230 A. W. G. WILSON — TRENT RIVER SYSTEM 



portion occupied by the expanded river. It leaves this valley below 

 Glencoe, turns again southwest, and flows as far as Trenton in a post- 

 Glacial canyon cut in the limestone. In this part of its course it has 

 incised a valley through a heavy morainic ridge, and has cut a channel 

 in the limestone to a depth of about 25 feet and of a width of nearly 

 300 yards. At Trenton the river enters the bay of Quinte at the level of 

 lake Ontario. 



It perhaps might be noted that the present location of new portions 

 of the present Trent river (above Peterboro and above Trenton) and of 

 the present Moira river (above Belleville) is probably intimately asso- 

 ciated with the retreat of the last ice-sheet across Ontario. The problem 

 has not yet been fully investigated, but certain field studies suggest that 

 these streams, at the localities indicated, originally flowed along a valley 

 between the morainic deposits to the west and the front of the retreat- 

 ing ice-sheet on the east. 



BAY OF QUINTE SECTION 



In general. — A reference to the accompanying map (plate 7) will 

 show that the bay of Quinte is naturally divisible into three distinct 

 sections. A closer examination in the field shows that the first of these 

 sections, that between Trenton and Desoronto, though rock-bound on 

 both sides throughout its length, is really a complex of several valleys. 

 The other two natural divisions — the Long reach and the Twelve Mile 

 reach are less complex. 



Trenton- Desoronto division. — The Trenton- Desoronto section naturally 

 falls into two subdivisions — that between Trenton and Belleville (or 

 Rossmore on the Prince Edward side) and that between Belleville and 

 the Telegraph narrows just west of Desoronto. The first of these sections 

 is one (possibly two) of these rock valleys with lightly scarped sides 

 (rising 50 feet above water-level). It does not seem to be associated 

 with the valley occupied by any modern stream (plate 7, section I). 

 Toward the west it is drift-blocked. West of the west end of the bay 

 of Quinte, on the other side of a low limestone divide, is another valley, 

 also unconnected with any modern stream. Parts of the rock ridge 

 which bound this depression on the south are exposed at Presqu' Isle, 

 where they form a scarp facing the north and rising 35 feet above 

 present water-level. The rocky ridge which forms Presqu' Isle is joined 

 to the mainland by a long sand neck formed across the outlet of this 

 valley by the waves of lake Ontario. 



The only tributary of importance which enters the western section of 

 the bay of Quinte is the Moira. As already noted, this flows as a sub- 

 sequent stream in front of the Black River cuesta for nearly 15 miles, 



