NEIGHBORING DRIFT DEPOSITS 437 



which has not been correlated with the deposits that were sheltered in the 

 ancient canyon, but the topography in both shows eroded valleys, exca- 

 vated out of the Medina shales of very much greater size than any later 

 ones of intcrglacial or postglacial date. 



Neighboring Drift Deposits 



The surface clay rests on the polished rock northwest of the falls, 

 and refills the now buried Falls-Chippawa Valley. Here beneath the 

 surface clayey till the stratified sandy loams of number II are well shown 

 in the sides of the bluffs. 



Over the mouth of the buried Whirlpool-Saint Davids Channel and ex- 

 tending a short distance westward is the esker-like ridge of sand and 

 gravel rising at one point to 442 feet above the lake. The gravel pits, 

 opened to a depth of 50 feet, show cross-bedding, etcetera,^^ and these 

 deposits have been penetrated to 100 feet or more without change of 

 character. 



The Erigan valley and canyon, which formed the ancient outlet of the 

 Erie basin, from 12 to 14 miles west of Niagara Falls, was finally ob- 

 structed by an isolated ridge, in many places composed of stratified sandy 

 clays and gravels, but with a till occurring at the summit which is nearly 

 650 feet above Lake Ontario, while stiff clays are found in the valleys 

 descending to the northward. To the south of this ridge, beneath the 

 covering of 8 feet of clay, the borings were carried to 132 feet, or to 80 

 feet below the level of Lake Erie, entirely through the quicksand which 

 fills the now buried Erigan Valley. On the ridge Fonthill referred to is 

 a fragment of the Forest beach, or the last shoreline of Lake Warren. 

 Then the kamelike ridge of Lundys Lane, just west of Niagara Falls, is 

 another interesting drift deposit; but these localities require more com- 

 plete study. 



FoREsf Glen and older Epochs 



The key to the relationship of the Pleistocene deposits in the Niagara 

 district was the discovery of the ancient spruce wood, which belongs to a 

 climate cooler than that of the Niagara district of the present day (Pen- 

 hallo\^^ , and to this is to be adde.d the unusual occurrence of the bleached 

 white quartz sand in which wood and twigs still occur. This is simply 

 the soil deoxidized by the decaying vegetable matter. Beneath a depth of 

 about 6 inches it rests on lower undeoxidized soil, also containing twigs 

 with highly oxidized strata just below. These features show that the deep 



" See work cited before, p. 127. 



