ONTARIO SHORE LINES. 3 



old water levels ; and it also advanced certain speculatioas in regard 

 to the extent and history of the water body producing them. The 

 printed minutes of the society are concerned chiefly with his specula- 

 tions and do not give his particulars of observation ; but these have 

 been partially preserved in other ways, although his paper was pro- 

 bably never published in full. Sir Charles Lyell, who visited Toronto 

 in 1842, and went over the ground with Mr. Roy, devoted several 

 pages of his " Travels " to a description of the phenomena. Prof. 

 James Hall published in 1843 a list of eight altitudes of shore lines 

 measured by Roy, and these with five others appear in the report of 

 the Canadian Geological Survey for 1863. The thirteen altitudes 

 are as follows, all being referred to the water surface of Lake 

 Ontario :— 762, 732, 680, 624, 556, 500, 420, 400, 344, 308, 280, 

 208, and 108 feet. In 1861 Mr. Sandford Fleming described in the 

 pages of the Canadian Journal an ancient shore line passing north 

 of Toi'onto and having an altitude above Lake Ontario of about 170 

 feet. A compai'ison of his text, which is full and eminently satis- 

 factory, with that of Lyell leads to the belief that the shore line he 

 describes is identical with the second of Roy's series, although the 

 recoi'ded measurements, 170 feet and 208 feet, do not closely corres- 

 pond. Roy's determinations have been cited by nearly all writers 

 who have discussed the ancient hydrography of the Laurentian basin, 

 but I am not aware that anyone since Lyell has verified his observa- 

 tions. Mr, G. J. Hinde speaks in one place of " the well-defined 

 terraces between Toronto and Lake Simcoe," and says in another, 

 " From an impei'fect examination, however, it appears to me doubtful 

 if the higher terraces (of Roy) furnish unequivocal evidence of having 

 been formed by the working back of the lake." Professor J. W. 

 Spencer perhaps implies acquaintance with the ground, for, after 

 quoting Roy's measurements, he says : — "Additional gravel beaches 

 occur along the Northern railway at 600 feet, and on descending 

 towards Georgian Bay, at 520, 388, 354 feet above lake Ontario. A 

 still finer series of beaches may be seen from Toronto westward along 

 the Toronto, Grey and Bruce railway." Being called by other 

 errands to the city of Toronto, I undertook last September to verify 

 the observations of Roy and Lyell, and especially to repeat Roy's 

 measurements, whose accuracy appeared to be impeached by Flem- 

 ing's observation. With this intent I traversed the slope from Aurora 



