SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OF DUNDAS VALLEY. Ill 



torrents in Fall and Spring, and most of them have formed con- 

 siderably sized channels for themselves through the broken band 

 forming the top of the escarpment and drift material filling the bot- 

 tom of the valley, but have not as yet, succeeded in- doing much 

 towards forming a channel through the harder beds in the face of 

 the escarpment. The channels of the streams crossing the lower, or 

 second escarpment, near Ancaster, also form large ravines of the 

 same general form as those in the upper ridge. 



The lower escarpment crosses the Ancaster and Hamilton road 

 about a mile to the northeast of the village of Ancaster, at an eleva- 

 tion of three hundred and seventy feet above Lake Ontario, and 

 passing along in a westerly direction, crossing the road from Ancas- 

 ter to Dundas at the Red Mills, and coming to a general level at 

 Mr. Leith's gate, near the Sulphur Springs road. The lower escarp- 

 ment is probably joined by the upper in Mr. Leith's farm ; and at 

 Mr. Leith's gate both form a single escarpment about three hundred 

 and sixty feet above Lake Ontario. Of this, however, I am not at 

 all satisfied, as I have not be able to trace the upper escarpment any 

 further than into the farm of Mr. William Farmer, where it is com- 

 pletely hidden by gravel hills. However, from the nature of the 

 rock, trend, and elevation, I would not be surprised to find it 

 on Mr. Leith's farm. So far as I have examined it, the rock bed- 

 ding, both at Leith's and Chapman's, have the characteristics of the 

 lower escarpment. On Mr. Forbes' farm, the lower escarpment is 

 comparatively covered up by a large quantity of debris of the same 

 material as the escarpment, and which has apparently been thrown 

 down from the face of the cliff by the action of the weather, or some 

 other agency undermining the softer beds lying underneath — from 

 the texture of the escarpment here seen, I should think, by the 

 action of water. This lower escarpment is composed chiefly of shale 

 rock. Sections of it can be seen in the channels of any of the 

 streams flowing over into the valley. This escarpment is lost in the 

 drift on Lot 38, of the first concession of Ancaster. 



The upper escarpment comes to the road at Guest's lime-kilns 

 From the lime-kilns it follows the road to the village of Ancaster, 

 where it rises to an elevation of about five hnndred feet above Lake 

 Ontario, and turning in a westerly direction, it passes along the south- 

 ern end of Mr. Egleston's farm, and round behind the village until it 



