NIAGARA KIVER TO HAMILTON 351 



draws again, the clay cliffs grow higher, and the soft Medina shale 

 sometimes shows beneath the almost stoneless till. 



West of Grimsby the Niagara cliff once more rises immediately above 

 the Iroquois plain and continues to within a mile or two of Stony creek, 

 where there is a bay-like recession with gravel bars reaching west toward 

 a bold promontory of the escarpment near Hamilton. 



In general this part of the old shore is very straight, and the subaque- 

 ous Iroquois plain slopes gently northward toward lake Ontario. The 

 main road follows the shore the whole way, partly at the foot of the cliff, 

 partly on top of the low clay shore cliff, but where possible on the gravel 

 bars in front of the bays. The silt and clay of the old lake bed to the 

 north provide one of the finest fruit growing districts of Canada. 



Iroquois Beach at Hamilton 



Perhaps the most interesting point on the whole shore of lake Iroquois 

 is found in the vicinity of Hamilton, where the sharp turn takes place 

 from the nearly straight westerly shoreline to the northeasterly trend 

 north of lake Ontario. Doctor Spencer has described the great Dundas 

 bay cut off by a magnificent bar, much as the present Hamilton bay is 

 formed by Burlington beach,* and the Geology of Canada mentions vari- 

 ous vertebrate fossils found in the beach deposits,f so that this striking 

 physiographic feature has received a good deal of attention. Originally 

 the stream flowing from Dundas passed the extreme northern end of the 

 great bar, but many years ago a canal was cut across the narrowest part 

 of the ridge and the old channel was filled with a railway embankment. 

 The fossils mentioned in the Geology of Canada were obtained in the 

 cutting for the canal, and the statement is made that Erie clay was found 

 near the level of the lake with sand and gravel above, the bones of mam- 

 moth, wapiti, and beaver occurring 70 or 80 feet above the lake. 



The mode of construction of this great bar, which is about 3 miles 

 long, generally less than a quarter of a mile in width, and 116 feet high, 

 with marshy ground to the west at the same level as lake Ontario to the 

 east, deserves special attention. From the present water level up to 57 

 feet it is formed of sand, on which rest about 60 feet of coarsely strati- 

 fied gravel partially cemented into conglomerate and standing up as 

 steep cliffs above the talus covering the lower part of the bar. How this 

 wall-like mass, sometimes only 100 yards wide on top, was built up 

 from the clay floor beneath the present marsh to the height of 116 feet, 

 with steep slopes on either side, is not easy to explain unless by sup- 

 posing that its foundations were laid in shallow water, and that layer 



*Spencer : Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xxiv, 1882, p. 415 ; also Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 1889, p. 129 et seq. 

 fGeol. Canada, 1863, p. 914. 



