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Mesozoic and Cenozoic Geology and Paleontology. 191 
until'they were in some measure protected by this barrier before they 
were deposited. 
One of the most interesting of the superficial deposits is the Lake 
ridge, which, from Sodus in Wayne county, with some trifling excep- 
tions, is a traveled highway nearly as far as the Niagara river. Be- 
yond this it can be traced to the head of Lake Ontario. It follows the 
general course of the Lake; being at its nearest point about three 
miles distant, and at its greatest about eight miles. In some places 
it is strongly defined, descending toward the lake twenty or thirty and 
even fifty feet in a moderate slope. It consists of sand and gravel, 
and contains fragments of wood and shells, and in every respect it re 
sembles the sea beaches. It was undvuubtedly the ancient beach of 
Lake Ontario, or a body of water which once stood at this elevation. 
~The top of the lake ridge is 158 feet above Lake Ontario at Lockport ; 
185 feet at Middleport, and 188 feet at Albion and Brockport. 
Beside this well-defined ridge or ancient beach there are a number 
of less distinctly defined terraces of gravel and sand at much higher 
elevations, on the hill sides, leading to the supposition that the water 
of the Lake stood more than 750 feet higher than at present, or 
that the country has been correspondingly depressed. 
Prof. W. W. Mather* found that the drift scratches, grooves and fur- 
rows conform in their directions to those in whicb currents would flow, 
if the country were mostly covered by water. In some parts, they cor- 
respond in direction to the main water-sheds ; in others they do not, 
but where they do not, the deviation is owing to some topographical 
feature which disturbed the course of the currents of water. 
In 1845, Alexander Murray} found the drift of western Canada, con- 
sisting of various beds of clay, sand and gravel, interspersed with 
large bowlders. The thickness frequently reaches 200 or 300 feet. The 
clay cliffs of Scarborough, are 320 feet. The ridges running parallel 
to the north shore of Lake Ontario, are 200 or 300 feet, and the high- 
lands in Oxford, are 100 or 200 feet, and even more, and the banks of 
Grand river often expose a considerable amount of drift. The southern 
shores of lake Simcoe, are extensive sandy plains, which are in many 
places thickly strewed with bowlders, and bear proof of having once been 
the bottom ofthe lake. Wherever gravel is found, its pebbles consist of 
limestone, and with the larger fragments of that formation, they con- 
tain the fossils of the calcareous strata at Rama on the north, The 
* Geo. of the lst Geological Dist., N. Y. 
+ Geo. Sur. of Canada. 
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