{
*
[FROM THE AMERICAN Journal OF SCIENCE, Vol. XLI, JANUARY, 1891.]
DEFORMATION OF THE ALGONQUIN
BEACH, AND BIRTH OF LAKE HURON.
i. J * ~~". * ...sº ſ
$.g.º.º.) lºvº-b
By Jºw. Sprisogº.
12 Spencer—Deformation of Algonquin Beach,
Yº
ART. II.-Déformation of the Algonquin Beach, and Birth
of Lake Huron; by J. W. SPENCER.
FROM the ship's deck, my attention to the high terrace,
which skirts the coast of Georgian Bay, was first attracted.
But long before, fragments of this ancient shore-line were used
by the Algonquin Indians, in the same manner as the Iroquois
tribes had trailed over the “Ridge Roads” of Ontario and
Erie. Mr. Sanford Flemming, C.E., described in 1853, some
of the drift ridges at the head of Georgian Bay, and recog-
nized certain high level beaches.” Later the Geological Survey
of Canada measured the elevation of some of the raised ter-
races. But those early investigators did not recognize either
the extent of the beaches or their deformation from the water-
level. No systematic explorations of the old shores were
made until the summers of 1887 and 1888, when the writer,
assisted by Professors W. W. Clendenin and W. J. Spillman
surveyed portions of them. In the autumn of 1887, Mr. G.
K. Gilbert visited some of the Canadian terraces. In August,
1888, I abruptly left the field and reported some results
before the Cleveland meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. Some references to the Geor-
gian Bay béaches were made in “The Iroquois Beach, etc.,”$
and later Mr. Gilbert generalized upon the history of the
Upper Lakes, in an interesting paper entitled “The History of
the Niagara River,” wherein some of his raised shore-lines
were taken from my survey, unpublished portions of which
having been furnished to him.
Upon the Canadian side of the lakes, there are well pre-
served shore-lines, marking the same episodes, as those upon
the American side, when all the lakes were covered by a com-
mon sheet of water (the Warren water). These raised beaches
have been more or less surveyed, but they belong to an episode
earlier than that recorded in the beach, which confined the
waters to the Upper Lake basins not embracing that of Lake
Erie. This beach, which skirted the head of Lake Huron,
cutting off the waters from the Erie basin, is now submerged
at its southern end, but it rises as a conspicuous feature in the
* Valley of Nottawasaga, Can., Jour. Toronto, vol. i., 1853.
# Geological Survey of Canada, 1863.
f “Notes on the Origin and History of the Great Lakes of North America,”
by J. W. Spencer, Proc. A. A. A. S., vol. xxxvii, 1888.
§ “The Iroquois Beach, a Chapter on the Geological History of Lake Ontario.”
Read before Phil. Soc. Wash., Jan. 1888, and Roy. Soc. Can., May, 1889. Proc.
Phil. Soc. Wash., 1888. Trans. Roy. Soc. Cam., 1889.
| Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners of the State Reservation of
Niagara for 1889.
and Birth of Lake Huron. 13
topography of the country. I have named it after the In-
dians who, long ago, used it for a trail—the Algonquin Beach.*
It forms the basis of this paper. t
Between Lakes Huron, Ontario and Erie, at respective alti-
tudes of 582, 573, and 247 feet above the sea, the land rises to
1709 feet. It shows water action to within 20 feet of its sum-
mit. From the highest ridges or plains, the land falls away
towards the lakes, sometimes gradually, but often by abrupt
steps, especially upon the northeastern side. Over this
peninsula, there are many ridges of drift. Exclusive of the
ridges, the general surface of the country is composed of fine
stony till, or of modified drift, the product of wave action
upon the stony clay, the result of which has been the forma-
tion of beach ridges of Sand and gravel, separated by plains of
silt or clay soil. In many cases, these floors slope so gently as
to appear level, and from two to five or six miles may inter-
vene between successive beaches, whose altitudes do not differ
by more than 50 or 60 feet. The silt on these plains is that
- which was washed out into the deeper water, by the assorting
- action of the waves that were building sand or gravel beaches
* in front of their coast lines, composed of the older stony
* clay. In such cases, the lithological recognition is striking.
- Upon surveying, the beaches are all found to rise in altitude
9 toward the north and east, with a slightly increasing diverg-
à 'ence between the ridges in the same direction, for the differ-
ential uplift has always been greater toward the northeast,
º' than in the opposite direction.
| The methods of investigation have been similar to those
~ pursued in the survey of the Iroquois Beach. Boulder pave-
ments are rather more important features of the Algonquin
Beach than of the Iroquois. About the head of Georgian
Bay the country is sandy. East of Georgian Bay, there is
the same kind of broken wilderness as that among the Archaean
rocks of the Adirondack Mountains of New York, with more
or less Stony Sand in place of stony clay. -
The waves of the lake are encroaching upon the eastern
coast of Huron, and consequently modern beach-making is
not a characteristic feature, except in proximity to the mouths
of some streams or in sheltered places, where terraces or bars
are constructed. The encroachments of the lake upon the land
have washed away, in many places, the bluffs upon which the
Algonquin Beach rests. But a sufficient number of fragments
remain, for its identification, especially as the position relative
to its elevation, compared with the next higher shore-lines,
which are well marked by beaches, is known. . . .
* The name was first printed in Proc. A. A. A. S., p. 199, 1888.
14 Spencer—Deformation of Algonquin Beach,
:* * 2%* Elevations referred to sea level.
*
: ,”“*. e ::$ºº errºr.º. • *
‘r: “--~# 3,2,...,v-, --” v., ...~-Sº, º'-Tº-º-º- 4.3%
^*...* * : *. \,...," : * P •. • * *s º
** * * * * * * -
"--... ... g' se ". Burºra,
"... ..'.5' 2" *A. º,
Fig. 1.—Map showing the Algonquin Beach about the eastern portion of Algon-
quin Lake. Other beaches are also shown.
The following table gives the levelled elevations of salient
points along the Algonquin Beach, at or near the places men-
tioned:
Feet above the Sea.
Surface of Lake Huron - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 582 (U. S. Lake Survey.)
Beach at one or two miles lakeward of
modern outlet of Lake Huron, calcu-
lated ---------------------------- 562 (Spencer.)
Grand Bend (of Au Sable River) - - - - 602 GC
Wilson’s (14 miles northward, terrace
at 608 feet, calculated) - - - - - - - - - - - - 618 & 4
Eighteen Mile Creek (terrace 637 feet,
calculated)----------------------- 647 (Barometer.)
Southampton (back of which a sand
dune rises 13 feet higher) - - - - - - - - - - 714 (Spencer.)
Thence the beach skirts Indian Penin-
sula, and at Owen Sound - - - - - - - - - - 749 & 4
Clarksburg ------------------------ 773 & 4
Collingwood, 4 miles west of -- - - - - - - 767 “
Colwell --------------------------- 752 &G
Elmswale ------------------------- 802 ( &
Wyebridge, east of - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S42 CG
Orillia, about -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 800 (Barometer.)
Thence the beach descends and swings
around Lake Simcoe and again rises
at Kirkfield - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 875 (Spencer.)
Burk’s Falls - - - - - - - - - - (+ or –) (?)1171 (N. W. & N. Ry.)

and Birth of Lake Iſvron. 15
Beyond Kirkfield, the survey was not carried, but from the
topography of the country and from the fragments of the
beaches, the position of the Algonquin Beach is approximately
that of the broken line on the map. The gravel ridge at
Burk’s Falls is probably part of the beach, as the mean rate
of northern rise would represent its position near this point.
For comparison with the Algonquin Beach, the positions
and the elevations of the two next higher beaches, east of
Lake Huron are given on the map, and the tables of elevations
are here added. Of next beach, at or near :
Feet above the Sea.
Forest ------------------------------------- 720 (Spencer.)
Parkhill, east of - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 736 GC
Bayfield, east of----------------------------- 767 C &
Ripley ------------------------------------ SI 3 GC
Walkerton (terrace) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S25 CC
Paisley (terrace).-----------------------. ---- 86 () CG
Burgoyne (east of Southampton) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 876 CC
Rockford, north of - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 915 C &
North coast of Lake Simcoe (probably that) on
the insular ridge north of Barrie - - - - - - - - - - - - 910 & C
Of the second beach above the Algonquin, at or near :
Watford - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 773 &G
Ailsa Craig-------------- a- amº º sº º ºs as sm as sº sº sº º sm &m tº - - - 789
Varna ------------------------------------- S45 (+)
Walkerton - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * = sº gº sº º sº 944
Chatsworth-------------------------------- 985
A still higher beach has been surveyed for many miles, and
several fragments of even more elevated shores are now well
identified. Some of these upper beaches have been traced
over long distances, and have been found resting upon the
land north of Lake Erie, and even extending to the high
country between Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay.
From the figures recorded in the three tables, it will be
found that the mean rate of warping in the Algonquin Beach,
from the southern end of the lake to near Southampton, is
1:33 feet per mile ; of the next beach, between Parkhill and
Burgoyne, 1.5 feet; and of the higher beach, between Wat-
ford and Walkerton, 1.71 feet. These rates of differential
uplift are reduced at their more southern extensions, but in-
creased to two feet, or somewhat more, at the more northern.
After skirting the Indian Peninsula, the position of the
Algonquin Beach surrounding the head of Georgian Bay
is such that it can be triangulated, and hence the average
amount of uplift, as well as its direction can be obtained.
Accordingly, it is found that the uplift upon the more south-
16 Spencer—Déformation of Algonquin Beach,
western portion of the beach, at the head of the bay, is about
3 feet per mile, in a direction of N. 20° E., with an eastern
equivalent of about one foot per mile. The uplift increases
so that east of Georgian Bay the mean rise is 4:1 feet per
mile in a direction of N. 25° E., with the eastern equivalent
of 17 feet per mile.
At Grand Bend, the beach rests upon a fine stony drift
clay—the latest deposit of till in that region—which is charged
with numerous scratched stones. It is also indistinctly strat-
ified. The same holds true at Wilson's and other places.
About Georgian Bay, it also rests upon the upper till. In
short, the waves, which formed the beach, have commonly
removed the silt deposits that covered the floor of the lake,
during the earlier episodes of the higher beaches, and cut into
the underlying drift deposits during the Algonquin episode,
before the beach structure was laid down. In many places,
especially about Georgian Bay, the boulder-pavements are well
developed, especially between the different ridges of the
Algonquin Beach, for it is often broken up into a series of
prominent ridgelets, the lowest being, where developed, as
much as 28 feet below the upper.
There are several beaches about Georgian Bay, at lower
altitudes than the Algonquin, but these rise less rapidly
toward the northeast than the greater named beach. At
Clarksburg, there is a beach at 81 feet above the lake, and
terraces at 62 and 45 feet, besides a numerous series of beaches
extending from 28 feet down to the water level. Near Wye-
bridge, the more conspicuous terraces are at about 183, 73, 55
and 11 feet above the lake ; and there are numerous fainter
shore-lines. These all show that the time of the subsiding of
the waters was marked by numerous pauses.
Between Kirkville and Balsam Lake, there is a depression
a few feet below the level of the upper part of the Algonquin
Beach. But of this later.
No animal life has been found in the beach itself. But in a
terrace, adjacent to the Saugeen River (bridge east of South-
ampton), where there is an embayment of the Algonquin
Beach, there is a bed of fresh-water shells, discovered by
Mr. Spillman. This is at an altitude of 90 feet above the lake,
or over 40 below the beach. This deposit may have been on
the floor of the lake during the Algonquin episode, or it may
belong to a lower water-level. The river has now cut down
its bed far below this level. At the head of Georgian Bay,
fresh water shells have been found up to 78 feet.*
There are several depressions across the Laurentian Moun-
tains, between Lake Huron and Hudson Bay which do not
* Geology of Canada, 1863.
and Birth of Lake Huron. 17
Co
AM. Jour. Sci-THIRD SERIES, Vol. XLI, No. 241. –JANUARY, 1891.
2
FIG 2.-MoDERN Bou LDER PAVEMENT ON GEORGIAN BAY,
NEAR THE END OF BLUE Mountains of collingwood, on T.
FIG, 3–ANCIENT BOULDER PAVEMENT OF ALGONQUIN BEACH,
(whose crest rises 187 feet above º Bay) upon the N. E. side of Blue Mountains of
ingwood, Ont.


18 Spencer—Déformation of Algonquin Beach,
rise much more than 900 feet above the sea. But towards the
northeast, the altitude of the land is everywhere high, except
along the depression in which Lake Nipissing lies. The bar-
rier there descends to 707 feet above the sea. Beaches and
shore lines are known to exist upon the land north of the lakes,
and I have seen such upon Manitoulin and Mackinac Island.
But they have not been directly connected with the more
southern beaches. Consequently, all deductions, in the study
of the lake involving that district, must be somewhat provis-
ional. From the character of the terrestrial rise increasing
towards the east, it is probable that there are no depressions
north of Lake Huron, lower than the plain of the Algonquin
Beach. This beach (by calculation from the mean rate of rise)
should be found in the vicinity of Lake Nipissing, at from 600
to 700 feet above that depression.
Combining the Canadian series of beaches about the upper
lakes with corresponding series on the southern side of the
lakes (my survey of those in Michigan being still unpublished),
I find that there has been a differential elevation, since the
Algonquin episode, between the southern end of Lake Michi-
gan and the vicinity of Grand Bend, on Lake Huron, amount-
ing to about 290 feet. Hence, we know that the Algonquin
plain was down to a level, at least, of less than 300 feet above
the sea. By a triple series of calculations, the Algonquin plain
is found to have had a position somewhat less than 300 feet
above the Iroquois plain. The Algonquin water filled the
|Huron basin to within a mile or two of its southern end,
where the beach is now submerged to about 20 feet, (calculated).
Hence, the waters did not flow by the modern St. Clair River
to the south. At this time a considerable area of the southern
end of Lake Michigan was laid dry, as the beach bounding the
Algonquin water should now be submerged to 290 feet below
the waters of that modern lake. But the northern part of
the Michigan and Huron basins was filled to an elevation far
above their present surface, as the basins had not yet received
that great tilting which partly overflowed their southern mar-
gins and lowered their surfaces toward the north.
There is a well-marked terrace and beach deposit on Mack-
inac Island, at about 190 feet above the lake. This is nearly
in the line of strike, or line along which there is no differential
elevation, of the lowest part of Algonquin Beach about Geor-
gian Bay. This old shore line, on the island, is better devel-
oped than any of the Huron Beaches, situated elsewhere,
except the Algonquin. From its position, there seems no reason
to doubt that the waters of Algonquin lake stood at that eleva-
tion in the strait between the Michigan and Huron basins.
Accordingly, tilting in the Michigan basins has amounted,
and Birth of Lake Huron. 19
since the Algonquin episode, to about 430 feet in 300 miles, or
a little more. This approximation is close upon the mean rate
of uplift measured east of Lake Huron. Parenthetically, it
may be added that President Chamberlain found clays upon the
western side of the lake which represent a differential uplift of
400 feet (although they belong to an older episode), which
were in part involved in the earlier Pleistocene movements.
The Algonquin water also covered most of Lake Superior,
probably to within a short distance of its southwestern end, as
that basin is so deep ; yet the waters must have been very
much shallowed. Indeed, the recent backing of the waters
towards the head of Lake Superior is apparent in the open
bays behind the bars, which cut off Fond du Lac, at Duluth.
The area of the Algonquin Lake or Water may be seen from
what has been written, to have been vastly greater than now,
filling the upper lake basins, nearly to their extreme mar-
gins, and overflowing the land northeast of Georgian Bay,
as shown on the map. On Mackinac Island and adjacent por-
tions of the mainland, there are several shore lines lower than
that assigned to the Algonquin plain and of inferior impor-
tance.
In the early history of the Algonquin water, there was an
overflow by way of Balsam Lake and the Trent valley. My
first impressions of the importance of this outlet were over-
drawn in the preliminary communication” of observations from
the field, before all of the relations had been explored. At
first I attached as much importance to the Balsam outlet
of the Algonquin basin as Mr. Gilbert did to his Mohawk
outlet of the Iroquois basin. As both are too shallow, the
demands are satisfied in neither case. Only at its highest level
did the Algonquin Lake overflow into Balsam Lake. Even the
overflow was sluggish, permitting of the formation of beaches
about the outlet. Before Algonquin water sank to the level
of its lower beaches, its discharge was by a channel below
Balsam outlet. The occurrence of an overflow in this last direc-
tion, is only one of the coincidences, as in other cases, in the
growth of the lake. The outlet of the Algonquin Basin, by
way of Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa valley, was through a
depression, which now rises to 707 feet above tide. This trough
has now an absolute depression of 168 feet below the Algon-
quin Beach at Kirkfield. But the altitude of the beach, in the
region of the old Nipissing outlet, is estimated at 600–700 fee.
above its floor. In short the outlet was a broad strait leading
into the Iroquois Basin, or like the modern connections be-
tween Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay,
unless the basin were closed by a dam, and that of ice. The
* Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1888, p. 197.
20 Spencer
Déformation of Algonquin Beach,
case is not settled so easily as that of the Ontario basin, for we
have not yet the instrumentally measurable proof that the
Algonquin plain was lower than 300 feet above the sea, although
it probably was, and against which probabiltiy there is not the
slightest evidence, for we do not know what was the initial
plain of upward movement. Without applying the objections
made to an ice dam closing the Ontario basin during the Iro-
quois episode, let us examine some conditions of the Algonquin
basin.
The Algonquin plain stood at an elevation of about 300 feet
above the sea, when the lower Iroquois Beach commenced its
growth. Were its waters held up to that altitude by an ice
dam, or had they shrunken to the lower level (which, however,
would not have dismembered the upper lake) and were they
connected with Lake Iroquois by a strait 300 or 400 feet deep,
like the modern outlet of Lake Michigan 7 Up to this time,
there had not been any warping to separate the lake basins, for
the greater part of the barriers has been uplifted since the
episodes of the Algonquin and Iroquois Beaches. I have
shown that the greater proportion of the differential movement,
even in the higher beaches about Lake Erie has been since the
Iroquois episode.” In the earlier part of this paper, it has also
been shown that most of the warping of the beaches, east of
Lake Huron, has been since the Algonquin episode. Now these
higher beaches are identical with those south of Lake Erie,
whose movement have been compared with those of the Iro-
quois Beach. Hence, it is not difficult to understand that the
unequal uplift of both the Algonquin and Iroquois plains has
been nearly synchronous, since the completion of the latter
beach. I speak only of the differential movements that have
deformed the old water levels, and not of the absolute rise,
which lifted the Algonquin plain above the Iroquois, unless the
waters which made the former beach were retained at the
higher altitude, for long ages, by an ice dam.
At most, no ice barrier could have longer blocked the Nipis.
sing outlet than the episode of the lowering of the waters, 300
feet, to the level of the Iroquois Beach, for at that time, all
glaciers had shrunken back beyond the Ontario basin, and the
two basins were connected by the deep Nipissing Strait. And
of such a dam we have not proof, or even probability, to even
as great an extent as in the case of a hypothetical Iroquois
dam. With the continued regional uplift, the waters of Algon-
quin Lake were further lowered, as is shown by the numerous
beaches, until the lake was dismembered, and Superior, Mich-
'gan, Huron and Georgia had their birth and drained through
* “Deformation of the Iroquois Beach,” etc. This Journal, vol. xl, page 443,
1890.
and Birth of Lake //uron. 21
the last, at the level of the Nipissing outlet, only by a river flow-
ing into the valley of the Ottawa.”
As we ascend to the elevation of the higher beaches, the
question of glacial dams becomes more difficult, for we must
assume them to have been hundreds of miles long and at
enormous altitude, damming up bodies of water which had the
proportions of inland seas. Such, I do not here propose to
construct or dissipate, but I am compelled to assume the ini-
tial plain of the Algonquin Beach at sea-level, irrespective of
glaciers which may then have been moving into the St. Law.
rence valley, and obstructing open communication with the
sea, but not damming the waters at high levels. There is as
much evidence of submergence in these deserted beaches as
there is in Professor Shaler’s beaches + up to 1500 feet, on Mt.
Desert Island, without the intervention of dams, or of Mr.
McGee's Columbian formation: which I have seen in Alabama,
at altitudes of about 700 feet without the support of dams.
Indeed, there is additional evidence, for crustaceans of marine
species have so adapted themselves as to still live in the depths
of Lake Superior, $ as also maritime plants upon its shores.|
As Algonquin water received so much fresh water, the marine
conditions, indicated above, were modified, so that almost
immediately after, if not during the formation of the Algon-
quin Beach, the waters became sweet, as is shown by shells
referred to above. With the continued emergence and north-
eastward warping of the continent, a rocky barrier across the
Nipissing outlet was raised which eventually caused the waters
of Georgian, Huron, and Michigan Lakes to unite and over-
flow the southern extension of the lower beaches. Finally,
this warping, as before pointed out," so tilted the basins of
the lakes that the waters overflowed the southern rim of the
Huron basin, and established the modern drainage of the
upper Lakes by way of Lake Erie. Not until this event did
the lakes assume their present form.
* See History of the Niagara River, by G. K. Gilbert.
+ Geology of Mount Desert, by N. S. Shaler. Eighth Annual Report of U. S.
Geological Survey, 1888.
f By W. J. McGee. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. i., 1889.
§ “On the Deep-Water Fauna of Lake Michigan.” (Stimpson) Am. Nat., vol.
iv, p. 403, 1870; also “The Crustacea of the Fresh Waters of the United States.”
(Sidney I. Smith). Rep. Fish Commissioner, 1872–3, p. 643.
| “The Distribution of Maritime Plants in North America.” (C. H. Hitch-
cock). Proc. A. A. A. S., 1870.
"|Notes upon the Origin and History of the Great Lakes of North America,
Proc. A. A. A. S., vol. xxxvii, p. 197, 1888.