| GUIDE BOOK No. 6
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|
V 6
NH |
7 Jpseursioms
TP hemiy. st Toronto
ancl to
Muskoka ancl
Excursions B 2, B 5, B 6, B 8, and B 10
ISSUED BY THE ONTARIO BUREAU OF MINES
TORONTO, CANADA
GUIDE BOOK No. 6
EXCURSIONS
IN
Vicinity of Toronto and to Muskoka
and Madoc
(EXCURSIONS B2, B5, B6, B8 and B10)
ISSUED BY THE ONTARIO BUREAU OF MINES
TORONTO, CANADA
TORONTO:
Printed by L. K. CAMERON, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty
1913
/roguois Beach
P2258
720°
Scarboro’ peaty Chay =
(coo/ climate) =—
owest bou/der Cla ay
Lorraine shale = Se =
Section at Don Valley Brickyard, Toronto
Don beds
: TCC
(Uni0s,etc.) j99 oO C /00
/d
OCtay er i a
“Level
a= of Don Fiver
Lorraine
Section at Bend of Don River
Lorraine
GUIDE BOOK No. 6
Excursions in Vicinity of Toronto and
to Muskoka and Madoc.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Excursion B2.—Toronto AND VICINITY
ON Ua\oulered Qo ll Sauehol amare earn eee eae woe oe 6
Excursion B5.—MoratneEs NortH oF Toronto
by ge knee ary. © gine Sites pee oa Utara 35
Excursion B6.—Muskoxka LAKES
Coa Gansre le indseypml cadena ere tie 43
Excursion B8.—CiLAy DEpostrs AND WorxKs NEAR
ToRONTO
Bye MEG Se Bakerncct ai iats aicguse ee meen 49
Excursion Bio.—TuHE Mapoc AREA
Biya Cyrille eeemnieinite ge eer ern ese ste 55
ISteOneLEG US DRAEIONS i sf os 6 ees We eae ee 68
EXCURSION B 2.
TORONTO AND VICINITY.
BY
A. P. CoLEMAN.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
imtroductionsand Geological) Summary 5.22..5--5....- U
sliinemlboreraiie Slaalen noc ac.2 tenet eee aihevcyoe ad hee ees 8
leistocenem Beds nace cass s.nciae ae ose s ein elas shh cies II
Mieworontoshonmationecc «ou. join ele ae ee 13
Mier Doin Bede ececeac ac altace tn tr ecers anys 13
siiee Scat borombedSan imi asa eke ena ores 20
hee ScaTbOnOnCectiOninw su.. suse wea oh ae 21
Fauna of Cool Climate, chiefly from Scarboro ... 23
Interglacial Beds in the Western Parts of Toronto 29
Outline of Climatic and Physical Changes ....... 31
ivesinoquo(ssseacheWeposits: sare ancl sees 32
Map of Toronto and Vicinity, scale of 1 mile to 1 inch.
7,
INTRODUCTION AND GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY.
Toronto began about 100 years ago as a village at the
mouth of the small river Don, where a sand bar, now called
Toronto island, enclosed an excellent harbor. It has since
expanded six miles west to the Humber river, four or five
miles to the east and as much to the north. Its geographical
centre is not far from the Meteorological Observatory, on
Bloor street West, which is in lat. 43° 40’ 0” .8 and long.
79° 23’ 54”. ‘Toronto is situated on the north shore of lake
Ontario about forty miles from its western end.
In discussing the geology of the region it will be advis-
able to include the suburbs of the city as far east as High-
land creek, 13 miles from the Don, and as far north as
York Mills, 6 miles from Toronto bay.
Physiographically the region may be divided into two
parts, a terrace formed by ancient lake Iroquois, sloping
gently upwards from lake Ontario to a height of 176 to 200
feet, and a somewhat higher upland formed of rolling hills
of glacial origin, reaching at its highest points 380 feet
above the lake, which is 246 feet above the sea.
The comparatively level surfaces of the terrace and the
morainic region beyond are broken by the deep valleys of
the Don and Humber rivers and their tributaries, which
have been cut almost to base level for a mile or two from
the shore and ramify as steep walled ravines for several
miles inland.
The lake shore is greatly varied, including the flat sand
and gravel spit which projects westwards from the Don
and then bends northward to enclose Toronto bay, as well
as the cliffs of Scarboro heights to the east, which rise
355 feet above the water and form the highest point on the
whole shore of lake Ontario. ‘This line of cliffs, extending
for nine and a half miles, has been carved by wave action
from an ancient promontory and has provided the materials
which have been transported ten miles west by the easterly
storms to build up Toronto island.
The vicinity of ‘Toronto includes only small outcrops
of solid rock, Lorraine shale of Ordovician age; but has
a varied and interesting series of Pleistocene deposits un-
equalled in complexity and importance by any other North
American locality. Its: thick series of interglacial beds,
8
the Toronto Formation, gives evidence of an interglacial
time far longer than the post-glacial period and with a
warmer climate than that of the present.
The geological succession may be arranged as follows:
Recent—River and lake Deposits.
Iroquois Beach Materials.
Glacial complex (four beds of till with inter-
stratified clay and sand).
Toronto Interglacial Formation (Scarboro
beds, Don beds).
Earliest Boulder clay.
Palzozoic—Lorraine shale.
Pleistocene
These will be described in succession from below up-
wards.
THE LORRAINE SHALE.
The bed rock of Lorraine shale (Ordovician or Lower
Silurian) is generally buried under the drift deposits of the
Pleistocene and comes to the surface at comparatively few
points and in a quite inconspicuous way. Along the western
lake front on Humber bay there are low outcrops rising
not more than two or three feet above the water at Exhibi-
tion park and west of the Humber river. The shale rises
higher along the sides of the river valleys, forming cliffs
that reach 30 or 40 feet within the first three or four miles
up the Humber, and Io to 16 feet at the “ Bend of the Don,”
about two miles from the mouth of the river.
All of these natural outcrops are greatly weathered, as
might be expected in so easily attacked a rock as shale, and
only the harder limey or sandy layers resist the action of
rain and frost.
Artificial exposures in connection with the brickyards
give the best opportunities to study the unweathered rock,
the one most easily reached being at the Don Valley brick-
yard, where a great open pit from which shale is being
“ quarried shows 60 feet of the formation. There are thin
seams of impure limestone at frequent intervals in the shale
and these have to be selected out before it is crushed for
brickmaking. ‘The weathered surfaces of the discarded
limestones provide the best fossils in the Don region. The
8)
brickyard may be reached by taking a Church street car
to Glen road, walking north to Binscarth road and then east
| to the edge of the Don valley, where a path leads down to
| the shale pit.
There are numerous exposures of the shale along the
Humber extending from near lake Ontario to Lambton
Mills, two and a half miles up. The best outcrop for a
study is just south of the bridge over the Humber at
Lambton, where the river flows rapidly over the harder
beds, many slabs of which are exposed along its shores.
Here, in addition to the limestone layers, there are well
ripplemarked sheets of shaly sandstone. ‘The surfaces of
the slabs display not only fossils, but a variety of markings
supposed to be due to physical causes.
About two miles further up the valley on the west side
there is a large shale pit from which materials are got for
the manufacture of paving brick. This also affords a good
collecting ground. The Lambton outcrops may be reached
by taking a Dundas street car to the end of its route and
then a Lambton suburban car to Lambton Mills.
The fossils found on the Humber differ somewhat from
those at the Don brickyard, as determined by Prof. Parks,
the western shale belonging to a somewhat higher horizon
owing to a gentle southwesterly dip of the beds. Many of
the fossils, however, are common to the two localities, and
they are not separated in the list prepared by Prof. Parks.
The most striking fossil is Isotelus maximus (sometimes
called Asaphus platycephalus), which is occasionally ten
inches in length. The fauna of the Don beds contains some
species typical of the Eden of Ohio, while the Humber
beds more closely resemble the Lorraine of New York.
List of fossils at Toronto.
Hydrozoa :—
Diplograptus pristis, Hisinger.
Echinoderms :—
Glyptocrinus decadactylus, Hall.
Heterocrinus juvenis, Hall.
Tocrinus subcrassus, M. and W.
Palasterina rugosa, Bill.
Vermes :—
Nereidavus varians, Grinnell.
10
Brachiopods :—
Leptena rhomboidalis, Wilckens.
Rafinesquina alternata, Emmons.
Plectambonites ser iceus, Sowerby.
Schizocrama filosa, Hall.
Zygospira modesta, Conrad.
Catazyga erratica, Hall.
Dalmanella testudinaria, Dalman.
Lingula sp.
Trematis millepunctata, Hall.
Schisambon cf. lockei, W. and S.
Gastropods :—
Crytolites ornatus, Conrad.
Lophospira cf. perangulata, Hall.
Protowarthia cancellata, Hall.
Archinacella, sp.
Pelecypoda :—
Byssonychia grandis, Ulrich.
Byssonychia radiata, Hall.
Byssonychia imbricata, Ulrich.
Byssonychia alveolata, Ulrich.
Whiteavesia pholadiformis, Ulrich.
Modiolopsis concentrica, Hall and W.
Modiolopsis modiolaris, Conrad.
Cymatonota recta, Ulr.
Cymatonota, pholadis, Ulr.
Orthodesma parallelum, Hall.
Orthodesma parvum, Ulr.
Lydrodesma poststriatum, Emmons.
Whitella hindi, Bill.
Whitella ventricosa, Ulr.
Cleidophorus neglectus, Hall.
Psiloconcha inornata, Ulr.
Modiolodon obtusus, Ulr
Pterinea demissa, Hall.
Ctenodonta cf. carinata, Ulr.
Cephalopoda :—
Orthoceras crebriseptum, Hall.
Endoceras proteiforme, Hall.
Pteropods :—
Conularia formosa, Miller and Dyer.
Tentaculites starlingensis, Meek.
Bryozoa :—
Hetcrotrypa frondosa, D’ One
Heterotrypa inflecta, Ulr.
Monotrypa undulata hemispherica, James.
Amplexopora discoidea, Nicholsca.
Bythopora delicatula, Nich.
Leptotrypa irregularis, Ulr.
Arthropora schafferi, Ulr.
Peronopora vera, Ulr.
Spatiopora cf. maculosa, Ulr.
Atactopora maculata, Ulr.
Dekayella ulrichi, Nich.
Bythopora arctipora, Nich.
Aspidopora, sp.
Paleschara bean, James.
Chiloporella, sp.
Callopora subplana, Ulr.
Callopora dalei, M-E and H.
Bythopora gracilis, Nich.
Hemiphragma whitfieldi, James.
Trilobites :—
Tsotelus maximus, Locke.
Calymene callicephala, Green.
Trinucleus concentricus, Eaton.
PLEISTOCENE BEDS.
The surface of the shale beneath the city had a high
relief before ithe first Pleistocene ice sheet moved down upon
it. A wide valley had been carved 200 feet below the
general level by a great river which flowed south from the
present Georgian bay region, the Laurentian river of Dr.
Spencer. Probably a thick layer of preglacial weathered
material once covered the surface, as the region is sup-
posed to have been dry land since Paleozoic times, but this
was completely swept away, perhaps by the advancing ice,
leaving no record between the Ordovician and the end of
the Pliocene.
Immediately upon the ancient marine shale one finds
a sheet of boulder clay formed by land ice; and succeeding
it in some places there are four other till sheets, each separ-
ated from the one below by interglacial beds of stratified
12
gravel, sand and clay, piled up at Scarboro’ to a thickness
of nearly 400 feet.
The earliest and most important interglacial series in-
cludes 185 feet of delta deposits; but the later ones are sel-
dom more than 30 or 4o feet in thickness, and may repre-
sent relatively short recessions of the ice. The retreat of
each ice sheet in the series was doubtless followed up by a
great glacial lake in which stratified deposits were formed.
That of the latest (Wisconsin) ice sheet was accompanied
by the waters of lake Iroquois, which lasted for thousands
of years and left behind the terrace and gravel bars and
shore cliffs which are such marked physiographic features
at Toronto.
The earliest sheet of till consists of tough blue clay,
evidently made largely from the local shale, and containing
many angular slabs of its harder layers picked up close by.
With them occur some well rounded polished and striated
boulders of blue Trenton limestone, smaller boulders of
black Utica shale, and many large or small boulders of
granite, gneiss, greenstone or schist from the Archean. No
smoothed or striated surface has been found beneath the
lowest boulder clay, which seems to pass down into the dis-
turbed Lorraine shale; but the direction of the ice motion
is indicated by the boulders of Utica and Trenton rocks,
which are found in place in eastern Ontario.
The lowest boulder clay is usually not more than three
or four feet thick, and in a few places it is wanting, having
been swept away by interglacial rivers. Its best exposure
is in a shore cliff near the west end of King street in Park-
dale, where it rises four or five feet above the lake and is
capped for 800 feet by a well-laid boulder pavement. Above
the pavement there are 25 or 30 feet of less solid till formed
by the next ice advance, with no interglacial beds inter-
vening.
The flat upper surfaces of the stones in the boulder
pavement are usually well and uniformly striated, the direc-
tion ranging from 290° to 315° with an average of 300°.
The striz run 30° north of west instead of south of west, as
might have been expected. The glacial lobe which had fol-
lowed the depression of lake Ontario from the east began
to spread out towards its west end.
[5
sand was evidently deposited in shallow water where oxida-
tion was taking place, since some of the coarser beds of
gravelly sand in the section are cemented with limonite.
Bluish gray finely laminated clay, overlying the Don
beds conformably to a thickness of from 7 to 22 feet, was
laid down in much deeper water, and shows ro fossils ex-
cept a little peaty matter. It represents the lowest part of
the Scarboro beds.
A thin sheet of boulder clay, the second in order, rests
upon the eroded surface of the stratified clay just mentioned,
followed by 80 feet of rather coarsely laminated clay some-
times containing subangular striated stones. ‘The source
from which this clay was derived must have been the ice
margin not many miles away. The lower stratified clay,
which is interglacial, is formed of well leached material
and burns to red brick; while the overlying stratified clay
is so strongly charged with lime as to burn to a buff brick.
The top of the section consists of a few feet of brown
sand and loam with large boulders, resulting from the wave
work of lake Iroquois. ‘The stones have evidently been
washed out of an overlying sheet of till, which may still
be seen in the old shore cliff half a mile to the north.
The lower 25 feet of Don interglacial beds are crowded
with fossils and form the most important part of the sec-
tion. From them wood or leaves of thirty-two species of
trees have been obtained and forty-one species of shell-fish,
of which twelve are unios or anodons, in addition to un-
determined beetles, cyprids, etc.
The following list of interglacial plants was supplied
by the late Professor Penhallow :—
Acer pleistocenicum.
“ spicatum.
torontoniensis.
Asimipia triloba.
Carya alba.
Chamecyparis spheroidea.
Clethra alnifolia.
Crategus punctata.
Cyperacee sp.
*Drepanocladus capillifolius.
ce
*Determined by Mr. A. J. Grout.
16
Eriocaulon sp.
Festuca ovina.
Fraxinus quadrangulata.
3 sambucifolia.
americana.
Gleditschia donensis.
Hippuris vulgaris.
Hypnum sp.
Jumiperus virginiana,
Larix americana.
Maclura aurantiaca.
Ostrya virginica.
Picea mgra.
ce sp.
Pinus strobus.
Platanus occidentalis.
Populus balsamifera.
i grandidentata.
Prunus sp.
Robinia pseudacacia.
Quercus obtusiloba.
6
S alba (?).
Ne rubra.
s tinctoria.
Be oblongifolia.
ve macrocarpa.
H acuminata.
Salix sp.
Taxus canadensis.
Thuya occidentalis.
Tilia americana.
Ulmus americana.
racemosa.
Vaccinium uliginosum.
Chara.
Inadvertently he included two specimens from the Scar-
boro beds some miles to the east, Picea nigra and Larix
americana, belonging to a later and cooler stage of the inter-
glacial period.
17
The shell-fish were determined a number of years ago
by Dr. Dall and his assistants at the Smithsonian institution,
the list being as follows :—
Unio undulatus
~~ rectus Sn pose :
Bene Still living in lake Ontario.
“ gibbosus
“ phaseolus Sean te it :
G ee ae i Still living in lake Erie, but not reported
Sonu :
COE eta ie | from lake Ontario.
“ occidens
“solidus Not known in the St. Lawrence system
“ clavus of waters, but living farther south.
“ pyramidata
Anodonta grandis.——Not reported from Canada.
Spherium rhomboideum.
z similis (?).
solidulum.
striatinum.
sulcatum.
Pisidium adamsi.
ig compressum.
novaboracense (?).
Pleurocera subulare.
os elevatum.
2 lewist (?).
Goniobasis depygis.
ze haldemane.
Limnea decidiosa.
i elodes.
bicarinatus.
Planorbis parvus.
Amunicola limosa.
iS porata.
sagana.
ancillaria.
Physa heterostropha.
Succinea avara.
Bithinella obtusa.
Somatogyrus tsogonus.
ce
6é
66
ce
18
Valvata sincera.
u tricarinata.
Campeloma decisa.
Bifidaria armata (land snail).
Of mammals the Don Valley brickyard has supplied a
bone of a large bear and bones or horns of bison, of a deer
like the Virginia red deer, and of a deer related to the
caribou.
Of the trees, seventeen are near their northern limit
and scarcely reach Toronto at present, while ten or eleven
of the unios and other shell-fish do not now live in lake
Ontario, but inhabit Mississippi waters. The whole assem-
blage of plants and animals implies a warmer climate than
the present, such as that of Ohio or Pennsylvania, as sug-
gested by Prof. Penhallow and Mr. White. There could have
been no great ice sheet within hundreds of miles of the
region when the rich Don forest grew, with its pawpaws,
csage oranges and red cedars.
A walk of half a mile up the Don valley to a second
brickyard, just beyond a bend of the river, discloses another
section of the Don beds of a somewhat different kind. To
the west of the valley Lorraine shale rises 16 feet above
the river, followed by boulder clay, on which rests sand
with unios like the deposits just described. ‘Two hundred
yards to the east the shale can be seen rising eight or ten
feet, but between these two points the boulder clay and
shale were cut away by an interglacial river, which after-
wards began to deposit materials on the shale in the rising
waters of a lake.
At the base of the section there are three or four feet
of coarse shingle mixed with matted reeds, leaves and wood.
Above this there are eleven feet of sand and clay with many
shells. ‘The whole is covered by a few feet of recent sand
deposited by the Don before its bed had been cut as low as
at present. The trees include red cedar, elm, oak and paw-
paw, showing that the climate was warm at the earliest
stage of the Don beds.
If we add these lower beds to the better exposed sec-
tion at the Don valley brickyard the total thickness is 40
or 45 feet.
Similar beds of sand and clay containing wood and
unios are found at several places along the Don for about
Don Valley Brickyard,
20
two miles to the south, and wood and shells have been ob-
tained from excavations and wells at many points in the
city to the west and below the level of the lake at Scarboro
also, so that the Don beds cover several square miles, though
the exact boundaries are not known.
A deposit of sand and gravel containing wood and shells
has been found near Thornhill, fourteen miles north of lake
Ontario, while boring for water. It underlies 200 or 300
feet of clay, and is no doubt the northward extension of the
Don beds along the channel of the interglacial river which
formed the delta.
THE SCARBORO BEDS.
The upper interglacial beds at the Don valley brickyard,
consisting of laminated clay with no fossils except peaty
materials, are found at several outcrops to the north and
northwest, growing thicker in those directions and reach-
ing, north of Reservoir park, an elevation of about 150 feet
above lake Ontario. They are also found to the east of
the Don and at Scarboro heights, where they are best ex-
posed. In the brickyard 672 laminz were counted in a
height of 19 feet 9 inches, probably representing as many
years of deposition. Above this a foot or two were too
much broken up by the later ice advance to be counted. The
counting was done by Baron de Geer’s method, devised for
the marine clays of Sweden, the limits of the layers being
marked on strips of paper.
Since the Scarboro cliffs give the best opportunities for
the study of these beds, they will be described as typical.
The splendid Scarboro section was worked out by Dr.
George Jennings Hinde many years ago, demonstrating the
first series of interglacial beds recognized in America. His
work was so good as to require scarcely any change in later
times. At Scarboro the Don beds are not visible in the
cliffs, but wells sunk on the beach show that they exist a
few feet below the lake and have a thickness of 36 feet.
They consist of yellowish sand with some beds of clay,
containing unios and pieces of wood as in the Don sections.
Above the water level, where the interglacial section is
most complete, there is not only laminated clay like that
referred to above, but also a great thickness of sand rest-
ing upon it.
21
The thickest section includes 36 feet of Don beds and
5 feet of peaty clay below water, with 85 feet of peaty clay
above water followed by 55 or 60 feet of stratified sand,
making in all 186 feet of interglacial beds. The general
section shown in the cliffs will be described first, and then
the fossils will be taken up.
THE SCARBORO SECTION.
At Victoria park, toward the east end of Toronto, the
flat sandy shore ends and boulder clay shows above the
water, standing up as a comparatively low cliff capped with
Iroquois sand beds. ‘Toward the east the cliff rises and
becomes more complex in structure until it reaches a height
of 355 feet four miles from Victoria park, after which it
descends and finally reaches lake level at Highland creek,
91% miles from its commencement. ‘This fine section shows
not only the greater part of the interglacial beds, but a
series of four tills with interbedded stratified sand and clay,
and also nearly 100 feet of Iroquois sands towards the
western end. ‘The upper series of boulder clays and inter-
stratified beds is confined to a small part of the section at
its highest point. ‘To the east and west of this only one
sheet of boulder clay can be seen, but it stretches almost
continuously along the upper part of the section, though
with great variations in thickness.
It is evident that the interglacial beds were greatly
eroded by river action before the second ice advance, as
may be seen at the “ Dutch Church,” where a river valley
was cut to a depth of 166 feet, having a width of 1,200
feet at lake level and nearly a mile'on top. The layer of
boulder clay, after rising to 150 feet, rapidly dips down
to the level of the lake at this point and then rises again
beyond it. This is in reality the second sheet of till in the
succession, the lowest one being 40 feet below the lake,
underlying the unio beds mentioned above.
The waves of lake Ontario undercut the cliff, especially
in seasons of high water, after which slices slip down and
are removed by storms. Where there are several successive
years of low water in the lake much of the face of the cliffs
becomes covered with vegetation, though they are too ver-
tical in the neighborhood of the Dutch Church to permit
of much plant growth. The earliest reliable survey of Scar-
The “Dutch Church,” Scarboro.
23
boro was made fifty years ago, and another survey made
during the past year shows an annual recession of 1.62
feet per annum. ‘The boulders from the boulder clay
remain at the base of the cliff, when not removed by man,
and the interglacial sands when washed by the waves on
the shore show thin sheets of red garnet or black magnetite.
The interglacial clay rising about 85 feet above the lake
has certain well marked features. It is often well strati-
fied in laminze running from a fraction of an inch to two
or three inches in thickness, though there are a few layers
three or four feet thick in which the bedding is indistinct
or wanting. Where typically bedded each lamina consists
of a darker layer of fine gray clay, and a paler part of a
silty nature. Often the silty part widens and contains more
or less peaty matter with mica scales. Occasionally the
peaty bands expand to half an inch or an inch in thickness,
and rarely twigs or small bits of wood are found. Every
few feet in the section shows a thin sheet of impure siderite
which stands the weather better than the rest of the beds
and is broken on the beach into flat shingly pebbles, which
slowly oxidise to limonite. The iron ore and the peaty
layers make distinctive features by which this interglacial
clay is easily recognized. It burns to a red brick.
From the peaty matter mosses, bits of leaves and Lark,
seeds and parts of beetles may be obtained, by washing
away the clay, drying the peat and examining it with a lens.
The late Dr. Scudder, of Harvard University, determined
seventy-two species of beetles from materials obtained here,
the list being as follows:
FAUNA OF COOL CLIMATE, CHIEFLY FROM SCARBORO.
Arthropoda (almost wholly beetles) :
Carabide (9 gen. 34 sp.).
Elaphrus irregularis.
Loricera glacialis.
UCOSO,
exita.
Nebria abstracta.
Bembidium glaciatum.
aa Haywardi.
vestigium.
vanum.
(t3
ce
66
24
Bembidium preteritum.
a expletum.
damnosum.
Patrobus gelatus.
Oy decessus.
frigidus.
Pterostichus abrogatus.
ie destitutus.
fractus.
destructus.
gelidus.
x depletus.
Badister antecursor.
Platynus casus.
66
ce
a Hinde.
e Halli.
~ ) “dissipatus.
* desuetus.
een idanti.
“— delapidatus.
exterminatus.
interglacialis.
interitus.
longevus.
Harpalus conditus.
Dytiscide (3 gen. 8 sp.).
Coelambus derelictus.
4 cribrarius.
infernalis.
disjectus.
Hydroporus inanimatus.
oS imundatus.
sectus.
Agabus perditus.
Gyrinidz (1 sp.).
Gyrinus confinis, LeG.
Hydrophilidz (1 sp.).
Cymbiodyta exstincta.
Staphylinide (11 gen. 19 sp.).
Gymnusa absens.
Quedius deperditus.
Philonthus claudus.
Cryptobium detectum.
f cinctum.
ce
ce
66
25)
Lathrobium interglaciale.
“| antiquatum.
debilitatum.
exesum.
inhibitum.
frustum.
Oxyporus stiriacus.
Bledius glaciatus.
Geodromicus stiricidit.
Acidota crenata, Fabr. (var. nigra.).
Arpedium stillicidu.
Olophrum celatum.
os arcanum.
dejectum.
Chrysomelidz (1 gen. 2 sp.).
Donacia stiria.
“ pompatica.
Curculionide (4 gen. 6 sp.).
Erycus consumptus.
Anthonomus eversus.
Ss fossilis.
lapsus.
Orchestes avus.
Centrinus disjunctus.
Scolytide (1 sp.).
Phloeosinus squalidens.
ce
66
Of these all but two are extinct, as stated by Dr.
Scudder.
Mr. A. J. Grout has determined the following mosses
from the same beds :—Hygrohypnum palustre (?), Drepano-
cladus vernicosus (Lindb), and Hylocomium sp.
The Scarboro interglacial sands are less extensive than
the clays just described, since they are the uppermost beds
and suffered far more from superficial destruction by rain
action and river erosion in the later part of the interglacial
interval.
Where best developed the sands have a thickness of 55
or 60 feet, the lower four or five feet having clayey layers
showing a transition to the peaty clay. The sand is gener-
ally coarse, but free from pebbles, and some layers are cross-
bedded, showing that the deposit was made in shallow water.
26
There are in some places many concretions of brown iron
ore, once no doubt, siderite.
Toward the bottom of the sand and immediately above
the clay there is often a thick bed of coarse peaty materials,
including many chips of wood and bark and bits of branches.
The trees recognized are Larix Americana and Abies bal-
samea. A few small shell-fish are found also, Spherium
rhomboideum, S. fabale, Limnea sp., Planorbis =p: and
Valvata tricarinata.
The sand extends for five miles along the cliffs and has
been found in ravines several miles north of the shore.
The Scarboro interglacial beds were formed in a
northern bay of an interglacial lake, which reached at least
ten miles inland from the present shore. They are delta
deposits laid down by a great river coming from the
Georgian bay region, draining the basins of the present
upper lakes, and they began with a water level somewhat
below that of lake Ontario.
Above the second till sheet there is stratified.clay and
sand, followed by a third sheet of till, and in the highest
part of the cliffs a fourth and a fifth sheet of boulder clay
have been found with intervening stratified sands and clays.
There were three well-defined recessions of the ice during
which lake deposits having thicknesses of from 25 to 36
feet were deposited. How long these later interglacial
periods lasted is unknown. No important erosion intervals
are known in connection with them, and except for a few
small shells in one of the beds they are without fossils; so
that they seem to have been of much less importance than
the Toronto interglacial period.
The total thickness of these upper glacial and inter-
glacial deposits at the highest point of the Scarboro sec-
tion is 203 feet.
The magnificent Scarboro section may be seen to the
best advantage by taking a King street car as far east as
possible and then walking eastwards along the shore. This,
however, demands a good deal of time, and the highest and
most interesting parts of the section may be seen more expe-
ditiously by taking a King street car to the Woodbine and
there transferring to a suburban car running along King-
ston road. ‘This ascends the sandy slopes of the long spit
which enclosed the ancient Don bay of lake Iroquois, and
then runs for two miles east along the old gravel bar, which
27
is well disclosed by numerous gravel pits. ‘The road then
climbs the Iroquois shore cliff to the gently rolling upland
of boulder clay. At stop 32 a lane leads south from King-
ston road past a Topographical Survey tower to the edge of
the cliff, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. The
highest point on the actual shore of lake Ontario is reached
a short distance to the east. From this point, 355 feet
above the lake, there 1s a steep descent, mostly through a
small growth of trees to the shore. The section described
above is shown in bare cliffs on each side of the path, a
sheet of boulder clay, followed by stratified clay and sand,
another sheet of boulder clay, succeeded by silty sand with
its upper layers crumpled by the advancing ice, a third com-
paratively thin sheet of boulder clay with cross-bedded sand
beneath it, and a fourth boulder clay resting on the eroded
sand beds of the great interglacial formation, under which
the peaty clay extends to the shore of lake Ontario.
The section has been worked out as follows:
Feet
Boullcler Geyy, INOs Fsesaescseoe 48
Siratminedasand: andwclay, 222-54. 36
Bownilicler Chyy, IN@s A asses oeeoc BA) || ;
Silty sand, upper layers crumpled 25 ee ees
BouldermclayzsNomsnes os sno 9 AOS ;
Grossbeddédtsandi 7.557 29
Bouldermelaya INO? wa ea 24
Scarboro Interglacial { Sand .... 59) Above level of lake
beds wettest a Peaty clay 92 Ontarioy 151 ht:
Don beds (unios andy Peaty clay 5) Below level of lake
WOO Gane aeeesia a ota Gal ideo esa a loke 30 Ontario, 41 ft.
Bowlderaclay jm Nonpiiee crt eee rye i asecortn cc -uatensmonne ie
Eos sree mines lial (Tee ene ea ose rec, Os mrecaan cae sn a r ae ee e
sotalmlaletstocenesbedSiam. s anculs oo te ee aro. 305
A walk of less than a mile westwards along the beach
brings one to the “ Dutch Church,” where an interglacial
river valley has been filled with the second boulder clay fol-
lowed by stratified glacial clay. The gradual rise of the
boulder clay on each side of the fossil valley is well ex-
posed.
‘Md Pueg.jJaes1g MmeLYS
29
The steepest cliffs of the section are cut from this thick
mass of hard clay which stands vertical to a height of 150
feet. Small streams coming in have cut extraordinary
ravines, ore of them with the aid of rain erosion shaping
the tower and buttresses of the “church.” A _ stairway
leads up 170 feet from the shore at the Dutch Church to
the Iroquois terrace, here beautifully displayed with a shore
cliff more than 100 feet high; and a walk of three-quarters
of a mile brings one to the Kingston road, at Half-way
House, where a car may be taken to the city.
INTERGLACIAL BEDS IN THE WESTERN PART OF TORONTO.
The order of succession and relative ages of the deposits
thus far described are well ascertained, but in the western
part of Toronto, north of Bloor street and near Christie
and Shaw streets, there are fossiliferous beds of uncertain
position. Eighty feet of tumultuously cross-bedded sands
and gravels here underlie the second till sheet, so that they
are clearly interglacial; but they differ so much in character
from both the Don and Scarboro beds that they cannot be
classed with either. They were evidently formed by a
powerful river which sometimes deposited coarse materials
in its bed and then cut them away again by some shifting
of its channels, a type of work quite different from the quiet
deposit of clay and sand in the interglacial delta of the Don
and Scarboro sections. ‘They may be older than the Don
beds or younger than the Scarboro beds.
These western beds contain a few fragments of unios
as well as Sphawriums, Pleuroceras and other small shells,
all of which occur in the Don beds. A little wood found
in these sand pits is still undetermined. ‘The most interest-
ing fossils obtained are scattered bones of mammals, includ-
ing bison, deer and mammoth or mastodon. A horn of
Cervalces borealis, as determined by Prof. Bensley, an atlas
vertebra of bison and part of a lower jaw of a bear (O. P.
Hay) have been found also, and several fragments of ivory
have been picked up. All of these remains seem to have
been waterworn and may have been transported for some
distance. ‘There is no certain evidence as to climate in the
fossils thus far found.
From the lists given above it will be seen that the
Toronto Formation has furnished a wide range of fessils,
‘YSRY 0} Av[D 1aepjnog 19dd~,
*([eloepB1a,UT) Yq Pueg eens eys1IyD
eo e aS
he eae
a
a
te
oe
re
31
including 42 trees and other flowering plants with several
mosses, 41 shell-fish, 72 insects, and 5 or 6 mammals—about
165 or 170 species all told.
OUTLINE OF CLIMATIC AND PHYSICAL CHANGES.
The Toronto interglacial period included great changes
in climate and in physiographic features. During the re-
treat of the first ice sheet no doubt the climate slowly
changed from Arctic to subarctic and finally to temperate,
and probably the valley was at first occupied by a great
glacial lake when thawing had proceeded so far as to free
the basin, but not its outlet toward the northeast. ‘These
earlier stages of the interglacial time have left no visible
record, though they must have required thousands of years
to accomplish.
The first episode in the Don beds shows a river flowing
into a lake lower than the present, with a rich deciduous
forest on its shores. There followed a rise of water in the
lake, probably by the upwarping of its outlet, to 60 feet
above the present level. This time of warm climate lasted
long enough for the deposit of 45 feet of sand and clay in
a delta several square miles in area, and for the growth of
generations of forest trees.
At length there came a rise of the waters to 150 feet
or more above the present lake, when delta beds were laid
down covering more than 100 square miles. At one point
there are 672 annual layers in less than 20 feet, so that
the whole thickness must have required some thousands of
years to deposit. The climate had become colder, as shown
by the plants and insects, and was like that of northern
Ontario at present.
Next, the great lake was drained to a level 16 feet below
lake Ontario, and three river valleys were carved in the
delta, a wide one toward the west at the present site of
Toronto, a narrower one at the Dutch Church and another
wide one towards Highland creek. These valleys had gently
sloping sides and were much more mature than the present
valleys of the Don and the Humber. ‘To cut them the rivers
must have required several thousand years.
Finally, Arctic conditions came on and the ice advanced
once more from the northeast, covering the eroded surface
of the region with a second sheet of boulder clay. The
climatic cycle was complete.
32
THE IROQUOIS BEACH DEPOSITS.
After the last ice age, when the retreat was well under
way, the basin of lake Ontario was freed from ice while
its outlet at the Thousand islands was still blocked. The
water escaped by the Rome outlet, in the State of New York,
to the Hudson, and a lake which has been named Iroquois
by Dr. Spencer, occupied the basin at a much higher level
than that of lake Ontario. The southern slope of Toronto
is largely covered with its deposits, the old shore cliff runs
east and west through the city, and at each end a great
gravel bar extends across the present river valley.
The Iroquois beach is deformed and rises from 176 feet
above lake Ontario at the Humber gravel bar toward the
west to 196 feet at the York gravel bar crossing the mouth
of the ancient Don bay, and to 200 feet at Scarboro heights.
The shore cliff within the city north of Davenport road
averages about 75 feet in height, but at Scarboro reaches
in places 170 feet. At the highest point of the Scarboro
cliff it is completely cut off by the shore of lake Ontario
for half a mile, the only known point at which the waves
of Ontario have encroached on the ancient shore line.
Lake Iroquois began its work at least 70 feet below
its latest well marked beach, but none of the earlier stages
is shown at Toronto. Beside the cutting of a terrace in the
Pleistocene deposits with the cliff at its rear the lake did
much work in distributing materials, filling in former de-
pressions in the terrace, and building the two great gravel
bars in west and east Toronto respectively. Each of these
bars began on the east side of its bay and grew westwards,
crowding the river out of its earlier channel and forcing
it to the western shore of the bay.
The bar in west Toronto crossing the Humber bay ex-
tends west as a uniform and rather narrow ridge of gravel
and sand rising 20 feet above the slope to the south, while
the York (or east Toronto) bar enclosing the Don bay is
more spread out and contained lagoons. It had much the
size and shape of the present Toronto island.
Both of these ancient bars are being rapidly destroyed,
the sand and gravel being used for building purposes in
Toronto. .
The Iroquois deposits are sometimes 100 feet thick and
include coarse materials in the gravel bars, sand of varying
‘aay odvg Ivan (}1sodeq sronbosy) speq petdunig
34
character on the lakeward slope, as well as silt and clay
within the Don and Humber bays. At one point near
Reservoir park shells have been found in the gravels, species
of Campeloma, Pleurocera and Spherium, all still living
in lake Ontario. The commonest fossils are horns of
caribou, which are often found in the west Toronto gravel
bar. Less frequently teeth of mammoth have been obtained.
The mammoth and the caribou suggest a cooler climate than
the present. The caribou is essentially a northern animal,
and has not been found within 150 miles north of Toronto
during historic times. It is natural to suppose that the
waters of lake Iroquois, which had a shore of ice toward
the northeast, were colder than those of Ontario, and that
the climate was cool, if not even subarctic.
When lake Iroquois was drained through the melting
of the ice dam at the Thousand islands, the water sank to
sea level, but there is no evidence of marine deposits on its
shore. The marine episode was comparatively short and
the water was probably kept fresh by the Niagara river.
The outlet was still rising toward the northeast, so that the
water was backed up toward the southwest end of the lake.
On the lower reaches of both the Don and the Humber
there is dead water owing to this rise of the lake level, and
well borings near the mouth of the Don show too feet of
stratified sand built up in the old channel. ‘The growth of
Toronto island is, however, the most evident work of lake
Ontario near Toronto in recent times. Its materials have
been transported westwards from Scarboro heights, and
have been built out into deep water enclosing Toronto bay,
The growth of the island has been shown by Sir Sandford
leming, from a comparison of maps more than 100 years
old, to have been extensive.
EXCURSION B 5
MORAINES NORTH OF TORONTO
BY
FRANK B. TAYLor.
The moraines to be visited on this excursion were made
at a relatively late stage in the retreat of the last or Wis-
consin ice sheet, and are the first moraines formed north
of lake Ontario. One was made along the southern edge of
the Trent valley-lake Simcoe ice lobe. At the locality visited
the ice which made this moraine, was moving towards
the south and the moraine faces in that direction. ‘The
main movement in that lobe, however, was towards the
southwest, shown by the axes of many drumlins and drum-
loids and by striz and the direction of boulder transporta-
tion in the Trent valley and lake Simcoe regions. The
direction in this area was about the same during the maxi-
mum extent of the ice and during the whole time of its
retreat. The other moraine to be visited lies close south
of the first and was formed along the northern edge of the
ice lobe which lay in the basin of lake Ontario.
At the greatest extent of the ice sheet, its front reached
nearly to Cincinnati, Ohio, about 400 miles southwest from
Toronto. The ice which reached this point was part of the
great ice stream which moved southwestward through the
basins of lakes Ontario and Erie. At the same time the
ice front in a direction south-southeast from ‘Toronto
reached only to Salamanca, New York, about 120 miles
from Toronto. This was on account of the Alleghany
plateau, the high mass of which obstructed the southward
movement in western New York and Pennsylvania and in
northeastern Ohio, and turned the current towards the
Southwest along the axis of the lake basins. The central
axis of the great ice stream passes about 30 miles south of
Toronto, and there was not much change in its position dur-
35
36
ing the retreating phase, until the ice front had receded to
the northeast end of lake Erie. By the time it had reached
this position, however, the relatively deep basin of lake
Ontario became the controlling factor in the ice movements
of this region. ‘This was the position of the ice front a
short time before the moraines to be visited were made.
The ice field was then confluent and continuous over the
whole region between the lake Ontario basin on the south
and the Trent valley, the lake Simcoe basin and the basin
of Georgian bay on the north. At this time the ice front
rested against the face of the Niagara escarpment from
Hamilton northward to Georgian bay, and the ice lay as
an unbroken sheet over the whole region to the east. It
was already growing thin, however, over the ridge north
of Toronto, and with further steps of retreat the ice soon
parted and the ridge began to emerge.
'. The first parting of the ice lobes in the manner described
probably occurred during the time of lake Arkona, but was
temporary, for the pronounced readvance of the ice to the
Crystal beach (Alden, Port Huron) moraine carried the
ice front back again to the base of the escarpment, and the
moraines which had just been made were overridden and
destroyed. This episode of glacial history is not estab-
lished on evidence seen in the localities visited on this ex-
cursion, but is fully supported by facts recorded in other
parts of Ontario and in Michigan and New York. Then,
when the ice front retreated again, the ridge was once more
uncovered and the moraines now seen on the heights 20
miles north of Toronto began to be formed. This was
probably during the times of lakes Wayne and Warren, but
later phases farther east were probably correlatives of lake
Lundy.
The two moraines were formed on the top of the emerged
ridge, first at the west end near the base of the Niagara
escarpment, and later at places farther east. As the flanks
of the ridge were gradually uncovered, lake waters stood
high upon them, but these waters were only narrow arms
that reached northward from the main lake in the basin
of lake Erie and made no perceptible record by wave action.
At this stage of retreat the ice did not enter the western
part of the lake Ontario basin over the ridge north of To-
ronto, but came in at the northeastern end chiefly in the
gap between Trenton, Ontario, and Oswego, New York.
37
At this time the lake Ontario ice lobe had become sharply
differentiated, so that in the western half of the basin the ice
was spreading from the central axis towards the margin on
all sides except the east, where the ice stream was entering.
From this circumstance it happens that the ice at this stage
moved towards the northwest over Toronto and vicinity. A
few miles east of Toronto its movement was directly north.
These movements were respectively transverse and nearly
Bond Lake, Looking East. Probably Due to Partly Buried Ice Block
Which Afterwards Melted Out.
opposite to the southwestward movements over this region
at the time of maximum extension. The relations in this
area afford a fine illustration of the changing and increasing
influence of topography upon the movement of the ice as
the ice grew thinner.
The drift, as Professor Coleman has pointed out, is
quite deep in the vicinity of Toronto. But it is certainly
much deeper along the line of the great moraines 20 miles
to the north; and its depth is also considerable in the region
west and southwest of lake Simcoe. Much the greater part
38
of the deep drift in the region around Toronto is of pre-
Wisconsin age, but beyond this general statement its precise
age has not been determined even approximately, except by
Coleman, in the remarkable exposures in Toronto. It is .
quite clear, however, that the pre-Wisconsin beds or some
of them, have a wide extension in easterly, northerly and
northwesterly directions from Toronto. In many localities
the Wisconsin drift is only a thin sheet, sometimes even dis-
continuous, over a great mass of the older drift. The bulky
moraines north of Toronto appear to rest upon a deep sub-
structure of these older deposits.
Suburban cars leave the Toronto and York Radial
station on North Yonge street. The station stands a little
below the level of the beach of glacial lake Iroquois, and the
car ascends the old lake cliff immediately after leaving the
station. On reaching the top, the traveller finds himself
on an undulating plain trenched by small streams running
toward the southeast. The stream valleys have been cut
to only moderate depths, the deepest being the west branch
of the Don river, which at York Mills reaches a depth
of about 100 feet.
The surface forms that meet the eye as soon as the car
leaves the old lake bluff are readily recognized as products
of glacial action, perhaps partly constructional, but mainly
destructional in character—a smoothing and rounding off
of an uneven surface by the ice sheet. In the first mile
or two several hills resembling drumlins are seen, none of
them perfect types, however, but sufficiently near to be
called drumloid forms. Glacial action is not recorded alone
in these hills, for the whole surface is characterized by long
drumloid profiles on the interstream ridges, and the troughs
have the same character, and both troughs and ridges are
strongly alined after the fashion of drumlins in the direc-
tion of the latest ice movement. This kind of surface has
been happily characterized by Fairchild as “ drumlinized,”
meaning by this that the drumlin-forming process gave the
surface its character, although no perfect drumlins were
formed.
At York Mills the sands in the high bank south of the
Don river and west of the track are reported by Coleman
to be of pre-Wisconsin age. Between York Mills and Rich-
mond Hill several partially drumlinized forms are seen
towards the east. At Thornhill a bored well penetrated 600
39
feet of drift, or about to sea level, before reaching rock. A
large part of the material was reported to be sand.
Approaching the moraine north of Richmond Hill, the
drumloid forms disappear and the plain merges smoothly
into the southern slope of the moraine. This slope is
notably smooth and lacks the hummocky surface which
usually characterizes terminal moraines. The southern
margin takes this form all along from King southward to
Maple and then northeastward and eastward for 100 miles.
A Pond and Morainic Topography in the Northern Moraine, Looking South
Three Miles West of Aurora.
This smooth slope is the side on which the ice front rested
while building the moraine. The moraine, therefore, faces
northwest and north, its north side being its front slope and
its south side its rear.
On reaching the summit of the ridge this and the north-
ward slope are found to be more irregular and hummocky
than the south slope, more characteristic of ordinary ter-
minal moraines. ‘There are many knobs and basins, and
within two miles there are three moraine lakes and several
similar hollows that do not now contain lakes. The car
40
line passes along the west-side of Bond lake and the party
will walk northward from the power house to Schomberg
Junction, noting the very steep slopes bordering this lake
and the rugged nature of the ground, and also the sections
of the drift exposed along the newly-made highway. Much
of the drift in the north slope of the moraine is more or
less sandy, suggesting glacio-fluvial deposition, but no ex-
tensive bodies of outwash are associated with the moraine
in this vicinity. The south or rear slope, in addition to
the smoothness described above, is more generally coniposed
of till and shows almost no evidence of glacio-fluvial action.
Some of the lakes and basins are no doubt due merely to
the irregular heaping of the drift during deposition by the
ice, but some, like Bond lake, appear to mark the sites of ice
blocks surrounded or partly buried by drift, the lake basin
remaining when the ice melted out.
From the Junction one looks to the north and west across
a flat valley half a mile to a mile wide, and just beyond it
lies a splendid moraine formed by ice moving southward
over the lower region to the north. The flat valley is a
narrow till plain lying between two moraines that face
toward each other. It extends eastward from the Junction
to Willcocks’ lake, which lies partly in the southern moraine.
but mainly in the plain. The party will walk eastward from
the Junction along the south side of the plain, gradually
ascending the front of the southern moraine and passing
along the south and east sides of the lake. From the lake
shore the valley is seen to pass on towards the northeast
and north. It extends in this direction for about a mile,
to where it appears to vanish into the air. But a glacial
drainage course marked by a train of sandy gravel comes
from the outwash area to the east and appears to connect
with it. Northeast of the lake the valley has the character
of a large drainage channel or old river bed lying between
the two moraines, which form its banks on either side. In
the early phase of this pause of the retreating ice, a large
river issued from the narrow space between the two ice
fronts and flowed out to the west. This river carried the
accumulated drainage from a long way to the east and
northeast. There are low sand and gravel beds on the
valley floor north and northeast of the lake that record the
action of the river.
AI
The main bulk of the gravels, however, lies at a slightly
lower level than the head of the channel, and marks a change
of the drainage by which it continued along the rear side
of the northern moraine to another slightly lower passage
farther west. Such a passage occurs about eight miles
west of Aurora or one mile east of Linton, and the gravels
appear to end at that place. Outwash gravels form the
crest of the hill along the north side of the creek for two
miles west from Van Dorf.
Looking North Over Willcocks’ Lake, the Northern Moraine in the Distance
These old river gravels form a sort of terrace along the
north or rear slope of the north moraine. It is well defined
where the electric line crosses it at the cemetery a mile
south of Aurora.
The deposit stands considerably above the lower country
to the north. It is cut by many small gullies, but is sub-
stantially continuous from the large outwash deposit six or
seven miles east of Aurora to the gap east of Linton. This
deposit is not outwash issued from the front of the ice while
the moraine was being built, for it rests on the rear slope
42
of the moraine. It appears to have been deposited by a
river flowing westward along the ice front in the last or
closing phase of the relatively long pause during which the
moraine was built. The ice had ceased advancing apparently
and had become practically inert along its edge. The river
during this phase had fallen a little below the passage to
Willcocks’ lake and probably escaped southward through
the gap east of Linton.
Two miles east of Willcocks’ lake there are well-de-
veloped eskers and associated troughs cutting through the
southern moraine from southeast to northwest. These also
show with great clearness that the ice here was moving to-
ward the northwest, normal to the trend of the moraine at
this place. The esker stream cut through the moraine and
issued into the drainage channel a mile and a half northeast
of Willcocks’ lake.
EXCURSION B 6
MUSKOKA LAKES
G. G. S. Linpsry, Leader.
The Muskoka lakes region is known as the “ Highlands
of Ontario.” It contains numerous clear-water lakes and
many popular summer resorts.
THE LAURENTIAN.
The rock cuttings along the branch railway between
Gravenhurst and Muskoka wharf afford excellent sections
of the Laurentian, bringing out clearly the method by which
the characteristic banded gneiss has been produced. Here
and there masses of dark green-grey rock may be seen,
sometimes of considerable area. ‘These patches of diorite
schist or of biotite schist are, no doubt, metamorphosed
basic rocks, such as gabbro, older than the granite which
penetrates them as dikes and floats off fragments from their
margins. At first the fragments are angular and sharp
edged, but at a greater distance from the parent mass they
become rolled out as schistose streaks, and along with this
goes lit par lit injection of granite magma, sometimes as
thin, light-colored sheets, at others as distinct granite dikes.
The result is a strikingly banded gneiss, grey if the original
basic material was in larger amount, and flesh-colored with
thin, greenish bands where the granite predominated.
Still later dikes of granite and also of coarse pegmatite
have penetrated in all directions the gneisses just referred
to, and one may observe the beginnings of a second opera-
tion like the first, blocks being broken off, rolled out and
injected with granite parallel to the schistosity. Evidently
the Laurentian gneisses represent a long continued series
of granite intrusions, diluting and attenuating more and
more the basic materials which once made the crust through
which the eruptions took place.
43
Port Cockburn
0
\ p43 Rosseau
Barnesdale\\
LakeJoseph y \
es
ya
7435
rat
“& Royal M koka Hote/
a UuUSKOKa é
CLS 7)
YS Gravenhurst
(70 TORONTO ~11/ MILES )
Miles a ro
j T
Ki lomet eS iy ye
Muskoka Lakes
45
In some places the strike and dip of the schistosity may
be traced from point to point in such a way as to encircle
areas of granite, showing a ground plan of batholithic
mountain structures, domes which have lost thousands of
feet by later erosion, so that the relief is now comparatively
low.
The Muskoka lakes, with their remnants of original
greenstones and their much larger area of grey or flesh-
colored granitoid gneiss arranged ovally about less schistose
centres of granite, afford typical examples of the Laurentian
rocks, which cover more than half of northern Canada.
They also show admirable examples of the lake basins which
occupy nearly a quarter of the original peneplane of the
Canadian Shield. After peneplanation had been accom-
plished the region was elevated some hundreds of feet and
rivers eroded valleys, though not to great depths. Then
came the ice sheets of the glacial period, scouring off the
debris, leaving clean, rounded and striated rock surfaces,
and blocking all the valleys with boulder clay or moraine
ridges. When the ice departed all the hollows formed
lakes, each of which spills over at the lowest point into the
next lake below as falls or rapids. ‘The connecting rivers
have not yet had time to cut channels in the rock, and their
erratic courses add much to the beauty of the wilderness
of lakes spread over the Muskoka region. It is typical
“rocky lake” country, with lakes and ponds and inlets and
islands of all shapes and sizes, making a veritable labyrinth
of waters, which reflect rock cliffs and groves and give shel-
tered navigation for launches and canoes.
ANNOTATED GUIDE.
ToRONTO TO GRAVENHURST.
Miles and
Kilometres.
0.0 Toronto, Union station, altitude 254 feet
22m. }(77.4m.). Nort PARKDALE, altitude 301 feet
3.5 km. (119.2 m.). Leaving Toronto by the Northern
division of the Grand Trunk railway, the train
passes over a drift-covered area which is under-
lain by Paleozoic rocks.
Miles and
Kilometres.
4.6 m.
Giodal Mee aal
22.4 m.
36.1 km.
48.7 m.
78.6 kim.
62.7 m.
Tor.1 km.
64.0 m.
L022 kim
86.0 m.
138.7 km.
93.5 m.
150.8 km.
46
At Davenport there are gravel bars of
glacial lake Iroquois, while two miles to the east
the old shore line of this lake is exposed.
At King an altitude of nearly 1,000 feet is
attained. The country traversed consists of
rolling ridges of Pleistocene deposits, made up
of stratified clays, sands and gravels, and
material of glacial origin. ‘To the north of King
much of the country is strewn with boulders.
The first view of lake Simcoe is obtained
from a point just south of GriForD STATION.
At Allendale a splendid view is obtained
of the town of Barrie on Kempenfeldt bay. To
the south of Barrir, as far as the township line,
the drift has an average depth of 300 feet or
more. “ Throughout this area of deep drift a
considerable part 1s made up of water laid or
lake sediments as distinguished from glacial or
ice-laid deposits. Locally, as in the case of the
high mass west of Barrie, a large part is water
laid—chiefly stratified sands and clays. But ice
laid drift is generally dominant” (Taylor).
North of Orillia there is a cutting through
boulder clay. All the country from ‘Toronto
north, as far as Longford, is underlain by flat-
lying sediments of Paleozoic age, including, from
the south, Lorraine, Utica, T‘renton, Black River
and Bird’s Eye formations. ‘The first outcrop-
ping of rock along the railroad occurs at
LONGFORD, where Black River limestone is seen.
At the Longford quarries, on the west side of
St. John lake, Rama township, four feet of
Black River limestone are exposed at the top, in
two heavy layers containing an abundance of
characteristic fossils, such as Columnaria Halli,
Stromatocerium rugosum, etc., and a six-foot
bed at the bottom is a mass of Tetradium fibra-
tum. Below this are twelve feet of fine-grained
blue and dove-colored limestone containing
Leperditia, but comparatively few other fossils.
This lower bed has been referred to the Bird’s
Eye formation (Johnson).
True North
Geo rgian
Victoria
OrillS (
Route map between Toronto and Muskoka
Miles
25 oO 25 50 75 100
— 4 -—— 4 n =
Kilometres
s0 7S
ee
Miles and
Kilometres.
95 m.
153.3 km.
98.5 m.
158.8 km.
111.4 m.
179.7 km.
48
The limestone forms a low escarpment fac-
ing northwards, and after a short drift-covered
stretch coarse red granitoid gneiss shows itself
beyond as a plain with low relief.
At Washago, the red gneiss, which is ex-
posed in a quarry near the railroad, contains
long bands or thin sheets of grey-green biotite
schist, sometimes crumpled and slightly faulted.
From this point to Gravenhurst the greyish or
flesh-colored Laurentian gneiss rises as hills of
moderate height, and the shores and islands of
the Muskoka lakes the mainly formed of similar
rocks.
At Gravenhurst, altitude 818 feet
(249.3 m.), a branch railway extends for a mile
and a half to Muskoka wharf, altitude 749 feet
(228.3 m.), where steamers are in waiting for
visitors. The rock cuttings along this branch
afford excellent sections of the Laurentian,
bringing out clearly the method by which the
characteristic banded gneiss has been produced.
EXCURSION B 8
CLAY DEPOSITS AND WORKS
NEAR TORONTO.
BY
M. B. BAKER.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
LIsavtserox aT Bes Oya Seana ets ve cla corer OrUNEr eed Eearicin ssn URN Nera 50
DonsaValleye Brick Wonksin im Meine ove ose 51
Swansea, Sener Jee Work scoccscddseccobonuodess 52
49
50
INTRODUCTION.
There are no high-class ceramic industries in Canada
using Canadian clays, because there are no kaolin deposits
of worth in Canada. Pleistocene glaciation removed all
products of rock decay, and therefore all deposits of residual
clay, and left only a mixed glacial drift. In some places
this has been more or less sorted, so that a clay-like material
containing a large percentage of rock flour is found, and
this is used for the manufacture of ordinary building-brick,
field tile, or common pottery. These impure clays in the.
fresh and unaltered state are high in calcium carbonate,
varying from 13 per cent. to 27 per cent. The iron oxides
run about 7 per cent. In burning these clays the iron is
prevented from burning to the ferric oxide, but forms in-
stead ferrous carbonates and silicates, which give the buff
to cream colors found in these products. There is an un-
limited supply of this clay in Canada, but it is of a poor
grade and yields only the commonest products.
In flat areas, or in more or less hollow places, where
weathering has taken place, and where the products have
had little chance to be removed, we find that the meteroic
waters have leached out the calcium carbonate from the
upper two to eight feet of our glacial clays. This has re-
duced the calcium carbonate to as low as 6 per cent. in most
cases, but since iron oxide is insoluble it remains the same
as in the glacial clay. On burning this weathered clay, the
iron oxide is now able to change to the ferric condition, and
yields as a result the red products with which all are
familiar.
Since this red-burning clay is confined to the weathered
top of the glacial clay and to interglacial clay, we can see
that the supply is limited. Beyond the change in color, the
other qualities of the burnt product are not improved.
All higher grade products, including pressed-brick, terra-
cotta sewer-pipe, paving-brick, etc., are made in Canada
from shales of the Paleozoic series. Three of these are
used so far in Canada, namely, the Utica, Lorraine and
Medina. The first of these is used in the vicinity of Mont-
real, but has not yet been used in Ontario. The latter two
are used in the vicinity of Toronto.
SI
DON VALLEY BRICK WORKS.
The most interesting clay and shale deposits at Toronto
belong to the Don Valley Brick Works, where the follow-
ing section is seen in descending order:
1-3 feet boulder drift clay.
Source elacialestratitied clays arjaone aries rare cn ae
1 foot boulder drift clay.
21 feet interglacial cool water beds. } B
12 feet interglacial warm water beds-f “°° ;
of clay and sand.
12 feet reddish sand, often carbonacious.............- Oe
3 feet boulder drift.
60 feet Hudson River shales, with interbanded lime-
SEOTMLC es ee eee cde ES ea Ghent ees peal inden Seon cess steers 1D)
It is not the writer’s intention to describe these clays
geologically, as this has been already done by Dr. Coleman
in the guide-book to excursion B 2, but the object of this
excursion is to study the industrial side of these clays.
The upper glacial clay A has been collected rapidly, and
is of the character already described in the introduction
above. It has not lost its calcium carbonate, and therefore
burns to buff-colored products. This clay is dug by itself
and manufactured into sand-stock brick, and hollow-spaced
block.
The interglacial banded clays B were slowly-collected
weathered clays, which had lost their calcium carbonate
before or during the gathering process, they therefore burn,
as was described in the introduction, into red ferric pro-
ducts. ‘These two banks, thirty-three feet in all, are there-
fore dug with a steam shovel and manufactured by them-
selves into red sand-stock brick and red wire-cut brick. The
underlying twelve feet of reddish sand is dug and mixed at
times with these interglacial clays B when they, of them-
selves, are too “fat” or strong for the purpose in hand.
The addition of this sand diminishes the shrinkage and
cracking on drying or burning.
At the base of these clays there is a three-foot layer
of boulder clay, which has to be removed and discarded,
when the underlying Lorraine shale comes to view.
This shale is blasted out, picked free from limestone beds,
52
and is then finely pulverized, when it is ready for use
by itself in the manufacture of dry pressed brick, which
burn to a beautiful red color. It is often mixed with other
clays, for example the calcareous clay A to form various
shades of buff to cream colored products.
It is not advisable to go into any detailed description of
the process of brick-making, which is best seen at the brick
yard, but it may be briefly summarized as follows :—The
various sand-stock bricks, which get their name from being
made in sanded moulds; the wire-cut brick, which are cut
off in the required sizes from a continuous column of clay
by passing a wire; and the hollow block, made in the same
way as the wire-cut brick, with variations in the die; are
all taken directly to tunnel dryers on steel cars, on which
they remain during the drying process. They emerge from
the opposite end of the tunnel, and are taken to down-draft
kilns. The dry-pressed bricks go directly from the presses
to the kiln, as they require no drying. These kilns are
single, or double, or continuous, and all burn by soft coal,
except the largest and latest one, which is an enormous con-
tinuous kiln, burned by producer gas. After seven to ten
days burning the kilns are cooled and the products are ready
for market.
SWANSEA SEWER PIPE WORKS.
The plant of the Dominion Sewer Pipe Co. is at Swan-
sea, to the west of Toronto. This company uses Medina
shale dug near Waterdown, thirty-five miles west of the city,
the shale being brought in cars to the plant at Swansea. Only
the upper weathered portion of these beds, from which the
lime and magnesia have been largely leached, is used in
the manufacture of sewer-pipe. ‘The shale is ground as
at the Don Valley brick works, and is then mixed to a stiff
plastic putty with water. It is now forced by a plunger
machine through dies of the required size, turning out
thereby the hollow sewer-pipe, which are cut off by wires,
as in the case of the wire-cut brick. The pipes are then
slowly dried in large rooms with perforated floors, heated
very slowly but continuously with ordinary steam radiators.
After thorough drying the tiles are removed to large
beehive down-draft kilns, where they are stood on end, the
smaller ones being nested inside the larger to conserve space
53
and maintain even drafts. After the ware has been burned
to the consistency of red brick, they must undergo the fur-
ther process of glazing. For this purpose common salt is
thrown into the fire-boxes with the fuel, and the temperature
raised to such a point that the surfaces of the tile are just
fusing. ‘This heat is maintained for a short time, the salt
fumes are carried through the kiln, and on meeting the clay,
which is just at the fusion point, form a sodium iron silicate
with the clay, forming a glaze, covering the tile very per-
fectly. It is easily seen that this must not be carried too
far, or the ware would fuse down and become distorted and
quite misshapen. After the glazing the kiln must be cooled
very gradually, a process usually distributed over three days,
and even then the tile are as hot as the men can handle with
buckskin gloves.
Hastings (pre-Cambrian) conglomerate, Southeastern Ontario
EXCURSION B 10
THE MADOC AREA.
BY
Cyriz, W. KnicuHr.
CONTENTS.
ino CW cbiOrine a: sce se tee ype cree ee i hae oles Capes us
(Gemerrall (Gealliones ea che oy tis eee cnet ne mm
EV comonnice Mmenalsats sep nen ean ne akan een ae
[BID IGIG SATAN aby Nace Nb ieneee teaches oo eS Ena ea een ne nie eee
PNG tebe Glin CnC ea Meet eee enact aie rcuss ud apt vedi weak aeecin Ge
AROHOMEOMtO VAMMOE 5 Nese es 6 seeuecare satin ete Soars
livanitoeutor Vila docu. (esa ene aie eles nee es
55
56
INTRODUCTION.
Madoc, a town of about 1,100 people, in the township
of the same name, Hastings county, is situated 123 miles
east of Toronto and eight miles north of the main line of
the Canadian Pacific railway between Montreal and Toronto.
A branch line of the Grand Trunk railway from Belleville
runs into the town, which lies a few miles to the north of the
Paleozoic escarpment and on the southern fringe of the
great pre-Cambrian shield.
The town was the site of early attempts to smelt and mine
iron ores, and a small furnace, built in 1837, was operated
for eight or nine years, using charcoal. The ore was obtained
from the Seymour mine, situated about three miles north
of the town. Later, in the year 1866, intense excitement
was created by the discovery of a small pocket of gold
ore at a point about eight miles north of Madoc. There
was scarcely a lot in the immediate vicinity on which pits
or shafts were not sunk. Since that time iron ore, copper
pyrites, gold and other minerals have been spasmodically
mined in a small way in the vicinity. At the present time,
however, the Henderson talc mine, on the outskirts of the
town, and the Canadian Sulphur Ore Company’s pyrite
mine, which lies several miles to the northeast of Madoc,
are being successfully operated.
GENERAI, GEOLOGY.
Briefly, the geology may be summarized as follows: The
rocks fall naturally into two great groups: (1) Paleozoic,
and (2) pre-Cambrian. The Paleozoic consists of hori-
zontal beds of limestone of Ordovician age (Black River).
These beds rest with great unconformity on the pre-Cam-
brian. ‘The latter consists, beginning with the most ancient,
of the Keewatin series, which is made up of greenstone
schists, which sometimes retain ellipsoidal structures and
amygdaloidal textures. The Keewatin is not exposed at
Madoc, but occurs in considerable volume in adjacent areas.
On the Keewatin lavas were laid down a very thick
series of sediments, now highly metamorphosed, known as
the Grenville, and composed of schistose quartzite, grey-
wacké, iron-formation (jaspilyte), slate and crystalline
limestone. Both the Keewatin and Grenville were invaded
by the Laurentian gneissoid granite.
DOPRPT ‘URTIQUILD-dIg ,,‘9}VIIWUIOTSUOD |, 9UOJSAUIT SUIT[LISAID YIM paeppaqtejuy ‘g pur | ‘a1e{g Jo speg
58
After the intrusion of the Laurentian there was a pro-
longed period of erosion, and the Hastings sedimentary
series, consisting of conglomerate and other rocks, was laid
down.
Finally all the older rocks were invaded by the Moira
granite and felsite, and later by basic dikes.
On the surface of the pre-Cambrian rests the Black
River limestone, the lower formations of the Ordovician
being absent in the district.
The accompanying colored map, scale 1,000 feet to the
inch, shows the distribution of the rocks in the Madoc
area.
ECONOMIC MINERALS.
Tac.
LEGEND
= PLEISTOCENE
i |] Recent
Iroquois Saud
= Iroquois Clay
Tw
WZ [S222] Paint Waterlaid Moraine
hae |
NY) wail) cA Ry
i ve oe Se { RE) rer terpaciat Clay
3
\ ‘
, ss : Te to Formation
i " — Sad antral
a TW
ORDOVICIAN
Lorraine Shale
SS S1IEINS)
2 Building
® Lighthouse
> City Limits
a Lroquois Beach
246° Elevation above sea level
» Probable course of Moraine
“SOURCES OF INFORMATION —
Topographic base and contours trom
plane table sheet, Department of Militia
and Defence, Ottawa, Canada; with
additions by W- R. Rogers.
Geology 6y AP Coleman an a
“HiliKerr. Moraine /ocated by
F.B.Taylor.
EAE
gerated ten times
J SEcTIO.
Vertical scale exa: MEAN DECLINATION
| 1913.
- 35°
25° Longitude West 79°20’ from Greenwich | 15° 10°
{ :
Map NS 22 g
NOMIC NOTES =
ECO area the chet economic mineral is LEGEND
ka of the pre Cambrian. at oF PALEozoic
™“ Hill the wet int bi Ordovician
fe Swamp :
= Shoft
oft i x ema) Black River Limestone
‘Canailal put
y from Cats
* Prospect Pit Pes
|
UNCONFoRMITY
The nor. Ab oy PRE-CAMBRIAN
| s% Gravel Pit half Keweenawan?
B ia bor ts a] Basic dikes.
S Madoc.
ea cloned at present.” No
Contin Tama done on the Palmer pyrite proj
INTRUSIVE CONTACT
a Post-Hastings intrusive
Tei hoped this map may assist in further prospecting
for pyrite.
Fine grained grey felsite
= Road x
Private Road or Lane
| aq Strike ond Dip
| = Glocial Stria
643° Elevation in feet above sea level
|-—— Electric Transmission Line
INTRUSIVE CONTAOT
Gronville
STATIONS
eas
[NSSS Bite limestone with subordinate beds of
SOURCES OF INFORMATION LS rreywacké,
Mine plans of Canadian Sulphur Ore Co. == einer
Topography by W. R. Rogers.
Geology by P. E. Hopkins, 1912
Rusty schist
Garneliferous schist (greywacké probably
altered in part by felsite intrusion),
Greywacké and quartzite, dolomitic in
Places; together with finely banded beds
of cherly material.
Keewatin
Hornblende schist
Largel
Gree
Orift Covered
‘QUEENSBORO
h@ (BLaAKeELx)
Pyrite Mine
\
XA
AW
\\\\
TOONS
\\\\
\{
Largely
Orift Covered
North Ast
2 gERr) “fOREay, Oy
Se ~~
BUREAU OF MINES
Drift | :
MAP
od Ne ZS QUEENSBORO PYRITE AREA
| BP TOWNSHIPS or MADOC anv ELZEVIR, HASTINGS COUNTY
Resioence 9)
ESIDENC PROVINCE oF ONTARIO
To accompany Part II, Volume 22, Report of Bureau of Mines, 1913.
Hon. W. H. Hearst, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines.
Willet G. Miller, Provincéal Geolorist.
Scale: 9800 or 800Feet —1 Inch.
fon tpg tt Mom g 2 —— ey
A} worcn Mee —
SECTION A-B.
Horixanta/ and Vertical Scale 800 Feet =/ inch
Map N° 22 e.
vrs
BUREAU OF MINES
MAP
OF THE
MADOC AREA
TOWNSHIPS of MADOC and HUNTINGDON, HASTINGS COUNTY
PROVINCE oF ONTARIO
To accompany Part UL, Volume 22, Report of Bureau of Mines 103.
Hon WH. Hearst, Minister Willet G Miller, Provincia! Geologist
Scale: 17000 or 1,000 Feet = 1 Inch
Metres joo z _| Kilometre
\\
\
LEGEND
PALEOZOIC
Black River limestone (Ordovician), including also drift-covered
——— ar
GREAT UNCONFORMITY
PRE-CAMBRIAN
| Basie dikes.
|
[pun] Moira granite and felsite.
Slate.
7
ii Greywacké and quarjsite.
ist J
Conglomeraterand limestone.
[<<] Axglomerate and tuf'; crush-breccia; felsite intrusions containing
L = =} inclusions of schist, crystalline limesiones and other rocks.
Madoc andesite and rhyolite with some agglomerate and (uff
[p22] Blue and white crystalline limestone, essentially non-magnesian.
Lice)
[ED 202 0nd rey moznesion ersualine limestone
NOTE—The relative ages of certain groups of rocks in this area have not
been definitely determined. Hence in this legend the age relations
of the pre-Cambrian rocks, one lo another, are not indicated.
SIGNS
House.
Hill
Road or Street.
Swamp.
Shaft.
Prospect Pit.
Quarry.
Strike and Dip.
Elevation in feet abore sea level.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Map of the “Madoc and Marmora Mining District” by E. Coste and
J. Wurre, 1886; with topographic additions by W. R. Roses, 1918.
Geolopically re-surceyed by Wnuuet G. Mutter and Cymn W.
Knicut, 1912.
que
x0
Aunt
a0 A
SECTION BD
if
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cursions in
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|
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