65 



TORONTO HAllBOUll.— MISCELLANEA. 



[185 



33. Greece 13.0,31.5 



34. Hayti ...-. 133,804 



35. Morocco 75,257 



36. Senegambia 1,527 



Other countries 912,602 



£98,933,781" 



Toronto IJar?Jour» 



In our liLst issue, lye stated that it was the intention of the Harboiir 

 Commissioners to strengthen the peninsula boundary of the Boy at the 

 narrows near the Hotel. We hare since hadan opportunity of inspecting 

 the plans of Mr. Kivas TuUy, for the accomplishment of this work. Mr. 

 Tully proposes to construct an embanlcment at the narrows, sustained- 

 by planking secured to posts sunk in the sand beach to the level of the 

 Lake. The posts are to be about eight feet long, and the parallel walls 

 of the embankment separated by an interval of twenty feet. This 

 space is to bo filled with sand and capped with road metal, with a view 

 to form a permanent carriage road. On each side of this artificial 

 roadway the sand of the peninsula is to be thrown in the form of an 

 inclined plane, the sloping surface of which will be about fifteen feet 

 in breadth. The entire embankment will thus have a breadth of about 

 fifty feet. 



It is proposed to contimie this embankment along the peninsula 

 boundary of the Bay to a certain distance, in the direction of the light- 

 house, and then to connect it with thecity by means of its continuation 

 along the narrow strip of land which separates Ashbridge's from Toronto 

 Bay. The Harbour Commissioners, we are informed, have determined 

 to limit the constructiou of this embankment to the extent of about 150 

 yards, during the present year ; preferring, before authorizing its con- 

 tinuation beyond that point, to satisfy themselves as to its capabilities 

 to withstand the effects of the waves of the Lake under the influence 

 of those prolonged easterly storms which invariably visit us in the 

 spring of the year. We are not aware with whom this method of de- 

 fending the narrows against the encroachments of the Lake originates, 

 nor do we know whether Mr. Tully is acting in accordance with his 

 own convictions, or under the particular directions of the Harbour 

 Commissioners, in thus preparing for the construction of the works we 

 have briefly described. We are, however, glad to find that the opera- 

 tions are viewed rather in the light of an experiment than as a perma- 

 nent defence for the Harbour against the inroads of the surges of the 

 Lake at the narrows. We have no hesitation in expressing a conviction 

 that, if the Lake maintains its present level during the winter, the estab- 

 lishment of a roadway in the manner described is perfectly hopeless. 

 That the embankment, or rather its ruins, will serve the purpose of 

 arresting the encroachment of the Lake, is more than probable, but 

 the waves will model it after their own fashion, and eventually form a 

 safe natural bank, in which it will be difficult to trace the outline of 

 Mr. Tully' s roadway. If the Lake falls fifteen or eighteen inches during 

 the present year, the roadway will be protected by a new beach formed, 

 or, we may say, now forming, some thirty or forty yards from the 

 present shore, and its purpose as a barrier will be neutralized. If the 

 waters of the Lake do not fall during the autumn more than a few 

 inches, the artificial sloping boundary of the roadway will be swept 

 away, and the roadway itself imdermined, until the planking assumes 

 that inclination which wiU enable it to receive with the least resistance 

 the force of a breaking wave — then the natural process of repair will 

 commence and go on uninterruptedly. 



We submit, with due respect to the experience and judgment of the 

 Harbour Commissioners, that in devising means to give permanence to 

 that narrow crest of sand shoal which separates Toronto Harbour from 

 the Lake, the natural formative process by which the peninsula has 



increased and been maintained, should be nan'owly watched and closely I 



imitated. It has been, we believe, satisfactorily demonstrated that 

 the materials which form the peninsula have been derived from the 

 eastward. It should be borne in mind, however, that these materials 

 do not "tr.avel" uniformly. Their p.ath of progress, if tr.aced out, 

 v/ould not be parallel to the coast line, nor would they be found to pass 

 over " equal spaces in equal times." Every gale of wind from the east 

 or south-east pushes forward a certain quantity of the loose drifting 

 materials of which the peninsula is composed, and forms here and 

 there upon the coast bays and promontories which are continually 

 changing their relative dimensions and positions. These bays and 

 promontories are not necessarily bounded by the sand crest of the pen- 

 insula shoals. Thej' may be, and indeed are, to a great extent sub- 

 aqueous, and are then occasionally distinctly visible under certain 

 conditions of sunshine and shade. It is altogether fortuitous whether 

 a subaqueous bay or a promontory be formed on any part of the pen- 

 insula coast line after an easterly storm. During comparatively calm 

 weather a bay may subsequently be enlarged or filled up, and its 

 neighbouring promontory increased in dimensions or altogether swept 

 away. A subaqueous promontory has been for some time forming 

 near the spot where the breach existed at the narrows, a bay is rapidly 

 forming at the Hotel, and the fence is being undermined. These con- 

 ditions may be reversed dui'ing the first prolonged easterly stonns, and 

 under sucii circumstances what would become of Mr. Tully's roadway ? 

 But is there no method of ensuring the existence of a promontory at 

 the narrows ? No contrivance can be more simple or more certain of 

 ultimate success at the immediate point of its application. Compel the 

 formation of a promontory at the narrows by the introduction of three 

 or four groynes of small dimensions — say forty to fifty feet long, and 

 foiu- or five in height — projecting into the Lake. Arrest by this arti- 

 fice the progress of the materials in theii- Westerly course, until they 

 accumulate so as to pass round or over the groynes, and a firm and 

 stable barrier will be established, contaiuing within itself the warrant 

 of its durability. 



Miseellaiica. 



Chevreul on the Harmony and Contrast of Colotirs^Mr. Sheriff 

 Buttan's Ventilating Car — Production of Cotton in the Southern States — 

 The Victoria Bridge — The Harvest in 40 English Counties — Progress of 

 Development in Organic Life. 



M. E. Chevreul, in his new work on the Principles of Harmony and 

 Contrast of Colour's, deduces many curious analogies from the following 

 well known fact: — 



" That every colour, when placed beside another colour is changed, 

 .appearing dilierent from what it really is, and moreover equally modi- 

 fies the colour with which it is in proximity." 



It thus appears that, every coloui' has a certain orbit of coloured 

 atmosphere which modifies the neighbouring colours, so that red fills 

 itsvicinitywithits complementary green; green, red; orange, blue; blue, 

 orange; greenish yellow, violet; violet, greenish yellow: indigo, orange 

 yellow; orange yellow, indigo. 



M. Chevreul appUes these principles to a great variety of Arts, Manu- 

 foctures and devices, such as Painting, Interior Decoration, Tapes- 

 tries, Carpets, Mosaics, Coloured Glazing, Paper-Staining, CaUco- 

 Printing, Letter-press Pi-inting, Map-Colouring, Dress, Landscape and 

 Flower Gardening, &c. 



The Athena:um quotes the following subtleties as illustrative and 

 cui'ious: — 



"First Fact. When a purchaser has for a considerable time looked 

 at a yellow fabric, and he is then shown orange, or scarlet stufiTs, 

 it is found that he takes them to be amaranth-red or crimson, for 

 there is a tendency in the retina, excited by yellow, to acquire an 

 aptitude to see violet, whence all the red of the scarlet or orange stuff 

 disappears, and the eye sees red, or a red tinged with violet. Second 

 Fact. If there is presented to a buyer, one after another, fourteen 

 pieces of red stuff, he will consider the last six or seven less beautiful 

 than those first seen, although the pieces be identically the same. — 



