Giant's Tomb. The bottom and north side of 

 Kempenfelt Bay are faced with one or more high terraces — two at 

 Johnsons ; these are composed of sand and rounded stones. 



I now return to Lake Ontario, and pass on for fifty miles along 

 the high-road which skirts the lake, with many deviations, from 

 Toronto to Kingston. 



For several miles at first I passed through woods, growing on white 

 sand and grey clay in various states of admixture. About the river 

 Rouge (eighteen miles from Toronto) the land is covered with large 

 primitive masses, and with much of the Simcoe Limestone, contain- 

 ing fossil-casts of loose yellow sand (found also in situ on Quinte 

 Portage, Lake Ontario). 



At thirty miles east of Toronto, about Still's Tavern, and so for 

 many miles (to Farley's — forty-five miles? from Toronto), the 

 country undulates greatly, and is full of ridges and misshapen de- 

 posits of gravel and sand. Here and there are flats, with winding 

 terraces in their rear ; running, however, with a certain parallelism 

 to the lake-shore. Parts, especially the eminences, are loaded with 

 boulders of primitive rocks, of sahlite, white marble, &c, — very 

 large, and of Simcoe limestone — the last not scattered about, but 

 occurring in heaps. 



I afterwards saw this instructive scene from the lake below, whilst 

 making a coasting- voyage between Toronto and Kingston (180 miles), 

 in a small boat. 



On this occasion the following observations were made. On the 

 beach in front of Toronto are many large erratics of syenite, green- 

 stone, and labradorite, with a block (weighing more than two tons) 

 of the mixed serpentine and marble, which is met with in the north, 

 high up the Ottawa River. 



Besides these, there is a remarkable block, not much rolled, which 

 was first noticed by the late Dr. Lyons. It is a mass, weighing about 

 two tons, consisting of an intimate mixture of calcspar, actinolite, and 

 petalite. As it has been already described both chemically and mi- 

 neralogically by Dr. Gerard Troost* from my specimens, I shall say 

 no more about it here, further than to remark that most probably it 

 has been derived from the north. 



Toronto stands upon clay, which contains in spots many small peb- 

 bles of milky quartz. 



Proceeding eastwards from hence six miles, we come to a line of 

 cliffs, seven and a half miles long, called the Highlands of Toronto f. 

 On the west they begin abruptly and loftily, at the eastern end of 

 the deserted bay in which Toronto is situate ; while their other ex- 



* Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. iii. 

 f A noted land-mark on the lake. 



