REPORTS ON TORONTO HARBOUR. 



coast;, or how would they check the progress of the shelving beach 

 which is disturbed by "the long waves of an easterly gale to a 

 greater depth than fifteen feet ? 



The Peninsula in its subaqueous extension is an enormous sand 

 and shingle shoal, very shelving on the Lake side, and, where it 

 has not been remodelled or disturbed, very precipitous on th» Bay 

 side.* The testimony of the fishermen of the present day in rela- 

 tion to it is the same as when Sir Richard Bonnycastle wrote, it 

 consists Lakewards of immense fluctuating shoals. These shoals 

 extend Lakewards 1500 yards before they attain a depth of 30 feet, 

 except in one spot, and that is near the Lighthouse or Turning Point. 

 Baywards the shoals are in general precipitous, and the openings 

 which have from time to time been made in Asbridge's Bay and 

 the Peninsula, have scarcely changed the precipitous character of 

 the Bay sides. They have merely succeeded in shifting the boun- 

 dary a little northwards, but they have not materially changed the 

 form of the coast or its subaqueous extension in either Bay. The 

 writer took pains to examine the effect of the waves breaking over 

 about a third of a mile of the coast of Ashbridge's Bay this season 

 (April, 1854), and found along the Bay side of the Beach 6, 6J, 

 and 7 feet water within 15 or 20 feet of the bar over which the 

 waves broke furiously, and had been breaking for weeks, under 

 the influence of the easterly gales which have distinguished the 

 present spring. (See Note B. in Appendix.) It is well known 

 that the late breach near the Peninsula Hotel is wholly filled up, 

 and that its effect upon the Bay has been comparatively insig- 

 nificant. 



It will be seen that the arguments against the construction of a 

 permanent opening apply with greater or less force to every portion 

 of the beach from its western to its eastern extremity. A canal 

 from Ashbridge's Bay into the Lake would, a fortiori, be still more 

 objectionable than one near the Peninsula Hotel, as it would in- 

 volve the strengthening of the whole of the beach as far as the 

 Light-house Point to prevent its westward motion. The next ques- 

 tion which suggests itself, assuming the preservation of the beach 

 provided for, is the possibility of keeping an artificial canal open 

 anywhere between a few hundred yards east of the Point and 

 the most remote extremity of Ashbridge's Bay, without continued 

 and expensive dredging. When we remember that many million 

 tons of sand and shingle have passed along the beach from Scarboro' 

 shore to form in 58 years the 30 acres in deep water beyond the 

 Lighthouse Point, when we glance at the new beach which has 

 recently been thrown up west of the Point, when we consider the 

 changed character of the Scarboro' cliffs, unprotected as they now 

 are, is it probable that a canal could be maintained within the 

 limits before mentioned ? Is it not rather to be supposed that the 

 sand would accumulate on its gastern side with a rapidity before 

 unknown and defy the most energetic efforts to preserve a passage 

 during the winter season ? The rapidity with which natural breaks 

 fill up, as shown repeatedly in Ashbridge's Bay, and recently near 

 the Peninsula Hotel, furnishes also a safe answer in the negative to 

 this question. 



It appears manifest that the integrity of the Peninsula must be 

 preserved ; that no artificial Lake communication situated be 

 tween the Light-house Point and the eastern extremity of Ash- 

 bridge's Bay could be maintained under the existing conditions 

 of the Scarboro' cliffs, without an enormous outlay at the com- 



* Note H. in Appendix. 



mencement and an annually increasing expense in maintaining it. 



It is urged that the chief objection to the construction of groynes 

 into only eight or ten feet water is the nature of the sloping 

 beach, the fluctuating shoals, which in places are. not twenty feet 

 below the surface of the water seven hundred yards distant 

 from the shore. Mr. Fleming's own measurements opposite his 

 proposed canal give a distance of nearly 700 yards before the 

 shoaling coast reaches a depth of twenty feet water. The whole 

 question of the construction of groynes is involved in a distinct 

 and exact knowledge of the depth to which the surges of the Lake 

 affect the sand and shingle of the shoal. It is manifest that if a 

 groyne were not constructed into water deeper than that in which 

 the waves have the power to move the sand at the bottom, it would 

 be of little avail. Let us suppose for instance that groynes were 

 constructed on the sand bars to the depth of twelve feet water, and 

 that the high waves of the Lake affect the bottom to a depth of 

 fifteen feet.* The sand during storms, namely those which produce 

 the longest and highest waves (the easterly storms) would be dis- 

 turbed to the depth of fifteen feet and pushed round the projecting 

 groyne, other sand from above or the east, falling down by gravity 

 or pushed along by the impelling waves would fill the place of that 

 which had been removed, and be in turn swept westward, and so 

 on repeatedly. A really useful groyne must penetrate into 

 water of a depth beyond the ordinary influence of the waves upon 

 the shelving bottom during storms, which certainly extends on the 

 Peninsula shoals to a depth exceeding fifteen feet. There is a spot 

 on the Peninsula where a groyne can be constructed to serve every 

 purpose required. Mr. Fleming has justly recommended a groyne 

 at the Lighthouse Point (the south-western point of the Peninsula), 

 and it appears to the writer that tiiat spot is the first which should 

 be selected for the construction of a groyne. But Mr. Fleming's 

 suggestion that the groyne should be carried out into eight or 

 ten feet water, is altogether incompatible with the effect pro- 

 duced on the sand at the bottom below that depth by the long 

 swell of the waves. 



The writer, while duly acknowledging Mr. Fleming's appropriate 

 selection (as it appears to him) of the locality, would suggest that 

 one groyne should be carried out there into 40 feet water. When 

 the peculiarity of the beach and shoal at the Lighthouse Point is 

 considered the magnitude of the work will not appear so imposing 

 as it seems to be at first sight. The boundary of the Peninsula at 

 its south-west extremity is extremely abrupt, so much so, that at the 

 point A on the Chart No. 9, the depth of water is not less than 40 or 

 50 feet within 400 feet of thebeach, (leaving a widemarginfor recent 

 changes, possible, but not probable.) The soundings on the Map 

 are taken from personal observation, and Mr. Fleming's Chart, 

 and they indicate a steep and abrupt boundary at the turning point 

 of the shoal. This peculiarity in the conformation of the Light- 

 house Point in its subaqueous extension, will necessarily be main- 

 tained for a long period of time, as every successive step in advance 

 is into deeper and deeper water. A few hundred yards to the west 

 of the Point, 90 feet water is recorded. (Lieut. Herbert.) All 

 progress of the beach, therefore, in a south-westerly direction must 

 be made by vast accumulations in deep water. This point serves 

 as a protecting headland round which the travelling beach is 

 rapidly moved by easterly winds and as rapidly forwarded north- 

 ward by south and south-westerly winds. 



A groyne at A, bisecting the segment of curvature would, if 



* Note D. in A ppendix. 



