1892.] 
485 
[Davis. 
kames. The plateaus of sand and gravel possess an even surface, 
occasionally broken by depressions from twenty to forty feet deep 
and of variable area up to several acres.- The entire plateau area 
may be from ten to forty acres ; while plateaus of the same kind 
that have been under my observation in other localities have a 
much larger surface. The sections that have been made in these 
masses disclose a well-bedded series of sands and gravels, the sands 
predominating. For the greater part, the sands lie in sloping 
strata, descending from that side of the plateau whose elevation is 
a little greater than the rest, and which is therefore called the 
head. The dip of the bedding is from 15° to 20° except at the top 
and bottom of the section ; it agrees closely with the inclination 
of the plateau front opposite the head, where the outline is scal- 
loped in a lobate form. The materials of the plateau are distinctly 
coarser near its head than towards its lobnte front ; and each 
layer of sand, traced from its upper end and along its descent, be- 
comes distinctly finer and finer. Over the sloping sand beds 
lies a series of gravels, generally nearly horizontal and often 
coarsely cross-bedded ; single members of these beds may be oc- 
casionally seen turning downwards to join the sloping beds of sand. 
The bottom layers of the plateau conform to the foundation sur- 
face. 
During the past season of field study, I have had opportunity 
of revisiting these sections and others similar to them with a num- 
ber of geologists from different parts of the country. None of 
these visitors felt any hesitation in confirming my conclusions 
that the plateaus as a whole are washed deposits formed in a body 
of standing water, w T hose level agreed closely with that of the 
lobate rim of the plateau front ; and that the growth of the de- ' 
posit was from the coarser higher part, here called the head, 
towards the slightly lower lobate front. 
The undisturbed attitude of the sand and gravel beds shows 
clearly enough that they have not been overridden by any 
glacial sheet since they were laid down ; although, as if to give 
strength to this rule, a trifling exception to it should be noticed. 
A small section in the head of one of the plateaus, used as a 
gravel pit opposite Lee’s Hotel in Auburndale, exhibits unmis- 
takable signs of distortion in its well-marked bedding. The beds 
are both folded and faulted by small amounts, as if by a strong 
but gradual push from the head towards the front ; the whole 
movement amounting to perhaps four or five feet. 
