104 SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OF DUNDAS VALLEY. 



trict, and indeed the whole of Wentworth County, should be worked 

 out by the Section and the report presented to a full meeting of the 

 Association. 



The following pages are intended to form a part of this report, 

 when the Geological Section has completed its work. The question 

 primarily discussed, is the Superficial Geology of that part of the 

 country lying in Dundas Valley and the parts of Ancaster Town- 

 ship around the head of the valley. 



Dundas Valley lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, in the 

 form of a rude triangle, having for its base the beach, spanning the 

 mouth of Burlington Bay, and for its two sides the Niagara escarp- 

 ment. The valley may be divided into three parts. First, the lower 

 portion, occupied by Burlington Bay, a deep body of water, border- 

 ed by a low sandy shore, much broken by inlets on the southern side, 

 and a shore rising almost precipitously to the plain above, on the 

 northern side. (This north shore consists of sand and other drift 

 materials.) The bay is enclosed from Lake Ontario by a low semi- 

 circular beach of sand and gravel, and is separated from the second 

 or middle third, by Burlington Heights, an old beach containing fos- 

 sils of the Hudson River period. Second, the middle division, or 

 lower portion of the valley proper, extending from Burlington 

 Heights to within the vicinity of the town of Dundas. And the 

 third or upper portion of the valley, comprising all that broken and 

 hilly region at the head of the valley, and extending from Dundas to 

 the village of Copetown, where the valley proper ends. 



In this present paper, I shall not take into consideration the 

 first or lower division, containing Burlington Bay, but confine my- 

 self to the two upper divisions of the valley. The division contain- 

 ing Burlington Bay had other and later causes at work in its forma- 

 tion, than those concerned in the construction of the upper, two di- 

 visions of the valley. 



Beginning at Burlington Heights, we have then a narrow canyon 

 shaped channel, lying in a position about N. 70, E., and a little 

 more than eight miles long, cut out between the two walls of rock 

 forming the escarpments. This channel is about four miles wide at 

 the lower end, and gradually narrowing until at Binkley's Corner, on 

 the Hamilton and Ancaster road, the valley is three miles wide, a 

 width it maintains for more than two miles, or until after passing Dun- 



