FEATURES OF WHIRLPOOL-SAINT DAVIDS VALLEY 435 



The buried gorge leading from the Whirlpool is bounded by compact 

 limestones with their faces steep, except where these are rounded and 

 glaciated, with striations along the direction of its course. In breadth 

 the ancient and now buried gorge increases from 1,400 feet at the Whirl- 

 pool to 1,800 feet in a distance of 2i/^ miles. Having discovered in this 

 gorge, at a depth of 186 feet, the remains of a buried interglacial forest, 

 its glacial history is the theme of this paper. 



As shown by Professor Coleman, the first announcement of the occur- 

 rence of interglacial beds in Canada was made by my friend, the late Mr. 

 D. F. H. Wilkins. The locality was at Port Eowan, on the shores of Lake 

 Erie."^ This was in 1878. A little later the original work at Scarboro 

 Heights, just east of Toronto, was published by Dr. George Jennings 

 Hinde.^ This was the foundation of interglacial geology in the Ontario 

 basin. The locality has since been studied by many, especially by Prof. 

 A. P. Coleman, Prof. D. P. Penhallow, Dr. William H. Dall, Mr. Simp- 

 son, and Mr. S. H. Scudder, who have examined the structure and the 

 plants, shells, and insects. These drift deposits fill and are banked up 

 over the trough of the preglacial outlet of Georgian Bay, discovered by 

 the writer in 1888. The drift filling the Whirlpool- Saint Davids Valley 

 can now be brought into comparison with the drift deposits on the north- 

 ern side of the lake. 



Pleistocene Deposits of Whirlpool-Saint Davids Gorge 



In the neighborhood of the gorge the surface of the l^iagara limestone 

 floor has been planed off, polished, and grooved, the strongest striations 

 being in the direction of south 60 degrees west, and weaker ones south 

 60 degrees east, and also south. These are best seen at the quarry on the 

 mountain top east of Saint Davids, where the drift is reduced in places 

 to only 4 feet. While the drift over the buried valley rises higher on the 

 edge of the escarpment, its surface at the well to be described is 340 feet 

 above Lake Ontario. The boring reached to a depth of 268.5 feet, or to 

 71.5 feet above the lake — that is, within 25 feet of the surface of the 

 Whirlpool ; but the buried channel may occur to 100 feet or more below 

 the bottom of the well. After passing the upper 40 feet of clay, the ma- 

 terials could hold no water until reaching the level, 33 feet above the 

 "\\Tiirlpool. The section obtained was as follows : 



T Canadian Naturalist, vol. viii, 1878, pp. 82-86. 



s Canadian Journal, Toronto, vol. xv, new series, 1878, pp. 388-413. 



