fyxuM mmvmxi^ f ih«| 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE XNCpU^^^^ 
 FROM T'ife 
 
 v-i ,•-. s . r 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT • FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 1891 
 
 K-.!^.^..S.±0. : - I^A/^/ 
 
 ENGINEERING L.BRARY 
 
^ Hm librarian. 
 
 12 JUN 191t 
 
 HOME USE ^ RULES 
 
 All Books subject to Recall 
 
 All borrowers must regis- 
 ter in the library to borrow 
 books for home use. 
 
 All books must be re- 
 ttu-ned at end of coUegfe 
 ytar for inspection and 
 repairs;^ 
 
 T.ipiitrtarhftnlfft must be re- 
 !urned wtttiin the four week 
 limit and not renewed. 
 
 .Students must return all 
 books before leaving town. 
 Officers should arrange for 
 t Me^^ ABi books wanted 
 dunng their absence from 
 town. 
 
 Volumes of periodicals 
 and of -pamphlets are held 
 in the dibrary as much as 
 possible.' For special pur- 
 poses they are given out for 
 a limited time. 
 
 Borrowers should not use 
 
 their library privileges for 
 
 ■■ the benefit of other persons. 
 
 Bwlot of special value 
 and gift' books, when the 
 giveri' wishes it, - are not 
 allowed 'te circulate. 
 
 Readers are asked tore-- 
 port I aUc cases of books 
 xnarked Cfr mutilate. ^ -! 
 
 T 
 
 Dp not deface twolci b; marks and wiitinc. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 QE 697.D27 1894 
 
 The Canadian ice ageibeing notes on the 
 
 3 1924 003 945 460 
 
W ^ Cornell University 
 
 WJ/3 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003945460 
 

THE 
 
 CANADIAN ICE AGE 
 
 BEJNG NOTES ON THE PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGY OF 
 
 CANADA, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PERIOD AND ITS 
 
 CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G. 
 
 LL.D., F.E.S., F.G.S., &c. 
 
 MONTREAL 
 
 WILLIAM V. DAWSON 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1894. 
 
 <S5) 
 
A. (p75"(0 
 
 Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, by William V. Dawson, 
 in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The facts stated and questions discussed in this work 
 have occupied some portion of the attention of the author 
 since 1855, and he has from time to time published his 
 results in the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, and 
 elsewhere. In 1872 the subject up to that time was 
 summed up in a pamphlet of about 100 pages, entitled 
 " Notes on the Post-pliocene of Canada," now out of 
 print ; but since that date no general work on the subject 
 has appeared, though many separate memoirs and papers 
 have been issued by the author and other Canadian 
 geologists. 
 
 These papers include a large mass of information bear- 
 ing on the history of the northern half of the continent 
 of North America in that Ice-age which was in some 
 sense peculiarly its own ; and as this material is difficult 
 of access both to geologists and to the general public, no 
 excuse seems necessary for attempting to collect it in a 
 convenient form. 
 
 The author has studied the widespread and complex 
 glacial formations of Canada too long to be content to 
 explain them all by one dominant cause, in the rough 
 and ready method employed by so many of his juniors. 
 He has long been convinced that we must take into 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 account the agency both of land ice and sea-borne ice in 
 many forms, along with repeated and complex elevations 
 and depressions of large portions of the continent, in 
 order to account for the effects observed. He is disposed, 
 however, to seek for the causes of changes of climate 
 rather in geological and geographical agencies than in 
 astronomical vicissitudes, some of which are too slow and 
 uncertain in their operation, and others altogether con- 
 jectural. Such views are less sensational than those which 
 invoke vast and portentous exaggerations of individual 
 phenomena, but they are likely, in the end, to commend 
 themselves to serious thinkers, especially when they are 
 confirmed by the facts observed in the regions which are, 
 of all others, best suited for the study both of extinct and 
 recent ice-action. 
 
 The basis of the work rests on the observations of the 
 author, but reference will be made to the large and im- 
 portant contributions of Dr. G. M. Dawson, Dr. Bell, 
 Dr. Ells, Mr. Whiteaves, Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Low, Dr. 
 Spencer, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Eichardson, Prof. Yule Hind, 
 Lieut.-Col. Grant, Dr. G. J. Hinde, and others, whose names 
 will be found in the subsequent pages as workers in the 
 Pleistocene geology of Canada. 
 
 J. WM. DAWSON. 
 
 McGiLL College, 
 
 Montreal, 1893. 
 
OOE"TENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 CHAPTER I, —Historical Details. — Extracts from previous 
 
 Publications— Lists of Papers . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. — The Succession of Deposits. — Tables of Succes- 
 sion and Correlation — The Boulder Clay — The Leda Clay and 
 Forest Beds —The Saxicava Sand — Terraces and Inland Cliffs 
 —The later Boulder Drift , . 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. — Physical AND Climatal Conditions.— General 
 Conditions— Causes of Glaciation and Distribution of Erratics 
 — Glaciers — Cordilleran, Laurentide and Apalachian — Differ- 
 ential Elevation— Views of Dr. Torell . . 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — Physical and Climatal Conditions (eont.) 
 Causes, etc. (cont.) — Sea-borne Ice — Field Ice and Icebergs — 
 The Missouri Coteau, and other so-called Moraines — Ice- 
 Freshets — Bordage Ice — Ice in Tidal Estuaries — Elevation 
 and Depression contemporaneous with aqueous Agencies — 
 Climatal Conditions — Date of the Glacial Period . 105 
 
 CHAPTER v.— Some Local Details.— Geographical Regions of 
 Canada — Newfoundland and Labrador — Anticosti — Prince 
 Edward Island — Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — Lower St. 
 Lawrence, North Side— Lower St. Lawrence, South Side— St. 
 Lawrence and Ottawa Valleys — Western Regions 157 
 
 CHAPTER VI. — Pleistocene Fossils. — Animal Fossils, Proto- 
 zoa — Coelenterata — Echinodermata — Mollusca, etc. — Annul- 
 osa — Arthropoda — Vertebrata — Fossils of the Arctic Basin — 
 Fossil Plants — Summary of Fossils — Man in Canada 209 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— General Conclusions . 287 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Modern Boulder Formation of Lower St. Lawrence (Frontispiece). 
 
 Glaciated Laurentian Hills xii 
 
 Travelled Boulder and Glaciated Rock 46 
 Terraces at Tadoussac 62-69 
 
 Terraces at L'Anse h, Loup, Saguenay 71 
 
 Saguenay Chasm 73 
 
 Ideal Maps of North America 77 
 
 Map of Interior Plains of Canada 104 
 
 Block transported by Modern Ice 107 
 
 Sections of the Missouri Coteau . 118 
 
 Glacial Map of Canada 150 
 
 Section of Boulder Clay and Gravel, Meiigoniisli, N..S. 169 
 
 Section at Montreal 199 
 
 Sections Western Boulder Clay 205 
 
 Arctic Shells in the Pleistocene 208 
 
 Pleistocene Foraminifera 212 
 
 Pleistocene Sponge and Star-fish 217 
 
 Pleistocene Polyzoa 221 
 
 Pleistocene Brachiopods 225 
 
 Characteristic Lamellibranohs 226 
 
 Characteristic Gastropods 244 
 
 Pleistocene Crustaceans 262 
 
 Pleistocene Fishes 266 
 I'leistocene Plants . 272 
 
 Glacier of the Cordillera 286 
 
THE 
 lOE AGE IE" CAI^ADA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
 
 Canada presents unsurpassed facilities for the study of 
 the pleistocene deposits. Extending across the American 
 Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the widest 
 part of that continent, and reaching from the latitude of 
 45° to the polar regions, possessing great plains covered 
 with drift material, and mountainous districts heavily 
 marked with the action of land ice, and having in many 
 places abundance of fossil remains in its more recent 
 deposits, it has the same relative facilities for the study 
 of this later geological period that it has for the earlier 
 Laurentian; and it has been one of the objects of the 
 ambition of the writer for the last thirty years, to do a 
 little toward making it a typical region for the Pleisto- 
 cene, as Logan has for the Laurentian. I shall endeavour, 
 therefore, to sketch the Pleistocene as it appears in 
 Canada. 
 
 In making this attempt, I have all along felt compelled 
 •2 
 
2 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 by facts to insist on the following great leading principles 
 as to the glacial period and its causes : — 
 
 1. The phenomena are not to be explained by any one 
 cause or by any one great all-embracing hypothesis, but 
 by a more active and extensive operation of many of the 
 ordinary causes still existing in the more northern regions. 
 
 2. The astronomical changes which have been invoked 
 to account for cold climate, not excepting those advocated 
 by Croll and Ball, are incapable of fully explaining the 
 facts as now actually ascertained. 
 
 3. There has not been at any time a polar ice cap, and 
 the theory of great continental ice sheets covering the 
 northern parts of the two great continents is also baseless. 
 
 4. The phenomena indicate the action of local mountain 
 glaciers of great volume, along with that of floating ice 
 in various forms, and this more especially in periods of 
 subsidence of the land. 
 
 5. The cold climate of the glacial period was mainly a 
 result of peculiar geographical conditions and a different 
 distribution of ocean currents, and was not so much 
 characterised by general low temperature as by the local 
 occurrence of extreme evaporation and condensation. 
 
 6. The close of the glacial period is not very remote, 
 and cannot have antedated by many centuries or mil- 
 lenniums the first appearance of man, as known to us in 
 history. 
 
 These theses I have maintained in papers whose dates 
 reach back to 1855, and in addresses delivered to the 
 British and American Associations and to the Natural 
 History Society of Montreal, and in popular works on 
 geology. They still appear to me to be true, notwith- 
 standing the wave of extreme glacial ideas that has been 
 passing over the world. But I am glad to see that a 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 3 
 
 reaction to better views has begun to set in, and that 
 geologists are more disposed than formerly to restrict 
 their speculations within the limits of physical possibility. 
 "We shall see evidence of this in the sequel ; but before 
 referring to the conclusions of others, I may be pardoned 
 for giving a sketch of the progress of opinion, as it has 
 presented itself in connection with my own work. 
 
 When I first entered on the study of these deposits in 
 Nova Scotia, in the year 1841 and subsequent years, my 
 guide and instructor was the great apostle of moderate 
 uniformitarianism, that is, of rational geology, Sir Charles 
 Lyell. His views as to the combined agency of land ice 
 or glaciers, of floating fragments of glaciers or ice-bergs, 
 and of field ice, are, or ought to be, well known ; but I 
 must say that they have often been unfairly stated. 
 Lyell well knew the nature and work of glaciers in so 
 far as ascertained in his time. He had also collected a 
 large amount of information as to the conveyance of 
 boulders, etc., by ice-bergs, and the formation of subma- 
 rine glacial deposits thereby. Lastly, he had profited by 
 the observations of the Arctic voyagers, and by those of 
 Bayfield in the river Saint Lawrence, so as to appreciate 
 the great carrying and erosive power of heavy field ice. 
 His general theory of the glacial age was based on all 
 these factors, along with the gradual depression and re- 
 elevation of the continents in the pleistocene period. I 
 confess that I still adhere to his views in these respects, 
 with only such modification as to the relative value of 
 particular and local causes, as the observations and reading 
 of fifty years have necessitated. 
 
 My own conclusions with reference to the phenomena 
 observed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, were ex- 
 pressed for the first time in the first edition of "Acadian 
 
4 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Geology" in 1854-5. The following extract will show that 
 they were formed very closely on the Lyellian doctrine 
 of " modern causes " : — 
 
 " If we ask what has been the origin of this great mass 
 of shifted and drifted material which overspreads the 
 surface, not only of the province we are now describing, 
 but the greater part of the land of the northern hemi- 
 sphere, we raise one of the most vexed questions of modern 
 geology. In reasoning, however, on this subject as regards 
 Nova Scotia, I have the advantage of appealing to causes 
 now in operation within the country. In the first place, 
 it may at once be admitted that no such operations as 
 those whicli formed the drift are now in progress on the 
 surface of the land, so that the drift is a relic of a past state 
 of things, in so far at least as regards the localities in which 
 it now rests. In the next place, we find, on examining 
 the drift, that it strongly resembles, though on a greater 
 scale, the effects now produced by frost and floating ice. 
 Frost breaks up the surface of the most solid rocks, and 
 throws down cliffs and precipices. Floating ice annually 
 takes up and removes immense quatitities of loose stones 
 from the shores, and deposits them in the bottom of the 
 sea or on distant parts of the coasts. Very heavy masses 
 are removed in this way. I have seen in the strait of 
 Canseau large stones ten feet in diameter, that had been 
 taken from below low water mark and pushed up upon 
 the beach. Stones so large that they had to be removed 
 by blasting, have been taken from the base of the cliffs at 
 the Joggins and deposited off the coal-loading pier, and I 
 have seen resting on the mud flats at the mouth of the 
 Petitcodiae river a boulder at least eight feet in length, 
 that had been floated by the ice down the river. Another 
 testimony to the same fact is furnished by the rapidity 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 5 
 
 with which huge piles of fallen rock are removed by the 
 floating ice from the base of the trap cliffs of the bay of 
 Fundy. Let us suppose, then, the surface of our province, 
 while its projecting rocks were still uncovered by surface 
 deposits, exposed for many successive centuries to the 
 action of alternate frosts and thaws, the whole of the 
 untravelled drift might have been accumulated on its 
 surface. Let it then be submerged until its hill-tops 
 should become islands or reefs of rock in a sea loaded in 
 winter and spring with drift ice, floated along by currents, 
 which, like the present arctic current, would set from 
 N.E. to S.W. with various modifications produced by local 
 causes. We have in these causes ample means for 
 accounting for the whole of the appearances, including 
 the travelled blocks and the scratched and polished rock- 
 surfaces." 
 
 This was written, it may be observed, thirty-five years 
 ago, and with reference to the phenomena presented by 
 southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where there 
 is little if any evidence of glacier action. 
 
 When, in the autumn of 1855, my residence was 
 transferred to Montreal, my attention was necessarily 
 devoted to the pleistocene deposits of Central Canada, 
 and I asked Sir W. E. Logan, then Director of the 
 Geological Survey, to place in my hands, as an amateur, 
 the pleistocene geology of this field, which he readily 
 consented to do, as no one connected with the survey was 
 specially cultivating it at the time. I proceeded, in the 
 first instance, to explore the stratigraphical arrangement 
 and fossils of the deposits, dividing the former into the 
 three groups of Boulder Clay, Leda Clay and Saxicava 
 Sand, and raising the known species of fossils in a few 
 years from a very small number to about 200. Notices 
 
6 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 of these researches were published from time to time in 
 the " Canadian Naturalist and Geologist." When, in 1863, 
 Sir "William issued his " Geology of Canada," I was much 
 occupied with college work, and felt that the subject was 
 too immature to admit of full treatment, but placed in his 
 hands my notes up to that date to aid in his chapter on 
 " Superficial Geology," in which they were incorporated, 
 though in an imperfect manner. Subsequently, in 1872, 
 I collected all my papers up to that date in a little 
 volume entitled " Notes on the Post-pliocene Geology of 
 Canada," now out of print, though most of its material is 
 to be found in the earlier volumes of the " Canadian 
 Naturalist and Geologist." This work I have made the 
 basis of subsequent publications, adding new material as 
 it occurred, and publishing the whole in the same 
 periodical and its continuation, the " Canadian Eecord of 
 Science." The present work is a new and enlarged edition 
 of these " Notes " of 1872. 
 
 Since my work in this field began, the subject has 
 assumed many new phases. The important studies of the 
 Swiss glaciers, by Forbes, Agassiz and others, attracted 
 the attention of geologists almost to the exclusion of 
 other factors. The bold, I may venture to say extreme, 
 views of my friends, Eamsay and Geikie, have given a 
 tone to the work of English geologists, while a like 
 influence has been exercised in America by Agassiz and 
 Dana. Thus, in later years, what I must regard as 
 extravagant theories of land glaciation have gamed an 
 educational and official currency both in England and 
 America. Only recently the pendulum has begun to 
 swing in the other direction, and the extreme theories of 
 glacier action to relax their hold. The time is, therefore, 
 perhaps a favourable one to advocate moderate and 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 7 
 
 rational views, and perhaps to prevent an undue reaction 
 in the direction opposite to that lately prevalent. 
 
 I trust I shall not be accused of egotism if I present 
 these moderate views, in the fii'st instance, in the form of 
 extracts from publications dating some of them nearly 
 thirty years ago. 
 
 In a paper piiblished in the " Canadian Naturalist " in 
 1860, and specially devoted to the description of glacial 
 phenomena in Labrador, Maine, etc., the following words 
 occur with reference more particularly to the climate of 
 the Pleistocene, and are here given without alteration.* 
 
 "Everyone knows that the means and extremes of 
 annual temperature differ much on the opposite sides of 
 the Atlantic. The isothermal line of 40°, for example, 
 passes from the south side of the gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 skirts Iceland and reaches Europe near Drontheim in 
 Norway. This fact, apparent as the result of observations 
 on the temperature of the land, is equally evidenced by 
 the inhabitants and physical phenomena of the sea. A 
 large proportion of the shell-fish inhabiting the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence and the coast thence to Cape Cod, occur on 
 both sides of the Atlantic, but not in the same latitudes. 
 The marine fauna of Cape Cod is parallel in its prevalence 
 of boreal forms with that of the south of Norway. In 
 like manner the descent of icebergs from the north, the 
 freezing of bays and estuaries, the drifting and pushing of 
 stones and boulders by ice, are witnessed on the American 
 coast in a manner not paralleled in corresponding lati- 
 tudes in Europe. It follows from this that a collection of 
 shells from any given latitude on the coasts of Europe or 
 
 * Where anything new is introduced into these extracts, it is placed 
 in brackets, thus, — [ . . . ] 
 
8 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 America, would bear testimony to the existing difference 
 of climate. The geologist appeals to the same kind of 
 evidence with reference to the climate of the later 
 tertiary period, and let us enquire what is its testimony. 
 
 " The first and most general answer is that the pleisto- 
 cene climate was colder than the modern. The proof of 
 this in western Europe is very strong. The marine 
 fossils of this period in Britain are more like the existing 
 fauna of Norway or of Labrador than the present fauna 
 of Britain. Great evidences exist of driftage of boulders 
 by ice, and traces of glaciers on the higher hills. In 
 North America the proofs of a rigorous climate, and 
 especially of the transport of boulders and other materials 
 by ice, are equally good, and the marine fauna all over 
 Canada and New England is of boreal type. 
 
 " Admitting, however, that a rigorous climate prevailed 
 in the pleistocene period, it by no means follows that the 
 change has been equally great in different localities. On 
 the contrary, while a great and marked revolution has 
 occurred in Europe, the evidences of such change are very 
 much more slight in America. In short, the causes of 
 the coldness of the pleistocene seas to some extent still 
 remain in America, while they have disappeared or have 
 been modified in Europe. 
 
 " If we inquire as to these causes as at present existing, 
 we find them in the distribution of ocean currents, and 
 especially in the great warm current of the gulf stream, 
 thrown across from America to Europe, and in the arctic 
 currents bathing the coasts of America. In connection 
 with these we have the prevailing westerly winds of the 
 temperate zone, and the great extent of land and shallow 
 seas in northern America. Some of these causes are 
 absplutely constant. Of this kind is the distribution of 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 9 
 
 the winds, depending on the earth's temperature and 
 rotation. The courses of the currents are also constant, 
 except in so far as modified by coasts and banks ; and the 
 direction of the drift-scratches and transport of boulders 
 in the Pleistocene both of Europe and America, show that 
 the arctic currents at least have remained unchanged. 
 But the distribution of land and water is a variable 
 element, since we know that in the period in question 
 nearly all northern Europe, Asia and America were at 
 one time or another under the waters of the sea, and it is 
 consequently to this cause that we must mainly look for 
 the changes which have occurred. 
 
 " Such changes of level must, as has been long since 
 shown by Sir Charles Lyell, modify and change climate. 
 Every diminution of the land in arctic America must 
 tend to render its climate less severe. Every diminution 
 of land in the temperate regions must tend to reduce 
 the mean temperature. Every diminution of land any- 
 where must tend to diminish the extremes of heat 
 and cold ; and the condition of the southern hemisphere 
 at present shows that the submergence of the great 
 continental masses would lower the mean temperature, 
 but render the climate much less extreme. Glaciers 
 might then exist in latitudes where now the summer heat 
 would suffice to melt them, as Darwin has shown that in 
 South America glaciers extend to the sea level in latitude 
 46° 50'; and at the same time the ice would melt more 
 slowly and be drifted farther to the southward. [In the 
 southern hemisphere, indeed, a glacial period of a peculiar 
 kind exists at present, since there is an ice-bound 
 antarctic continent 2,000 miles in diameter and boulder- 
 drift extending from it half-way to the equator.] Any 
 change that tended to divert the arctic currents from our 
 
10 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 coasts would raise the temperature of their waters. Any 
 change that would allow the equatorial current to pursue 
 its course through to the Pacific or along the great inland 
 valley of North America, would reduce the British seas to 
 a boreal condition. 
 
 " The boulder formation and its overlying fossiliferous 
 beds prove, as I have in previous papers endeavoured to 
 explain with regard to Canada, and as has been shown by 
 other geologists in the case of other regions, that the land 
 of the northern hemisphere underwent in the later 
 tertiary period a great and gradual depression and then 
 an equally gradual elevation. Every step of this process 
 would bring its modifications of climate, and when the 
 depression had attained its maximum there probably was 
 as little land in the temperate regions of the northern 
 hemisphere as in the southern now [while that which 
 remained above water was high and mountainous].* This 
 would give a low mean temperature and an extension to 
 the south of glaciers, more especially if at the same time 
 a considerable arctic continent remained above the waters 
 [as a gathering ground], as seems to be indicated by the 
 effects of extreme marine glacial action on the rocks 
 under the boulder clay. These conditions, actually indi- 
 cated by the phenomena themselves, appear quite sufficient 
 to account for the coldness of the seas of the period, and 
 the wide diffusion of the gulf stream caused by the 
 subsidence of American land, or its entire diversion into 
 the Pacific basin,f would give that assimilation of the 
 
 * The important question of differential elevation has been solved in 
 great part since this was written, and would much strengthen the 
 argument. 
 
 t This is often excluded from consideration, owing to the fact that 
 the marine fauna of the gulf of Mexico differs so much from that of the 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. H 
 
 American and European climates so characteristic of the 
 time. The climate of western Europe, in short, would, 
 under such a state of things, be greatly reduced in mean 
 temperature, the climate of America would suffer a less 
 reduction of its mean temperature, but would be much 
 less extreme than at present ; the general effect being the 
 establishment of a more equable but lower temperature 
 throughout the northern hemisphere. 
 
 " The establishment of the present distribution of land 
 and water, giving to America its extreme climate, leaving 
 its seas cool and throwing on the coasts of Europe the 
 heated water of the tropics, would thus affect but slightly 
 the marine life of the American coast, but very materially 
 that of Europe, producing the result already referred to, 
 that our Canadian pleistocene fauna differs comparatively 
 little from that now existing in the gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 though in so far as any difference subsists it is in the 
 direction of an arctic character. The changes that have 
 occurred are perhaps all the less that so soon as the 
 Laurentide hills to the north of the St. Lawrence valley 
 emerged from the sea, the coasts to the south of these 
 hills would be effectually protected from the heavy 
 northern ice drifts and from the arctic currents, and 
 would have the benefit of the full action of the summer 
 
 Pacific coast ; but, on the other hand, the occurrence of many species 
 common to the two sides implies a connection in comparatively recent 
 times, and similar evidence is afforded by the modern deposits of the 
 Isthmus. 
 
 Upham reports from Dr. Maack, in the reports of explorations for 
 the Panama canal, the fact that on the watershed between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific a "vast area" of the Isthmus is occupied with "late 
 tertiary " beds holding shells of living species. This would confirm 
 the supposition based on the grounds that a passage across the Isthmus 
 existed in pleistocene times. — American Geologist, December, 1890. 
 
12 THE TCE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 heat, advantages which must have existed to a less extent 
 in western Europe.* 
 
 " It is farther to be observed that such subsidence and 
 elevation would necessarily afford great facilities for the 
 migration of arctic marine animals, and that the differ- 
 ence between modern and pleistocene faunas must be 
 greatest in those localities to which the animals of 
 temperate regions could most readily migrate after the 
 change of temperature had occurred." 
 
 In an address delivered in 1864 f as retiring president 
 of the Natural History Society of Montreal, the relative 
 importance of land-ice and sea-borne ice is referred to in 
 the following terms, in connection with the then recent 
 appearance of Logan's " General Report on the Geology of 
 Canada,'' published in 1863 : — 
 
 " There is another subject of great geological importance 
 on which the publication of this report enables strong 
 ground to be taken. I refer to the conditions under 
 which the hoidder-drift of Canada was deposited. It 
 has been customary to refer this to the action of ice-laden 
 seas and currents, on a continent first subsiding and then 
 re-elevated. But this opinion has recently been giving 
 way before a re-assertion of the doctrine that land- 
 glaciers have been the principal agents in the distribution 
 of the boulder-drift, and in the erosions with which it was 
 accompanied. I confess that I have steadily rejected this 
 last doctrine ; being convinced that insuperable physical 
 
 " One cannot be too emphatic in insisting on the fact that, in North 
 America, throughout geological time, movements of subsidence which 
 threw open the interior plains to the arctic currents- produced 'refriger- 
 ation, while those that produced a great mediterranean sea, open to 
 the south and closed on the north, introduced mild climates. 
 
 t Canadian Naturalist, 1864. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 13 
 
 and meteorological objections might be urged against it, 
 and that it was not in accordance with the facts which I 
 had myself observed in Nova Scotia and in Canada. The 
 additional facts contained in the present report enable 
 me to assert with confidence, though with all humility, 
 that glaciers could scarcely have been the agents in the 
 striation of Canadian rocks, the transport of Canadian 
 boulders, or the excavation of Canadian lake -basins 
 [except in the great mountain ranges of the continent]. 
 
 " The facts to be accounted for are the striation and 
 polishing of rock-surfaces, the deposit of a sheet of 
 unstratified clay and stones, the transport of boulders 
 from distant sites lying to the northward, and the deposit 
 on the boulder-clay of beds of stratified clay and sand, 
 containing marine shells. The rival theories in discussion 
 are — first, that which supposes a gradual subsidence and 
 re-elevation, with the action of the sea and its currents, 
 bearing ice at certain seasons of the year ; and, secondly, 
 that which supposes the North American plateau to have 
 been covered with a sheet of glacier several thousands of 
 feet thick. 
 
 " The last of these theories, without attempting to 
 undervalue its application to such regions as those of the 
 Alps or of Spitzbergen or Greenland, has appeared to me 
 inapplicable to the drift-deposits of eastern America, for 
 the following among other reasons : 
 
 "1. It requires a series of suppositions unlikely in 
 themselves and not warranted by facts. The most impor- 
 tant of these is the coincidence of a wide-spread continent 
 and a universal covering of ice in a temperate latitude. 
 In the existing state of the world, it is well known that 
 the ordinary conditions required by glaciers in temperate 
 latitudes are elevated chains and peaks extending above 
 
14 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the snow-line ; and that cases in which, in such latitudes, 
 glaciers extend nearly to the sea-level, occur only where 
 the mean temperature is reduced by cold ocean currents 
 approaching to high land, as for instance in Terra del 
 Fuego and the southern extremity of South America. 
 But the temperate regions of North America could not be 
 covered with a permanent mantle of ice under the existing 
 conditions of solar radiation ; for even if the whole were 
 elevated into a table-land, its breadth would secure a 
 sufficient summer heat to melt away the ice, except from 
 high mountain peaks. 
 
 " 2. It seems physically impossible that a sheet of ice, 
 such as that supposed, could move over an uneven 
 surface, striating it in directions uniform over vast areas, 
 and often different from the present inclinations of the 
 surface. Glacier-ice may move on very slight slopes, but 
 it must follow these [since gravitation, along with the 
 more or less plastic nature of the ice, has been shown to 
 be the cause of its motion] ; and the only result of the 
 immense accumulation of ice supposed, would be to 
 prevent motion altogether by the want of slope or the 
 counteraction of opposing slopes, or to induce a slight and 
 irregular motion toward the margins or outward from the 
 more prominent protuberances. 
 
 " It is to be observed, also, that, as Hopkins has shown, 
 it is only the sliding motion of glaciers that can polish or 
 erode surfaces, and that any internal changes resulting 
 from the mere weight of a thick mass of ice resting on a 
 level surface, could have little or no influence in this way. 
 
 " 3. The transport of boulders to great distances, and 
 the lodgment of them on hill-tops, could not have been 
 occasioned by glaciers. These carry downward the blocks 
 that fall on them from wasting cliffs. But the universal 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 15 
 
 glacier supposed could have no such cliffs from which to 
 collect ; and it must have carried boulders for hundreds 
 of miles, and left them on points as high as those they 
 were taken from. On the Montreal Mountain, at a 
 height of 600 feet above the sea, are huge boulders of 
 gneiss from the Laurentide hills, which must have been 
 carried 50 to 100 miles from points of scarcely greater 
 elevation, and over a valley in which the striae are in a 
 direction nearly at right angles with that of the probable 
 driftage of the boulders. Quite as striking examples 
 occur in many parts of this country.* It is also to be 
 observed that boulders, often of large size, occur scattered 
 through the marine stratified clays and sands containing 
 sea-shells ; and whatever views may be entertained as to 
 other boulders, it cannot be denied that these have been 
 borne by floating ice. Nor is it true, as has been often 
 affirmed, that the boulder-clay is destitute of marine 
 fossils. At Murray Bay, Eiviere du Loup and St. Nicholas, 
 on the St. Lawrence, and also at Cape Elizabeth, near 
 Portland, there are tough stony clays of the nature of true 
 " till," and in the lower part of the drift, which contain 
 numerous marine shells of the usual pleistocene species. 
 
 " 4. The pleistocene deposits of Canada, in their fossil 
 remains and general character, indicate a gradual eleva- 
 tion from a state of depression, which, on the evidence of 
 fossils, must have extended to at least 500 feet, and on 
 that of far-travelled boulders, to nearly ten tinies that 
 amount, while there is nothing but the boulder-clay to 
 represent the previous subsidence, and nothing whatever 
 
 * The same fact, and to heights still greater, has been shown by- 
 Ells and others to hold of the hills of the Eastern Townships of Canada, 
 and by Chalmers in Eastern Quebec and in New Brunswick. 
 
16 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 to represent the supposed previous ice-clad state of the 
 land, except the scratches on the rock-surfaces, which 
 must have been caused by the same agency which 
 deposited the boulder-clay.* 
 
 " 5. The peat deposits with fir-roots, found below the 
 boulder-clay in Cape Breton, the remains of plants and 
 land-snails in the marine clays of the Ottawa, and the 
 shells of the St. Lawrence clays and sands, show that the 
 sea at the period in question had nearly the temperature 
 of the present arctic currents of our coasts, and that the 
 land was not covered with ice, but supported a vegetation 
 similar to that of Labrador and the north shore of the St. 
 Lawrence at present. This evidence refers not to the 
 later period of the mammoth and mastodon, when the 
 re-elevation was perhaps nearly complete, but to the 
 earlier period contemporaneous with, or immediately fol- 
 lowing, the supposed glacier -period. In my former 
 papers on the Pleistocene of the St. Lawrence, I have 
 shown that the change of climate involved is not greater 
 than that which may have been due to the subsidence of 
 land, and to the change of course of the equatorial and 
 arctic currents, actually proved by the deposits them- 
 selves. 
 
 " These objections might be pursued to much greater 
 length ; but enough has been said to show that there are 
 in the case of north-eastern America, strong reasons 
 against the existence of any such period of extreme 
 glaciation as supposed by many geologists ; and that if we 
 can otherwise explain the rock striation and polishing, 
 and the formation of fiords and lake-basins, the strong 
 
 * This was intended to apply to the valley of the St. Lawrence, not 
 to the mountainous regions having local glaciers. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 17 
 
 points with these theorists, we can dispense altogether 
 with the portentous changes in physical geography involved 
 in their views, and which are not necessary to explain 
 any of the other phenomena." 
 
 The address then proceeds to deal with these points in 
 the manner to be stated in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Two years later, in 1866, I prepared an account of all 
 that was known up to that date of the fossil plants of the 
 mid-pleistocene beds, the Leda clay of the Ottawa and St. 
 Lawrence valleys, equivalent in age to the so-called inter- 
 glacial beds of western Canada. In this paper the 
 following summary is given of the climatal conditions 
 indicated : — 
 
 "None of the plants from these mid-glacial beds is 
 properly arctic in its distribution, and the assemblage 
 may be characterized as a selection from the present 
 Canadian flora of some of the more hardy species ha\'ing 
 the most northern range. Green's Creek is in the central 
 part of Canada, near to the parallel of 46°, and an acci- 
 dental selection from its present flora, though it might 
 contain the same species found in the nodules, would 
 certainly include with these, or instead of some of them, 
 more southern forms. j\Iore especially the balsam poplar, 
 though that tree occurs plentifully on the Ottawa, would 
 not be so predominant. But such an assemblage of drift 
 plants might be furnished by any American stream 
 flowing in the latitude of 50° to 55° north. If a stream 
 flowing to the north, it might deposit these plants in still 
 more northern latitudes, as the McKenzie river does 
 now. If flowing to the south, it might deposit them to 
 the south of 50°. In the case of the Ottawa, the plants 
 could not have been derived from a more southern 
 locality, nor probably from one very far to the north. 
 3 
 
18 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 We may, therefore, safely assume that the refrigeration 
 indicated by these plants would place the region bordering 
 the Ottawa in nearly the same position with that of the 
 south coast of Labrador fronting on the gulf of St. Lawrence 
 at present. The absence of all the more arctic species 
 occurring in Labrador, should perhaps induce us to infer 
 a somewhat more mild climate than this [and also indi- 
 cates the probable existence of the arctic flora to the 
 northward throughout the pleistocene period]." 
 
 " The moderate amount of refrigeration thus required, 
 would, in my opinion, accord very well with the probable 
 conditions of climate deducible from the circumstances in 
 which the fossil plants in question occur. At the same time 
 when they were deposited, the sea flowed up the Ottawa 
 valley to a height of 200 to 400 feet above its present 
 level, and the valley of the St. Lawrence was a wide arm 
 of the sea, open to the arctic current. Under these 
 conditions the immense quantities of drift ice from the 
 northward, and the removal of the great heating surface 
 now presented by the low lands of Canada and New 
 England, must have given for the Ottawa coast of that 
 period a sunnner temperature very similar to that at 
 present experienced on the Labrador coast, and with this 
 conclusion the marine remains of the Leda clay, as well 
 as the few land mollusks whose shells have been found in 
 the beds containing the plants, and which are species still 
 occurring in Canada, perfectly coincide. 
 
 " The climate of that portion of Canada abo\'e water at 
 the time when these plants were imbedded, may safely be 
 assumed to have been colder in summer than at present, 
 to an extent equal to about 5° of latitude, and this 
 refrigeration may be assumed to correspond with the 
 requirements of the actual geographical changes implied. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 19 
 
 In other words, if Canada was submerged until the 
 Ottawa valley was converted into an estuary inhabited by 
 species of Leda, and frequented by capelin, the diminution 
 of the summer heat consequent on such depression, would be 
 precisely suitable to the plants occurring in these deposits, 
 without assuming any other cause of change of climate." 
 
 This extract, referring as it does to the evidence of 
 plants, reminds us of the contrast between the Pleistocene 
 and the warm climate of the early Eocene and later 
 Cretaceous, when warm temperate plants could flourish 
 as far north as Greenland. The reason is seen in our 
 comparative maps of the Cretaceous and Pleistocene of 
 Canada. The conditions presented in the latter show the 
 greatest possible facilities for the transference of arctic 
 ice to temperate latitudes, and its accumulation therein, 
 while leaving the extreme arctic comparatively free of 
 ice. Such conditions are the reverse of those in the early 
 Eocene, when the interior of the continent was occupied 
 with a warm mediterranean sea, shielded from the arctic 
 ice. Thus the known geographical condition of the Pleis- 
 tocene harmonize with rational views as to the causes and 
 extent of the refrigeration. 
 
 Lastly, in my address to the Natural History Society 
 of Montreal, in 1873, immediately after the publication of 
 the " Kotes," above referred to, the following reference to 
 the position of the question occurs : — 
 
 " In the memoir in the Journal of the Natural History 
 Society already referred to, I have re-asserted and sup- 
 ported by many additional proofs the theory of the 
 combined action of floating ice and glaciers in the produc- 
 tion of our Canadian boulder clay and other superficial 
 deposits, which I have for many years maintained, in 
 opposition to the views of the extreme glacialists. It is 
 
20 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 matter of gratification to me to find, in connection with 
 this, that researches in other regions are rapidly tending 
 to overthrow extreme views on the subject, and to restore 
 this department of geological dynamics more nearly to 
 the domain of ordinary existing causes. Whymper, 
 Bonney, and other Alpine explorers, have ably supported 
 in England the conclusion which, after a visit to Switzer- 
 land in 1865, 1 ventured to affirm here, that the erosive 
 power of glaciers is very inconsiderable. Mr. Milne 
 Home, Mr. Mcintosh, and others, have combated the 
 prevalent notions of a general glacier in England and 
 Scotland. Mr. James Geikie, a leading advocate of land 
 glaciers, has been compelled to admit that marine beds 
 are interstratified with the true boulder clay of Scotland, 
 and consequently to demand a succession of elevations 
 and depressions in order to give any colour to the theory 
 of a general glacier. The idea of glacier action as means 
 of accounting for the drifts of Central Europe and of 
 Brazil seems to be generally abandoned. Lastly, in a 
 recent number of the "American Journal of Science," Prof. 
 Dana has admitted the necessity, in order to account for 
 land glaciation of the hills of New England [by a conti- 
 nental glacier], of supposing a mountain range or table 
 land of at least 6,000 feet in height, to have existed,' 
 between the St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, while in 
 addition to the imaginary N. W. & S. E. glacier, flowing 
 from this immense and improbable mass, there must have 
 been a transverse glacier running beneath it up the valley 
 of the St. Lawrence. Such demands amount, in my 
 judgment, to a virtual abandoimient of the theory of other 
 than large local glaciers in America in the pleistocene 
 period. Thus there are cheering indications that the 
 world-enveloping glacier, which has so long spread its 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 21 
 
 icy pall over the geology of the later tertiary periods, is 
 fast melting away before the sunshine of truth." 
 
 Perhaps I was a little too sanguine as to the rapidity 
 of the process, and did not make allowance for that 
 chilling current of popular text - books and official 
 influence which has so much retarded the final melting of 
 the great continental glacier and the polar ice cap. 
 
 The following citations, however, from very recent 
 publications show that my forecast of the course of opinion 
 was not altogether wrong, and that we may hope for still 
 better things in the future. 
 
 Sir Eobert Ball's recent attempt to rehabilitate Croll's 
 ingenious astronomical theory of the glacial age will not 
 assist to restore its waning fortunes, but brings out the 
 fact that this ingenious theory was essentially defective.* 
 He shows that CroU reasoned on a mistaken assumption 
 that the earth receives equal amounts of heat when in 
 perihelion and aphelion passage, whereas the difference is 
 as much as .26 per cent., and consequently at long 
 intervals there might occur periods of great coldness in 
 one hemisphere at a time. The interval of time, however, 
 is too long, even on Ball's theory, and the fact that the 
 ice of the glacial period radiated from points consider- 
 ably south of the polar circle, tells of the dominancy of 
 terrestial conditions. This new astronomical theory will 
 therefore fail to affect geological conclusions, and its weak 
 points have already been pointed out by geological 
 reasoners. It may, in short, be held to have given a 
 death blow to the theory of astronomical causes of the 
 glacial period known to us in geology. 
 
 In a recent paper, Mr. Warren Upham, one of the most 
 
 * " The Cause of an Ice Age," London, 1892. 
 
22 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 active and ^•oluIninous of American glacialists * adduces a 
 long array of citations from Geikie, Woeickkoff, Winchell, 
 Gilbert, Andrews, Wright, Mackintosh, Logan, Spencer 
 and others on facts showing the recency of the glacial 
 age, which he holds could not have been more remote 
 from our time than from 7,000 to 10,000 years. He 
 further concludes, from the observations of Dr. G. M. 
 Dawson and others, that " the cause of the glacial period 
 was great uplifts of the glaciated areas," accompanied and 
 followed by great and unequal subsidence ; and he brings 
 evidence to show that the passage of the equatorial 
 current into the Pacific, in consequence of the subsidence 
 of Central America, diverted the warm waters of the 
 Gulf Stream from the Atlantic. Claypole, in a review of 
 the Astronomical Theory ,j- adduces a great number of 
 facts in evidence of the recency of the glacial period and 
 of its origin from terrestrial causes. In a later paper,| 
 in which he endeavours to harmonise the doctrines of 
 great ice-sheets and local glaciers, he adpiits that the 
 evidence from both Europe and North America " opposes 
 the theory of a great polar ice cap while favouring that of 
 a number of separate radiants." 
 
 The great subsidence of the pleistocene period is 
 emphasised by recent discoveries of high-level glacial 
 gravels in England, which are described by Mr. A. C. 
 Nicholson, and which show a depression in that country 
 to the level of more than 1,300 feet.§ 
 
 * American Geologist, December, 1890. 
 t Trans. Ed. Geol. Society, Vol. V. 
 J "Glacial Radiants," American Geologist, 1889. 
 § " High Level Gravels at Gloppa," Journal Geological Society, 
 February, 1892. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 23 
 
 It is true that many of these writers still speak of an 
 ice-sheet as possibly extending across N"orth America ; 
 but their own statements, as well as the now universally 
 understood fact that the interior plateaux of great con- 
 tinents cannot under any circumstances receive snow 
 enough to breed great glaciers, point to entirely different 
 conclusions. 
 
 Lastly, in evidence of the gradual return to more 
 moderate opinions, I may quote the words of a veteran 
 glacialist, and a man of wide knowledge and power of 
 thought, who has recently passed away. Alexander Win- 
 chell thus refers to Canadian conclusions in a paper on 
 " Eecent Views about Glaciers " : 
 
 "Now, the most unexpected results of all the recent 
 researches appear to be these : There has been no conti- 
 nental glacier. There has been no uniform southerly 
 movement of glacier masses. There has been no persistent 
 declivity, as a sine qua non down which glacier movements 
 have taken place. The continuity of the supposed conti- 
 nental glacier was interrupted in the regions of the dry 
 and treeless plains of the West; and in the interior and 
 Pacific belts of the continent, within the United States, 
 ancient glaciation was restricted to the elevated slopes. 
 A non-glaciated belt, lying a few miles east of the 
 foothills of the Rockies, extends all the way to the 
 unglaciated arctic region 
 
 "Another unexpected result of continent-wide observa- 
 tion is the discovery of glacial striations tending in all 
 directions from two general centres. One of these is a 
 north-eastern centre of glaciation, which Dr. G. M. 
 Dawson proposes to call the ' Laurentide ' centre ; the 
 other is a north-western centre, which he calls ' Cordille- 
 ran.' The Gordilleran glacier lay between the range of the 
 
24 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Eocky Mountains proper on the east, and the coast ranges 
 on the Pacific, and stretched from Victoria to latitude 59°. 
 All this region, consisting of the mountain ranges and of 
 the elevated plateau between them, was once occupied by 
 a confluent glacier 1,200 miles long and 400 miles wide. 
 The main gathering-ground, however, was between the 
 55th and 59th parallels. Thence the ice flowed north- 
 ward 350 miles, and southward about 600 miles, diverging, 
 in the inter^'ening distance, easterly and westerly." 
 
 The Laurentide glacier had for its centre of distribution 
 the highlands called the Laurentian mountains, one arm 
 of which lies between Hudson's Bay and the great 
 plains of British America. Hitherto, most of our know- 
 ledge of glacier movements has pertained to the south- 
 ward-moving portions of this great sheet, but we now 
 know that the remoter parts mo^'ed north and north-west. 
 Dr. Bell has shown that there was also a centre of 
 distribution in the peninsula of Labrador, from which 
 movements radiated east, west, south and north, but 
 without reaching the coast northward. This, however, 
 may not have been an independent centre of snowy 
 accumulation, as one arm of the Laurentian ridge extends 
 through Labrador. 
 
 Appended to this chapter is a list of the several papers 
 referred to above and in the following chapters, part of 
 which have appeared in the " Canadian Naturalist and 
 Geologist," and its successor, the " Canadian Eecord of 
 Science." 
 
 Eeferences to memoirs by other authors will be found 
 in their proper places in the subsequent chapters. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTICES. 25 
 
 LIST OF PAPERS ON PLEISTOCENE OP CANADA. 
 
 (1.) Notice of the Pleistocene Geology of Nova Scotia. — "Acadian 
 
 Geology," 1855. 
 (2.) On the Newer Pliocene and Post-pliocene of the Vicinity of 
 
 Montreal. — Canadian Naturalist, 1857. 
 (3.) Additional Notes on the Post-pliocene Deposits of the St. 
 
 Lawrence Valley. — lb. 1859. 
 (4.) On the climate of Canada in the Post-Pliocene Period. — lb. 1860. 
 (5. ) On Post-Tertiary Fossils from Labrador. — lb. 1860. 
 <6.) On the Geology of Murray Bay (Part 3, Post-pliocene Deposits. 
 
 —lb. 1861. 
 (7. ) Address as President of the Natural History Society of Montreal. 
 
 — /*. 1864. 
 (8.) On the Post-pliocene Deposits of Rivifere du Loup and Tadous- 
 
 sac— /*. 1865. 
 (9.) Comparison of the Icebergs of Belle-isle and the Glaciers of 
 Mont Blanc, with reference to the Boulder-clay of Canada. — 
 lb. 1866. 
 <10.) On the Evidence of Fossil Plants as to the Post-pliocene climate 
 
 of Canada.— 76. 1866. 
 <11.) Report of Geology of Prince Edward Island. — 1871. 
 (12.) Notes on the Post-pliocene Geology of Canada, pp. 112 and 
 Figures. — Montreal, 1872. Also Canadian Naturalist, N.S., 
 Vol. VI. 
 <13.) Address to Natural History Society of Montreal. — 1874. 
 (14.) Note on a Fossil Seal. — Canadian Naturalist, 1877. 
 (15.) Supplement to Acadian Geology. — 1878. 
 
 (16.) Notice of Woeickkoff on Glaciers. — Canadian Naturalist, Vol. X. 
 (17.) Canadian Pleistocene. — London Geological Magazine, 1883. 
 (18.) On the Skeleton of a, Whale found at Smith's Falls, Ontario. — 
 
 Canadian Naturalist, 1883. 
 (19.) Geology of the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. — Journal 
 
 Geological Society, London, 1884. 
 (20.) Boulder Drift and Sea Margins at Little Metis. — Canadian 
 
 Record of Science, 1886. 
 (21.) Pleistocene Fossils from Anticosti. — lb. 1886. 
 (22.) Balanus Hameri and Varieties of My a arenaria and M. truncata 
 
 in the Pleistocene. — lb. 1889. 
 (23.) On a Fossil Fish and Marine Worm.— lb. 1890. 
 (24.) The Pleistocene Flora of Canada (with descriptions of the plants 
 by Prof . Penhallow). — Bui. Geol. Society of America, 1890. 
 
26 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Much of the matter contained in these detached 
 publications now requires revision, more especially the 
 lists of fossils ; and many additional facts have accumu- 
 lated. I purpose, therefore, now to summarize the facts 
 and conclusions of my previous papers and to unite them 
 with the new facts, so as to present as complete a view as 
 possible of the geology of the superficial deposits of 
 Canada. I shall also prepare a complete list of the fossils 
 up to date, with revised nomenclature and synonymy. 
 In this last part of the work I have been aided by the 
 late Dr. P. P. Carpenter and Mr. Whiteaves. I have had 
 the benefit, in the case of several critical species, of the 
 advice of the late Mr. J. G. Jeffreys, the late Mr. R 
 MacAndrew of London and Mr. Dall of Washington. I 
 am also indebted to Mr. G. S. Brady for determining the 
 Ostracoda, to the Rev. H. W. Crosskey for opportunities, 
 of comparing specimens with those of the Clyde Beds,, 
 and to Prof. T. Pt. Jones and Dr. Parker and Mr. G. M. 
 Dawson for help with the Foramiuifera. Other names of 
 contributors of information will be mentioned in the notes, 
 and in the lists of fossils. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 
 
 Under this heading I propose to mention, in a general 
 manner, the actual succession of deposits with which we 
 have to deal, and to consider what is known of the 
 probable conditions of their accumulation and the geo- 
 graphical and climatal features of the period. 
 
 The deposits which we have to consider are superficial 
 or overlying beds of boulder clay or till, laminated clay, 
 sand and gravel, widely distributed over the northern 
 part of the American continent, and accompanied with 
 ridges of detritus (kaims, eskers, etc.), and with travelled 
 stones and boulders or erratics. They may be arranged 
 as in the table on the following page, which refers to three 
 important and widely separated regions.* It will be 
 observed that in each of these there is a general corres- 
 pondence in the arrangement of the deposits, and that 
 these may be regarded as comprising a lower and upper 
 boulder formation separated by an intermediate bed or set 
 of beds evidencing a less amount of ice action. This 
 intermediate formation corresponds with that often named 
 " Inter-glacial." A similar order is observed in other 
 parts of America, and also in Western Europe. 
 
 * Pleistocene Flora of Canada, Bui. Geol. Soc. of America, Vol. I. 
 
28 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 COMPARATIVE TABLE. 
 
 Montreal and lower St. 
 
 Lawrence, 
 
 J. Wm. Dawson. 
 
 Ph 
 
 North shore of Lake 
 
 Ontario. 
 
 J. G. HiNDE. 
 
 I. I. 
 
 Surface soil, post- Surface soil, strati- 
 glacial alluvia & peat, fied sand and gravel. 
 
 II. 
 
 II. 
 
 Surface boulders, Boulders, sand, etc. 
 Saxicava sand and Laminated clay. Up- 
 gravel. Boulders in per boulder deposit, 
 and below sand. 
 
 Belly river, North- 
 west Territory. 
 G. M. Dawson. 
 
 I. 
 Surface soil and 
 prairie alluvium. 
 
 II. 
 Upper boulder clay. 
 
 III. III. III. 
 Upper Leda clay, Stratified sand and Gray sand with iron- 
 marine shells arid drift clay, with fresh-water stonenodules. Brown- 
 plants. Lower Leda shells and plants. ish sandy clay. Car- 
 clay, marine shells and bonaceous layers and 
 drift plants. peat. Gray sand and 
 
 ironstone. 
 
 IV. IV. IV. 
 Lower boulder clay Lower boulder clay Lower boulder clay. 
 
 or till. Many native or till. Native and Many travelled bould- 
 and some travelled travelled boulders. ers. 
 boulders. A few ma- 
 rine shells of arctic 
 species. 
 
 Palieozoic rocks, 
 often striated. 
 
 Palaeozoic rocks, 
 often striated. 
 
 Cretaceous beds. 
 
 Taking a somewhat more general view, the whole 
 pleistocene deposits of eastern Canada may be tabulated 
 
 in descending order as follows ; 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 
 
 29 
 
 CANADIAN PLEISTOCENE. 
 
 (a) Post-glacial deposits, river 
 alluvia and gravels, peaty 
 deposits, lake bottoms, etc. 
 
 (i) Saxioava sand and gravel, 
 often with numerous travelled 
 boulders (upper boulder de- 
 posit), probably the same 
 with Algoma sand, etc., of 
 inland districts. 
 
 (c) Upper Leda clay, and pro- 
 bably Saugeen clay " of 
 inland districts ; clay and 
 sandy clay, in the lower St. 
 Lawrence, with numerous 
 marine shells. 
 
 (rf) Lower Leda clay; fine clay, 
 often laminated, and with a, 
 few large travelled boulders, 
 probably equivalent to Erie 
 clay t of inland districts. 
 
 (e) Lower stratified sands and 
 gravels (Syrtensian deposits 
 of MattheM-). J 
 
 (/) Boulder clay or till ; hard 
 clay, or unstratified sand, 
 with boulders, local and 
 travelled, and stones often 
 striated and polished. 
 
 Remains of Mastodon and Ml- 
 phas, modern fresh-water shells. 
 
 Shallow-water fauna of boreal 
 character, more especially Saxi- 
 cava rugosa and its varieties. 
 Bones of whales, etc. 
 
 Holds in eastern Canada a 
 marine fauna identical with that 
 of the northern part of the gulf 
 of St. Lawrence at present ; and 
 locally affords remains of a boreal 
 flora. 
 
 Holds Leda (Portlandia) arctica 
 and sometimes Tellina groenlan- 
 dica; and seems to have been 
 deposited in very cold and ice- 
 laden water. 
 
 These represent land surfaces 
 and sea and coast areas immedi- 
 ately posterior to the boulder clay. 
 In the lower St. Lawrence region 
 holds a few marine shells of arctic 
 species. Farther inland is non- 
 fossilferous, but has usually the 
 chemical characters of a marine 
 deposit. 
 
 Note.— With reference to this table, I wish it to be distinctly 
 understood that it covers the whole pleistocene deposits as known in 
 Canada, and that division (/) corresponds to the older boulder clay 
 and (b) to the upper boulder deposit, which is the more extensively 
 spread of the two. 
 
 * Geology of Canada, 1862. 
 
 t Supplement to Acadian Geology, 1878. Notes on Post-pliocene 
 of Canada : Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VI., 1871. 
 
 J In the province of Quebec beds of this kind in some places 
 underlie the boulder clay. 
 
30 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 The lower boulder clay (/) is often a true and very- 
 hard till, resting usually on intensely glaciated rock- 
 surfaces, and filled with stones and boulders. Where 
 very thick, it can be seen to have a rude stratification. 
 Even when destitute of marine fossils, it shows its sub- 
 marine accumulation by the unoxidized and unweathered 
 condition of its materials. The striaj beneath it, and the 
 direction of transport of its boulders, show a general 
 movement from N.E. to S.W., up the St. Lawrence 
 valley from the Atlantic. Connected with it, and 
 apparently of the same age, are evidences of great local 
 glaciers descending into the valley from the Laurentian 
 highlands. The boulder clay of the basins of the great 
 lakes, and of the western plains, as well as that of the 
 Missouri Coteau, seems to be of similar character. The 
 basins of the lakes are parts of older valleys dammed up 
 with Pleistocene debris.* The Missouri Coteau and its 
 extensions, probably the greatest " moraine " in the world, 
 and the "terminal moraine" of the great continental 
 glacier of some American geologists, appears to me to be 
 the deposit at the margin of a sea laden with vast fields 
 of floating iccf 
 
 The lower Leda clay (rf) seems in all respects similar 
 to the deposits now forming under the ice in Baffin's 
 bay and the Spitzbergen sea. The upper Leda clay 
 represents a considerable amelioration of climate, its 
 fauna being so similar to that of the gulf of St. Lawrence 
 at present, that I have dredged in a living state nearly all 
 the species it contains, off the coasts on which it occurs. 
 
 * Newberry, Reports on Ohio ; Hunt, Canadian Reports ; Spencer, 
 Ancient Outlet of lake Erie, Ann. Phil. Society, 1881. 
 
 t Report on 49th Parallel, G. M. Dawson, Paper on Superficial 
 Deposits of the Plains in the Journal of London Geological Society. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 31 
 
 Land plants found in the beds holding these marine shells 
 are of species still living on the north shore of the St. 
 Lawrence, and show that there were in certain portions of 
 this period considerable land surfaces clothed with vegeta- 
 tion. The upper Leda clay is probably contemporaneous 
 with the so-called inter-glacial deposits holding plants and 
 insects discovered by Hinde on the shores of lake Ontario.* 
 On the Ottawa it contains land plants of modern Canadian 
 species, insects and feathers of birds, intermixed with 
 skeletons of Capelin (Mallotus) and shells living in the 
 gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 The changes of level in the course of the deposition of 
 the Leda clays must have been very great ; fossiliferous 
 marine deposits of this age being found at a height of at 
 least 600 feet, and sea-beaches at a much greater eleva- 
 tion, while at other times there must have been large 
 land areas and even fresh-water lakes. Littoral gravels 
 and sands of this period may also be undistinguishable, 
 except by their greater elevation, from those of the Saxi- 
 cava sand. I have described the bones of a large whale 
 {Megaptera longimcma) from gravel north of the outlet of 
 lake Ontario and 420 feet above the level of the sea, 
 which is not improbably contemporaueous with the Leda 
 clay of lower levels, and much higher than deposits near 
 lake Ontario regarded as of lacustrine origin.f These 
 
 * Proceedings of Canadian Institute, 1877. Dr. Hinde in this 
 paper incorrectly states that the Leda clay belongs to the ' ' close of the 
 glacial period," and that boulder-drift is not found above it. In 
 truth, as Admiral Bayfield, Sir Charles Lyell, and the writer have 
 shown, boulder-drift is still in progress in the gulf and river St. 
 Lawrence, tliough in a more limited area than in the pleistocene 
 period ; but any considerable subsidence of the land might enable it to 
 resume its former extension. 
 
 t Canadian Naturalist, Vol. X., No. 7. 
 
32 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 changes of the relative levels of sea and land must be 
 taken into account in explaining the distribution of 
 marine clays and sands, boulder deposits, etc., v?hich are 
 often regarded v^ith reference to the present levels of the 
 country, or as contemporaneous deposits without regard 
 to their elevation, a method certain to lead to inaccurate 
 conclusions. 
 
 The Saxicava sand (&) indicates shallow-water condi- 
 tions with much driftage of boulders, and probably glaciers 
 on the mountains. It constitutes in many districts a 
 second boulder formation, and possibly implies a some- 
 what more severe or at least more extreme climate than 
 that of the upper Leda clay. Terraces along the coast 
 mark the successive stages of elevation of the land in and 
 after this period. There is also evidence of a greater 
 elevation of the land succeeding the time of the Saxicava 
 sand, and preceding the modern era.* 
 
 It is well known that very diverse theoretical views 
 exist among geologists as to the origin of the deposits 
 above referred to. The conclusions which have been 
 forced upon the writer by detailed studies extending over 
 the last forty years, are that in Canada the condition of 
 most extreme glaciatiou was one of partial submergence, 
 in which the valleys were occupied by a sea laden with 
 heavy field-ice continuing throughout the summer, while 
 the hills remaining above water were occupied with 
 glaciers, and that thes6 conditions varied in their distri- 
 bution with the varying levels of the land, giving rise to 
 great local diversities, as well as to changes of climate. 
 There seems to be within the limits of Canada no good 
 evidence of a general covering of the land with a thick 
 
 * Supplement to Acadian Geology, 3rd edition, pp. 14, et seq. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 33 
 
 mantle of ice, though there must at certain periods have 
 been very extensive local glaciers on the Appalachians, the 
 Laurentian axis and the mountainous regions of the 
 west.* The two latter have been named by Dr. G-. M. 
 Dawson the " Laurentide " and " Cordilleran " glaciers 
 respectively. The former may be named the " Appala- 
 chian " glacier, and these three must have been the 
 principal sources of land ice in the height of the glacial 
 age, when large portions of the plains and valleys must 
 have been submerged. It does not, indeed, seem possible 
 that, under any conceivable meteorological conditions, an 
 area so extensive as that of Canada, if existing as a land 
 surface, should receive, except on its oceanic margins, a 
 sufficient amount of precipitation to produce a continental 
 glacier.f 
 
 In the great Cordilleran ranges of the north-west the 
 changes evidenced in the east occurred in an exaggerated 
 form. The general character and probable complexity 
 of these changes may be seen from the following provi- 
 sional table taken from Dr. G. M. Dawson, and the evidence 
 for which will be found in his memoir on the " Physio- 
 graphical Geology of the Eocky Mountain Eegion of 
 Canada," J already referred to. 
 
 * 6. M. Dawson, Reports on British Columbia, and Superficial 
 Geology of British Columbia, Journal Geol. Society, 1878. Memoir 
 on Rocky Mountains, Trans. R. S. C, 1890. 
 
 t The term "modified drift," sometimes used for the upper pleis- 
 tocene deposits, is objectionable. The gravels and sands of the Saxicava 
 sand are no more "modified" representatives of the lower beds than a 
 carboniferous sandstone or conglomerate is a modification of underlying 
 strata. The term has no proper significance, unless it could be shown 
 that the boulder clay is a deposit formed on land and subsequently 
 modified by aqueous action. 
 
 + Trans. R. S., Canada, 1890. 
 4 
 
34 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Scheme of Correlation of the Phenomena of the Glacial 
 Period in the Cordillbran Region and the Region of 
 the Great Plains (in Ascending Order). 
 
 Cordilleran Region. 
 Cordilleran zone at a high eleva- 
 tion. Period of most severe glaci- 
 ation and maximum development 
 of the great Cordilleran glacier. 
 
 Gradual subsidence of the Cor- 
 dilleran region and decay of the 
 great glacier, "with deposition of 
 the boulder clay of the Interior 
 Plateau and the Yukon Basin, of 
 the lower boulder clay of the 
 littoral, and also at a later stage 
 (and with greater submergence) of 
 the inter-glacial silty beds of the 
 same region. 
 
 Re-elevation of the Cordilleran 
 region to a level probably as high 
 as or somewhat higher than the 
 present. Maximum of second 
 period of glaciation. 
 
 Partial subsidence of the Cor- 
 dilleran region to a, level about 
 2,500 feet lower than the present. 
 Long stage of stability, during 
 which the white silts were laid 
 down. Glaciers of the second 
 period considerably reduced. Up- 
 per boulder clay of the coast 
 
 Region of the Great Plains. 
 
 Correlative subsidence and sub- 
 mergence of the great plains, 
 with possible contemporaneous 
 increased elevation of the Lauren- 
 tian axis and maximum develop- 
 ment of ice upon it. Deposition 
 of the lower boulder cUy of the 
 plains. 
 
 Correlative elevation of the 
 western part of the great plams, 
 which was probably more or less 
 irregular, and led to the produc- 
 tion of extensive lakes, in which 
 inter-glacial deposits, including 
 peat, were formed. 
 
 Correlative subsidence of the 
 plains, which (at least in the 
 western part of the region) ex- 
 ceeded the first subsidence and 
 extended submergence to the base 
 of the Rooky Mountains near the 
 forty -ninth parallel. Formation of 
 second boulder clay, and (at a 
 later stage) dispersion of large 
 erratics. 
 
 Correlative elevation of the 
 plains, or at least of their western 
 portion, resulting in a condition 
 of equilibrium as between the 
 plains and the Cordillera, their 
 relatire levels becoming nearly as 
 at present. Probable formation 
 of the Missouri Coteau along a 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 35 
 
 Cordilleran Region. Region of the Great Plains. 
 
 probably formed at this time, shore-Une during this period of 
 though perhaps in part during the rest. 
 second maximum of glaciation. 
 
 Simultaneous elevation of the 
 Renewed elevation of the Cor- great plains to about their pres- 
 dUleran region with one well ^nt level, with final exclusion of 
 marked pause, during which the waters in connection with the sea. 
 littoral stood about 200 feet lower ^^^^ Agassiz formed and eveu- 
 than at present. Glaciers much *"*lly drained toward the close of 
 reduced and diminishing, in con- this period. This simultaneous 
 sequence of general amelioration movement in elevation of both 
 of climate toward the close of the gi^^at areas may probably be eon- 
 glacial period. nected with the more general 
 
 northern elevation of land at the 
 close of the glacial period. 
 
 The tendency of recent observations has been to show 
 that the Pliocene and older subdivisions of the Tertiary 
 covered each of them a much longer time than the 
 Pleistocene, and that the close of the latter approaches 
 more nearly to the modern or recent time than had 
 previously been supposed. To these points we shall have 
 occasion to refer in the sequel. 
 
 It may be proper here to indicate the general nomen- 
 clature which will be followed. When the whole geological 
 series is divided into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, 
 the deposits to which this paper relates are usually named 
 Post-tertiary or Quaternary. These terms are, in my 
 judgment, unfortunate and misleading. If we take the 
 relations of fossils as our guide, then, as Pictet has well 
 remarked, whether we regard the land or the sea animals, 
 there is no decided break between the newer Pliocene 
 and the Pleistocene, the changes not being greater than 
 those between the Pliocene and the older Tertiary ages. 
 There is, therefore, no such thing in nature as a Quater- 
 
36 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 nary time distinct from the Tertiary, as the Tertiary is 
 distinct from the Secondary. Where therefore the terms 
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary are used, the Tatter 
 should include the whole time from the Eocene to the 
 Modern inclusive, unless indeed the advent of man be 
 considered an event of sufficient geological importance to 
 warrant a separation of the Modern from the Tertiary 
 period. "When the terms Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Kaino- 
 zoic or Neozoic are used, then the two latter terms cover 
 perfectly the Pleistocene as well as the Eocene, Miocene 
 and Pliocene. I would therefore include the Pleistocene 
 in the Neozoic or Tertiary period, and define it to be that 
 geological age which is included between the Pliocene 
 and the Modern. From the former it is separated by the 
 advent of the cold or glacial* period, and the accompany- 
 ing subsidence of the land, as well as by the disappearance 
 of many species of animals and pla.nts. From the latter 
 it is separated by the extinction of many mammalian 
 forms, and by the introduction of man, and of the present 
 levels and climatal conditions of the continents. 
 
 LATER KAINOZOIC OR TERTIARY PERIOD. 
 
 (In Ascending ' Order.) 
 Newer Pliocene. — A continental period of long duration, 
 in which the land was more elevated than at present, 
 and very extensi^■e erosion of deep river valleys 
 occurred. 
 Pleistocene. — Covering three sub-divisions : — 
 
 (a) Early Pleistocene: Irregular elevation and depres- 
 sion of the continents, with cold climate and 
 great local glaciers. 
 
 * I use the term "glacial" in this paper in its general sense, as 
 including tlie action of floating ice as well as of land ice. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 37 
 
 (b) Mid- Pleistocene : Submergence of coasts and re- 
 
 elevation of interior plateaus with milder 
 climate. — Inter-glacial period. 
 
 (c) Later Pleistocene : Submergence of plains, and 
 
 general ice drift, with local glaciers in 
 
 mountains. 
 Early Modern ok Post-Glacial. — Second continental 
 period, in which the land regains almost all the 
 extension of the Pliocene time. Age of the Mammoth 
 and Mastodon and of Palaeocosmic man. — Post-glacial 
 Fauna. 
 
 Modern or Eecent. — Submergence of short duration, 
 terminating the age of Palaeocosmic man. Ee-eleva- 
 tion of continents to present le^ els. Modern races 
 of men and Modern Fauna. 
 
 Let us now consider the several members of the Pleis- 
 tocene more in detail, especially in those regions in which 
 they have been studied by the author. 
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS. 
 1. — The Lower Boulder-Clay. 
 
 Throughout a great part of Canada there is over all 
 tlie lower levels a true " Till," consisting of hard gray 
 clay, filled with stones and thickly packed with boulders. 
 In many places, however, the clay becomes sandy, and in 
 some portions of the upper carboniferous and triassic 
 areas, the paste is an incoherent sand. The mass is usually 
 destitute of any stratification or subordinate lamination ; 
 but sometimes in thick beds horizontal lines of different 
 texture or colour can be perceived, and occasionally the 
 clay intervening between the stones becomes laminated, 
 or at least shows such a structure when disintegrated by 
 
38 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 frost. The boulder-clay usually rests directly on striated 
 rock-surfaces; but I have observed in Cape Breton a 
 peaty or brown coal deposit, with branches of coniferous 
 trees, which underlies it, and in other places there are 
 deposits of rolled gravel under the boulder-clay. At the 
 Glen brick-work, near Montreal, a peculiar modified 
 boulder-clay occurs, consisting of very irregularly bedded 
 sand and gravel, with many large boulders, and only thin 
 layers of clay. 
 
 The stones of the boulder-clay are often scratched, and 
 ground into those peculiar wedge-shapes so characteristic 
 of ice-worked stones. Very abundant examples of this 
 occur at Montreal and in its vicinity. 
 
 At Isle Verte, Riviere du Loup, Murray Bay, Quebec, 
 St. Nicholas, Little Metis, etc., the boulder-clay is fos- 
 siliferous, containing especially Leda glacialis, and often 
 having boulders and large stones covered with Balanus 
 Hameri and with Bryozoa, e\'ideucing that they have for 
 some time quietly reposed in the sea bottom before being 
 buried iu the clay. This is indeed the usual condition of 
 the boulder-clay in the lower part of the St. Lawrence 
 river.* Further up, iu the vicinity of Montreal, it has 
 not been observed to contain fossils, but it presents 
 equally unequivocal evidence of sub-aqueous origin in the 
 low state of oxidation of the iron in the blue clay, which 
 becomes brown when exposed to the weather, and in the 
 brightness of the iron pyrites contained in some of the 
 glaciated stones, as well as in the presence of rounded and 
 
 * Upham admits (Proc. Brit. Nit. Soy., 1888) that sea shells exist 
 in the boulder-clay of Massachusetts ; but his explanation that they 
 have been pushed up by glaciers is quite inadmissible, more especially 
 as they are not of more boreal types than those of Massachusetts bay 
 at present. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 39 
 
 glaciated lumps of Utica shale and olher soft rocks, which 
 become disintegrated at once when exposed to weathering. 
 
 The true boulder-clay is in all ordinary cases the oldest 
 member of the Pleistocene deposits, and it is not possible 
 to divide it into distinct boulder-clays of different 
 ages, superimposed on one another. It may be observed, 
 however, that in so far as the boulder-clay is a marine 
 deposit, that which occurs at lower levels is in all pro- 
 bability newer than that which occurs at higher levels. 
 It is also to be observed that boulders with layers of 
 stones occasionally occur in the Leda clay ; and that the 
 superficial sands and gravels sometimes contain large 
 boulders, and even constitute an upper or newer boulder 
 formation ; but these appearances are not usually suffi- 
 ciently important to cause any experienced observer to 
 mistake such overlying deposits for the lower boulder-clay. 
 They belong to the second or newer part of the period. 
 
 In some localities the stones in the boulder-clay are 
 almost exclusively those of the neighbouring rock forma- 
 tions, and this is especially the case at the base of cliffs or 
 prominent outcrops, whence a large quantity of material 
 would be easily derived. In other cases, though less 
 frequently, material travelled from a distance largely 
 predominates. Throughout the valley of the Lower St. 
 Lawrence, the gneiss and other hard metamorphic rocks 
 of the Laurentian hills to the north-east are very 
 abundant, and in boulders of large size and much rounded. 
 Occasional instances also occur where large boulders have 
 been transported to the northwards ; but these are com- 
 paratively rare, except in the second or upper drift. I 
 have mentioned some examples of this in "Acadian 
 Geology," p. 61. Similar instances are mentioned in the 
 " Geology of Canada," p. 893. 
 
40 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Though the boulder-clay often presents a somewhat 
 widely extended and uniform sheet, yet it may be stated 
 to fill up all small valleys and depressions, to be confined 
 chiefly to the lower grounds, and to be thin or absent on 
 ridges and rising grounds. The boulders which it contains 
 are also by no means uniformly dispersed. Where it is 
 cut through by rivers, or denuded by the action of the 
 sea, ridges of boulders often appear to be included in it. 
 Those on the Ottawa referred to in the " Geology of 
 Canada,'' p. 895, are very good illustrations, and I have 
 observed the same fact on the Lower St. Lawrence and on 
 the coast of Nova Scotia. It is also observable that these 
 lines and groups of boulders are often not of local 
 material, but of rocks from distant localities, and that a 
 number of the same kind seem often to have been 
 deposited together in one group. 
 
 Loose boulders are often found upon the surface, and 
 sometimes in great numbers. In some instances these 
 may represent beds of boulder-clay removed by denuda- 
 tion. In other cases they may have been derived from 
 the overlying members of the formation, or may have 
 been deposited on the surface in the later Pleistocene 
 subsidence, without any covering of clay or gravel. In 
 "Acadian Geology,'' p. 64, 1 have illustrated the manner 
 in which large stones, sometimes eight feet or more in 
 diameter, are moved by the coast ice and sometimes 
 deposited on the surface of soft mud, and I have had 
 occasion to verify the observations of the same kind made 
 by Admiral Bayfield, and quoted by Sir C. Lyell in the 
 " Principles of Geology." Lastly, on certain high grounds 
 there are large loose boulders, which have probably been 
 moved to their present positions by means of land ice or 
 glaciers. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 41 
 
 The boulder-clay locally presents, as above stated, indi- 
 cations of successive layers, and it occasionally contains 
 surfaces on which lie large boulders striated and polished 
 on the upper surface, in the manner of the pavements of 
 boulders described by Miller, as occurring in the Till of 
 Scotland. These appearances are, however, rare, and few 
 opportunities occur for observing them. 
 
 A very general and important appearance is the polish- 
 ing and striation of the underlying rocks usually to be 
 observed under the boulder-clay, and which is undoubtedly 
 of the same character with that observed under Alpine 
 glaciers. This continental striation or grooving is obvi- 
 ously the effect of the action of ice, and its direction 
 marks the course in which the abrading agent travelled. 
 This direction has been ascertained by the Canadian and 
 United States surveys, and by local observers, over a 
 large part of America, and it presents some broad features 
 well deserving attention. A valuable table of the direc- 
 tion of this striation is given in the " Geology of Canada," 
 which I may take as a basis for my remarks, adding to it 
 a few local observations of my own.* The table embraces 
 one hundred and forty-five observations, extending along 
 the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa and the 
 borders of the great lakes. In all of these the direction 
 is south, with an inclination to the west and east, or to 
 state the case more precisely, there are two sets of striae, 
 a south-west set and a south-east set. In the table 
 eighty-four are westward of south and fifty-eight are 
 eastward of south, three being due south. It further 
 
 * See also, for the western districts, Whittlesey's Memoir iu the 
 Smithsonian Contributions, and Newberry's Report on Ohio ; Papers 
 by Dr. G. M. Dawson on the Plains of N.W. Canada in Journal of 
 Geol. Soy. of London and Trans. R.S. Canada. 
 
42 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 appears, when we mark the localities on the map, that in 
 the valley of the St. Lawrence and the rising grounds 
 bounding it, the prevailing course is south-west, and this 
 is also the prevalent direction in western New York, and 
 behind the great Laurentide chain on the north side of 
 lake Huron. Crossing this striation nearly at right 
 angles, is a second set, which occurs in the neck of land 
 between Georgian bay and lake Ontario, in the valley of 
 the Ottawa and in the hilly districts of the Eastern 
 Townships of the province of Quebec, where it is con- 
 nected with a similar striation which is prevalent in the 
 valleys of lake Champlain and the Connecticut river and 
 elsewhere in New England. In New England this 
 striation is said to have been observed on hills 4,800 feet 
 high, as for example on Mansfield mountain, where, 
 according to Hitchcock, there are striae bearing S. 30° E. 
 at an elevation of 4,848 feet. In Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, as in New England, the prevailing direction 
 is south-eastward, though there are also south-west and 
 south striation, and a few cases where the direction is 
 nearly east and west. Recent observations lead to the 
 belief that in eastern Canada the south-west and north- 
 east striation is general on the lower grounds. The 
 south-east and north-west striation belongs more to the 
 higher grounds, and in some cases represents ice-flow in 
 tivo directions, to the north-west and south-east of the 
 ridges of high land. 
 
 It is obvious that such striation must have resulted 
 from the action of a solid mass or masses of ice bearing 
 for a long time on tlie surface, and abrading it by means 
 of stones and sand. It is further obvious that the 
 different sets of striation could scarcely have been pro- 
 duced at the same time in any one locality, especially 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 43 
 
 when, as is not infrequent, we have two sets nearly at 
 right angles to each other, in the sanie locality. Hence it 
 becomes an important question to ascertain the relative 
 ages of the striation, and also tlie direction in which the 
 abrading force moved. 
 
 Taking the valley of the St. Lawrence in the first 
 instance, the crag-and-tail forms of the isolated hills of 
 trap, like the Montreal moimtain, with abrupt escarp- 
 ments to the north-east and slopes of debris to the south- 
 west, the quantity of boulders carried from them far to 
 the south-west, and the prevailing striation in the same 
 directi(y/n, all point to a general movement of detritus up 
 the St. Lawrence valley to the south-west. Further, in 
 some, cases the striae themselves show the direction of the 
 abrading force. For example, in a fine exposure recently 
 made at the Mile-end quarries, near Montreal, the polished 
 and grooved surface of the limestone shows four sets of 
 striae. The principal ones have the direction of S. 68° W. 
 and S. 60° W. respectively, and the second of these sets 
 is the stronger and coarser, and sometimes obliterates the 
 first. The two other sets are comparatively few and 
 feeble striae, one set running nearly N". and S., and the 
 other N.W. and S.E. These last are probably newer than 
 the two first sets. Now, with regard to the direction of 
 the principal sets of striae, this at the locality in question 
 was rendered very manifest by the occurrence of certain 
 trap dykes crossing the limestone at right angles to the 
 striae. The force, whatever it was, had impinged on these 
 dykes from the N.E., and their S.W. side had protected 
 the softer limestone. The locality is to the IST.E. of the 
 mass of trap constituting the Montreal mountain, and the 
 movement must have been up the St. Lawrence valley 
 from the N.E., and toward the mountain, but at this 
 
44 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 particular place the striae point west of its mass. This, I 
 have no hesitation in saying, is the dominant direction in 
 the St. Lawrence valley, and it certainly points to the 
 action of the arctic current passing up the valley in a 
 period of submergence. Further, it is the boulder-clay 
 connected with this S.W. striation that has hitherto 
 proved most rich in marine shells. 
 
 If, however, we pass from the St. Lawrence valley up 
 the valleys which open into it from the north, as for 
 example the gorge of the Saguenay, the Murray Bay river, 
 or the Ottawa river, we at once find a striation nearly at 
 right angles to the former, or pointing to the south-east. 
 
 At the mouth of the Saguenay, near Moulin Bode, are 
 striae and grooves on a magnificent scale, some of the 
 latter being ten feet wide and four feet deep, cut into 
 hard gneiss. Their course is K. 10° W. to N. 20° W. 
 magnetic, or N. 30° to 40° W. when referred to the true 
 meridian. In the same region, on hills 300 feet high, are 
 roches moutonnees with their smoothest faces pointing in 
 the same direction, or to the north-west. This direction 
 is that of the valley or gorge of the Saguenay, which 
 enters nearly at right angles the valley of the St. 
 Lawrence. At the mouth of the Saguenay the Lark 
 Shoals constitute a mass of debris and boulders, both 
 inside and outside of which is very deep water ; and many 
 of the fragments of stone on these shoals must have been 
 carried down the Saguenay more than fifty miles. 
 
 In like manner at Murray bay there are striae on the 
 Silurian limestones near Point au Pique, which run about 
 N. 45° W.,- but these are crossed by another set having a 
 course S. 30° W., so that we have here two sets of 
 markings, the one pointing upwards along the deep valley 
 of Murray Bay river to the Laurentide hills inland, the 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 45 
 
 other following the general trend of the St. Lawrence 
 valley. The boulder-clay which rests on these striated 
 surfaces is a dark-coloured till, full of Laurentian 
 boulders, and holding Leda glacialis, and also Bryozoa 
 clinging to some of the boulders. In ascending the 
 Murray Bay river, we find these boulder-beds surmounted 
 by very thick stratified clays, with marine shells, which 
 extend upward to an elevation of about 800 feet, when 
 they give place to loose boulders and unstratified drift. 
 About this elevation, the laminated clays meet a ridge of 
 drift like a moraine, crossing the valley, which forms the 
 barrier of a small lake, Petite Lac, and a second similar 
 barrier separates this from Grand Lac. If the valley of 
 Murray Bay river was occupied with a glacier descending 
 from the Laurentian hills inland, which are probably here 
 3,000 to 4,000 feet high, this glacier or large detached 
 masses pushed from its foot, must have at one time 
 extended quite to the border of the St. Lawrence, and at 
 another must have terminated at the borders of the two 
 lakes above mentioned. 
 
 On a still larger scale the N.W. and S.E. striation 
 appears in the valley of the Ottawa, and farther west 
 between the head of lake Ontario and lake Huron, in the 
 valleys descending from the Laurentian plateau. Here it 
 may be ascribed in part to general ice-laden currents 
 from the north-west, and in part to portions of the great 
 Laurentide glacier. 
 
 A most important observation bearing on this subject 
 appears in the Report of Mr. E. Bell, in the region of 
 lake Nipigon, north of lake Superior. He observed there 
 the prevailing south-west striation, but with a more 
 westerly trend than usual. Crossing this, however, there 
 was a southerly and S.E. set of striae which were observed 
 
46 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 to be older than the south-west striae. In some other 
 parts of Canada these striae seem to be newer than the 
 others, but there would be nothing improbable in their 
 occurring both at the beginning and end of the boulder- 
 clay period. 
 
 In summing up this subject, I think it may be affirmed 
 that when the striation and transfer of materials have 
 obviously been from N.E. to S.W., in the direction of the 
 arctic current, and more especially when marine remains 
 occur in the drift, we may infer that floating ice and 
 marine currents have been the efficient agents. Where 
 the striation has a local character, depending upon exist- 
 ing mountains and valleys, we may on the other hand 
 infer tlie action of land ice. For many minor effects of 
 striation, and of heaping up of moraine-like ridges, we 
 may refer to the presence of lake or coast ice as the land 
 was rising or subsiding. This we now see producing such 
 effects, and I think it has not been sufficiently taken into 
 the account. 
 
 As to the St. Lawrence valley, it is evident that its 
 condition during tlie deposit of the boulder-clay must 
 have been that of a part of a wide sound or inland sea 
 extending across the continent, and that local glaciers 
 may have descended into it from the high lands on the 
 north, and on the south which may have been relatively 
 higher than at present. During this state of the valley 
 
 Fig. 1. — Travelled Boulder on Glaciated Rock. (After Dr. G. M. Dawson.) 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 47 
 
 great quantities of boulders were brought down into it, 
 especially from the Laurentide hills, and were drifted 
 along the valley, principally to the south-west. Extensive 
 erosion also took place by the combined action of frost, 
 rain, melting snows, and the arctic current and the waves, 
 and thus was furnished the finer material of the boulder- 
 clay. On the south shore of the St. Lawrence, the Notre 
 Dame mountains, stretching out towards cape Gaspe, 
 afford indications of local glaciation, and Mr. li. Chalmers 
 has shown that the movement of ice from this elevated 
 region has been both south toward the bale des Chaleurs, 
 and north toward the St. Lawrence.* I have myself 
 seen ample evidence in large travelled boulders of Silurian 
 limestone on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, of drift 
 from the hills on the south intermixed with that from the 
 Laurentians on the north. Similar facts have been 
 observed by Ells and Low in the hills of the Eastern 
 Townships of the province of Quebec. 
 
 It is further to be observed that oscillations of land 
 must be taken into account in explaining these phenomena. 
 Elevations increasing the height and area of land might 
 increase the space occupied by snow and laud ice. 
 Depressions, on the other hand, would bring larger areas 
 under the influence of water-borne ice and marine 
 deposits, and these might take place either in a shallow 
 sea loaded with field and coast ice, or in deeper water in 
 which large icebergs might float or ground. The effects 
 would be the greater if, as Dr. G. M. Dawson has shown 
 in the case of the Cordilleran chain, there was unequal 
 elevation causing contemporaneous depression of the 
 
 * On the Glaciation and Pleistocene subsidence of northern New 
 Brunswick and south-eastern Quebec. Trans. R.S.C., 1886. 
 
48 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 plains and elevation of mountains. There is reason to 
 believe that such alternations were not infrequent in the 
 Pleistocene, and that their occurrence will explain naany 
 of the complexities of these deposits. 
 
 If we adopt for the more general deposits the hypothesis 
 of floating ice, we must be prepared to consider in con- 
 nection with this subject a subsidence so great as to place 
 at one period all but the highest parts of the Laurentides 
 and Appalachians under water. In this case a vast 
 volume of arctic ice and water would pour over the 
 country of the great lakes to the S.W., while any obstruc- 
 tion occurring to the south would throw lateral currents 
 over the Appalachians to the eastward. 
 
 It is evident from the descriptions of Smith, Geikie, 
 Jameson, Crosskcy, and others, that the boulder-clay 
 of Scotland and Scandinavia corresponds precisely in 
 character with that of Canada, and there, as in America, 
 the theory of a continental glacier has been resorted to 
 for its explanation. The objections to this hypothesis are 
 very ably stated by Mr. Milne Home in a paper on the 
 " Boulder-clay of Europe," in the Transactions of the 
 Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, 1869. 
 
 To this period and these causes must also be assigned 
 the excavation of the basins of the great American lakes. 
 These have been cut out of the softer members of the 
 Silurian and Devonian Formations ; but the mode of this 
 excavation has been regarded as very mysterious ; and, 
 like other mysteries, has been referred to glaciers. Its 
 real cause was obviously river and atmospheric erosion in 
 the Pliocene period, supplemented by the flowing of cold 
 ocean cuiTents over the American laud during its sub- 
 mergence.* The lake-basins are thus of the same nature 
 
 * See Chapter III. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 49 
 
 With the deep hollows extending outward from the river 
 mouths of the American coasts under the ocean, or 
 perhaps they are like those intervening between the banks 
 cast up by the arctic currents on the present American 
 coast, and like those deep channels of the arctic current 
 in the Atlantic recently explored by Dr. Carpenter. 
 Their arrangements geographically, as well as their 
 geological relations, correspond with such views. 
 
 The former consideration with regard to the great lakes 
 deserves especial notice. Drs. Hunt, Newberry, and 
 Spencer have collected many facts to show that the lake 
 basins are connected with one another and with the sea 
 by deep channels now filled up with drift-deposits. It is 
 therefore certain that much of the erosion of these basins 
 may have occurred before the advent of the glacial period, 
 in the Pliocene age, when the American continent was at 
 a higher level than at present. Dr. Newberry has given 
 in the Eeport in the Geology of Ohio, a large collection 
 of facts ascertained by boring or otherwise, which go far 
 to show that were the old channels cleared of drift and 
 the continent slightly elevated, the great lakes would be 
 drained into each other and into the ocean by the valleys 
 of the Hudson and the Mississippi, without any rock 
 cutting, and if the barrier of the Thousand Islands were 
 then somewhat higher, the St. Lawrence valley might 
 have been cut off from the basin of the great lakes. 
 Spencer has, however, shown, on the evidence of differen- 
 tial elevation, that a portion at least of the drainage of 
 the Pliocene lake country may have found its way down 
 the present course of the St. Lawrence valley. 
 
 The latter cause, namely, the possible eroding action of 
 ocean currents, is one more difficult to estimate, yet 
 5 
 
50 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 should not be neglected hj geologists. I thus referred to 
 it in 1864.* 
 
 " Our American lake-basins are cut out deeply in the 
 softer strata. Eunning water on the land could not have 
 done this under the present geographical conditions, 
 though it could effect it with a higher level and better 
 drainage; nor could the result be effected by ocean 
 breakers, though the levelling power of these is enormous. 
 Grlaciers could not have effected it; for even if the 
 climatal conditions for these were admitted, there is no 
 height of land to give them momentum. But if we 
 suppose the land submerged so that the arctic current, 
 flowing from the north-east, should pour over the Laur- 
 entian rocks on the north side of lake Superior and lake 
 Huron, it would necessarily cut out of the softer Silurian 
 strata just such basins, drifting their materials to the 
 south-west. At the same time, the lower strata of the 
 current would be powerfully determined through the 
 strait between the Adirondac and Laurentide hills, and 
 running over the ridge of hard rock which connects them 
 at the Thousand Islands, would cut out the long basin of 
 lake Ontario, heaping up at the same time in the lee of 
 the Laurentian ridge, the great mass of boulder-clay 
 which intervenes between lake Ontario and Georgian 
 bay. Lake Erie may have been cut by the flow- of the 
 upper layers of water over the Middle Silurian escarp- 
 ment ; and lake Michigan, though less closely connected 
 with the direction of the current, is, like the others, due 
 to the action of a continiious eroding force on rocks of 
 unequal hardness. 
 
 * Presidential Address to Nat. Hist. Soo. of Montreal, Canadian 
 Naturalist, 1864. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 51 
 
 " The predominant south-west striation, and the cutting 
 of the upper lakes, demand an outlet to the west for the 
 arctic current. But both during depression and elevation- 
 of the land, there must have been a time when this outlet 
 was obstructed, and when the lower levels of New York, 
 New England, and Canada were still under water. Then 
 the valley of the Ottawa, that of the Mohawk, and the 
 low country between lakes Ontario and Huron, and the 
 valleys of lake Champlain and the Connecticut, would be 
 straits or arms of the sea, and the current, obstructed in 
 its direct flow, would set principally along these, and act 
 on the rocks in north and south, and north-west and 
 south-east directions. To this portion of the process we 
 may attribute much of the north-west and south-east 
 striation. It is true that this view does not account for 
 the south-east striae observed on some high peaks in New 
 England ; but it must be observed that even at the time 
 of greatest depression, the arctic current would cling to 
 the northern land, or be thrown so rapidly to the west 
 that its direct action might not reach such summits. 
 There were also extensive local glaciers in these moun- 
 tains, whose work must be separated from that of the 
 sea-drift. 
 
 " I conclude these remarks with a mere reference to 
 the alleged prevalence of lake-basins and fiords in high 
 northern latitudes, as connected with glacial action. In 
 reasoning on this, it seems to be overlooked that the pre- 
 valence of disturbed and metamorphic rocks over wide 
 areas in the north is one element in the matter, and that 
 in the Pliocene age the greater elevation of the land must 
 have caused deeper fluviatile erosion. Further, the fiords 
 on coasts, like the deep lateral valleys of mountains, are 
 often evidences'of the action of the waves rather than of 
 
52 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 that of ice. I am sure that this is the case with many of 
 the indentations of the coast of Nova Scotia, which are 
 cut into the softer and more shattered bands of rock, 
 and show, in raised beaches and gravel ridges like those 
 of the present coast, the levels of the sea at the time of 
 their formation." 
 
 To the period of the boulder-clay we may refer those 
 ridges and pavements of boulders imbedded in this clay 
 or continuous with it, and which testify to the carrying 
 and packing power of ice. "We shall find, however, that 
 such moraine-like ridges are not confined to this period, 
 but occur along the sea-margins of the Later Pleistocene, 
 and are even at this day in process of formation on a 
 considerable scale along the borders of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 2. — The Leda Clay. 
 
 This deposit constitutes the subsoil over a large portion 
 of the great plain of Lower Canada, varying in thickness 
 from a few feet to 50 or perhaps even 100 feet, and 
 usually resting on the boulder-clay, into which it some- 
 times appears to graduate, the material of the Leda clay 
 being of the same nature with the finer portion of the 
 paste of the boulder-clay. Its name is derived from the 
 presence in it of shells of Leda glacialis, often to the 
 exclusion of other fossils, and usually in a perfect state, 
 with both valves united. 
 
 The typical Leda clay in its recent state is usually gray 
 in colour, unctuous, and slightly calcareous. Some beds, 
 however, are of a reddish hue; and in thick sections 
 recently cut, it can be seen to present layers of different 
 shades and occasional thin sandy bands, as well as layers 
 studded with small stones. It sometimes holds hard 
 calcareous concretions, which, as at Green's creek on the 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 53 
 
 Ottawa, are occasionally richly fossiliferous, but more 
 usually are destitute of fossil remains. When dried, the 
 Leda clay becomes of stony hardness, and when burned, 
 it assumes a brick-red colour. When dried and levigated, 
 it nearly always affords some foraminifera and shells of 
 ostracoids ; and in this, as well as in its colour and 
 texture, it closely resembles the blue mud now in process of 
 deposition in the deeper parts of the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 The lamination of the Leda clay and its included sand 
 layers, show that it was deposited at intervals, between 
 which intervened spaces when currents carried small 
 quantities of sand over the surface. In these intervals 
 shells as well as sand were washed over the bottom, while 
 ordinarily Leda, Nucula and Astarte burrowed in the clay 
 itself. The layers and patches of stones I attribute to 
 deposit from floating ice, and to the same cause must be 
 attributed the larg^ Laurentian boulders, occasionally 
 though rarely seen imbedded in the clay. 
 
 The material of the Leda clay has been derived mainly 
 from the waste of the lower Silurian shales of the Quebec 
 and Utica groups, which occupy a great space in the basin 
 of the gulf and river St. Lawrence. The driftage of this 
 material has been to the south-west, and in that direction 
 it becomes thinner and finer in texture. The supply of 
 this mud, under the action of the waves, of streams, of 
 the arctic currents and tidal currents, and floating ice, 
 must have been constant, as it now is in the gulf and 
 river St. Lawrence. It would be increased by the melting 
 of the snows in spring and by any oscillations of level, 
 and it is probably in these ways that we should account 
 for the altei'nations of layers in the deposit. 
 
 The modern deposit in the gulf of St. Lawrence, the 
 chemical characters and coloration of which I explained 
 
54 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 many years ago,* shows us that the Leda clay, when in 
 suspension, was probably reddish or brown mud tinted 
 with peroxide of iron, like that which we now see in the 
 lower St. Lawrence ; but like the modern mud, so soon as 
 deposited in the bottom, the ferruginous colouring matter 
 would, in ordinary circumstances, be deoxidised by organic 
 substances, and reduced to the condition of sulphide or 
 carbonate of the protoxide. This colour, owing to its 
 impermeability, it still retains when elevated out of the 
 sea ; but when heated in presence of air, or exposed for 
 some time at the surface, it becomes red or brown. The 
 occasional layers of reddish Leda clay indicate places or 
 times when the supply of organic matter was insufficient 
 to deoxidise the iron present in the mass. 
 
 [£he greater part of the Leda clay was probably 
 
 deposited in water from twenty to one hundred fathoms 
 in depth, corresponding to the ordinary depths of the 
 present gulf of St. Lawrence ; and as we shall find, this 
 view is confirmed by the prevalent fossils contained in it, 
 more especially the Foramiuifera. The most abundant 
 of these in the Leda clay is Polystomella striatopundata 
 var. arctica, which is now most abundant at about twenty- 
 five or thirty fathoms. Since, however, the shallow-water 
 marine Post-pliocene beds extend upwards in some places 
 to a height of six hundred feet on the hills on the north 
 side of the St. Lawrence, it is probable that deposits of 
 Leda clay contemporaneous with these high-level marine 
 beds were formed in the lower parts of the plain at depths 
 exceeding one hundred fathoms. 
 
 The western limits of the Leda clay appear to occur 
 where the Laurentian ridge of the Thousand Islands 
 
 * Journal of Geological Society of London, Vol. V. , pp. 25 to 30. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 55 
 
 crosses the St. Lawrence, and where the same ancient 
 rocks cross the Ottawa; and in general the Leda clay- 
 may be said to be limited to the lower Silurian plain, and 
 not to mount up the Lauren tian and metamorphic hills 
 bounding it. Since, however, the level of the water, as 
 indicated by the terraces in Lower Canada, and by the 
 probable depth at which the Leda clay was deposited, 
 would carry the sea level far beyond the limits above 
 indicated, and even to the base of the Niagara escarp- 
 ment, we must suppose, either — (1) that the supply of 
 this sediment failed toward the west; or (2) that the 
 mud has been removed by denudation or worked over 
 again by the fresh waters so as to lose its marine fossils ; 
 or (3) that the relative levels of the western or eastern 
 parts of Canada were different from those at present ; or 
 (4) that the water may have been freshened and rendered 
 cold by the influx of melting snow and ice into a landlocked 
 water area or one with a narrow opening. As already 
 stated, there are indications that the first may be an 
 element in the cause. The second is no doubt true of the 
 clays which lie in the immediate vicinity of the lake 
 basins. Dr. Spencer has detailed many observations in 
 favour of the third, more especially in the later glacial 
 and Post-glacial periods. 
 
 I believe, however, that much more rigorous investiga- 
 tions of the clays of western Canada are required before 
 we can certainly affirm that none of them hold marine 
 fossils.* 
 
 Whittlesey has described the western drift deposits in 
 the Smithsonion Contributions, Vol. XV., and according 
 
 * It is to be observed that eveu near the coast the greater part of 
 the thickness of the Leda clay is often unfossiliferous. 
 
56 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 to him the boulder-drift is there the upper member of 
 the series. More recently Prof. ISTewberry has given a 
 summary of the facts in his Eeport of the Geological 
 Survey of Ohio for 1869. From these, sources I condense 
 the following statements : 
 
 The lowest member of the western drift, corresponding 
 to the Erie clays of the Canadian Eeport, is very widely 
 distributed, and fills up the old hollows of the country, in 
 some cases being two hundred feet or more in thickness. 
 Toward the north these clays contain boulders and stones, 
 but do not constitute a true boulder-clay. They rest, 
 however, on the glaciated rock surfaces. They have 
 afforded no fossils except drifted vegetable remains, which 
 appear to occur in an " interglacial " or forest bed between 
 lower and upper boulder-deposits, 
 
 Above these clays are sands of variable thickness. 
 They contain beds of gravel, and near the surface teeth 
 of elephants have been found. On the surface are scat- 
 tered boulders and blocks of northern origin, often of 
 great size, and in some cases transported two hundred 
 miles from their original places. More recent than all 
 these deposits are the " Lake Eidges," marking a former 
 extension of the great lakes. 
 
 I believe the Leda clays throughout Canada to consti- 
 tute in the main one contemporaneous formation. Of 
 course, however, it must be admitted that the deposit at 
 the higher levels may have ceased and been laid dry 
 while it was still going on at lower levels nearer the sea, 
 just as a similar deposit still continues in the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. On the whole, then, while we regard this as 
 one bed, stratigraphically, we may be prepared to find 
 that in the lower levels the upper layers of it may be 
 somewhat more modern than those portions of the 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 57 
 
 deposit occurring on higher ground and farther from the 
 sea. 
 
 Where the Leda clay rests on marine boulder-clay, the 
 ■change of the deposits implies a diminution of ice- 
 transport relatively to deposition of fine sediment from 
 water ; and with this, more favourable circumstances for 
 marine animals. This may have arisen from geographical 
 ■changes diminishing the supply of ice from local glaciers, 
 ■or obstructing the access of heavy icebergs from the 
 arctic regions. At the present time, for example, the 
 action of the heaviest bergs is limited to the outer coasts 
 ■of Labrador and Newfoundland, and a deposit resembling 
 the Leda clay is forming in the gulf of St. Lawrence; 
 but a subsidence which would determine the arctic 
 ■current and the trains of heavy bergs into the gulf, 
 would bring with it the conditions for the formation of a 
 boulder-clay, more especially if there were glaciers on the 
 Laurentide hills to the north. Where the Leda clay rests 
 on boulder-clay which may be supposed to be of terres- 
 trial origin, subsidence is of course implied; and it is 
 interesting to observe that the conditions thus required 
 are the reverse of each other. In other words, elevation 
 of land or sea bottom might be required to enable Leda 
 ■clay to take the place of marine boulder-clay, but depres- 
 sion of the land would be necessary to enable Leda clay 
 to replace the moraine of a glacier. I cannot say, how- 
 over, that I know any case in Canada where I can 
 certainly afifirm that this last change has occurred ; 
 though on the north shore of the St. Lawrence there are 
 ■cases in which the Leda clay rests directly on striated 
 surfaces which might be attributed to glaciers ; just as in 
 the west the Erie clay occupies this position. 
 
 Deposits referable to the shores of the Leda clay sea, 
 
58 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 and the estuaries opening into it from the portions of the 
 land still above water are not uncommon. Of this nature 
 are the beds at Pakenham, examined by the late Sheriff 
 Dickson, and which, as I was informed by him, are 
 arranged as follows : 
 
 Feet. Inches. 
 
 Sand and surface soil about 10 
 
 Clay 10 
 
 Fine gray sand (shells of Valvata, &c.). ... 2 
 
 Clay 1 
 
 Gray sand, laminated (7'effi?ia (rreenfanrfjca) 3 
 
 Clay 8 
 
 Light gray sand ( Valvata, Cyclas, Paludina, 
 
 Planorbis and Tellina) 10 
 
 Clay 1 2 
 
 Brown sand and layers of clay {Planorbis 
 
 and Cyclas 4 
 
 The fresh water species are peculiar to this locality, 
 and the only marine shell is Tellina Granlandica, a species 
 now found farther up in our estuaries than most others. 
 
 Mr. Dickson informs me that a similar case occurs near 
 Clarenceville, about four miles from the United States 
 frontier, and at an elevation of about ten feet above lake 
 Champlain. Specimens from this place contain large 
 shells of 1/7110 rectus and U ventricosus, the latter with the 
 valves cohering, and a Lymnea. Intimately mixed with 
 these in sandy clay are valves of Tellina Granlandica and 
 Mya arenaria. 
 
 I record these facts, without pledging myself to the 
 conclusion that these deposits really marlc the margins or 
 river estuaries of the old Pleistocene of Canada, though 
 they will certainly bear that interpretation. In farther 
 connection with these facts, and in relation also to the 
 question why marine fossils have not been found west of 
 Kingston, Mr. Dickson informs me that fossil capelin are 
 
THE SUCCESSION OP DEPOSITS. 59 
 
 found on the Chaudifere lake, 183 feet above lake St. 
 Peters, on the Madawaska 206 feet, and at Fort Coulonge 
 lake 365 feet above the same level, a very interesting 
 indication of the gradual recession of the capelin spawn- 
 ing grounds from this last high elevation to the levelof 
 the more celebrated locality of these fossils at Green's 
 creek. Farther, throughout the counties of Eenfrew, 
 Lanark, Carleton and Leeds, the marine deposits rise to an 
 elevation of 425 feet, or nearly the same with one of the 
 terraces on Montreal mountain; but while this eleva- 
 tion would, with the present levels of the country, carry 
 a deep sea to the head of lake Ontario, no marine fossils 
 appear to have been found on the banks of that lake. 
 Was the depression of the later Pleistocene period limited 
 to the country east of lake Ontario, or have the marine 
 deposits of the upper St. Lawrence hitherto escaped 
 observation or been removed by denuding agencies ? The 
 question awaits further explanations for a satisfactory 
 answer. 
 
 3. — The Saxicava Sand, and Upper Boulder Deposit. 
 
 When this deposit rests upon the Leda clay, as is not 
 unfrequently the case, the contact may be of either of two 
 kinds. In some instances the surface of the clay has 
 experienced much denudation, being cut into deep 
 trenches, and the sand rests abruptly upon it. In other 
 cases there is a transition from one deposit to the other, 
 the clay becoming sandy and gradually passing upwards 
 into pure sand or fine gravel. In this last case the lower 
 part of the sand at its junction with the clay is often 
 very rich in fossils, showing that after the deposition of 
 the clay a time of quiescence supervened with favourable 
 conditions for the existence of marine animals, before the 
 
60 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 sand was deposited. It is usually, indeed, in this position 
 that the greater part of the shells of our Post-pliocene 
 beds occur ; the Saxieava sand being generally somewhat 
 barren, or containing only a few shallow-water species, 
 while the Leda clay is usually also somewhat scantily 
 supplied with shells, except toward its upper layers. 
 Hence it is somewhat difficult to refer a large part of the 
 shells to either deposit. I have, however, usually 
 regarded the richly fossiliferous deposit as belonging to 
 the Leda clay; and where, as sometimes happens, the 
 clay itself is absent and merely a thin layer rich in 
 fossils separates the Saxieava sand from the boulder-clay, 
 I have regarded this layer as the representative of the 
 Leda clay. Where, on the other hand, the Leda clay is 
 thick and well developed, it admits of sub-division into a 
 lower Leda clay, unfossiliferous or with only shells of Leda 
 glacialis and Macoma Grcenlandica, and an upper Leda 
 clay, usually more sandy and holding a rich boreal fauna 
 identical with that of the northern part of the gulf and 
 river St. Lawrence at present. 
 
 The Saxieava sand, in typical localities, consists of 
 yellow or brownish quartzose sand, derived probably from 
 the waste of the Potsdam sandstone and Laurentian 
 gneiss, and stratified. It often contains layers of gravel, 
 and sometimes is represented altogether by coarse gravels. 
 It is somewhat irregular in its distribution, forming banks 
 and mounds, partly no doubt in consequence of original 
 irregularities of deposit, and partly from subsequent 
 denudation. In some outlying localities it is liable to be 
 confounded with the modern river sands and gravels. 
 Large travelled boulders often occur in it ; but it rarely 
 contains glaciated stones, the stones and pebbles seen in 
 it being usually well rounded. 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 61 
 
 From the nature of the Saxicava sand, it is obvious 
 that it is for the most part a shallow-water deposit, 
 belonging to the period of emergence of the land ; and it 
 must have been originally a marginal and bank deposit, 
 depending much for its distribution on the movement of 
 tides and currents. In some instances, as at C6te des 
 Neiges, near Montreal, and on the terraces on the lower 
 St. Lawrence, it is obviously merely a shore sand and 
 gravel, like that of the modern beach. Ridges of Saxi- 
 cava sand and gra^'el have often been mistaken for 
 moraines of glaciers ; but they can generally be distin- 
 guished by their stratified character and the occasional 
 presence of animal remains, as well as by the water-worn 
 rather than glaciated appearance of their stones and 
 pebbles. In this connection, however, it must be observed 
 that it is not possible to distinguish the high-level beaches 
 and deposits of superficial travelled boulders from the 
 Saxicava sand. In other words, while the Saxicava sands 
 and gravels may he shallow-water deposits, they must, when 
 at high levels, have leen for vied on the margins of deep seas. 
 This is a most important "^fact in connection with the 
 upper or later boulder deposit. 
 
 The Saxicava sand sometimes rests on the Leda clay or 
 boulder-clay, and sometimes directly on the rock, and the 
 latter is often striated below this deposit ; but in this 
 case there is generally reason to believe that boulder-clay 
 has been removed by denudation. It is to be observed, how- 
 ever, that the typical Saxicava sand and the upper or newer 
 boulder-drift belong to the same period of submergence. 
 
 4. — Terraces and Inland Sea Cliffs, and Kaims. 
 
 These are closely connected with the deposits last 
 mentioned, inasmuch as they have been formed by the 
 
62 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 \J.rM 
 
 same recession of the sea which 
 produced the Saxicava sand. At 
 Montreal, where the isolated mass 
 of trap flanked with lower Silurian 
 beds, constituting Mount Eoyal, 
 forms a great tide-gauge for the 
 recession of the Post-pliocene sea, 
 there are four principal sea margins, 
 with several others less distinctly 
 marked. The lowest of these, at a 
 level of about 120 feet above the 
 level of the sea at lake St. Peter, 
 may be considered to correspond 
 with the general level of the great 
 plain of Leda clay in this part of 
 Canada. On this terrace in many 
 places the Saxicava sand forms the 
 surface, and the Leda and boulder- 
 clay may be seen beneath it. This 
 may be called at Montreal the Sher- 
 brooke Street terrace. Another, the 
 Water-work terrace, is about 220 
 feet high, and is marked by an 
 indentation on the lower Silurian 
 limestone. At this level some 
 boulder-clay appears, and in places 
 the calcareous shales are decom- 
 posed to a great depth, evidencing 
 long sub-aerial action. Three other 
 terraces occur at heights of 386, 
 440, and 470 feet, and the latter 
 has, at one place above the village 
 of Cote des Neiges, a beach of sand 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 63 
 
 and gravel with Saxicava and other shells;* while, in a 
 depression above this, at a height of 550 feet, sea-shells 
 occur in clay and sand, and there is a distinct beach at 
 about 615 to 625 feet.f Even on the top of the Mountain, 
 at a height of about 700 feet, large travelled Laurentian 
 boulders occur, lying loose and without any boulder-clay. 
 On the lower St. Lawrence, below Quebec, the series of 
 terraces is generally very distinctly marked, and for the 
 most part the lower ones are cut into the boulder and 
 Leda clays, which are here of great thickness. I give 
 below rough measurements of the series as they occur at 
 Les Eboulements, Little Mai bay and Murray bay, where 
 they are very well displayed. I may remark in general, 
 with respect to these terraces, that the physical conditions 
 at the time when they were cut must have been much 
 the same with those which exist at present, the appear- 
 ances presented being very similar to those which would 
 occur were the present beach to be ele\'ated. 
 
 Comparisons of the older and modern terraces may be 
 made at many places on the lower St. Lawrence. At 
 Little Metis, where I have had good opportunities of 
 studying their appearances, the coast is fringed with a 
 broad belt of boulders, wholly covered at high tide, but 
 exposed at low tide, and occupying in many places a 
 breadth of thirty to fifty paces, within which the boulders 
 are packed very closely. They vary in size from nine to 
 ten feet in diameter downward, and consist principally of 
 orthoclase gneiss, Labradorite rock and other crystalline 
 xocks from the Laurentian of the north shore, here about 
 thirty-five miles distant at the nearest point. With 
 
 * The beach at C3te des Neiges is that described by Sir C. Lyell 
 in his travels in N. America. 
 
 t Dr. F. D. Adams and Baron de Geer. 
 
64 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 these are masses of the hard sandstones of the lower 
 Silurian rock of the south coast, and occasionally, though 
 rarely, blocks of the upper Silurian limestone of the 
 inland hills to the south. 
 
 The boulders of this belt, though stationary in summer, 
 are often moved by the coast-ice in winter. This is well 
 seen where they have been removed to form tracks 
 for launching boats. In this case it is not unusual 
 to find in the spring that such tracks have been partially 
 refilled with boulders. On my own property, a track of 
 this kind was completely blocked a few years ago by an 
 angular boulder of sandstone nine feet in length, which 
 had been lifted from a spot a few feet distant ; and it is 
 quite usual to find in a boat-track, cleared in the previous 
 summer, a dozen boulders of two feet or more in diameter 
 that have been dropped in it by the winter ice. Whether 
 any of these blocks are being drifted at the present time 
 from the north shore is not known ; but they are moved 
 freely up and down the coast, and in dredging in depths 
 of eight to fifteen fathoms, I have found evidence that 
 large boulders are not uncommon on the bottom ; and 
 judging from the small specimens taken up by the dredge, 
 they are similar to those on the shore, though apparently 
 with a larger proportion of fiat, slaty fragments. 
 
 If the coast were now in process of subsidence, there 
 can be no question that the boulders would be pushed 
 upward, and would eventually form sheets and ridges of 
 boulders embedded in mud, much in the manner of the 
 marine boulder-clays now found inland. 
 
 Above high water, on certain portions of the coast, 
 there is a low terrace, only a few feet above the sea, and 
 consisting of sand, shingle, and gra^'el, often with frag- 
 ments of marine shells. Boulders are not numerous on 
 
THE SUCCESSION OP DEPOSITS. 65 
 
 this terrace, and are usually merely fragments from ledges 
 of local sandstone. Bones of large whales occasionally 
 occur on this terrace. 
 
 Proceeding inland, we find a second terrace about 
 thirty feet above the sea, and consisting of sand, resting 
 on hard bo\ilder-clay or till. This last, at different places 
 along the coast, is seen to vary in quality, being some- 
 times hard and loaded with boulders, in other cases a clay 
 with marine shells, and again a clay with few boulders 
 except at its junction with the sand above. On the inner 
 side of this terrace, where it adjoins the rocky ledges 
 inland, there is often a raised boulder-beach like that on 
 the present shore, but with fewer and smaller boulders, as 
 if the transporting power had been less than at present, 
 and possibly the time of its action more limited. But 
 still higher, on rocky ledges and gTavel terraces, rising to 
 the height of fifty to sixty feet, there are large Laurentian 
 boulders, often forming inland boulder-beaches like that 
 of the shore, and such inland beaches are found up to at 
 least 400 feet. There are also a few upper Silurian 
 boulders from the south, which become more numerous 
 and larger further inland. In some places these Silurian 
 limestone boulders are sufficiently numerous to afford the 
 material for the supply of lime-kilns providing for local 
 requirements. In some localities they would seem to be 
 the deposits of glaciers descending from the hills to the 
 south, but in others they would appear to ha^■e been 
 water-borne. 
 
 The exposed ridges of rock on the second terrace and 
 on the beach are sometimes polished with ice action, and 
 show the normal N.E. and S.W. striation. I had no 
 opportunity to observe the condition of the rock-surface 
 under the boulder-clay. On the greater part of the 
 
66 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 sixty-feet terrace, the rock-surfaces are rough, and yet 
 large boulders often rest directly upon them. 
 
 The till or hard boulder-clay of this coast would be 
 claimed by some glacialists as glacier work ; but there 
 can be no doubt that these clays locally contain marine 
 shells, and there is therefore no need of invoking land-ice 
 for their deposition. In this respect they agree with the 
 drift-deposits of the lower St. Lawrence generally, except 
 in the case of certain lateral valleys which seem to have 
 been occupied with local glaciers descending from the 
 Laurentian highlands. 
 
 TEREACBS, NORTH SHORE OF LOWER ST. LAWRENCE. 
 Heights in Englinh feet, roughly taken with Locke's level and aneroid. 
 
 Les 
 Eboltlements. 
 
 Petite Mal Bay. 
 
 900 
 660 
 479 
 
 325 
 226 
 
 116 
 
 22 
 
 748 
 505 
 
 318 
 239 
 
 145 
 
 26 
 
 Murray Bay. 
 W. Side. 
 
 892 
 
 
 ', — 
 
 — 
 
 .448 .. 
 
 345 
 
 .378 .. 
 
 
 .312 .. 
 
 
 
 . 281 . 
 
 136 
 
 . 139 . 
 
 
 . 116 . 
 
 50 
 
 . 81 . 
 
 32 
 
 . 30 . 
 
 E. Side. 
 
 455 
 346 
 
 259 
 
 127 
 73 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Another series of levels taken by Mr. W. B. Dawson, 
 along the road to Petit lac and beyond, gives the following 
 heights : 
 
 Hill south of Petit lac, with drift and boulders at this 
 
 level 1374 
 
 Drift ridge east of lake 810 
 
 Water level, Petit lac ; appears to discharge over 
 
 drift ridge or moraine 728 
 
 Clay, capped with 10 feet sand 589 
 
 Clay terrace 241 
 
 " " bank Murray Bay river 73 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 67 
 
 With reference to the differences in the above heights, 
 it is to be observed that the terraces themselves slope 
 somewhat, and are uneven, and that the principal terraces 
 are sometimes complicated by minor ones dividing them 
 into little steps. It is thus somewhat difficult to obtain 
 accurate measurements. There seems, however, to be a 
 general agreement of these terraces, and this I have no 
 doubt will be found to prevail very extensively through- 
 out the lower St. Lawrence. It will be seen that three of 
 the principal terraces at Montreal correspond with three 
 of those at Murray bay; and the following facts as to 
 other parts of Canada, gleaned from the Eeports of the 
 Survey and from my own observations, will serve farther 
 to illustrate this : 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Kemptville, sand and littoral shells 250 
 
 Winchester, " " " 300 
 
 Kenyon, " " " 270 
 
 Lockiel, " " " 264 & 290 
 
 Hobbes' Falls, Fitzroy, sand and littoral shells 350 
 
 Durham Mills, De L'Isle, " " " 289 
 
 Upton ■. . . 257 
 
 The evidence of sea action on many of these beaches, 
 and the accumulation of shells on others, point to a some- 
 what long residence of the sea at several of the levels, 
 and to the intermittent elevation of the land. On the 
 wider terraces, at several levels it is usual to see a deposit 
 of sand and gravel corresponding to the Saxicava sand. 
 One of the most important terraces throughout the lower 
 St. Lawrence is that between 500 and 600 feet, which 
 seems to correspond with the time of deposition of the 
 principal bed of fossiliferous Leda clay. Corresponding 
 to the terraces on rising grounds are the " boars' backs," 
 kaims or eskers stretching along flat lands between pro- 
 
68 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 jecting hills, and following old lines of coast. These are 
 evidently of the nature of modern gravel and shingle 
 banks, and are distinguished from moraines and ice-shove 
 deposits by their water-worn and sorted material. 
 
 On the lower St. Lawrence I have observed marine 
 shells on the terraces up to about 600 feet above the level 
 of the sea, hut they will probably be found by diligent 
 search at higher levels. In the arctic region. Captain 
 Fielden (Journal of Geol. Society of London, Vol. XXXIV., 
 1878, p. 566) reports Pleistocene shells, viz., Pecten 
 Islandicus, Astarte horealis, Mya truncata and Saxicava 
 rugosa, at the height of 1,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 "With the terraces and elevated banks must be associated 
 the later boulder-drift, which has distributed travelled 
 stones and boulders through and over the Saxicava sand 
 and the moraines of older local glaciers, and has deposited 
 them at high levels on hills and mountains far inland. 
 The assignment of such loose boulders to their precise 
 date is,, however, often extremely difficult, a fact which 
 may be well seen from a study of the data accumulated by 
 the boulder committee of the Geological Society of Scot- 
 land, under the presidency of my friend, Mr. David Milne 
 Home. Neglecting altogether for the present boulders 
 not far removed from their native sites, some of the far- 
 travelled boulders at high levels may have been left as 
 residue of the denudation of the more elevated sheets or 
 patches of boulder-clay. Others may belong to the 
 driftage of the margins and banks of the mid-glacial 
 depression of the Leda clay, but these can scarcely have 
 reached higher levels than about 600 feet. Others still 
 may have been carried by ice in that short-lived depression 
 of very great magnitude which seems to have immediately 
 
THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 69 
 
 preceded the re-elevation of the Saxicava sand,* and it is 
 even possible that some may have been placed in their 
 present positions in the post-glacial subsidence, of which 
 there is evidence on both sides of the Atlantic. Some 
 belong to lake margins of post-glacial date. Thus no 
 general statement can safely be made respecting these 
 erratics, but each group or belt must be studied with 
 reference to its local associations and the source of the 
 material, as well as with reference to the probable stage 
 in the various continental subsidences and elevations to 
 
 Fig, 3.— Terraces at L'Anse A. Loup, near Tadousac. Lower terrace, clay ; upper, sand. 
 
 which it belongs. The assumption that oil loidder-drift 
 may helong to one period is a fertile source of error, and 
 though many important observations on the subject have 
 been made by Spencer, Dr. G. M. Dawson, Chalmers and 
 others, there is an almost unlimited field for detailed work 
 in this direction. 
 
 A still farther complication arises here from the pro- 
 bability of differential elevation, whereby the. relative 
 levels have been changed in different parts of the Pleisto- 
 
 * McGee refers to this in connection with the "Columbia" deposits 
 of the Appalachians. 
 
70 THE ICE AGE OF CANADA. 
 
 cene, as illustrated by Dr. G-. M. Dawson in his Memoirs 
 on British Columbia, by Mr. Chalmers on the lower St. 
 Lawrence, by Upham, Gilbert and Spencer in the lake 
 regions, and by De Geer in Sweden. To Spencer we 
 are indebted for a great mass of valuable observations on 
 the lake margins of the Canadian lakes and the questions 
 of the origin of the lakes and the primitive course of the 
 St. Lawrence river anterior to the Pleistocene age, as well 
 as to the former greater extension of the lakes and the 
 differential elevation by which they have been affected.* 
 
 * Canadian Naturalist, 1882. Trans. R.S. Canada, 1889. See also 
 Warren Upham's Appendix to Wright's Ice Age and McGee's Seventh 
 Report Am. Geol. Survey, p. 6.39. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 I. — General Conditions. 
 
 It is, I think, universally admitted that the later 
 Pliocene age, immediately preceding that of the boulder- 
 clay, was a period of elevation of the continents in the 
 northern hemisphere, the "first continental period" of 
 Lyell. The evidences of this are to be found in every 
 text-book of geology, and in Canada I may refer to the 
 excavation of the Saguenay valley, as explained by me 
 
 \^^^^ 
 
 Fig. 4. — Valley of Lowev Saguenay— Old glacier bed. 
 
 in my notes of 1872, referred to below, and to the similar 
 evidence accumulated by Dr. G. M. Dawson regarding the 
 cafions of British Columbia.* It has also been conclu- 
 
 * See also Uphara, Geol. Magazine, Nov., 1890, and Bui. Geol. 
 Society Am., Vol. I.; Spencer, lb., May, 1890; and Journal Geol. 
 Society, Nov., 1890. 
 
72 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 sively shown by several geologists* that in this period 
 the valleys of the great American lakes were excavated, 
 and that the ancient St. Lawrence flowed without any 
 lakes to the sea. The present great lakes are partly 
 dammed up by glacial deposits, and partly produced by 
 warping or differential elevation. It may now be con- 
 sidered as fully established that the great American lakes 
 are not the result of -glacial action, but that they are old 
 river valleys excavated in periods of continental elevation, 
 and now dammed up by accumulations of deh'is and by 
 differential elevation occurring in the Pleistocene period. 
 In the great depression of that period, they spread 
 far more widely than at present, as indicated by the 
 old terraces around them, some of which, according to 
 Spencer, are 1,700 feet above the present water level, and 
 may indicate a period when the whole American land was 
 much lower than at present. (See Spencer, Journal 
 Geol. Society, Vol. XLVI., 1890.) Further, Dr. G. M. 
 Dawson -f- has shown that in this and previous periods of 
 continental elevation the great fiords and cafions of 
 British Columbia were cut out, and quite recently 
 Pettersen has ably applied the same explanation to the 
 fiords of Norway. The latter says : " I have, therefore, 
 after the most careful researches here, yard by yard, and 
 extending o^-er many years, come to the conclusion that 
 the Balsfjord is not of glacial origin, hid formed an incision 
 or depression in the mountains of older origin than the 
 glacial age. And this conclusion, I believe, may, in the 
 main, apply to the question of the formation of all fjords in 
 
 * Newberry, Hunt, Spencer. 
 
 t Superficial Geology of British Columbia, 1878. Later Physio- 
 graphical Geology of the Rocky Mountains of Canada, Trans. R.S.C., 
 1890. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 73 
 
 the north of Norway. But whether it is applicable to all 
 fjords in the whole of Norway I shall not attempt to 
 answer." * 
 
 I have, in my Pleistocene notes of 1872, taken the 
 
 Fig. 5. — Higher cliffs of Sagnenay gorge. — Cape Etemity. 
 
 valley of the Saguenay as a typical illustration, and have 
 shown that along an old fracture of the Laurentian rocks 
 
 * Nature, June, 1885. 
 
74 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 fluvatile denudation in Pliocene and pre-Pliocene times 
 has cut a trench to a depth of 800 feet below the present 
 water level of the St. Lawrence, and that the glacial 
 action of the Pleistocene has polished and grooved its sides 
 and probably its bottom, and piled up debris at its mouth.* 
 I need hardly say, after the discussions on the subject, 
 that the reference of the cutting of lake basins and fiords 
 to glaciers in the ice age, against which I have argued 
 ever since 1866, has been altogether exploded. 
 
 (1) This being admitted, and also the fact established, 
 by the most convincing evidence, of the great depression 
 of our continents in the glacial or Pleistocene age, it 
 follows that the first or oldest of the Pleistocene deposits, 
 the till or boulder-clay, was laid down during a time of 
 subsidence, in which the northern land was slowly sinking 
 under the sea. We leave untouched at present the mode 
 of deposition of boulder-clay and of polishing and stria- 
 tion of rock-surfaces under it, merely noting that the 
 boulder-clay proper is confined to the plains and valleys, 
 where it often contains marine remains. The hills show 
 evidence of glacier-movement down their valleys, and 
 of the formation of moraines, and sometimes of patches 
 of an indurated ground moraine or hard till, different 
 from ordinary boulder-clay. 
 
 (2) The formation of the Leda clay and interglacial 
 deposits, and of the similar deposits on the western 
 plains, belongs to the time when this region had subsided 
 beneath the waters, with tracts and islands of higher 
 lands projecting. The differential character of this eleva- 
 tion, whereby certain parts of the then submerged areas 
 stood higher than others, will be mentioned later. 
 
 * Notes on Pleistocene of Canada, 1872. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 75 
 
 At this period the valley of the St. Lawrence and the 
 eastern coast, as far west as lake Champlain and the east 
 end of lake Ontario, as well as the borders of the arctic 
 basin and of the Pacific, were under the waters of the 
 ocean and inhabited by a rich boreal fauna, nearly all the 
 species of which, in its eastern development, I have 
 myself dredged alive in the waters of the estuary of the 
 St. Lawrence. On the other hand, the western plains 
 were covered with waters which have not afforded marine 
 animals in their deposits, but hold remains of land plants. 
 Farther,- these land plants were of species not arctic, but 
 merely boreal or north temperate,* while the proper 
 arctic flora must have been still farther north. 
 
 (3) This mid-glacial period was followed by the second 
 boulder-deposit, in which still farther subsidence occurred, 
 and boulders were carried by floating ice to the summit 
 of the higher hills in eastern Canada and New England, 
 up to the height of 4,200 feet, and in the Rocky Moun- 
 tains even to the great elevation of 5,289 feet.f This 
 second period of boulder-drift and its deposits must not 
 be confounded with the earlier till. 
 
 (4) From this depression the continent arose gradually 
 or by intermittent throes, leaving the terraces of the hills 
 and the sand and gravel beds (Saxicava sand) of the 
 plains as evidences of the recession of the waters. This 
 elevation proceeded so far as to inaugurate the second 
 continental period, when the land was more extensive 
 than at present, and a southern fauna penetrated far 
 north along our coasts, while great mammals, now extinct, 
 overspread the land. Since that time there have been 
 
 * See Chapter V. 
 
 t G. M. Dawson, Report on Superficial Deposit, Bow river, 1884. 
 
76 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 cataclymic oscillations of level and a partial subsidence, 
 which is apparently still in progress.* 
 
 For the evidence of this history I may refer to the 
 papers cited in the notes, f where abundant facts will be 
 found relating more especially to Canada, and, so far as 
 my reading extends, they will be found applicable, with 
 certain modifications of details, to other parts of the 
 northern hemisphere. 
 
 In closing this section, I desire to refer to the map 
 (Fig. 6, B.) of the geography of North America in the 
 early Pleistocene, the height of the glacial period. At 
 this time I believe the northern half of North America 
 consisted of three large and mountainous islands, clad for 
 the most part with neve and glaciers, and surrounded by 
 ice-laden seas and straits. The conditions, it will be seen 
 at a glance, were most favourable to refrigeration, by 
 accumulation of floating ice in temperate latitudes, while 
 the arctic climate may have been little more severe than 
 at present, and the extreme opposite of those which 
 existed in the warm period of the early tertiary, when 
 the northern end of the continent was closed against the 
 arctic currents, and when the interior continental plateau 
 constituted a northern extension of the warm waters of 
 the gulf of Mexico. This map implies differential de- 
 pression of the western plains as compared with the 
 mountains, and of the northern as compared with the 
 southern portions of North America, and an opening for 
 
 * According to Merrill and Lendenkehl (American Journal Science, 
 June, 1891), alternate depression to the amount of 150 feet and eleva- 
 tion to the amount of 400 feet have occurred in the valley of the 
 Hudson river since the glacial period. See also Acadian Geology, 
 article "Submarine Forests." 
 
 + Also notes on Canadian Pleistocene, 1872; Acadian Geology, 1878. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS 
 
78 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the equatorial current between North and South America, 
 all of which suppositions are substantiated by known 
 geological facts, more especially the occurrence of Pleisto- 
 cene fossils at high levels, and of the same species of 
 modern shells on the Atlantic and Pacific shores. Follow- 
 ing the example of those geologists of the United States 
 who are in the habit of giving a factitious reality to their 
 palseogeographical views, by attaching names to extinct 
 lakes, etc., we may name some of the more prominent 
 features of our map after eminent living advocates of 
 extreme glacial views, whose personal merit and ability, I 
 am prepared to admit, are in the inverse proportion to 
 the probability of their theoretical views. The great 
 southern bay, at the bottom of which lies the " terminal 
 moraine," may bear the name of Dana. The strait 
 leading to the north-east, where the St. Lawrence now 
 flows, may be Upham strait. The great western opening 
 may well be called Chamberlain sound, and the northern 
 bay, filled with ice in the region now occupied by 
 Hudson's bay, may be the gulf of Wright. The greater 
 islands will be respectively Cordilleran and Laurentide 
 lands, fit companions of Greenland; and the smaller 
 eastern island, Appalachia Infelix. Thus will be com- 
 pleted the rough general outline of one map of America 
 in the age of the boulder-clay. Eespecting Dana bay 
 and Wright bay on the map, it is evident that the 
 heavy ice-fields borne down by the arctic current and 
 north-west gales, and the bergs derived from the moun- 
 tain glaciers, would choke them with continuous masses of 
 ice of enormous width, the pressure of which would pile 
 up heaps of broken ice full of stones and earth on their 
 shores, and would exert a mechanical force much greater 
 than that of ordinary glaciers, so that morainic accumula- 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 79 
 
 tions of great magnitude would be produced of the same 
 general nature with those of the Missouri coteau. These, 
 of course, now constitute the great " terminal moraine " * 
 which has been so carefully traced by the geologists of 
 the United States. 
 
 Comparing a map of America in the Pleistocene with 
 that of the same region in the later Cretaceous and early 
 Eocene, it will be at once seen how, in the one case, the 
 arctic conditions must have been transferred to temperate 
 regions, and how, in the other, temperate conditions must 
 have been carried north to Greenland. 
 
 It may be well here to notice shortly the contention 
 often made that the weight of the ice upon the parts of the 
 continents loaded with it must have been itself a cause of 
 the Pleistocene depression. No one has, I believe, con- 
 tended more strenuously than the writer, in connection 
 both with the carboniferous deposits and those of the 
 deltas of great rivers,f in favour of the instability of the 
 crust of the earth when loaded with great weights or 
 when these are removed ; but it must be observed that 
 such weights are usually due to the deposition of sediment 
 in the sea. The effect of accumulations of ice on high 
 lands is less certainly known. If, however, we imagine 
 that the continental period of the later Pliocene was 
 closed by a differential depression, submerging the plains 
 and leaving the mountains elevated, the resulting geogra- 
 phical conditions would be favourable to accumulation of 
 
 * I need scarcely say that the reference of this terminal moraine to 
 a land glacier is absurd on physical grounds ; and there is no modern 
 example of such a thing, as even the Greenland nev^ discharges by 
 local glaciers. 
 
 t "Acadian Geology,'' "Modern Science in Bible Lands," Presi- 
 dential Address to Brit. Association, 1886. 
 
80 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 snow and ice on the latter. But if the pressure of such 
 snow and ice was sufficient to depress the hills, it must 
 necessarily at the same time elevate the plains, and this 
 change,- by diminishing evaporation and by increasing 
 continental warmth, would at once cause the ice-caps to 
 melt away. Thus subsidence produced by accumulations 
 of ice would at once accomplish the destruction of such 
 accumulations, while it would remove the high lands 
 necessary to account for any extensive movement of 
 glacial ice. In other words, as elsewhere urged in this 
 volume, the facts of dynamical geology and physical 
 geography are fatal to hypotheses of polar ice-caps and 
 continental ice-sheets, and if one were to admit all that 
 has been alleged in reference to depression of land by 
 pressure of ice, these difficulties would not be removed in 
 the slightest degree. 
 
 //. — Causes of Glaciation and Distribution 
 of Erratics. 
 
 We now come to consider the probable causes of 
 glaciation and boulder-deposits, and first the agency of 
 " continental " and local glaciers. 
 
 1.— GLACIER ACTION, ETC. 
 
 1. With respect to the agency of land ice, I have no 
 hesitation in saying that, as I have maintained for thirty 
 years, a sheet of ice covering the wide surface of the 
 American continent, and piling up a " moraine " such as 
 that which extends from the northern end of the Missouri 
 coteau and south of the great lakes to the Atlantic coast, 
 is a physical impossibility. It is so, first, because the 
 only possible gathering-ground of sufficient snow to form 
 glaciers is on high lands sufficiently cold and sufficiently 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 81 
 
 near to the ocean to receive and condense its burden of 
 watery vapour. This is the cause of the present state of 
 Greenland, and similar conditions would account for that 
 great Cordilleran glacier which Dr. G. M. Dawson has 
 shown existed in Pleistocene times on the mountains of 
 British Columbia, and for the Laurentide glacier or local 
 glaciers which it is known existed on the Laurentian* 
 highlands of Canada and even on the extension of the 
 Appalachian mountains in eastern Canada.f On this 
 subject I may quote here the conclusions of the well- 
 known Eussian geographer. Von Woeickoff,+ as summarized 
 in a partial translation published in the " Canadian 
 Naturalist " in 1882. I ought perhaps to apologize for 
 repeating here common and even trite conclusions of 
 physical geography ; but my excuse must be the neglect 
 with which they have been treated by so many geologists, 
 and the extent to which theories altogether at variance 
 with them have been promulgated. 
 
 I may say at the outset that I fully agree with the 
 views as to the motion of glaciers contained in the sub- 
 joined extract : 
 
 " The fuller consideration of the physical properties of 
 glacier ice leads to essentially the same conclusions as 
 those to which Forbes was led forty-one years ago, by the 
 study of the larger phenomena of glacier motion, that is, 
 that the motion is that of a slightly viscous mass, partly 
 sliding upon its bed, partly shearing upon itself under the 
 
 * Notes on Post-pliocene, 1872. See also a paper by McGee In the 
 the Proo. American Association (Boston, 1880, p. 447), and Dana in 
 American Journal of Science, 1872. 
 
 t Chalmers' Glaciation of N. New Brunswick, etc.. Trans. R.S.C. 
 1886. 
 
 % Geological Society, Berlin, 1881. 
 7 
 
82 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 influence of gravity." (Trotter, in Proc. Eoyal Society of 
 London, XXXVIIL, 107.) 
 
 Woeickoff' s conclusions may be summed up as follows: 
 
 " 1. The great expanse of ocean in the southern hemis- 
 phere is favourable to the deposit of snow and formation 
 of glaciers, by furnishing a great evaporating surface, and 
 at the same time a low general temperature facilitating 
 precipitation. This applies to the antarctic continent, 
 and also permits the formation of glaciers far to the north 
 in New Zealand and in South America. 
 
 "2. On the other hand, the present condition of the 
 northern hemisphere is unfavourable to glaciers, because 
 the sea is so warm that deposition near the coasts is 
 rather as rain than snow up to pretty high latitudes, 
 while the continents are so wide that there is little 
 precipitation in their interior. 
 
 " 3. Thus there aie no glaciers in eastern Siberia, even 
 in the mountains, where the mean temperature is only 15"" 
 to 16° C, and central Asia generally is unfavoui'able to 
 glaciation on account of its dryness, while eastern Asia is 
 acted on by the monsoons. If, therefore, the extent of 
 land in Asia has not materially changed since the Pliocene 
 period, there could not have been great glaciers there 
 since that period. Even the submergence of the great 
 plain of China could not materially affect this result, 
 though it might cause glaciers in the mountains of 
 Japan. 
 
 " 4. To explain the great Pleistocene glaciers, of which 
 traces are found in western Europe, it is necessary to 
 suppose that the temperature was lower, either on account 
 of submergence of the low lands or of diversion of warm 
 currents, or both causes may have operated. A submer- 
 gence connecting the White and Baltic seas would greatly 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 83 
 
 promote the production of snow and ice. But this could 
 not affect the interior of Eussia or of Asia, so long as their 
 plains remained above water. 
 
 " 5. The submergence of the plains must be a necessary- 
 condition of the general glaciation of the higher lands. 
 
 " 6. Astonomical changes do not affect this result. 
 With a great eccentricity of the orbit and the winter in 
 aphelion the colder winters and hotter summers would 
 produce more powerful monsoons, while on the opposite 
 condition the interior of the continents would have 
 warmer winters and cooler summers and weaker monsoons. 
 In either case the conditions for continental glaciers would 
 not be improved. 
 
 " 7. These considerations show that general coverings of 
 ice stretching from the Pole to perhaps 45° are impossible. 
 Under conditions of submergence of the plains the sea 
 must keep open, in order to afford material for snow on 
 the remaining high lands, and with large continental 
 plains the climate will be too dry for glaciers. Thus 
 there must always be seas free from ice, or continental 
 plains free of ice, and under most supposable conditions 
 there must be both." 
 
 The following comments by the writer accompanied the 
 above abstract in 1882 : 
 
 Applying these very simple geographical truths to the 
 North American continent, it is easy to perceive that no 
 amount of refrigeration could produce a continental 
 glacier, because there could not be sufficient evaporation 
 and precipitation to afford the necessary snow in the 
 interior. The case of Greenland is often referred to, but 
 this is the case of a high mass of cold land with sea 
 mostly open on both sides of it, giving, therefore, the con- 
 ditions most favourable to precipitation of snow. If 
 
84 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Greenland were less elevated, or if there were dry plains 
 around it, the ease would be quite different ; as 'Naves has 
 well shown in the case of Grinnel land, which in the 
 immediate vicinity of Greenland presents very different 
 conditions as to glaciation and climate. 
 
 If the plains were submerged and the arctic current 
 allowed free access to the interior of the continent of 
 America, it is conceivable that the mountainous regions 
 remaining out of the water should be covered with snow 
 and ice, and there is the best evidence that this actually 
 occurred in the glacial period ; but with the plains out of 
 water, there could never have been a sufficiency of snow 
 to cause any general glaciation of the interior. We see 
 evidence of this at the present day in the fact that in 
 unusually cold winters the great precipitation of snow 
 takes place south of Canada, leaving the north compara- 
 tively bare, while as the temperature becomes milder the 
 area of snow deposit moves further to the north. 
 
 The writer has always maintained these conclusions on 
 general geographical grounds, as well as on the evidence 
 afforded by the Pleistocene deposits of Canada, and he 
 continues to regard the supposed evidence of a terminal 
 moraine of the great continental glacier as nothing but 
 the southern limit of the ice-drift of a period of submerg- 
 ence. In such a period the southern margin of an ice- 
 laden sea where its floe-ice and bergs grounded, or where 
 its ice was rapidly melted by warmer water, and where 
 consequently its burden of boulders and other debris was 
 deposited, would necessarily present the aspect of a 
 moraine, which by the long continuance of such conditions 
 might assume gigantic dimensions. Some anomalies in 
 the levels of the so-called terminal moraine are no doubt 
 due to differential elevation. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 85 
 
 By many writers on this subject it is apparently main- 
 tained that in North America a continental glacier 
 extended in temperate latitudes from sea to sea, and this 
 glacier must, in many places at least, have exceeded a 
 mile in thickness. Independently of the physical diffi- 
 culties attending the movement of such a mass without 
 any adequate slope, it is obvious, from the considerations 
 above stated, that the amount of snow necessary to the 
 production of such a glacier could not possibly be obtained. 
 With a depression such as we know to have existed, 
 admitting the arctic currents along the St. Lawrence 
 valley, through gaps in the Laurentian watershed, and 
 down the great plains between the Laurentian areas and 
 the Eocky mountains, we can easily understand the 
 covering of the hills of eastern Canada and New England 
 with ice and snow, and a similar covering of the moun- 
 tains of the west coast ; more especially when we take 
 into account the probability of an elevation of the 
 mountains along with the depression of the plains, and of 
 the southern part of the continent not having been 
 depressed, and so blocking the exit of the ice to the south, 
 along with the escape of the equatorial current through 
 the isthmus of Panama, then submerged. The sea also in 
 this case might be ice-laden and boulder-bearing as far 
 south as 40°, while there might still be low islands far to 
 the north, on which vegetation and animals continued to 
 exist. We should thus have the conditions necessary to 
 explain all the anomalies of the glacial deposits. 
 
 Whatever difficulties may attend such a supposition, 
 they are small compared with those attendant on the 
 belief of a continental glacier, moving without the aid of 
 gravity, and depending for its material on the precipitation 
 taking place on the interior plains of a great continent. 
 
86 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 On the other hand, the evidence of great local glaciers 
 in the Pleistocene period is of the best possible descrip- 
 tion. I may refer here to the indications obtained by 
 Dr. G. M. Dawson of an immense glacier or group of 
 glaciers occupying the Cordillera of British Columbia, and 
 discharging its ice to the north into the Yukon valley, to 
 the south into Puget sound, and to the west into the 
 Pacific. Here, as he has shown, the conditions were 
 combined of a high mountain chain with the Pacific on 
 the west, and the then submerged area of the great plains 
 on the east, affording next to Greenland the grandest 
 gathering-ground for snow and ice that the northern 
 hemisphere has seen. 
 
 The movement of ice fiorth and south from the old 
 gathering-ground of the Laurentian axis has been shown 
 'by the reports of arctic explorers and of the geological 
 survey.* That from the Notre Dame mountains on the 
 south side of the St. Lawrence, as shown by Chalmers,f 
 and the radiation of ice from the central districts of 
 Newfoundland, as described by Kerr and Murray,:!: are 
 other examples. 
 
 Thus the existence of local glaciers on the west and 
 east and on the higher lands facing the north has been 
 established, and this not merely in the later, but in the 
 earlier Pleistocene ; but whatever of increase or diminu- 
 tion they experienced in the course of that period, they 
 could never have become a continental glacier, spreading 
 over the plains, nor could there have been a polar ice-cap, 
 
 * See papers aifd reports already referred to, by Dawson, Bell and 
 others. 
 
 t Trans. R.S.C., 1886. 
 
 J Journal Geol. Society, 1876. Reports and Survey of Newfound- 
 land. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 87 
 
 since the facts obtained by the Canadian survey and the 
 arctic explorers show that these local glaciers discharged 
 ice and bergs both to the north and south. Some of the 
 evidence of this is thus stated by Dr. G. M. Dawson.* 
 
 "Along the arctic coast, and among the islands of the 
 archipelago, there is a considerable volume of evidence to 
 show that the main direction of movement of erratics 
 was northward. Thus, boulders of granite, supposed by 
 Prof. Haughton to be derived from Worth Somerset, are 
 found 100 miles to the north-eastward (Appendix to 
 M'Clintoek's Voyage, p. 374), and pebbles of granite, 
 identical with that of Granite point, also in North 
 Somerset, occur 135 knots to the north-west {op. cit., p. 
 476). The east side of King William Land is also said 
 to be strewn with boulders like the gneiss of Montreal 
 island, to the southward {op. cit., p. 377). Prof. Haughton 
 indicates the direction and distance of travel of some of 
 these fragments by arrows on his geological map of the 
 arctic archipelago, and reverts to the same subject on 
 pages 393, 394, pointing out the general northward move- 
 ment of ice indicated, and referring the carriage of the 
 boulders to floating ice of the glacial period. 
 
 " Near Princess Eoyal island, in Prince of Wales strait, 
 and also on the coast of Prince of Wales island, the 
 copper said to be picked up in large masses by the 
 Esquimaux (DeEance, Nature, Vol. XI., p. 492), may be 
 supposed to be derived from the Cambrian rocks of the 
 Coppermine river region, to the south, as it is scarcely 
 possible that it occurs in place anywhere in the region of 
 horizontal limestone where it is found. 
 
 * Notes on the geology of the northern part of Canada, Geol. 
 Survey of Canada, 1886. 
 
88 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 "Dr. Armstrong, previously quoted, notes the occur- 
 rence of granitic and otlier crystalline rocks, not only on 
 the south shore of Baring island, but also on the hills 
 inland. These, from what is now known of the region, 
 can scarcely be supposed to have come from elsewhere 
 than the continental land to the southward. 
 
 " In an account of the scientific results of the ' Polaris ' 
 expedition (Nature, Vol. IX.), it is stated of the west 
 coast of Smith's sound, north of the Humboldt glacier, 
 that 'wherever the locality was favourable, the land is 
 covered by drift, sometimes containing very characteristic 
 lithological specimens, the identification of which with 
 rocks of South Greenland was a very readily accomplished 
 task. For instance, garnets of unusually large size were 
 found in latitude 81° 3', having marked minerological 
 characters by which the identity with some garnets from 
 Tiskernaes was established. Drawing a conclusion from 
 such observations, it became evident that the main line of 
 the drift, indicating the direction of its motion, runs from 
 south to north.' It should be stated, however, that Dr. 
 Bessels, who accompanied the ' Polaris ' expedition, regards 
 these erratics as certainly not transported by glaciers, 
 but by floating ice, and as showing that the current of 
 Davis' strait was formerly to the north, and not to the 
 south, as at present. (Quoted from Bulletin de la Soc. de 
 Giographie, Paris, March, 1885, in Arctic Manual, p. 553.) 
 
 " It may be mentioned, as bearing on the general ques- 
 tion here referred to, that Dr. Bell has found evidence of 
 a northward or north-eastward movement of glacier ice in 
 the northern part of Hudson bay (Annual Eeport Geol. 
 Survey of Canada, 1885, p. 14, DD),with distinct indications 
 of eastward glaciation throughout Hudson strait. (Report 
 of Progress, Geol. Survey of Canada, 1882-84, p. 36, dd.) 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 89 
 
 " The facts available for this nortliern part of the con- 
 tinent and the Arctic islands thus rather point to a 
 movement of ice outward in all directions from the great 
 Laurentian axis or plateau, which extends from Labrador 
 round the southern extremity of Hudson bay to the 
 Arctic sea, than to any general flow of ice from north to 
 south, from the vicinity of the geographical pole." 
 
 The same writer, in his more recent paper on the 
 Rocky mountains, refers to the facts, that while the 
 Cordilleran glacier discharged to the northward, the 
 McKenzie Eiver valley is shown to present similar 
 phenomena, and that the absence of drift in the northern 
 part of the Yukon district and along the arctic coast as 
 far as the McKenzie river (Dease and Simpson) shows 
 that this region may have been land enjoying a moderate 
 climate at the same early Pleistocene period in which 
 the mountains of British Columbia were covered with ice.* 
 
 The observations of Dr. G. M. Dawson in the Cordil- 
 leran region of British Columbia, already mentioned, are 
 so important in this regard,"!" ^^'^ ^^^ presented in so 
 compact and clear a form, that I may be excused for 
 quoting from his account of the great Cordilleran glacier 
 of the west, which may be regarded as a specimen of 
 those great local glaciers which accumulated in Pleistocene 
 times on all the high mountains near the coasts of the 
 continents, or which were surrounded by submerged 
 plains capable of affording vapours to be precipitated 
 upon their summits. Let it be observed in this connec- 
 tion that the plains east of the Eocky mountains were 
 
 * See also observations of Mr. R. G. McConnell, Bui. Geol. Soc. 
 America, Vol. I., and I. C. Russell, in the same volume. 
 
 t Later Physiographical Geology of the Rooky Mountain Region in 
 Canada, Trans. R.S.C., 1890. 
 
90 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 submerged at this time, otherwise the Cordilleran glacier 
 could -scarcely have existed. 
 
 "The Cordilleran region, in consequence of its high 
 elevation, and probably also in part from other concurrent 
 causes by which the northern hemisphere was affected at 
 the inception of the period of glaciation, appears to have 
 become at this time pre-eminently the condenser of the 
 North Pacific. Precipitation occurred upon it chiefly in 
 the form of snow, which was so much in excess of the 
 influence of the summer heat as to accumulate from year 
 to year. Great glaciers formed in the higher mountains, 
 probably in the first instance among those situated nearest 
 to the coast ; but eventually the greater part of the 
 region became covered and buried either in nivi or 
 beneath glacier-ice. The directions of motion of the 
 glaciers at first produced was doubtless in conformity 
 with that of the valleys of mountain streams ; but at a 
 later date, when the Cordillera became completely buried, 
 a general movement was initiated from a region situated 
 between the fifty-fifth and fifty-ninth parallels of north 
 latitude, in south-easterly and north-westerly bearings.* 
 The Cordillera, in fact, between the forty-eighth and 
 sixty-third parallels — or for a length of about 1,200 
 miles — seems to have assumed an appearance closely 
 analagous to that of Greenland at the present day, save 
 that in consequence of the high bordering mountain 
 ranges, with the general trend of these and of the lower 
 intervening country of the interior plateau, the greater 
 part of the ice was forced in this case to follow its length 
 in the directions above indicated, instead of discharging 
 
 * Such general movement probably affected only the central portion 
 of the ioe-masa by which the Cordillera was covered, and there is no 
 reason to suppose that it was otherwise than sluggish. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 91 
 
 laterally on both sides to the sea. A certain proportion 
 of the ice, however, during the maximum phase of this 
 great glacier, Howed through passes in the coast ranges, 
 and uniting there with ice derived from the western 
 slopes of these ranges, iilled the great valley between 
 Vancouver island and the mainland, impinged upon the 
 shores of the Queen Charlotte islands, and still further 
 north reached the ocean across the coast archipelago of 
 the south-eastern coast-strip of Alaska. 
 
 " Having, from an examination of the notes of various 
 arctic explorers, arrived definitely at the conclusion that 
 the glaciers of the eastern part of the continent possessed 
 a northward as well as a southward direction of motion 
 from their main gathering-ground,* the writer was pleased 
 to be able to avail himself of the opportunity afforded by 
 the Yukon expedition to investigate the conditions of the 
 northern part of the Cordilleran glacier.-f- Evidence was 
 there obtained of its northward or north-westward direc- 
 tion of movement, and this has since been confirmed and 
 added to by observations in surrounding regions by Mr. 
 R. G. McConnell, of the Canadian Geological Survey 
 (1888), and by Mr. I. C. Eussell, of the United States 
 Geological Survey (1889).J On the Lewis and Pelly 
 rivers, branches of the great Yukon, striated rock-sur- 
 faces, evidently due to the general Cordilleran glacier, 
 were noted ; in the case of the first-mentioned river as 
 
 * Annual Report Geol. Surv. Can., 1886, p. 56, b. 
 
 ■|- Chalmers (Am. Geologist, Nov., 1890) very properly proposes the 
 names Cordilleran, Laurentian, &c., "System of Glaciers," to express the 
 fact that like the modern glaciers of the Alps and even of Greenland, 
 a system and not a single glacier is meant. 
 
 + Bulletin Geol. Soo. Am., Vol. I., p. 99. 
 
 § Geological Magazine, Dec. .3, Vol. V., p. 348. Annual Keport 
 Geol. Surv. Can., 1887-88, p. 40, b. 
 
92 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 far north as latitude 61° 40', on the Pelly to latitude 
 62° 30', longitude 135° 45'. The observed bearings show 
 a convergence of direction toward the low country about 
 the confluence of these two rivers, near the site of old fort 
 Selkirk, and it is not improbable that the glaciers may 
 have here reached to the vicinity of the sixty-third 
 parallel on the one hundred and thirty-seventh meridian. 
 No traces of glaciation were observed by Mr. McConnell, 
 still further north, along the Porcupine river, nor by Mr. 
 Eussell further down the main valley of the Yukon,* the 
 appearances there being, on the contrary, those of a 
 country which had long been subjected to subaerial decay, 
 and which had not been passed over either by glaciers 
 or by floating ice capable of bearing erratics. 
 
 " Further illustration of the fact that the extreme 
 north-western part of the continent remained a land- 
 surface upon which no extensive glaciers were developed 
 even during the time of maximum glaciation, is afforded 
 by the note of Messrs. Dease and Simpson as to the 
 entire absence of boulders along the arctic coast westward 
 from the estuary of the Mackenzie river. f 
 
 " Granting that the north-western extremity of the 
 Cordilleran glacier reached the furthest point above 
 assigned to it, we find that its extension, from the central 
 gathering-ground (or from the approximate margin of 
 this gathering-ground already given), was much shorter 
 than that obtained by the south-easterly flowing part, the 
 approximate lengths being 350 and 600 miles respectively. 
 This may be regarded as indicating either a greater 
 relative elevation of this part of the continent to the 
 
 * Bulletin Geol. Soo. Am., p. 140. 
 
 t Narrative of Discoveries on the North Coast of America, 1836-39, 
 p. 149. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 93 
 
 north-westward, or a less copious supply of snow in that 
 direo-tion, the latter being the more probable supposition 
 on account of the absence, which has just been referred 
 to, of traces of glaciation in the extreme north-west. 
 
 " The flooding of the great plains by arctic waters 
 while the Cordillera stood as a much-elevated land 
 between them and the warmer waters of the Pacific, 
 would in itself go far to explain the conditions under 
 which the excessive precipitation required for the pro- 
 duction of the great Cordilleran glacier occurred." 
 
 It would appear that there is no evidence of any 
 extensive flow of ice from the Cordilleran glacier to the 
 eastward, though small local glaciers may have moved 
 down to the submerged plains, which, owing to the 
 prevalent westerly winds, could contribute little to the 
 snow on the mountain ranges. It would also appear 
 that the maximum condensation of the Pacific moisture 
 occurred not more than 200 miles inland from the west 
 coast. At the same time, the submergence of the great 
 plains of the St. Lawrence valley and of the eastern 
 coast would place the Laurentide and Appalachian moun- 
 tains under similar conditions, but not of so extreme 
 magnitude. 
 
 We have thus a perfect geographical picture of extensive 
 local glaciation in the early glacial age, in circumstances 
 most favourable for its existence. Let us not forget, 
 however, that this picture belongs only to one portion of 
 the period. There was in the Cordillera also a mid- 
 glacial period of subsidence of the mountain axis, and a 
 later development of smaller local glaciers, the deposits 
 of which have also been worked out by Dr. G. M. Dawson. 
 
 Two very interesting and important series of observa- 
 tions bearing on the glaciation of the eastern part of 
 
94 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Canada appear in the Eeport of the Geological Survey- 
 published in 1879.* 
 
 Dr. Ells, in his Eeport on the Eastern Townships of 
 the province of Quebec, notes the fact that the glaciation 
 along the western side of the hills of that region, con- 
 stituting an extension of the Appalachian chain, follows 
 the valleys, the striation pointing westward toward the St. 
 Lawrence valley. This is the old glaciation appertaining 
 to the till or boulder-clay, and proves local as opposed to 
 continental glaciation. On the other hand, he states that 
 numerous boulders of Laurentian rock, carried in the 
 opposite direction across the wide and deep St. Lawrence 
 valley, lie on the sides of the hills up to an elevation of 
 1,500 feet. Sea shells are also found, though only at a 
 few localities and not so high. This high-level drift 
 belongs to the second glacial period. Dr. Ells recognizes 
 this, and very properly refers the lower or till deposit to 
 local land glaciers, the newer and higher drift to sub- 
 mergence and floating ice. He also refers to the fact 
 stated in Logan's Geology of Canada, that raised beaches 
 occur at Eipton in the Green mountains at an elevation 
 of 2,196 feet.t 
 
 With these observations of Ells may be placed those of 
 Upham and other American geologists, and more recently 
 of Shaler in Maine, on the other side of the mountain 
 range. In his report on mount Desert, he shows that the 
 movement of ice was, as elsewhere on the New England 
 coast, to the south-eastward, or from the Appalachian 
 range — the converse direction to that found by Ells on 
 the opposite side. Shaler also finds the imderlyiug till, 
 
 * Report for 1887-8. 
 
 t These observations perfectly agree with those of Chalmers and 
 the writer, already mentioned. 
 
X 
 
 PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 95 
 
 the intermediate Leda clay, and the overlying sea-drift, 
 the latter implying, if rightly interpreted by him, a 
 subsidence of at least 1,300 feet.* McGee, in the reports 
 of the same survey ,-f- in describing the so-called " Colum- 
 bian " formation farther south, details facts of similar 
 import ; while in Chamberlain's map, in the same report, 
 the direction of striation leads to the same conclusion, 
 except that on the west side of the Appalachians the 
 arrows are reversed, making the glaciers move up the 
 mountain instead of down. Other citations might be 
 made to show that the geologists of the United States, 
 while still adhering to the hypothesis of a continental 
 glacier with a terminal moraine, stretching half-way 
 across North America, are accumulating facts in accord- 
 ance with the results worked out by Canadian geologists 
 in the Northern Appalachians, in the Laurentides and the 
 Western Cordillera, and which must eventually greatly 
 modify their views. 
 
 In the same report of the Canadian Survey with the 
 observations of Dr. Ells, those of Mr. Low, in his report 
 on James's bay, show that on the east side of the bay the 
 glacial striae indicate a movement of ice to the westward 
 from the high Laurentian land east of the bay. Thus 
 the great V-shaped Laurentian axis, while throwing off 
 ice to the St. Lawrence valley on the south-east, and to 
 the great plains then submerged on the south-west, was 
 also pouring off its ice into the interior basin of Hudson's 
 bay and into the arctic sea. It may, at the period of 
 extreme glaciation, have filled Hudson's bay with ice, and 
 there is evidence of a terminal moraine along the middle 
 of the bay, which may have belonged to the interglacial 
 
 * Report U.S. Geol. Survey, Vol. VIII. 
 t lb., 1885-6. 
 
96 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 period. Mr. Low also finds that the newer stratified 
 gravels belonging to the later period of ice-drift extend 
 to heights of probably 700 feet, indicating the great 
 depression which succeeded the earlier glacial period. 
 
 All these observations, combined with others detailed 
 in different parts of this work, constitute the most 
 complete proof that in Canada the condition of the 
 continent in the more extreme glacial period was one of 
 local glaciers, principally on the greater mountain regions, 
 with submerged plains and sea-drift intervening, and that 
 this was succeeded by a time of partial elevation of the 
 plains and diminution of the height of the mountains, 
 followed by a great and very general submergence, with 
 much ice-drift preceding the second continental or post- 
 glacial period. 
 
 Dr. Otto Torell, Director of the Geological Survey of 
 Sweden, is one of the ablest Scandinavian students of 
 Pleistocene deposits, and has always been an advocate for 
 the theory of land glaciation, in so far as north-western 
 Europe is concerned. He has also had the advantage of 
 visiting portions of North America. I had the pleasure 
 several years ago of guiding him to the best exposures of 
 glacial and drift-deposits near Montreal. After his return 
 from America, he stated his general conclusions respecting 
 our Pleistocene deposits in a short paper published in the 
 Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sweden.* In this 
 he clearly states the conditions necessary to the production 
 of glaciers as follows : 
 
 " 1. Abundance of moisture in the atmosphere. 
 
 " 2. A low temperature, due either to great elevations 
 in low latitudes, or to high latitudes with or without such 
 elevations of land. 
 
 * April, 1877. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 97 
 
 "These conditions insure such accumulations of snow 
 above the line of perpetual frost as will sooner or laier 
 descend below the line of perpetual snow and be changed 
 to ice and water. 
 
 " The water forms glacial rivers, and the ice will move 
 as a plastic mass to a line determined by the amount of 
 snow on the one hand and the climate on the other. 
 
 " The advancing movement of the glacier is accompanied 
 by erosion and scratching of the rocks below and by the 
 formation of different kinds of moraines, as till or blue 
 boulder-clay, and yellow unstratified masses — terminal, 
 lateral and superficial moraines. Simultaneous with these 
 phenomena, we have the action of the glacial rivers, 
 consisting in a partial denudation of the moraines, and 
 the formation of stratified gravel, sand and clay." 
 
 He next explains his own views of the glaciation and 
 dispersion of erratics from Scandinavia as a centre by the 
 movement of glaciers, and applies these to America, 
 admitting, however, that here there must have been 
 separate centres of dispersion in the east and west. He 
 thus states the objections to the current views of American 
 land-glacialists : 
 
 " It has been the opinion of many distinguished Ameri- 
 can geologists that the source of the eastern ice-field is to 
 be searched for in the Canadian highland. Against this 
 opinion several important reasons may be urged. First, 
 in those parts of Canada in which the glaciers in question 
 are supposed to have originated, we have reason to 
 believe that the rocks are rounded and scratched, pheno- 
 mena everywhere recognized as glacial, but, I think, in no 
 case characterizing rocks known to have been covered 
 with perpetual snow. 
 8 
 
98 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 "Again, the elevation and extent of the highest portions 
 of Canada are hardly sufficient to account for the requisite 
 accumulation of snow and ice. And, finally, so far as I 
 have learned, there is not found upon the rocks of the 
 northern slope of Canada, nor in boulders moved by 
 glacial force, any satisfactory evidence that there has 
 been a northward as well as southward movement of 
 glaciers from the highlands of Canada." * 
 
 Eefusing, however, to take into account the Pleistocene 
 depression and the agency of floating ice, he finds himself 
 under the necessity of adopting Greenland as the focus of 
 dispersion and movement of glaciers for north-eastern 
 America. 
 
 '' If, therefore, the phenomena of the northern and 
 eastern United States usually supposed to be glacial are 
 indeed such, and if there is not sufficient reason for 
 assuming the Canadian highlands to have been the source 
 of the glaciers which produced these phenomena, then 
 their source must be found elsewhere. I think it will be 
 conceded by all geologists who have studied the glacial 
 phenomena of these regions, that both the character of 
 the erratics and the direction of the scratches upon the 
 rocks show that this source must lie to the north-east. 
 Following the line of glacial movement across Baffin's bay 
 and Davis' strait into Greenland, we find the largest body 
 of land in the northern hemisphere covered by ice and 
 snow to a depth of not less than 2,000 feet, and at this 
 moment sending down its icebergs as far as the Middle 
 Atlantic. 
 
 "From the sixtieth degree of latitude to above the 
 eightieth, this vast area of land is known to be ice- 
 
 * As already stated, later observations furnish this evidence. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 99 
 
 covered, and from the scarcity of the icebergs on the 
 eastern compared with the western coast of that land, it 
 may be concluded that the general slope of the surface is 
 to the south-west, and in the exact direction of the glacial 
 markings and of what is known to have been the course 
 of transported boulders in north-eastern America. 
 
 " Moreover, if we bear in mind the ascertained fact that 
 during the glacial period the glaciers moving from the 
 heights of Greenland toward the sea could not have 
 formed detached icebergs, as now, but must have for the 
 time blocked up all avenues except the one of easiest 
 escape for the immense accumulation of ice, we may 
 reasonably assume that this avenue was south-westward 
 directly across British America and the north-eastern 
 parts of the United States." 
 
 Probably few even of the more extreme glacialists will 
 think this explanation at all feasible, and Torell himself, 
 if acquainted with the additional facts ascertained in 
 recent years, would probably see that it is unnecessary to 
 go so far for the sources of ice. This will appear clearly 
 when we consider the following leading facts already 
 referred to in preceding pages : 
 
 1. There is no such universal glaciation of higher 
 summits as that supposed. On these summits glaciated 
 surfaces are rare and not strongly marked, and are most 
 distinctly seen in the valleys and plains, to which also 
 the boulder formation and till are for the most part 
 limited. 
 
 2. There are the best reasons to believe that in the 
 Pleistocene period the Laurentian highlands were propor- 
 tionally more elevated than at present. 
 
 3. "We now know with certainty that the prevalent 
 drift on the north side of the Laurentian axis, as well as 
 
100 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 in that of the great Cordilleran range, was to the north- 
 ward, which removes ToreU's most important objection. 
 
 4. The great facts of subsidence to a large extent in 
 the Pleistocene period, the effects of this on climate and 
 the certainty of the most extensive possible action of 
 floating ice, are not referred to in ToreU's theory, and 
 would of themselves remove his objections, more especially 
 when we consider the probability that depression of the 
 plains was accompanied by elevation of the mountains. 
 
 It can scarcely be doubted that had these considera- 
 tions been before the mind of the Swedish geologist, along 
 with the admitted limitation of glaciers to centres in the 
 east and west, his general conclusions would coincide 
 very nearly with those stated in the previous pages with 
 reference to the Cordilleran and Laurentian systems of 
 glaciers and ice-drift over the lower levels. 
 
 It seems recently to have been ascertained that, in 
 Norway, the old beach-lines are highest in the middle of 
 the peninsula of Scandinavia, and descend toward the sea 
 level at the extremities. This would seem to indicate 
 that there, as in America, the older sea terraces belong to 
 the time of the greatest glaciation, and that, if the ice 
 weighed down the land in the manner indicated by these 
 terraces, there could be no height of land maintained to 
 send land-ice over the continent of Europe so far as 
 claimed by Scandinavian glacialists.* 
 
 The results of the investigations of the " Challenger " 
 in the antarctic ocean are of great importance with 
 reference to the formation of marine till and stony clays. 
 The dredge may now indeed be said to have settled this 
 
 * Matthew has referred to this in connection with the Pleistocene 
 of New Brunswick in a paper in the Canadian Naturalist, VIII., 
 p. 116, 1878. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 101 
 
 question by ascertaining the deposition of marine boulder- 
 clay, or at least of a deposit of sand and clay, with 
 fragments of various rocks over areas perhaps as great as 
 those now covered with similar deposits in the northern 
 hemisphere. It is most instructive to find that a bed of 
 this stony mud is in process of deposition from floating 
 ice in the sou.thern ocean, and this with such rapidity, 
 that the foraminifera and other organisms elsewhere 
 forming the deep-sea ooze are quite masked by it, while 
 it is also possible that in some places all traces of these 
 may be dissolved out by carbonic acid. It is further 
 interesting to find such deposition taking place so exten- 
 sively under conditions probably much less favourable 
 than those which prevailed in Europe and America 
 during the great Pleistocene subsidence. 
 
 These facts fully confirm the conclusions stated above 
 with reference to the boulder-clay or tUl of North 
 America, and which I have endeavoured to establish by 
 the nature of the deposits now forming in the areas of 
 ice-drift of the American coast, by the distribution and 
 chemical condition of the boulder-clay itself, and by the 
 occurrence of marine organisms in it. It is to be hoped 
 that in future we shall not have so confident assertion 
 that these remarkable clays are due to the direct action 
 of land ice on the surface of our continents. 
 
 If the bottom of the South Pacific and Antarctic 
 oceans could be elevated into land, we should see the 
 evidence of glacier action on the hills representing the 
 islands now out of water and extending from these a vast 
 area of boulder-clay reaching as far north as our similar 
 records of the Pleistocene submergence spread to the 
 south, and probably holding in many places marine 
 organic remains, though there might be expected to be 
 
102 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 few, both .on account of the conditions of deposit and the 
 solvent action of carbon dioxide in the cold bottom 
 waters of the ocean. The only point wanting to com- 
 plete the analogy would be that embaying and detention 
 of drift-ice shown on our Pleistocene map, and by which 
 the old glacial age was aggravated both in Europe and 
 ITorth America. To produce this would require some 
 differential elevation of the bed of the Pacific toward the 
 northern margin of the present area of ice-drift. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS 
 (Continued). 
 
 II. — Causes of Glaciation nnd Distribution of Erratics — Continued. 
 
 2.— SEA-BORNE ICE. 
 
 2. We now come to the question of dispersion of 
 bonlders and formation of boulder-clay and striated 
 surfaces by floating ice, whether formed on the sea or 
 derived from the ends of glaciers discharging at the level 
 of the sea. Here we may take for granted the great 
 submergence of the North American continent, first in 
 the early glacial period, and subsequently to a still 
 gi'eater extent in the later glacial period, and that this 
 submergence was in the earlier period differential, affecting 
 the plains and not the mountains. 
 
 I shall first quote here a letter received several years 
 ago from my friend, Ur. John Rae, F.RS., a traveller of 
 almost unrivalled arctic experience,* and which shows 
 
 * September, 1882, The same facts are referred to in a paper by 
 Dr. Rae in the Journal of the Physical Society, 1881. 
 
106 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 very clearly what may be effected by floating ice impinging 
 on shores : 
 
 " Having learnt that you took much interest in the 
 transportation of boulders by ice, I venture to mention a 
 peculiar mode in which this is done, which I have not 
 seen noticed elsewhere. 
 
 "When at Eepulse bay in 1846-7, I noticed in the 
 spring that large boulders, some of them more than three 
 feet in diameter, gradually appeared on the surface of the 
 sea-ice near shore, as the ice wasted away by thaw and 
 evaporation. Although I wondered how this was done, I 
 had no opportunity of proving it until wintering at the 
 same place in 1853-4. 
 
 " First let me say that the rise and faU of the tide is 
 from eight to ten feet, sometimes more, and that the ice 
 on Eepulse bay attains a thickness of about eight feet. 
 
 " Suppose, then, that a boulder of a good size, say 3^ 
 feet diameter, is lying on the shore, at, or farther out 
 than low-water mark, in the beginning of winter, when 
 the ice is forming, it comes in contact with the boulder at 
 low water, and the boulder breaks through it ; but when 
 the ice becomes two feet or so thick, the boulder freezes 
 to it, and is lifted with the ice when the tide rises. This 
 continues all winter, the ice increasing in thickness to 
 eight feet, soon encloses the boulder inside of it, and 
 having about four feet of solid ice below. Boulders may 
 thus be carried hundreds of miles. 
 
 " There is another phase in connection with this matter. 
 Supposing boulders are lying in five or six feet of water 
 or less when it is low water, these boulders would get' 
 frozen to the lower surface of the ice, and get set into it 
 as a diamond is set for cutting glass, and would thus be a 
 good graver of any rocks it might pass over." 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 107 
 
 To the same effect is the following by Capt. Fielden : * 
 
 " Sea-ice, moved up and down by tidal action, or driven 
 on shore by gales, was found to be a very potent agent in 
 the glaciation of rocks and pebbles. The work was seen in 
 progress along the shores of the Polar Basin. At the 
 south end of a small island in Blackcliff bay, lat. 82° 30' 
 N"., the bottoms of the hummocks, some eight to fifteen 
 feet thick, were studded with hard limestone pebbles, 
 which, when extracted from the ice, were found to be 
 rounded and scratched on the exposed surface only. 
 
 " On shelving shores, as the tide recedes, the hummocks, 
 sliding over the subjacent material down to a position of 
 rest, make a well-marked and peculiar sound, resulting 
 from the grating of inchtded pebbles, with the rocky floor 
 beneath, or in some cases on other pebbles included in 
 drift overlying the rock." 
 
 Action of this kind now taking place along northern 
 shores must have been carried over all the submerged 
 portions of the continents in the Pleistocene, and affords 
 the only rational mode of accounting for the general 
 striation, not dependant on local glaciers and related to 
 the lines of valleys, but occurring on the surfaces of the 
 plains, and on the summits exposed at various times to 
 the action of ice carried by the northern currents. 
 
 Large boulder of sandstone deposited by modern ice on a sand-bank — 
 Petitcodiac river, New Brunswick. 
 
 * Nares' Arctic Voyage, Vol, II., p. 343, quoted, along with other 
 examples, by Mr. Milne Home. 
 
108 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 I have already, in Chapter II., referred to the modern 
 boulder-belt of the shores of the estuary of the St. 
 Lawrence as seen at Little Metis, and may now adduce it 
 as an example of a pseudo-moraine as well as of detached 
 groups of boulders, produced by the present field-ice in 
 winter, and giving proof of the movement of great 
 boulders by this agency and the piling of them up, at and 
 near the line of low water. The frontispiece shows the 
 appearance of the boulder-belt at Little Metis, and it is 
 to be borne in mind that the greater part of the boulders 
 were originally derived from the Laurentian hills thirty- 
 five miles or more distant to the northward, and that 
 these boulders are moved about from year to year by the 
 ice. Similar facts collected by Capt. Bayfield will be 
 found in Lyell's Principles of Geology. 
 
 I should add here that while the old glacial striae on 
 the rocks at Little Metis run N.K.E., there are on the 
 modern pavements of boulders less pronounced striations 
 running in a similar direction, or about N.E., and which 
 must be produced by the modern field-ice drifting up and 
 down with the tidal currents. 
 
 We are indebted to Prof. H. Y. Hind for a graphic 
 description of the action of sea-ice on the coast of 
 Labrador, in the form known as " Pan Ice." * 
 
 " ' Pan ice ' is derived from bay ice, floes, and coast ice, 
 varying from five to ten or twelve feet in thickness, all of 
 which are broken up during spring storms. When the 
 disruption of the ice-sheet which seals the fiords, the 
 island zone, and the sea itself for many miles outside, 
 continuously, is eiTected in June, the resulting ' pans,' as 
 the fishermen term them, vary in size from a few square 
 
 ♦ Canadian Naluralisfc, Vol. VIII., 1877. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 109 
 
 yards to many acres in extent. The uniform and 
 unbroken mass of ice in the winter months has no lateral 
 motion ; it rises and falls with the tide, but is unaffected 
 by winds until the warmth of spring softens its hold on 
 the islands to which it is keyed. When the pans are 
 pressed on the coast by winds, they accommodate them- 
 selves to all the sinuosities of the shore-line, and being 
 pushed by the unfailing arctic current, which brings down 
 a constant supply of floe ice, the pans rise over all the 
 low-lying parts of the islands, grinding and polishing 
 exposed shores, and rasping those that are steep-to. The 
 pans are shoved over the flat surfaces of the islands, and 
 remove with irresistible force every obstacle which 
 opposes their thrust, for the attacks are constantly 
 renewed by the ceaseless ice-stream from the north-east, 
 and this goes on uninterruptedly for a month or more. 
 Sometimes a change in the wind brings the endless sheet 
 back again, and it is the middle of July before some of 
 the fiords are clear of ice. Hence boulders, shingle, and 
 beaches are rarely seen except in sheltered nooks and 
 coves, and the masses, pushed or torn from those surfaces 
 where cleavage offers a chance of disruption, are urged 
 into the sea and rounded into boulder form by the rasping 
 and polishing pans. 
 
 " But this is not all of the work of pan ice. The bottom 
 of the sea, to the depth of twelve or fifteen feet, and at 
 all less depths, is smoothed and planed by the drifting 
 masses when they pile one on the other, and at depths 
 less than eight feet, when the pans are driven before the 
 wind or carried by the currents. In sailing from Aillik 
 to Nain or to Cape Mugford, the fishermen send a man 
 aloft to look out for ' White Eocks.' These are promin- 
 ences or swells in the general level of the sea-bottom 
 
110 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 among the islands, from which every particle of sea-weed 
 has been removed by pan ice. 
 
 "During a period of subsidence, the blocks of stone, 
 boulders, mud, and sand, pushed to and fro on the shallow 
 sea-bottom by pan ice, ultimately accumulate in hollows 
 and ravines below its action ; and when the debris is 
 pushed into profound submarine valleys, such as exist on 
 the Labrador coast, the mass will resemble boulder-clays, 
 and in a sinking marine area it will accumulate to a 
 great thickness ; in a rising area it would be liable to be 
 remodelled by the action of the waves, except in the case 
 of very deep valleys. There are not many known narrow 
 and profound submarine valleys on the north-eastern 
 coast of Labrador, but those which are known offer 
 precisely the conditions required for the accumulation of 
 boulder-clays or drift by the action of pan ice. 
 
 " The seaward extension of Uksuktak fiord, which lies a 
 little to the south of Hopedale, affords an apt illustration. 
 Commander Maxwell's soundings show a profound sub- 
 marine ravine between clusters of islands for upwards of 
 eight miles, in which the depth reaches 124, 126, 123, 
 106, and 130 fathoms. Between the islands of Matak 
 and Paul, near Nain, the lead shows 71 fathoms. It is 
 evident that the material torn from the surrounding 
 islands by pan ice, and pushed along the bottom of the 
 sea into these profound submarine valleys during a period 
 of general submergence, will be protected from the action 
 of the waves, and the loose blocks and boulders will have 
 a forced arrangement in the mud, as if they had been 
 pushed over a bank, and thus produce the irregular dis- 
 position so frequently seen in boulder-clay deposits. In 
 such narrow and profound valleys as those instanced, the 
 accumulation of boulder-drift probably goes on at the 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. m 
 
 present time, and may continue during a period of eleva- 
 tion, until large portions of the drift are raised above the 
 sea-level and beyond the influence of the waves, which 
 will attack only its sea front. But the agent which gives 
 rise to this heterogeneous mass is pan ice, and the forma- 
 tion of boulder clay is very probably a part of its work 
 over a vast area on the Labrador coast at the present day, 
 throughout the labyrinth of islands which fringe that 
 coast to a depth of 20 miles seawards." 
 
 There can be no doubt, as Dr. G. M. Dawson has pointed 
 out in the case of the western plains and of British 
 Columbia, that the typical boulder-clay spread over the 
 country and filling pre-existing hollows is much more of the 
 nature of the deposits now forming by field, floe, and pan 
 ice under water, than of anything of the nature of the 
 bottom moraine of a glacier. Its material may, however, 
 have been added to and its arrangement affected by the bergs 
 thrown off from the foot of glaciers terminating in the sea. 
 
 An important question arises here as to the means of 
 distinguishing sea from land glaciation. This I believe to 
 be quite possible if careful observations are made. Sea 
 glaciation is always accompanied with much smoothing 
 and polishing, and on very hard rocks the striation is 
 comparatively imperfect, while it is usually not quite 
 uniform in direction and often presents two sets of striae. 
 The action of true land glaciers, especially when thick 
 and moving down considerable slopes, produces deep 
 grooves, as well as striae, on vertical as well as horizontal 
 surfaces, and is more fixed and uniform. The more intense 
 forms of sea glaciation, especially if long continued, may, 
 however, approach very closely to the effects of land ice. 
 
 The action of icebergs is undoubtedly, though not the 
 chief, one of the most important manifestations of ice- 
 
112 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 power ; and while it is quite wrong to designate any 
 theory of glaciation by iloating ice as an " Iceberg theory," 
 these huge ice-islands are not to be neglected in our 
 estimate of factors in the work of transport and planing 
 of surfaces. Their main agency is, of course, in the arctic 
 seas, but their effects are felt as far south as the coast of 
 Newfoundland and the entrance to the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, where alone I have had any opportuity of 
 observing them. 
 
 The snow-clad hills of Greenland send down to the sea 
 great glaciers, which, in the bays and fiords of that 
 inhospitable region, form at their extremities huge cliffs 
 of solid ice, and annually " calve," as the seamen say, 
 or give off a great progeny of ice islands which, slowly 
 drifted to the southward by the arctic current, pass 
 along the American coast, diffusing a cold and bleak 
 atmosphere, until they melt in the warm waters of the 
 Gulf stream. Many of these bergs enter the straits of 
 Belle-Isle, for the arctic current clings closely to the coast, 
 and a part of it seems to be deflected into the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence through this passage, carrying with it many 
 large bergs. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan, late superintendent of the lighthouse at 
 Belle-Isle, has kept a register of icebergs for several years. 
 He states that for ten which enter the straits, fifty drift 
 to the southward, and that most of those which enter 
 pass inward on the north side of the island, drift toward 
 the western end of the straits, and then pass out on the 
 south of the island, so that the straits seem to be merely 
 a sort of eddy in the course of the bergs. The number 
 in the straits varies much in different seasons of the year. 
 The greatest number are seen in spring, especially in May 
 and June ; and toward autumn and in the winter very few 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 113 
 
 remain. Those which remain until autumn are reduced 
 to mere skeletons ; but if they survive until winter, they 
 again grow in dimensions, owing to the accumulation 
 upon them of snow and new ice. Those that I have seen 
 early in July were large and massive in their proportions. 
 The few that remained in September were smaller in size 
 and cut into fantastic and toppling pinnacles. Vaughan 
 records that on the 30th of May, 1858, he counted in the 
 straits of Belle-Isle 496 bergs, the least of them sixty feet 
 in height, some of them half a mile long and two hundred 
 feet high. Only one-eighth of the volume of floating ice 
 appears above water, and many of these great bergs may 
 thus touch the ground in a depth of thirty fathoms or 
 more, so that if we imagine four hundred of them moving 
 up and down under the influence of the current, oscillating 
 slowly with the motion of the sea, and grinding on the 
 rocks and stone-covered bottom at all depths from the 
 centre of the channel, we may form some conception of 
 the effects of these huge polishers of the sea-floor. 
 
 Of the bergs which pass outside of the straits, many 
 gi'ound on the banks off Belle-Isle. Vaughan has seen a 
 hundred large bergs aground at one time on the banks, 
 and they ground on various parts of the banks of New- 
 foundland, and all along the coast of that island. As 
 they are borne by the deep-seated cold current, and are 
 scarcely at all affected by the wind, they move somewhat 
 uniformly in a direction from N.E. to S.W., and when 
 they touch the bottom the striation or grooving which 
 they produce must be in that direction. 
 
 In passing through the straits in July, one sees a great 
 number of bergs. Some are low and fiat-topped with 
 perpendicular sides, others concave or roof-shaped like 
 great tents pitched on the sea; others are rounded 
 
114 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 in outline or rise into towers and pinnacles. Most of 
 them are of a pure dead white, like loaf sugar, shaded 
 with pale bluish green in the great rents and recent 
 fractures. A few of them seem as if they had grounded 
 and then overturned, presenting a flat and scored surface 
 covered with sand and earthy matter. 
 
 Viewed as geological agents, the icebergs are, in the first 
 place, parts of the cosmical arrangements for equalizing 
 temperature, and for dispersing the great accumulations 
 of ice in the arctic regions, which might otherwise 
 unsettle the climatic and even the static equilibrium of 
 our globe, as they are believed by some imaginative 
 physicists and geologists to have done in the so-called 
 glacial period. If the ice-islands in the Atlantic, like 
 lumps of ice in a pitcher of water, chill our climate in 
 spring, they are at the same time agents in preventing a 
 still more serious secular chilling which might result 
 from the growth without limit of the arctic snow and ice. 
 They are also constantly employed in wearing down the 
 arctic land, and aided by the great northern current from 
 Davis's straits, in scattering its debris of stones, boulders 
 and sand over the banks along the American coast. 
 Incidentally to this work, they smooth and level the 
 higher parts of the sea bottom, and mark it with furrows 
 and striae indicative of the direction of their own motion. 
 In this manner multitudes of boulders from Baffin's bay 
 are annually distributed along the bed of the arctic 
 current off the American coast, and are buried in the 
 accumulations of mud which are being laid down on the 
 banks by this current; while in the strait of Belle-Isle 
 the same effects are being produced, on a small scale, 
 which, in the Pleistocene period, were produced in the 
 greater and wider strait then formed by the St. Lawrence 
 
PHYSICAL AND GLIM AT AL CONDITIONS. 115 
 
 valley, and in which the icebergs from the far north were 
 probably reinforced by great numbers of similar masses 
 descending from the Laurentian hills on the north side of 
 that valley, as well as by the field-ice formed along its 
 shores. 
 
 I have referred in Acadian Geology * to the ingenious 
 theory of Darwin as to the transport of boulders from lower 
 to higher levels by floating ice in a subsiding condition of 
 the land.-f- This theory, in my judgment, still affords the 
 only satisfactory explanation of such facts as the trans- 
 ference of slabs of sandstone from the plains of Cumber- 
 land and the St. Mary's river in Nova Scotia to the 
 summits of hills several hundred feet higher than the 
 original seats of the erratics. Facts of this kind are not 
 infrequent throughout Eastern Canada, and are quite 
 inexplicable on any theory of land glaciation. 
 
 As to transport of materials by floating ice, it is almost 
 superfluous to give farther details. A few examples and 
 a few applications to the Pleistocene may be mentioned. 
 We have already seen that extensive boulder-drift is now 
 taking place in the lower St. Lawrence, and that our 
 boulder beaches and pavements almost rival the so-called 
 moraines of the Pleistocene. Even on lake margins the 
 ice produces appearances of the same kind on a small scale. 
 The writer long ago described these in Nova Scotia,| and 
 Spencer has correlated the ancient and modern margins 
 on the larger Canadian lakes. § The removal of large 
 boulders by the ice is a matter of constant occurrence on 
 our shores, and the dredges of the " Challenger " took up 
 
 * Fourth Edition, p. 65. 
 
 t Journal of London Geol. Society, Vol. IV., p. 315. 
 J Acadian Geology. Report on Prince Edward Island. 
 § Bull. Geol. Socy. America, Vol. I. 
 
116 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 boulders from the banks off the American coast, from 
 which I had previously recorded travelled stones taken 
 up by the hooks of fishermen which became fixed on 
 organisms growing on them. Off the ends of the Green- 
 land glaciers in Baffin's bay and elsewhere, such deposits 
 must be proceeding on a gigantic scale. The Eeports of 
 the "Challenger" show, as already stated, that over vast 
 oceanic areas lying to the north of the antarctic continent, 
 deposits of stones and other debris falling from ice are so 
 abundant as to mask the organic accumulations. In like 
 manner immense deposits of submarine inorganic matter 
 are being deposited in the arctic seas in the track of the 
 icebergs and the drift floe-ice. 
 
 If now we turn to the Pleistocene accumulations on the 
 land, I have shown that throughout the valley of the 
 lower St. Lawrence the old till or boulder-clay contains 
 marine shells, and in the overlying deposits, the upper 
 Leda clay and Saxicava sand, these are extremely abun- 
 dant. Both of these deposits contain far-travelled 
 boulders often of great size, and these have been carried 
 to great heights. On Montreal mountain marine shells 
 occur at an elevation of nearly 600 feet, and at a still 
 greater height boulders which have been derived from the 
 Laurentian highlands to the north. On still higher 
 terraces, up to 1,200 feet, from Labrador * to the foot of 
 lake Ontario, there are shore beaches and .boulders, 
 though in the west they have not afforded marine shells. 
 
 To the southward, Upham has found marine shells in 
 the boulder-clay near Boston up to an elevation of 200 
 feet.f It is true this is in Drumlins or detached hills, 
 
 * Richardson. 
 
 t Am. Journal of Science, May, 1889. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 117 
 
 but these are not unlikely undenuded portions of former 
 beds. He also supposes them to have been pushed up 
 from the sea by an ice-sheet, which, however, I am sure, 
 if consulted, would refuse to do him any such service. 
 
 Dr. Bell informs me that drift deposits containing shells 
 occur on the north of the Laurentian axis, facing Hudson's 
 bay, in many localities, and that in one of these they 
 reach to within 133 miles of lake Superior, and are at an 
 elevation of 625 feet, or very nearly that of the lake 
 itself. 
 
 I have already referred to the observations of Dr. G-. M. 
 Dawson with reference to the Missouri coteau, one of the 
 greatest ridges of drift in the world. His description of 
 it merits quotation here, as a remarkable example of an 
 old sea margin.* 
 
 " The great drift-ridge of the Missouri coteau at first 
 sight resembles a gigantic glacier-moraine ; and, marking 
 its course on the map, it might be argued that the nearly 
 parallel line of elevations, of which Turtle mountain forms 
 one, are remnants of a second line of moraine produced as 
 a feebler effort by the retiring ice-sheet. 
 
 " Such a glacier must either have been the southern 
 extension of a polar ice-cap, or derived from the elevated 
 Laurentian region to the east and north ; but I think, in 
 view of the physical features of the country, neither of 
 these theories can be sustained. 
 
 " To reach the country in the vicinity of the forty- 
 ninth parallel a northern ice-sheet' would have to move 
 up the long slope from the Arctic ocean and cross the 
 second transverse watershed; then, after descending to the 
 level of the Saskatchewan valley, again to ascend the 
 
 * Quarterly Journal London Geol. Society, 1875. 
 
118 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 slope (amounting, as has 
 been shown, to over four 
 feet per mile) to the first 
 transverse watershed and 
 plateau of the Lignite 
 Tertiary. Such an ice- 
 sheet, moving through- 
 out on broad plains of 
 soft, unconsolidated Cre- 
 taceous and Tertiary 
 rocks, would be expected 
 to mark the surface with 
 broad flutings parallel to 
 its direction, and to ob- 
 literate the transverse 
 watersheds and valleys. 
 
 " If it be supposed that 
 a huge glacier, resting 
 on the Laurentian axis, 
 spread westward across 
 the plains, the physical 
 difficulties are even more 
 serious. The ice moving 
 southward, after having 
 descended into the Eed- 
 River trough, would have 
 had to ascend the eastern 
 escarpment of soft Cre- 
 taceous rocks forming its 
 western side, which in 
 one place rises over 900 
 feet above it. Having 
 gained the second prairie-steppe, it would have had to 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 119 
 
 pass westward up its sloping surface, surmount the soft 
 edge of the third steppe without much altering its form, 
 and finally terminate over 700 miles from its source, and 
 at a height exceeding the present elevation of the Lauren- 
 tian axis by over 2,000 feet. The distribution of the 
 drift equally negatives either of these theories, which 
 would suppose the passage of an immense glacier across 
 the plains. 
 
 " In attributing the glacial phenomena of the great 
 plain to the action of floating ice, I find myself in accord 
 with Dr. Hector, who has studied a great part of the 
 basin of the Saskatchewan — and also, as far as I can 
 judge from his reports, with Dr. Hayden, who, more than 
 any other geologist, has had the opportunity of becoming 
 familiar with all parts of the Western States. 
 
 " The glaciating agent of the Laurentian plateau in the 
 Lake of the Woods region, however, cannot have been 
 other than glacier ice. The rounding, striation and 
 polishing of the rocks there are glacier work ; and ice- 
 bergs floating, with however steady a current, cannot be 
 supposed to have passed over the higher region of the 
 watershed to the north, and then, following the direction 
 of the striae and gaining ever deeper water, to have borne 
 down on the subjacent rocks. The slope of the axis, 
 however, is too small to account for the spontaneous 
 descent of ordinary glaciers. In a distance of about 30 
 miles, in the vicinity of the Lake of the Woods, the fall 
 of the general surface of the country is only about 3^ feet 
 to the mile. The height of the watershed region north- 
 east of the lake has not been actually measured ; but near 
 Lac Seul, which closely corresponds with the direction 
 required by glaciation, according to Mr. Selwyn's measure- 
 ments, it cannot be over 1,400 feet. The height of land 
 
120 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 in other parts of the Laurentian region is very uniformly 
 between about 1,600 and 1,200 feet. Allowing, then, 
 1,600 feet as a maximum for the region north-east of the 
 Lake of the Woods, and taking into account the height of 
 that lake and the distance, the general slope is not greater 
 than about three feet per mile— an estimate agreeing 
 closely with the last, which is for a smaller area and 
 obtained in a different way. This slope cannot be con- 
 sidered sufficient to impel a glacier over a rocky surface, 
 which Sir William Logan has well characterized as 
 ' niamillated,' unless the glacier be a confluent one pressed 
 outwards mainly by its own weight and mass. 
 
 "Such a glacier, I conceive, must have occupied the 
 Laurentian highlands ; and from its wall-like front were 
 detached the icebergs which strewed the dibris over the 
 then submerged plains, and gave rise to the various 
 monuments of its action now found there. 
 
 " The sea, or a body of water in communication with it, 
 which may have been during the first stages of the 
 depression partly or almost entirely fresh, crept slowly 
 upward and spread westward across the plains, carrying 
 with it icebergs from the east and north. During its 
 progress most of the features of the glacial deposits were 
 impressed. In the section described at Long river, wo 
 find evidence of shallow carrent-deposited banks of local 
 material, afterwards, with deepening water, planed off by 
 heavy ice depositing travelled boulders. 
 
 " The sea reaching the edge of the slope constituting 
 the front of the highest prairie-level, the deposition of the 
 Coteau began, and must have kept pace with the increas- 
 ing depth of the water, and prevented the action of heavy 
 ice on the front of the Tertiary plateau. The water may 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 121 
 
 also have been too much encumbered with ice to allow 
 the formation of heavy waves. 
 
 "The isolated drift highlands of the second plateau, 
 including the Touchwood hills, Moose mountain and 
 Turtle mountain, must also at this time have been formed. 
 With regard to the two former, T do not know whether 
 there is any preglacial nucleus round which drift-bearing 
 icebergs may have gathered. There is no reason to 
 suppose that Turtle mountain had any such predisposing 
 cause ; but it would appear that a shoal once formed, by 
 currents or otherwise, must have been perpetuated and 
 built up in an increasing ratio by the grounding of the 
 floating ice. 
 
 " The Eocky mountains were probably also at this time 
 covered with descending glaciers ; but these would appear 
 to have been smaller than those of the Laurentian axis, 
 as might, indeed, be pre-supposed from their position and 
 comparatively small gathering-surface. The sea, when it 
 reached their base, received from them smaller icebergs ; 
 and by these and the shore-ice the quartzite-drift deposits 
 appear to have been spread. That this material should 
 have travelled in an opposite direction to the greater mass 
 of the drift is not strange ; for while the larger eastern 
 and northern icebergs may have moved with the deeper 
 currents, the smaller western ice may have taken direc- 
 tions caused by surface-currents from the south and west, 
 or even been impelled by the prevailing winds. Some of 
 the Laurentian ddbris, as we have seen, reached almost to 
 the mountains, while some of the qioartzite-drift can be 
 distinguished far out towards the Laurentian axis. 
 
 " The occurrence of Laurentian fragments at a stage in 
 the subsidence when, making every allowance for subse- 
 quent degradation, the Laurentian axis must have been 
 
122 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 far below water, would tend to show that the weight and 
 mass of the ice-cap was such as to enable it to remain as 
 a glacier till submergence was ^'ery deep. 
 
 " The emergence of the land would seem to have been 
 more rapid; or, at least, I do not find any phenomena 
 requiring long action at this^period. The water in retreat 
 must have rearranged to some extent a part of the 
 surface-materials. The quartzite-drift of the third steppe 
 was probably more uniformly spread at this time, and a 
 part of the surface sculpture of the drift-deposits of the 
 second plateau may have been produced. It seems certain, 
 however, that the Eocky mountains still held compara- 
 tively small glaciers, and that the Laurentian region on 
 its emergence was again clad to some extent with ice, for 
 at least a short time. The closing episode of the glacial 
 period in this region was the formation of the great fresh- 
 water lake of the Red Eiver valley, or first prairie-level 
 (which was only gradually drained), and the re-excavation 
 of the river-courses. 
 
 " It must not be concealed that there are difficulties yet 
 unaccounted for by the theory of the glaciation and 
 deposit of drift on the plains by icebergs ; and chief 
 among these is the absence, wherever I have examined 
 the deposits and elsewhere over the West, of the remains 
 of marine mollusca or other forms of marine life. With 
 a submergence as great as that necessitated by the facts, 
 it is impossible to explain the exclusion of the sea ; for, 
 besides the evidence of the higher western plains and 
 Rocky mountains, there are terraces between the Lake of 
 the Woods and lake Superior nearly to the summit of the 
 Laurentian axis, and corresponding beach-marks on the 
 face of the northern part of the second prairie escarpment. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 123 
 
 " Mr. Belt, in an interesting paper (Quart. Journ. Geol. 
 Soc, Nov., 1874), deals with similar difficulties in explain- 
 ing the glaciation of Siberia. The northern part of Asia 
 appears in many ways to resemble that of America ; 
 surrounded by mountain-chains on all sides save the 
 north, it is a sort of interior continental basin covered 
 with 'vast level sheets of sand and loam.' As in the 
 interior regions of America, marine shells are absent, or 
 are only found along the low ground of the northern 
 coast. To account for these facts, Mr. Belt resorts to a 
 theory first suggested by him eight years ago, by which 
 he supposes the existence of a polar ice-sheet capable of 
 blocking up the entire northern front of the country, and 
 damming back its waters to form an immense fresh-water 
 lake. The outfall of this lake, during its highest stage, 
 he supposes to have been through the depression between 
 the southern termination of the Ourals and the western 
 end of the Altai to the Aral and Caspian seas." 
 
 The main difficulty in the way of this masterly ex- 
 planation is the great height above the sea of the western 
 part of the plains ; but this is now met by the probability 
 of the depression of the plains, contemporaneously with 
 the elevation of the Cordillera, since suggested by the 
 author of the extract. To the absence of marine shells 
 from the deposits of the plains no importance need be 
 attached. The water may have been cold and brackish, 
 and in all geological periods gravels, sands and conglom- 
 erates usually have few marine fossils. 
 
 In 1883 I had an opportunity of going over the same 
 ground, and my notes respecting it are as follows : * 
 
 The Great Missouri coteau to which Dr. G. M. 
 Dawson first directed prominent attention as a glacial 
 
 * See Journal Geol. Society of London, 1883. 
 
124 THE ICE AGE IN CAN ABA. 
 
 feature, and which fringes the margin of the third plateau, 
 about 400 miles west of Winnipeg, is now known to be 
 continuous with similar ridges extending southward into 
 the United States and eastward towards the Atlantic, 
 and which have been described as the terminal moraine 
 of a great continental glacier. In the western plains, 
 however, where it has its greatest development, it cannot 
 be explained in this way, but must mark the margin of 
 an ancient glacial sea, or at least of that deeper portion of 
 such sea in which heavy ice could float, while in its upper 
 portion it shows evidence of having been, in the later 
 periods of its formation, an actual water-margin. 
 
 The railway, taking advamtage of the oblique valley of 
 Thunder creek, crosses the coteau at one of its least- 
 marked portions, but where it still presents very definite 
 and striking characters. On entering it, the railway 
 passes for nearly thirty miles through a rolling or broken 
 country, consisting of successive ridges and mounds inter- 
 spersed with swales and alkaline ponds without outlet. 
 To this class belongs a somewhat extensive series of lakes 
 known as the " Old Wives' Lakes." The highest point of 
 the coteau on this section is near Secretan Station. 
 
 As seen in the road-cutting, the basis of the ridges 
 appears to consist of thick beds of imperfectly stratified 
 clay, derived from the disintegration of the local Creta- 
 ceous beds, but with many Laurentian boulders. In one 
 place the clay was observed to be crumpled as if by 
 lateral pressure. Above the clay are stratified gravels, 
 also with large boulders, most abundant at top. The 
 ridges are highest and most distinct at the eastern or 
 lower side, and gradually diminish towards the upper or 
 western margin, where they terminate on the broadly 
 rolling surface of the upper prairie. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 125 
 
 The history of the coteau would seem to have been as 
 follows : 
 
 1. The excavation in pre-glacial times of an edge or 
 escarpment in the gently sloping surface of the Cretaceous 
 and Laramie beds, and the cutting by subaerial causes of 
 coulees and valleys of streams in this escarpment. 
 
 2. Submergence in the glacial period, in such a manner 
 as to permit heavy ice loaded with Laurentian debris to 
 ground on the edge of the escarpment and deposit its 
 burden there, while at the period of greatest submergence 
 deep water must have extended much further westward. 
 These conditions must have continued for a long time and 
 with somewhat variable depth of water. 
 
 3. Ee-elevation, during which gravel ridges were 
 formed, until at length the coteau became the coast-line 
 of a shallow sea, which lingered at a later date along the 
 line already referred to in advance of the coteau. 
 
 4. On the re-elevation of the country, the transverse 
 ravines and valleys were so effectually dammed up by 
 the glacial ridge, that the surface waters of the region, 
 now comparatively arid, have to remain as alkaline lakes 
 and ponds behind the coteau. 
 
 The upper prairie plateau, extending from the coteau 
 to the Eocky mountains, has, on its general surface, com- 
 paratively few boulders ; yet these are locally numerous, 
 especially on the eastern and northern sides of some 
 gentle elevations of the prairie. They consist, as before, 
 of Laurentian gneiss, Huronian schists, and yellow Silurian 
 limestone, all derived from the eastern side of the plains, 
 some of the boulders of Laurentian gneiss being of great 
 dimensions. Some of these have been used in modern times 
 by the buffalo as rubbing-stones, and are surrounded by basin- 
 shaped depressions formed by the feet of these animals. 
 
126 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 That strong currents of water have traversed this 
 upper plain, is shown not only by the occasional ridges of 
 gravel, but by the depressions known as " slues," which 
 must have been excavated subaqueous currents. 
 
 Near Medicine Hat a terrace of boulders was seen at 
 an elevation of about 200 feet above the river ; and in 
 sections of the drift observed in coulfes, the boulders were 
 seen to be arranged in layers ; but whether these appear- 
 ances had relation to fluviatile action, before the excavation 
 of the deep valley of the Saskatchewan, or belonged to 
 the orignal distribution of the drift, was not apparent. 
 
 Laurentian boulders were seen all the way to Calgary, 
 but with an increasing proportion of quartzite boulders 
 from the Eocky mountains ; and on the banks of the Bow 
 river were large beds of rounded pebbles which must 
 have been swept by water out of the valleys of the 
 mountains, and are quite similar to those now observed in 
 the bed of the Bow itself. 
 
 Beyond this. Dr. G. M. Dawson has recorded Lauren- 
 tian boulders and fragments of limestone from the eastern 
 Palaeozoic beds, at elevations of from 4,200 to above 5,000 
 feet,* at the foot of the Eocky mountains, evidencing a 
 driftage of at least 800 miles, and an elevation consider- 
 ably above that of the sources from which they came. 
 He well observes that anything which would explain the 
 
 * " Many of these (Laurentian erratics along or near the base of the 
 mountains between the 49th and 50th parallels) lie at heights exceeding 
 4,000 feet, while the highest observed instances of their occurrence are 
 at an elevation of 5,289 feet above the present sea-level, the erratics 
 being here stranded upon moraine ridges due to local glaciers which 
 have flowed out from the valleys of the Rocky mountains, probably 
 during the first maximum of glaciation. These erratics are known to 
 have come a distance of at least 500 miles from the eastward." — G. M. 
 Dawson. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 127 
 
 origin of the coteau must also explain the transport of 
 these boulders so far above it and beyond its limits, as 
 well as the contemporaneous distribution of boulders 
 from the Kooky mountains to the eastward. These 
 phenomena are explicable on the hypothesis of a glacial 
 sea of varying depth, but not on that of land glaciation, 
 which would also be inapplicable in a region necessarily 
 of so small precipitation of moisture and occupied by soft 
 deposits so little suited to the movement of glaciers. A 
 fortiori the same explanation applies to that great tail of 
 debris extending from the southern end of the Missouri 
 coteau across the continent, and which forms the great 
 " terminal moraine " of the continental glacialists. The 
 fact that this so-called moraine sometimes occurs where 
 there is no elevated shore immediately outside of it con- 
 stitutes no objection to this, since there may have been 
 unequal elevation. There is, nevertheless, good evidence 
 of the action of glaciers on a large scale iu certain portions 
 of the glacial periods, both on the Eocky mountains and 
 on the Laurentian hills and table-lands to the east. 
 
 3.— ICE-FRESHETS IN RIVERS. 
 
 3. A cause of boulder-drift to which too little import- 
 ance has been attached, is what may be termed " ice 
 freshets " in the rivers of northern latitudes. Lyell has 
 summed up some facts of this kind in relation to the 
 rivers of Siberia, and Belgrand has referred to the 
 evidence in the valley of the Somme. On a small scale, 
 I have noted the effects of these ice-floods in Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick. They occur in early spring, when 
 sudden thaws and violent rains sometimes occur before 
 the ice in the rivers has broken up. In these circum- 
 stances, the rivers rising break up the ice on their 
 
128 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 surfaces, and sweep it downward, laden with uprooted 
 trees, timber, stones and gravel. The destruction of roads, 
 bridges, and other property, and the tearing up and bury- 
 ing under rubbish of meadows, are sometimes terrific. 
 Fortunately, such freshets occur only at long intervals, 
 but the loss and injury which they cause are long 
 remembered, and the ridges and mounds of debris which 
 they deposit remain as mementoes of their destructive 
 power. Logan has well described* the annual breaking 
 up, or " shove," of the ice on the St. Lawrence, which, 
 though a comparatively quiet phenomenon, piles up ridges 
 of stone where the floes of ice ground. In the Pleistocene 
 period, such ice-freshets and shoves must have been 
 frequent, and it is not unlikely that some of the gravel 
 deposits which are credited to the melting of the 
 continental glacier are due to their agency. 
 4.— BORDAGE ICE. 
 
 4. A special ice agency of some importance is that to 
 which Mr. Chalmers has directed attention on the coast 
 of the bay des Chaleurs.f 
 
 Mr. Chalmers describes the rocks of various paleozoic 
 periods, along the south side of the bay des Chaleurs, as 
 presenting a somewhat fiat and even surface to a height 
 of 50 to 75 feet above the sea level. A similar appearance 
 is presented by the beds below the sea level along the 
 coasts. He connects this with the action of floating ice, 
 now very evident in the bay. In winter a fixed border 
 of ice is formed along the coast, from two to six feet thick, 
 and extending from the shore for a distance of from half 
 a mile to several miles. The open portion of the bay is 
 generally full of loose floes. 
 
 * Journal Geol. Society. 
 
 t Canadian Record of Science. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 129 
 
 In March and April the marginal sheets break up into 
 floes, and drift up and down the bay, and the ice in the 
 bay is often reinforced by large fields from the gulf 
 without. These sheets of ice grind over the reefs and 
 impinge on the shores with great force, and, evidently, at 
 present, exert a great erosive and transporting power. 
 In the latter part of the Pleistocene period, when the 
 land stood at a lower level and the climate was, possibly, 
 colder, their action may have been still more powerful. 
 This action of .floating ice is similar to that which has 
 been pointed out by Admiral Bayfield in the river St. 
 Lawrence, and by the writer on the coast of Nova Scotia ; 
 but Mr. Chalmers believes that it has had a somewhat 
 exceptional power on the south side of the bay des 
 Chaleurs, which renders its influence there unusually 
 conspicuous and instructive. 
 
 5.— ICE IN TIDAL ESTUARIES. 
 
 5. Still another form of ice-drift is that of ice-floes in 
 tidal estuaries, which is seen in, perhaps, its extreme 
 development in those of the bay of Fundy. In Acadian 
 geology I have noticed the removal of large boulders in 
 this way, and the Lower St. Lawrence may be regarded 
 as a tidal estuary ; but I have seen merely the effects, not 
 the actual operation, of the ice in winter and early spring, 
 and Hind has given so graphic and complete a picture of 
 the phenomena,* that I cannot do better than reproduce 
 it in his own words. The agency which he describes has, 
 not improbably, been concerned in the production of those 
 curious patches of sand and clay frequently seen in 
 boulder-clay and gravel beds, and whose origin is often 
 difiicult to comprehend. 
 
 * Canadian Monthly, Sept. 1875. 
 10 
 
130 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 " The appearance of an estuary in the bay of Fundy at 
 any time in mid-winter, presents some singular and 
 striking phenomena, which may contribute to our know- 
 ledge of the manner in which different agents have 
 assisted in excavating this extraordinary bay, and are 
 now engaged in extending its domain in some directions 
 and reducing it in others. 
 
 " Within an hour or so of flood tide, the estuary is seen 
 to be full of masses of floating ice, mud-stained, and, 
 sometimes, but not often, loaded with earth, stones, or 
 pieces of marsh. The tide, flowing at a rate of four or 
 five miles an hour, rushes past with its broad, ice-laden 
 current until the flood. A rest, or ' stand,' then occurs, 
 of variable duration. During this brief period all is 
 repose and quiet, but as soon as the ebb begins, the 
 innumerable blocks of ice commence to move, and in half 
 an hour they are as swiftly gliding noiselessly towards 
 the sea, as an hour before they swiftly and noiselessly 
 glided from it. It produces in the mind of one who sees 
 these ice-streams for the first time, moving up the wide 
 river faster than he can conveniently walk, a feeling of 
 astonishment, akin to awe, which is heightened rather 
 than diminished if he should return to the same point of 
 view half an hour later, and find the ice-stream rushing 
 as impetuously as before in exactly the opposite direction. 
 
 "During the ebb tide many of the larger blocks ground 
 on the sand-bars, so that when the tide is out the extensive 
 flats are covered with ice-blocks innumerable. If the 
 period between the ebb and the return of the flood is 
 very cold, the stranded ice-blocks freeze to the sand-bars 
 or mud-flats and are covered by the returning tide, but 
 only until the warm tidal water succeeds in thawing the 
 frozen sand or mud around the base of the ice-block, and 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 131 
 
 it is enabled, by means of its less specific gravity, to 
 break away with a frozen layer of mud or sand attached 
 to it. It reaches the surface of the water with a bound, 
 and is instantly swept away by the incoming tide. The 
 spectacle thus presented by an extensive sand-bar after a 
 few hours of freezing weather, is most extraordinary ; 
 the whole surface of the flood or ebb becomes suddenly 
 alive with blocks of ice, springing up from below, each 
 carrying away its burden of sand or mud frozen to its 
 base. Later in the season, towards the middle of March, 
 this singular phenomenon can be seen to the best advantage, 
 and it is curious to watch a block of, say, ten feet square 
 by five or six in thickness, being gradually covered by the 
 tide until it becomes lost to view for an hour or more, 
 during which time the water may have risen three or four 
 feet above it. ' When least expected ' up the submerged 
 mass springs ; it has broken loose from the frozen bottom, 
 it seems to stagger and pause for a few moments at the 
 surface, and then joins the rest of the icy stream on their 
 monotonous journey, until it is again stranded on some 
 other flat or bar during the ebbing tide. But this is only 
 a small part of the history of these ice-blocks, for, during 
 neap tides, it often happens that a block is stranded in 
 such shallow water that the flood has not power to raise 
 it from the substratum to which it is frozen. The block 
 grows there with every tide ; fresh films of ice and tidal 
 mud form all round it four times during every twenty- 
 four hours. It receives accessions from falling snows, and, 
 by the time the spring tides begin, it has greatly increased 
 in size and is more firmly frozen or weighted to the sand- 
 bar. Even the spring tides may not have the power to 
 free it from its icy bonds if the weather has been 
 extremely cold ; the consequence is that it goes on 
 
132 THE TOE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 increasing in size, and actually becomes a miniature berg, 
 containing some thousands of cubic feet of ice and mud, 
 and still retaining a buoyancy which will enable it, after 
 a thaw, during high spring tides, to break away with a 
 load of debris, and carry it either out to sea or up the 
 estuary, and, if it should chance to be stranded again, it 
 will probably leave a portion of its burden, provided it 
 has not melted off' during its voyage with the tide. But 
 there can be no doubt that some of the attached sand, 
 mud, or shingle is melted off during the journey of the 
 block or miniature berg, and drops into the bed of the 
 river or estuary. In reality, these ice-cakes, when in 
 motion, are perpetually strewing the bottom with trans- 
 ported material and bringing a portion from one place to 
 another, during about five hours of the flood, and carrying 
 part of it back again, during five hours of ebb, to the 
 limits of the backward and forward tidal range of each 
 particular ice-cake. But when they accumulate in an 
 eddy, they become powerful carriers and depositors of 
 detritus, and if artificial obstructions be introduced so as 
 to form an eddy in the usual course of the ice-stream, the 
 accumulation must necessarily be v6ry rapid." 
 
 6.— CONTINENTAL ELEVATION AND DEPRESSION. 
 
 6. Before leaving this summary of causes, it is necessary 
 to make a few general statements respecting elevation 
 and depression. The first and most important is that, 
 from the great Pliocene elevation onward, subsidence 
 and re-elevation were always in progress. At each stage 
 of these there must have been corresponding geogra- 
 phical conditions and varying facilities for distribution 
 of travelled detritus. In regard, therefore, to the causes 
 of any particular deposit, one of the most important 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 133 
 
 questions is, at what stage of elevation or depression was 
 it produced. The second is that we must not infer that 
 the elevations and depressions were necessarily uniform 
 locally, but that they were different in amount in different 
 places, and that elevation of mountainous regions often 
 coincided with depression of plains, and vice versd. The 
 observations of Upham and Spencer as to what has been 
 termed " warping " illustrate this, and it has been finally 
 established by the work of Dr. G. M. Dawson on the 
 Cordilleran glacier of the west already noticed. 
 
 It is not my purpose here to discuss the causes of the 
 elevations and depressions of the continents in the later 
 tertiary time. The attempt to account primarily for 
 depression or elevation of the land or the ocean level by 
 the accumulation of ice on the land is futile, since that 
 accumulation itself must have depended largely on the 
 changes of elevation and of consequent distribution of 
 land and water. Primarily, the great elevation of the 
 land must have been caused by the slow depression of the 
 ocean bed in the intervals between those local foldings of 
 the crust which result from and relieve such depression. 
 That some later or secondary portion of the local differen- 
 tial depression of mountain regions may have been caused 
 by the great weight of ice heaped on them is probable ; 
 but it is evident that this effect is quite inconsistent with 
 the idea of wide-spread continental glaciers. 
 
 Students of glacial phenomena are no doubt right in 
 directing attention to the great sensitiveness of the crust 
 of the earth to pressure. The phenomena of river deltas 
 and of such great thicknesses of sediment as those of the 
 coal-formation, shows, as I have elsewhere often argued, 
 that every foot of sediment placed on any part of the 
 earth's crust must produce a corresponding depression 
 
134 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 either slow and gradual or by paroxysms, as the weight 
 increases beyond the limit of the rigidity of the outer 
 crust. Hence, a great weight of ice placed on mountains 
 or high table-lands must tend to depress them relatively 
 to the plains and sea beds, and the lateral pressure on the 
 under crust may co-operate in raising the latter. Such 
 movements, however, though important, must ever con- 
 stitute a subsequent and incidental effect of glacial 
 accumulations proceeding from other causes. In this 
 connection it must also be observed that different portions 
 of the crust must be of unequal thickness and hardness, 
 and supported on material of different degrees of mobility; 
 and further, that there are many fractures in the crust 
 presenting lines of weakness. These differences must 
 materially affect the results of pressure in different 
 localities. 
 
 Movements of the kind above referred to have not ceased. 
 Certain regions have in very recent times been, and are 
 still being, weighed down by superficial accumulations, or 
 are being buoyed up by the removal of matter by denudation 
 or by the lateral pressure under them of the subterranean 
 forces of the earth, while locally such effects are here and 
 there being relieved by igneous eruptions. This is, how- 
 ever, a subject too large to be treated of here. 
 
 ///. — Glimatal Conditions. 
 
 We have now to consider the causes which could have 
 led to such climatal conditions as those to which we have 
 referred ; and here, however unreasonable this may appear 
 to some, I am disposed to content myself with the 
 geographical changes long ago insisted on by Sir C. Lyell. 
 There is the more reason to do this, since the facts 
 established show that great geographical changes actually 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 135 
 
 occurred in the Pleistocene age, and that we have not 
 now to account for anything so extreme as a polar ice-cap 
 or a continental glacier. I have already directed attention 
 in connection with this part of the subject to the views 
 which I expressed many years ago, and to which I still in 
 the main adhere. I do not ask any geologists, more 
 especially those still affected with the superstitions of 
 continental glaciers and ice-caps, to accept these causes 
 as sufficient to account for the climatic changes evidenced , 
 in geological time ; but I must ask that they should fully 
 exhaust the influence of known changes of distribution of 
 land and water, and differential elevation and depression 
 of continental masses, before in\'oking other causes, 
 whether of cold or heat. I must also insist on their 
 admitting, at least as primary conditions in glaciation, not 
 merely cold but heat, and not merely elevation but 
 depression of land. In other words, there must be 
 evaporation as well as condensation, and the former 
 depends on the application of heat to water-surfaces 
 adjacent to those of precipitation.* On the other hand, 
 evaporation being provided, there must, in order to 
 establish a breeding-ground for glaciers, and to permit 
 their existence, be a low mean temperature and high land 
 capable of affording a condensing surface. The statements 
 
 * To American geologists I would recommend a, course of reading 
 in "Whitney's Climatic Changes," though I do not agree with the 
 author in all his conclusions. In a paper in the Proceedings of the 
 Boston Society of Natural History (1890), Upham and Everett fully 
 admit the geographical causes of the glacial cold, and also the 
 existence of two periods of boulder distribution, separated by an inter- 
 glacial period, though they do not appear to see the bearing of these 
 and other admissions on the validity of the theory of continental 
 glaciation. See also an important paper by Upham in the American 
 Geologist, December, 1890. 
 
136 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 already made in my first cliapter are, I think, sufficient to 
 illustrate these views, and I may therefore here merely 
 introduce a few remarks respecting variations of climate 
 in the glacial age, referring to the map of the North 
 American continent in the Pleistocene period at p. 77. 
 
 In the early glacial period, if we judge from the great 
 accumulation of snow on the Cordillera of the west and 
 the Laurentian highlands,- the temperature must have 
 been low. Similar evidence is afforded by the few species 
 of shells found in the boulder-clay, which are of species 
 now occurring in the cold waters of the Arctic regions 
 loaded all summer with ice.* It would seem that to 
 reduce the mean temperature of the sea to this extent it 
 would be necessary that geographical changes should 
 occur which would direct most of the warm equatorial 
 water both from the North Atlantic and the North 
 Pacific. 
 
 In the time of the lower Leda clay the temperature of 
 the sea seems scarcely to have increased ; but in the 
 upper Leda clay we have a marine fauna identical with 
 that of the colder waters of the present gulf and river St. 
 Lawrence. One can to-day dredge in a living state off 
 Metis in the river St. Lawrence all the species found in 
 the upper Leda clay of the neighbouring coast. In like 
 manner the vegetable remains of the upper Leda clay and 
 its equivalent in the west are not arctic but boreal plants, 
 and we should have to go near to the arctic circle, then 
 as now, to find the true arctic flora. These facts, while 
 they imply a mean temperature somewhat lower than 
 that of the present day, show that the climate of the 
 mid-Pleistocene was not an arctic one. It may have 
 
 * See list of fossila, infra. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 137 
 
 been a little lower in mean temperature, but less extreme 
 than that of North America at the present day. It is 
 farther to be observed that the Pleistocene marine fauna 
 is a little less boreal in New England than in the St. 
 Lawrence valley, and that further north in Hudson's 
 bay and the arctic coasts, it is not very dissimilar from 
 that of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 In the later glacial period, that of the Saxicava sand, 
 the great size and wide dispersion of boulders indicates 
 much heavy field-ice, and, consequently, a low temperature 
 of the sea, while the existence of local glaciers on the 
 high lands not submerged, also indicates a low temperature. 
 To this corresponds the vast predominance of the species 
 Saxicava rugosa in the lower part of the Saxicava sand. 
 There would, in this period, seem to have been fluctuations 
 in temperature, due, perhaps to elevations and depressions 
 of land, so that while in some of the raised beaches the 
 indications of ice-drift are not so extreme as at present, 
 on other levels there are gigantic boulders, and some 
 of these carried far. Thus the later Pleistocene was 
 characterized at once by great variations in the elevation 
 of the land and by corresponding vicissitudes of climate. 
 
 These few remarks will, I think, suffice on this subject, 
 when taken in connection with the facts and principles 
 stated beforehand in chapter first. 
 
 An interesting illustration of the effects of varying 
 distribution of land and water, may be taken from that 
 warm period already alluded to as intervening between 
 the glacial and modern times, and coinciding with the 
 second continental period of Lyell, as evidenced by the 
 distribution of marine animals at present on the coasts 
 of Nova Scotia and New England. This peculiarity of 
 distribution attracted my attention, as a collector of 
 
138 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 marine animals, at Pictou, on Northumberland strait, as 
 long ago as 1840, and is thus referred to in a later 
 address.* 
 
 If we draw a straight line from the northern end of 
 Cape Breton, through the Magdalen islands, to the mouth 
 of the bay des Chaleurs, we have to the southward an 
 extensive semi-circular bay, 200 miles in diameter, which 
 we may call the great Acadian hay, and on the north the 
 larger and deeper triangular area of the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. This Acadian bay is a sort of gigantic warm- 
 water aquarium, sheltered, except in a few isolated banks, 
 which have been pointed out by Mr. Whiteaves, from the 
 cold waters of the gulf, and which the bather feels quite 
 warm in comparison with the frigid and often not very 
 limpid liquid with wliich we are fain to be content in the 
 lower St. Lawrence. It also affords to the more delicate 
 marine animals a more congenial habitat than they can 
 find in the bay of Fundy, or even on the coast of Maine, 
 unless in a few sheltered spots, some of which have been 
 explored by Prof. Verrill. It is true that in winter the 
 whole Acadian bay is encumbered with floating ice, partly 
 produced on its own shores and partly drifted from the 
 north ; but, in summer, the action of the sun upon its 
 surface, the warm air flowing over it from the neighbour- 
 ing land, and the ocean water brought in by the strait of 
 Canseau, rapidly raise its temperature, and it retains this 
 elevated temperature till late in autumn. Hence the 
 character of its fauna, which is indicated by the fact 
 that many species of molluscs, whose headquarters are 
 south of cape Cod, flourish and abound in its waters. 
 Among these are the common oyster, which is especially 
 
 * See Address, by the author, to Nat. Hist. Society of Montreal, 
 1874. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 139 
 
 abundant on the coasts of Prince Edward island and 
 northern New Brunswick, the Quahog or Wampum shell, 
 the Petricola pholadiformis, which, along with Zirfea 
 crispata, burrows everywhere in the soft sandstones and 
 shales; the beautiful Modiola plicatula, forming dense 
 mussel-banks in the sheltered coves and estuaries; 
 Cytherea (Oallista) convexa ; Gochlodesma leana and Citm- 
 mingia tellinoides ; Crepididafornicata, the slipper-limpet, 
 and its variety unguiformis, swarming especially in the 
 oyster beds ; Nassa obsoleta and Buccinum cinereum, with 
 many others of similar southern distribution. Nor is 
 the fauna so very meagre as might be supposed. My own 
 collections from Northumberland strait include about 
 fifty species of mollusks, and some not possessed by me 
 have been found by Mr. Whiteaves. Some of these, it is 
 true, are northern forms, but the majority are of New 
 England species. 
 
 The causes of this exceptional condition of things in 
 the Acadian bay carry us far back in geological time. The 
 area now constituting the gulf of St. Lawrence seems to 
 have been exempt from the great movements of plication 
 and elevation which produced the hilly and metamorphic 
 ridges of the east coast of America. These all die out 
 and disappear as they approach its southern shore. The 
 tranquil and gradual passage from the lower to the upper 
 Silurian ascertained by Billings in the rocks of Anticosti, 
 and unique in North America, furnishes an excellent 
 illustration of this. In the Carboniferous period the gulf 
 of St. Lawrence was a sea area as now, but with wider 
 limits, and at that time its southern part was much filled 
 up with sandy and muddy detritus, and its margins were 
 invaded by beds and dykes of trappean rocks. In the 
 Triassic age the red sandstones of that period were 
 
140 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 extensively deposited in the Acadian bay, and in part have 
 been raised out of the water in Prince Edward Island, 
 while the whole bay was shallowed and in part cut off 
 from the remainder of the gulf by the elevation of ridges 
 of lower Carboniferous rocks across its mouth. In the 
 Post-pliocene period, that which immediately precedes our 
 own modern age, as I have elsewhere shown,* there was 
 great subsidence of this region, accompanied by a cold 
 climate, and boulders of Laurentian rocks were drifted 
 from Labrador and deposited on Prince Edward Island 
 and Nova Scotia, while the southern currents, flowing up 
 what is now the bay of Fundy, drifted stones from the 
 hills of New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. At 
 this time the Acadian bay enjoyed no exemption from the 
 general cold, for at Campbelltown, in Prince Edward 
 Island, and at Bathurst, in New Brunswick, we find in the 
 clays and gravels the northern shells generally character- 
 istic of the Post-pliocene ; though perhaps the lists given 
 by Mr. Matthew for St. John and by Mr. Paisley for the 
 vicinity of Bathurst, may be held to show some slight 
 mitigation of the arctic conditions as compared with the 
 typical deposits in the St. Lawrence valley. Since that 
 time the land has gradually been raised out of the waters, 
 and with this elevation the southern or Acadian fauna 
 has crept northward and established itself around Prince 
 Edward Island, as the Acadian bay attained its present 
 form and conditions. But how is it that this fauna is now 
 isolated, and that intervening colder waters separate it 
 from that of southern New England ? Verrill regards this 
 colony of the Acadian bay as indicating a warmer climate 
 intervening between the cold Post-pliocene period and the 
 
 • Notes on Post-pliocene of Canada, Canadian Naturalist, 1872. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 141 
 
 present, and he seems to think that this may either have 
 been coincident with a lower level of the land sufficient to 
 establish a shallow water channel, connecting the bay of 
 Fundy with the Gulf, or with a higher level raising many 
 of the banks on the coast of N^ova Scotia out of water. 
 Geological facts, which I have illustrated in my Acadian 
 Geology, indicate the latter as the probable cause. We 
 know that the eastern coast of America has in modern 
 times been gradually subsiding. Further, the remarkable 
 submarine forests in the bay of Fundy show that within 
 a time not sufficient to produce the decay of pine wood this 
 depression has taken place to the extent of at least 40 feet, 
 and probably to 60 feet or more.* We have thus direct 
 geological evidence of a former higher condition of the 
 land, .which may when at its maximum have greatly 
 exceeded that above indicated, since we cannot trace the 
 submarine forests as far below the sea level as they actu- 
 ally extend. The effect of such an elevation of the land 
 would be not only a general shallowing of the water in the 
 bay of Fundy and the Acadian bay, and an elevation of its 
 temperature both by this and by the greater amount of 
 neighbouring land, but, as Prof. Verrill well states, it would 
 also raise the banks off the Nova Scotia coast, and extend- 
 ing south from Newfoundland, so as to throw the arctic 
 current further from the shore and warm the water along 
 the coasts of Nova Scotia and northern New England. In 
 these circumstances the marine animals of southern New 
 England might readily extend themselves all around the 
 coasts of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, and occupy the 
 Acadian bay. The modern subsidence of the land would 
 produce a relapse toward the glacial age, the arctic cur- 
 
 * Acadian Geology, p. 29. 
 
142 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 rents would be allowed to cleave more closely to the coast, 
 and the inhabitants of the Acadian bay would gradually 
 become isolated, while the northern animals of Labrador 
 would work their way southward.* 
 
 Various modern indications point to the same conclu- 
 sions. Verrill has described little colonies of southern 
 species still surviving on the coast of Maine. There are 
 also dead shells of these species in mud banks, in places 
 where they are now extinct. He also states that the remains 
 in shell-heaps left by the Indians indicate that even within 
 the period of their occupancy some of these species 
 existed in places where they are not now found. Willis has 
 catalogued some of these species from the deep bays and 
 inlets on the Atlantic coast of Xova Scotia, and has shown 
 that some of them still exist on the SaUe island banks.f 
 
 Whiteaves finds in the Bradelle and Orphan bank 
 littoral species remote from the present shores, and 
 indicating a time when these banks were islands, which 
 have been submerged by subsidence, aided no doubt by 
 the action of the waves. 
 
 It would thus appear that the colonization of the 
 Acadian bay with southern forms belongs to the modern 
 period, but that it has already passed its culmination, 
 and the recent subsidence of the coast has, no doubt, 
 limited the range of these animals, and is probably still 
 favouring the gradual inroads of the Arctic fauna from 
 the north, which, should this subsidence go on, will creep 
 slowly back to re-occupy the ground which it once held 
 in the Pleistocene time. 
 
 * Since my address of 1874, Ganong has further illustrated this 
 subject in the Transactions of the Natural History Society of New 
 Brunswick, and of the Royal Society of Canada. 
 
 t Acadian Geology, p. 37. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 143 
 
 Such peculiarities of distribution serve to show the 
 effects of even comparatively small changes of level upon 
 climate, and upon the distribution of life, and to confirm 
 the same lesson of caution in our interpretation of local 
 diversities of fossils, which geologists have been lately- 
 learning from the distribution of cold and warm currents 
 in the Atlantic. Another lesson which they teach is the 
 wonderful fixity of species. Continents rise and sink, 
 climates change, islands are devoured by the sea or 
 restored again from its depths ; marine animals are locally 
 exterminated, and are enabled in the course of long ages 
 to regain their lost abodes ; yet they remain ever the 
 same, and even in their varietal forms perfectly resemble 
 those remote ancestors which are separated from them by 
 a vast lapse of ages and by many physical revolutions. 
 This truth which I have already deduced from the Pleis- 
 tocene fauna of the St. Lawrence valley, is equally 
 taught by the molluscs of the Acadian bay, and by their 
 Arctic relatives returning after long absence to claim 
 their old homes. 
 
 Still another lesson may be learned here. It appears 
 that our present climate is separated from that of the 
 glacial age by one somewhat warmer, which was coinci- 
 dent with an elevated condition of the land. Applied to 
 Europe, as it might easily be, this fact shows the futility 
 of attempting to establish a later glacial period between 
 the Pleistocene and the present, in the manner 
 attempted, as I must think on the slenderest possible 
 grounds, by Prof. Geikie in his late work " The Great 
 Ice Age." 
 
 The grandeur of those physical changes which have 
 occurred since the present marine animals came into 
 being is well illustrated by some other facts to which our 
 
144 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 attention has been directed. Eecent excavations in the 
 Montreal mountain have enabled Prof. Kennedy and Prof. 
 Adams to observe marine shells and gravel at a still higher 
 level than that of the old beach above Cote des Neiges, 
 which was so long ago described by Sir Wm. Logan and 
 Sir Charles Lyell. The new positions are 534 to about 
 600 feet above the sea. Let us place this fact along with 
 the discovery of the skeleton of a whale at an elevation of 
 420 feet, as far west as Smith's falls, in Ontario, and with 
 that recorded by Prof. Bell in the report of the Geological 
 Survey for 1870-71, of the occurrence of these same 
 shells on the high lands north of lake Superior, at a 
 height which, taking the average of his measurements, is 
 547 feet above the sea level. Let us further note the 
 fact, that in the hills behind Murray bay and at Les 
 Eboulements I have recorded the occurrence of these 
 remains at the height of at least 600 feet. "We have, 
 then, before us the evidence of the submergence of a 
 portion of the North American continent, at least 1,000 
 miles in length and 400 miles in breadth, to a depth of 
 more than a hundred fathoms, and its re-elevation, with- 
 out any appreciable change in molluscan life. 
 
 IV. — Bate of the Glacial Period. 
 
 The question of the time that has elapsed since the 
 glacial period is closely connected with that as to the 
 causes of the climatal changes involved. If these last 
 were astronomical, and dependent, as Croll * has ably 
 argued, on the varying eccentricity of the elliptical orbit 
 in which our earth moves, along with the gradual proces- 
 sion of the equinoxes on the equator, then the culmination 
 
 * " Climate and Time in their Geological Relations." 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 145 
 
 of the last cold period must have been at least 100,000 
 years ago, and a period of 80,000 years may have elapsed 
 since the ice age began to give way to the present condi- 
 tion of things. If, on the other hand, we suppose that the 
 climatal change depended on variations in the heat of 
 the sun, we have no measure of time, for if these occur to 
 the extent required we do not know their periods or if 
 these have any regularity. We can only infer from the 
 fixity of solar heat within very narrow limits in historical 
 times that any material change must have occurred very 
 long ago. 
 
 Lastly, if with Lyell we have recourse to changes of 
 elevation and depression leading to different amounts of 
 heating surface and different distribution of oceanic and 
 atmospheric currents on the earth itself, geologists may 
 assign less or more time to such changes according as they 
 prefer to regard them as the results of secular or cata- 
 clysmic changes. Thus if we adopt the astronomical 
 theory we are shut up to a very ancient date. If we can 
 explain the facts by merely geological changes the date 
 becomes uncertain. 
 
 I have in previous publications * on this subject argued 
 that the amount of denudation which has occurred since 
 the glacial period is very small, that animal and vegetable 
 life have remained unchanged since the ice age, and that 
 such facts as we can measure in river erosion and changes 
 related to this, indicate but a short time. We may here 
 look at the last of these and cite a few facts. 
 
 In the case of the falls of Niagara, we know that these 
 have cut the present gorge from lake Ontario back to the 
 
 * Notes on Pleistocene of Canada, 1872, and later papers in Canad. 
 Rexord of Science. 
 11 
 
146 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 whirlpool, and have cleaned out an old channel above 
 this, and cut back the present face of the fall some 
 distance since the close of the glacial period, and the 
 careful observations of Dr. Spencer* have shown that 
 the existing relations of the Niagara escarpment and the 
 lakes were established antecedent to the time when the 
 present fall was established. Claypole-|- has also shown 
 that the terraces with fresh- water shells on the Niagara 
 river prove that the retaining ridge between lakes Erie 
 and Ontario was then as high as now. As I have else- 
 where argued also, the thickness of the harder bed, the 
 Niagara limestone, which the river has to cut, has, owing 
 to the southerly dip of the rocks, been increasing as the 
 falls were cut back, and there is reason to believe that a 
 part of the gorge above the whirlpool was formed in pre- 
 glacial times, and has merely been cleaned out by the 
 modern river. There is also some reason to believe that 
 the' amount of water in the fall may have been greater in 
 the early modern period than now. 
 
 What, then, is the rate of recession of this great 
 cataract, and how long has it been cutting its gorge ? 
 The rate of cutting has been variously estimated at from 
 one foot to three feet annually ; but the actual measured 
 rate for the last forty-two years,'as given on the authority 
 of Mr. R. S. Woodward, of the U. S. Geological Survey, 
 is 2-4 feet, or nearly two-and-a-half feet per year. This 
 will give, say 12,000 to 15,000 years for the time required, 
 and, making allowance for the deductions above stated, 
 we may confidently affirm that the great cataract began 
 its labour somewhere between seven and twelve thousand 
 
 * Iroquois Beach. Trans. R. S. Can., 1889. 
 
 t American Naturalist, Oct., 1886. Trans. Geol. Sooy., 1888. 
 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 147 
 
 years ago, and this must have been at the close of the 
 glacial period, whatever views we may take of the nature 
 of that period. 
 
 The estimate derived from Niagara is confirmed by the 
 ingenious and careful calculations of Winchell* respecting 
 the recession of the falls of St. Anthony, on the Missis- 
 sippi, and by those of Andrews,-]- on the lake margins of 
 lake Michigan. The former gives a period of between 
 6,276 and 12,103 years, or an average of 8,859 years. 
 The latter gives a period of from 5,290 to 7,490 years. 
 Humphreys and Abbott deduce similar figures from the 
 rate of deposit of the delta of the Mississippi. Prestwich 
 has deduced similar conclusions for England from his 
 careful and detailed observations of the later Pleistocene 
 deposits in that coiintry.:|: His estimate of the final 
 disappearance of the ice-age is from 8,000 to 10,000 
 years, and no English geologist is of greater experience 
 aind authority in Pleistocene Geology. 
 
 It may be objected that all these data are very uncer- 
 tain. This is true, but since these and a vast number of 
 facts of similar character which might be cited from 
 different parts of the world all point in one direction, their 
 cumulative evidence becomes very strong: on the one 
 hand in proof that the close of the glacial period is very 
 recent, and on the other that it must have been caused by 
 telluric changes, and these, geologically speaking, not of 
 very great magnitude. 
 
 With reference to the connection of man with the 
 Pleistocene ice age, the present tendency of the geological 
 facts is toward tlie conclusion that man had his origin in 
 
 * Journal Geol. Society, Nov., 1878. 
 t Trans. Chicago Academy, Vol. II. 
 t Journal of Geol. Soc. of London, Aug., 1887. 
 
148 . THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the post-glacial continental period, and that he survived 
 the great depressions and fluctuations of land which closed 
 that period and destroyed so many land animals his con- 
 temporaries in early times. Many observers, however (as 
 Capellini.Whitney, Harvey, Habenecht, etc.), have adduced 
 evidence more or less doubtful of the existence of man in 
 the " first continental period," that of the later Pliocene. 
 Perhaps the most convincing evidence of such antiquity yet 
 adduced is that by Dr. Mourlon, of the Geological Survey 
 of Belgium,* from which it would appear that worked flints 
 and broken bones of animals occur in deposits, the rela- 
 tions of which would indicate that they belong either to 
 the base of the Pleistocene or close of the Pliocene. 
 They are imbedded in sands derived from Eocene and 
 Pliocene beds, and supposed to have been remaniS by wind 
 action. With the modesty of a true man of science, 
 Mourlon presents his facts, and does not insist too strongly 
 on the important conclusion to which they seem to tend, 
 but he has certainly established the strongest case yet on 
 record for the existence of Tertiary man. With this 
 should, however, be placed the facts adduced in a similar 
 sense by Prestwich in his paper on the worked flints of 
 Ightham.-f- 
 
 Should this be established, the curious result will follow 
 that man must have been the witness of two great conti- 
 nental subsidences, that of the early Pleistocene and the 
 early modern, the former of which, and perhaps the latter 
 also, must have been accompanied with a great access of 
 cold in the Northern Hemisphere. It seems, however, 
 more likely that the facts will be found to admit of a 
 different explanation. 
 
 * Bull, de rAcademle Koy. de Belgique, 1889. 
 t Journal London Geological Society, May, 1889. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 
 
 It will be impossible, in the space at my disposal, to 
 embrace all the local details involved in my subject, and 
 to give these would be tedious and unremunerative. For 
 the greater part of them I must refer to reports and 
 papers already in print, and some of which will be 
 mentioned at the end of the chapter. I propose to notice 
 only certain leading localities to which my own attention 
 has been specially directed or which have important 
 bearings on our general conclusions. 
 
 /. — General Divisions of Canada. 
 
 That northern half of North America included in the 
 Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland may, for the 
 purposes now in view, be divided geographically into six 
 regions, characterized by distinctive physical features, and 
 by distinct relations to the phenomena of the glacial age. 
 
 1. Newfoundland, not yet included in the Dominion of 
 Canada, and separated from Labrador merely by the 
 straits of Belle-isle, may be considered as an outlying 
 part of the Laurentide range, and as an isolated centre of 
 
152 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 ice distribution, proceeding in the early glacial period 
 from its centre ; and later as a series of reefs and islands 
 in the arctic current. 
 
 2. The maritime provinces of Prince Edward Island, 
 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick constitute a part of the 
 Atlantic slope of North America, and not having any 
 very high mountains, have had only minor centres of 
 permanent ice, but have been traversed by powerful ice- 
 laden currents from the north, and at certain periods of 
 partial submergence, more especially in the later glacial 
 age, have had boulders scattered over them from local 
 sources in their own hills. Parts of northern New Bruns- 
 wick have been invaded, in the more extreme glacial age, 
 by local glaciers from the north-east extension of the 
 Appalachian mountains. 
 
 3. The Canadian region proper, or that constituting 
 the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, includes the wide 
 valley of the gulf and river St. Lawrence, and part of the 
 plateau of the great lakes. It curves to the south-west 
 and north-west around the great salient angle of the 
 Laurentian plateau, separating it from the basin of 
 Hudson's bay and the Arctic sea, and has to the south- 
 eastward the ridges of the Green and Appalachian 
 mountains forming the breast-bone of the North American 
 continent. In the earlier and more extreme glacial period 
 its lower lands were submerged and received on their 
 margins the ice discharged from the glaciers of the 
 Laurentide hills, the Adirondacks and the Appalachians. 
 The space between these now occupied by the St. 
 Lawrence, was a great channel like Baffin's bay and Davis 
 strait; but owing to its direction, much more intensely 
 glaciated by floating ice borne on the Arctic current, 
 which spread its burden over the submerged North 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 153 
 
 American plateau as far as the middle states of the Union, 
 or to the lines of the modern Ohio and Missouri rivers. 
 
 4. The region of Manitoba and the North-west. This 
 constitutes another, and now more elevated, plain, con- 
 tinuous with the former and with the great American 
 plateau on the south, and extending north-west to the 
 Arctic sea. It has the Laurentian axis on the north-east, 
 and the Eocky mountains, the eastern ridges of the great 
 Cordillera of the Pacific coast on the west. In the early 
 Pleistocene, this great plain was at a lower level than at 
 present, and the ice and debris from the Laurentide and 
 Cordilleran glaciers, and more especially from the former, 
 were distributed by water over its surface. In the mid- 
 glacial age it was partially elevated and overspread with 
 vegetation, but in the later glacial age it was much more 
 extensively submerged and its waters covered with float- 
 ing ice. 
 
 5. The great Cordilleran region of the west, embracing 
 the Eocky mountains, the Gold and Selkirk ranges, the 
 elevated interior plateau of British Columbia, and the 
 coast ranges of the Pacific. In the early glacial period 
 this region seems to have stood high out of the waters 
 which extended to the east and west of it, and was covered 
 with a great nev^, or snow-cap, sending off gigantic 
 glaciers in all directions, but more especially to the south, 
 north, and west. In the mid-glacial period it was greatly 
 reduced in height, and, for the most part, denuded of ice, 
 which, however, returned to it in diminished force in the 
 second or later glacial age. 
 
 Lastly : Canada includes a portion of the Arctic basin 
 north of the Laurentian ranges, and partly enclosed in 
 the wide angle which they form northward. This, so far 
 as known, was, throughout the glacial age, at a low level. 
 
154 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 and with a climate little different from that which it at 
 present possesses.* In the early glacial period, as well as 
 in the great submergence of the later Pleistocene, its 
 waters must have received contributions of ice, not only, 
 as at present, from Greenland, but also from the northern 
 parts of the Cordilleran and Laurentide glaciers, and 
 there must have been immense accumulations of field-ice 
 in the region of Hudson's bay and northward, which 
 poured its superabundance around both ends of the 
 Laurentides, and, in the times of greater submergence, 
 probably forced its way through many gaps into the 
 region of the great plains and the interior continental 
 plateau south-west of the St. Lawrence valley and great 
 lakes. 
 
 Bearing in mind these various local conditions, which 
 result from the facts stated in previous chapters, we shall 
 be prepared to appreciate the corroborative and otherwise 
 interesting facts which appear in the following local 
 details. 
 
 //. — Newfoundland and Labrador. 
 
 In the Journal of the Geological Society of London for 
 February, 1871, is a communication from Staff-commander 
 Kerr, RN.,in wliich he gives the directions of twenty-eight 
 examples of grooved and scratched surfaces observed in 
 the southern part of Newfoundland. The course of the 
 majority of these is N.E. and S.W., ranging from N. 8° E. 
 to k 64° E. The remainder are KW. and S.E., most of 
 them with a predominating easterly direction. Boulders 
 are mentioned, but no marine beds. The author refers 
 
 * This is proved by the transport of boulders to the north, by the 
 temperate character of the flora to the soutli of it, and by the continued 
 existence in it of the mammoth and its companions. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 155 
 
 the glaciation to land ice shoving from the interior of the 
 island, supposing certain submerged banks across the 
 mouths of the bays to be terminal moraines. (See also 
 the reports on the G-eology of Newfoundland, by Murray 
 and Howley.) 
 
 The latest information on the Pleistocene of Labrador 
 is that given in a paper by Dr. Packard in the memoirs of 
 the Boston Society of Natural History for 1867. The 
 deposits are said to consist of boulders, Leda clay and sand, 
 and raised beaches, which, on the authority of Prof. Hind, 
 are stated to reach an elevation of 1,200 feet above the sea. 
 The hills to a height of 2,500 feet are rounded as if by ice 
 action. Some higher hills present a frost-shattered surface 
 at their summits. No directions of striae are given, and 
 they appear to be rare. Mr. Campbell, author of " Frost 
 and Fire," mentions examples with course N. 45 °E. in the 
 strait of Belle-isle. It is reniarlcable that true boulder- 
 clay is rare in Labrador, though loose boulders are 
 abundant in the valleys and on the inland table-land. 
 Dr. Packard attributes the absence of boulder-clay to 
 denudation. This may be the case, but it is to be observed 
 that, on that view of the origin of boulder-clay which 
 attributes it to ice-laden Arctic currents, there must 
 always have been in the course of such currents areas of 
 denudation as well as areas of deposition, and an elevated 
 table-land like that of Labrador, in a high northern lati- 
 tude, may well have been of the former character, or may 
 have been a land area covered with snow and ice at the 
 time of the deposition of the boulder-clay. In many 
 respects, though less elevated, it resembles the aspect of 
 the Cordillera region of the west as described by Dr. G. M- 
 Dawson. 
 
156 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 The Leda clay occurs in several places, In 1860 I pub- 
 lished a list of species collected by Capt. Orlebar; and 
 Packard has greatly added to the number, giving a list 
 which will be referred to farther on. Dr. Packard very 
 truly remarks that the fauna of the Labrador clays is very 
 similar to that now found on the coast, and called by him 
 the Syrtensian fauna. In the latter we have a few south- 
 ern forms, absent in the clay, but this is all. Further, the 
 Labrador pleistocene fauna is identical or nearly so with 
 that of similar deposits in South Greenland, described by 
 Moller and Eink. Thus the climatal conditions of the 
 Arctic current on the coast of Labrador seem to have in 
 no respect differed in the Pleistocene from those which 
 obtain at present. The Leda clay with its character- 
 istic fossils is found as high as 500 feet above the level of 
 the sea. 
 
 Eaised beaches and terraces, whether cut into sand and 
 clay or the hard metamorphic rocks of the coast, are as 
 common in Labrador as along the shores of the river St. 
 Lawrence. Their precise altitudes are not given, but they 
 appear to be very numerous and rise to a great height 
 above the sea. One feature of some interest is their 
 consisting in some places of large stones and boulders, 
 evidencing very powerful action of coast ice and currents. 
 Packard speaks of many of these beaches as glacier 
 moraines modified by the sea. From the descriptions of 
 Prof. Hind,* it would also seem that there are traces of 
 local glaciers in the river valleys, similar to those referred 
 to above in the case of the Saguenay and the Murray 
 river, and these might now be restored by a slight 
 increase of cold or a moderate elevation of the land. 
 
 * Trans. Geol. Society, 1864. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 157 
 
 ///. — Anticosti. 
 
 On the island of Anticosti Messrs. Hyatt, Verrill and 
 Shaler found Saxicava arctica in clay at an elevation of 
 fifteen feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 The late Mr. Eichardson of the Geological Survey, to 
 whom we owe most of our knowledge of the geology of 
 Anticosti, had previously noticed, in his Eeport for 1857, 
 the occurrence of travelled boulders and of beds of clay, 
 holding rounded fragments of limestone, and forming 
 cliffs sixty to seventy feet high, but makes no mention of 
 any pleistocene fossils. In 1885 the island was visited by 
 Lt.-Col. Grant, of Hamilton, who made interesting collec- 
 tions, which he kindly presented to the Peter Eedpath 
 Museum of McGill University.* 
 
 The following are extracts from a letter of Col. Grant, 
 referring to the localities of the fossils and the mode of 
 their occurrence : 
 
 " The post-tertiary shells were first noticed in patche.s 
 of blue clay in the south-west of Anticosti, in the bed of 
 Becscia river, close to its mouth. When first seen, I 
 thought it probable that they had been washed in by a 
 high tide from the Gulf, but, on proceeding a short 
 distance up stream, I found the clay and shells in situ, 
 capped by a considerable thickness of drift, boulders, etc., 
 in the river bank. The shells appeared to be unusually 
 large. I collected a considerable number. Many got 
 subsequently broken in rough weather. 
 
 " The pleistocene clay (Leda clay), occurs also in the 
 bank and bed of Chaloupe river, and it is exposed along 
 the cliff within a few miles west of the South-west point 
 
 * Notes on Pleistocene Fossils from Anticosti, by Lt.-Col. C. E. 
 Grant and Sir W. Dawson, Canadian Record of Science, Vol. IL, 1886. 
 
158 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 lighthouse, and at several other points on the south shore. 
 On proceeding up Salmon river, north of Anticosti, at 
 about seven miles from the mouth, the high cliff on the 
 right bank is capped by a deposit of drift. 
 
 " Eight miles from the village of English bay (east), a 
 small stream from the top of the cliffs lays bare several 
 feet of blue clay, containing great numbers of very large 
 shells of Mya. The high tide reaches the base of the 
 clay and washes out numbers of specimens, as does the 
 brook adjacent. I was unable to examine the coast-line 
 except for a short distance. The cliffs, for some miles 
 beyond, from forty to seventy feet high, are crowned by 
 drift deposits. Where they slope, the boulders or rounded 
 pebbles from the top get mixed up with the clay below. 
 Fragments of shells are here numerous ; complete 
 specimens are few. 
 
 " The cliff to the west of Ellis or Gamache bay, called, 
 I think, ' Junction cliff,' by Eichardson, is also crowned 
 by a drift deposit. I succeeded in reaching part of the 
 slope where some of the Leda clay from above had lodged. 
 I found it contained many specimens of Saxicava rugosa, 
 and a few of Mi/a truncata, the latter much smaller than 
 those at Becscia river and eight miles east of English bay. 
 Glaciated or polished flags (chiefiy Hudson river lime- 
 stone) are not unusual in the drift of this part of the 
 island. Laurentian boulders were frequently remarked 
 in the river beds, some of considerable size also on the 
 land. There is one imbedded in the soil of a partly- 
 cleared farm near English bay. 
 
 " The island of Anticosti seems to be rising (the old 
 residents on various parts of the coast think the sea is 
 gradually retiring). I was assured by an inhabitant of 
 English bay, that the tops only of two large Laurentian 
 
. SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 159 
 
 boulders, lying on the reef in front of the village, were 
 visible at low water some twenty years ago ; the base and 
 many yards of the reef beyond are now exposed to view. 
 A high ridge of shingle and sand in rear of the village 
 represents the old beach. The bones of a whale were 
 found on this beach. At Macdonald's cave, Mr. Mac- 
 donald, one of the oldest residents, informed me : ' This 
 bay is filling up so fast that it will soon be dry land. I 
 remember, when I first came here, there were about two 
 or three feet of water where you now stand.' At Ellis 
 bay, about twelve miles from English bay village, evidence 
 also was obtained of the gradual elevation of the island." 
 
 The collection contains the following species, all of 
 them previously known in the Pleistocene of other parts 
 of Canada, and occurring as recent species in the colder 
 waters of the gulf and river St. Lawrence : 
 Buccinum itndatum, L., var. labradoricum. A small and 
 somewhat short specimen, probably not fully grown. 
 B. glaciate, L. A decorticated shell, probably this species. 
 Troplion clathratum , L. {T. scalar if or nie, Gould). A well- 
 developed specimen. 
 Natica affinis. One young shell. 
 Mya areiiaria, L. Shells of moderate size, some of them 
 
 distorted. 
 Mya truncata, L., var. uddevalensis. The short arctic 
 
 variety, and one of them of unusually large size. 
 Maconia calcarea, Chem. Large specimens. 
 Macoma groanlaiidica, L. One small valve. 
 Saxicava rugosa, L. Well-developed specimens and appar- 
 ently common. 
 Astarte hanksii, Leach. One valve. 
 Balanus crenatus, L. 
 Bhynchonella psittacea, L. 
 
160 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Col. Grant has also noted as occurring in the beds the 
 following species, of which there are no specimens in 
 the collection : 
 
 Pecten islandicus. 
 
 Mytilus edulis. 
 
 Natica grmnlandica. 
 
 Balanus hameri. 
 In sand and clay filling the interior of a Mya, which 
 seems to have been entombed in situ, are many micros- 
 copic tests of foraminifera and valves of Cy there and 
 Cy theridea. Among the former were the following species : 
 
 Polystomdla crispa. 
 
 Nonionina scapha (and var. labradorica). 
 
 Polymorphina lactea. 
 
 Truncahdi'/ia Idbata. 
 
 Lagena sulcata. 
 
 Entosolenia glohosa. 
 
 U. sgioamosa. 
 
 Glohigerina bulloides. 
 As usual in the Canadian Pleistocene, Polystomella 
 crispa is much more abundant than the other species. 
 Nonionina scapha comes next in this respect, and all the 
 others are rare. The material also contains numerous 
 spicules of siliceous sponges. 
 
 The above fossils may be regarded as characteristic of 
 the Upper Leda clay and Saxicava sand, both of which 
 members of the Pleistocene formation appear to be repre- 
 sented in Anticosti. 
 
 It would also appear that, as elsewhere in Canada, the 
 Leda clay is overlaid by a second or newer boulder 
 deposit connected with the Saxicava sand. To this it is 
 probable that many of the travelled boulders of Lauren- 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 161 
 
 tian rocks belong, as they are found in this connection 
 not only along the whole south shore of the St. Lawrence, 
 but even in Prince Edward Island and in Nova Scotia. It 
 would be important to distinguish in Anticosti this upper 
 drift more particularly from the lower boulder-clay when 
 this may occur, and to observe any instances of glacial 
 striation. 
 
 With reference to the levels above the sea, it is to be 
 observed that along the shore of the St. Lawrence there 
 is usually a raised beach only a few feet above the level 
 of the sea, and on which shells and bones of whales 
 frequently occur, and a well-marked terrace, with beach 
 deposits and boulders, at a level of sixty or seventy feet 
 above the sea level, and this would appear to be the case 
 also in Anticosti. 
 
 Before proceeding up the St. Lawrence valley into 
 Canada proper, I may cross to the south side of the gulf 
 of St. Lawrence and notice the drift-deposits of Prince 
 Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and 
 their connection with those of the state of Maine. 
 
 IV. — Prince Edward Island. 
 
 The Triassic and Permian rock formations of this 
 island consist almost entirely of red sandstones, and the 
 country is low and undulating, its highest eminences not 
 exceeding 400 feet. The prevalent Pleistocene deposit 
 is a boulder-clay, or in some places boulder loam, composed 
 of red sand and clay derived from the waste of the red 
 sandstones. This is filled with boulders of red sandstone 
 derived from the harder beds. They are more or less 
 rounded, often glaciated, with striae in the direction of 
 their longer axis, and sometimes polished in a remarkable 
 manner, when the softness and coarse character of the rock 
 12 
 
162 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 are considered. This polishing must have been effected 
 by rubbing with the sand and loam in which they are 
 embedded. These boulders are not usually large, though 
 some were seen as much as five feet in length. The boul- 
 ders in this deposit are almost universally of the native 
 rock, and must have been produced by the grinding of ice 
 on the outcrops of the harder beds. In the eastern and 
 middle portion of the island, only these native rocks were 
 seen in the clay, with the exception of pebbles of quartzite 
 which may have been derived from the Triassic conglom- 
 erates. At Campbellton, in the western part of the island, 
 I observed a bed of boulder-clay filled with boulders of 
 metamorphic rocks similar to those of the mainland of 
 New Brunswick, to the southward of this locality. 
 
 Striae were seen only in one place on the north-eastern 
 coast and at another on the south-western. In the former 
 case their direction was nearly S.W. and N".E. In the 
 latter it was S. 70" E. 
 
 No marine remains were observed in the boulder-clay ; 
 but at Campbellton, above the boulder-clay already men- 
 tioned, there is a limited area occupied with beds of 
 stratified sand and gravel, at an elevation of about fifty 
 feet above the sea, and in one of the beds there are shells 
 of Tellina Grcenlandica. 
 
 On the surface of the country, more especially in the 
 western part of the island, there are numerous travelled 
 boulders, sometimes of considerable size. As these do not 
 appear in situ in the boulder-clay, they may be supposed 
 to belong to a second or newer boulder-drift similar to 
 that which we shall find to be connected with the Saxicava 
 sand in Canada. These boulders being of rocks foreign to 
 Prince Edward Island, the question of their source 
 becomes an interesting one. With reference to this, it 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 163 
 
 may be stated in general terms that the majority are 
 granite, syenite, diorite, felsite, porphyry, quartzite and 
 coarse slates, all identical in mineral character with those 
 which occur in the metamorphic districts of Nova Scotia 
 and Xew Brunswick, at distances of from 50 to 200 miles 
 to the south and south-west ; though some of them may 
 have been derived from Cape Breton on the east. It is 
 further to be observed that these boulders are most abund- 
 ant and the evidences of denudation of the Trias greatest 
 in that part of the island which is opposite the deep break 
 between the hills of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 
 occupied by the bay of Fundy, Chignecto bay and the low 
 country extending thence to bale Verte and Northumber- 
 land strait, an evidence that this boulder-drift was con- 
 nected with currents of water passing up this depression 
 from the south or south-west during, perhaps, the later 
 part of the Pleistocene.* 
 
 Besides these boulders, however, there are others of a 
 different character; such as gneiss, hornblende schist, 
 anorthosite and Labradorite rock, which must have been 
 derived from the Laurentian rocks of Labrador and 
 Canada, distant 250 miles or more, to the northward. 
 These Laurentian rocks are chiefly found on the north 
 side of the island, as if at the time of their arrival the 
 island formed a shoal, at the north side of which the ice 
 carrying the boulders grounded and melted away. "With 
 reference to these boulders, it is to be observed that a 
 depression of four or five hundred feet would open a clear 
 passage for the arctic current entering the straits of 
 
 * I am informed that Mr. Chalmers has discovered striae on the 
 rocks of this low isthmus, which would show the passage of heavy ice 
 through it in Pleistocene times. 
 
164 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Belle-Isle, to the bay of Fundy; and that heavy ice 
 carried by this current might, at the time of greatest 
 depression, ground on Prince Edward Island, or be carried 
 across it to the southward. If the Laurentian boulders 
 came in this way, their source is probably 400 miles distant 
 in the strait of Belle Isle. On the north shore of Prince 
 Edward Island, except where occupied by sand dunes, the 
 beach shows great numbers of pebbles and small boulders 
 of Laurentian rocks. These are said by the inhabitants 
 to be cast up by the sea or pushed up by the ice in spring. 
 Whether they are now being drifted by ice direct from 
 the Labrador coast, or are old drift being washed up from 
 the bottom of the Gulf, which, north of the island, is 
 very shallow, does not appear. They are all much rounded 
 by the waves, differing in this respect from the majority 
 of the boulders found inland. 
 
 The older boulder-clay of Prince Edward Island, with 
 native boulders, must have been produced under circum- 
 stances of powerful ice-action, in which comparatively 
 little transport of material from a distance occurred. If 
 we attribute this to a glacier, then, as Prince Edward 
 Island is merely a slightly raised portion of the bottom of 
 the gulf of St. Lawrence, this can have been no other 
 than a gigantic mass of ice filling the whole basin of the 
 gulf, and without any slope to give it movement except 
 toward the centre of this great though shallow depression. 
 On the other hand, if we attribute the boulder-clay to 
 floating ice, it must have been produced at a time when 
 numerous heavy bergs were disengaged from what of 
 Labrador was above water, and when this was too 
 thoroughly enveloped in snow and ice to afford many 
 travelled stones. Farther, that this boulder-clay is a 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 165 
 
 sub-marine and not a sub-aerial deposit, seems to be 
 rendered probable by the circumstance that many of the 
 boulders of sandstone are so soft that they crumble 
 immediately when exposed to the weather and frost. 
 
 The travelled boulders lying on the surface of the 
 boulder-elay evidently belong to a later period, when the 
 hills of Labrador and Nova Scotia were above water, 
 though lower than at present, and were sufficiently bare 
 to furnish large supplies of stones to coast-ice carried by 
 the tidal currents sweeping up the coast, or by the arctic 
 current from the north, and deposited on the surface of 
 Prince Edward Island, then a shallow sand-bank. The 
 sands with sea shells probably belonged to this period, or 
 perhaps to the later part of it, when the land was 
 gradually rising. Prince Edward Island thus appears to 
 have received boulders from both sides of the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence during the later Pleistocene period; but the 
 greater number from the south side, perhaps because 
 nearer to it. It thus furnishes a remarkable illustration 
 of the transport of travelled stones at this period in 
 different directions, and in the comparative absence of 
 travelled stones in the lower boulder-clay, it furnishes a 
 similar illustration of the homogeneous and untravelled 
 character of that deposit, in circumstances where the 
 theory of floating ice serves to account for it, at least as 
 well as that of land-ice, and in my judgment, greatly 
 better. 
 
 In these respects the Pleistocene of Prince Edward 
 Island bears considerable resemblance to that of the lower 
 grounds of Nova Scotia, where local material is prevalent 
 in the lower part of the deposit, and travelled boulders 
 from different directions occur in the upper bed. 
 
166 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 V. — Nova Scotia and Hew Brunswick. 
 
 In these provinces the older geological structure is 
 different from that in Prince Edward Island, the country 
 consisting of Carboniferous and Triassic plains, with 
 ranges of older hills, often metamorphic, and attaining 
 elevations of 1,200 feet or more. It may, perhaps, be 
 best in the first instance to present a summary of the 
 phenomena, as I have given them in my Acadian 
 Geology, and to add such additional facts and inferences 
 as the present state of the subject may require. 
 
 The beds observed may be arranged as follows, in 
 descendiug order : 
 
 1. Gravel and sand beds, and ancient gravel ridges 
 and beaches, indicating the action of shallow water, and 
 strong currents and waves. Travelled boulders occur in 
 connection with these beds. 
 
 2. Stratified clay with shells, showing quiet deposition 
 in deeper water. 
 
 3. Unstratified boulder-clay, indicating, probably, tlW 
 •united action of ice and water. 
 
 4. Peaty deposits, belonging to a land-surface preceding 
 the deposit of the boulder-clay. 
 
 As the third of these formations is the most important 
 and generally diffused in N^ova Scotia and New Bruns- 
 wick, we shall attend to it first, and notice the relation of 
 the others to it. 
 
 The unstratified drift and boulder-clay, which occurs 
 chiefly at the lower levels of the country, varies from a 
 stiff clay to loose sand, and its composition and color 
 generally depend upon those of the underlying and neigh- 
 bouring rocks. Thus, over sandstone it is arenaceous, 
 over shales argillaceous, and over conglomerate and hard 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 167 
 
 slates pebbly or shingly. The greater number of the 
 stones contained in the drift are usually, like the paste 
 containing them, derived from the neighbouring rock 
 formations. These uutravelled fragments are often of 
 large size, and are usually angular, except when they are 
 of very soft material, or of rocks whose corners readily 
 weather away. It is easy to observe, that on passing 
 from a granite district to one composed of slate, or from 
 slate to sandstone, the character of the loose stones 
 changes accordingly. It is also a matter of familiar 
 observation, that in proportion to the hardness or softness 
 of the prevailing rocks, the quantity of these loose stones 
 increases or diminishes. In some of the quartzite and 
 granite districts of the Atlantic coast, the surface seems 
 to be heaped with boulders with only a little soil in their 
 interstices, and every little field, cleared with immense 
 labour, is still half filled with huge white masses 
 popularly known as " elephants." On the other hand, in 
 the districts of soft sandstone and shale, one may travel 
 some distance without seeing a boulder of considerable 
 size. The boulders are, as usual, often glaciated or 
 marked with ice-striae. 
 
 Though the more abundant fragments are untravelled, 
 it by no means follows that they are undisturbed. They 
 have been lifted from their original beds, heaped upon 
 each other in every variety of position, and intermixed 
 with saad and clay, in a manner which shows convincingly 
 that the sorting action of running water has nothing to 
 do with the matter ; and this applies not only to stones 
 of moderate size, but to masses of ten feet or more in 
 diameter. In some of the carboniferous districts where 
 the boulder-clay is thick, as for example, near Pictou 
 harbour, it is as if a gigantic harrow had been dragged 
 
168 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 over the surface, tearing up the outcrops of the beds, and 
 mingling their fragments in a rude and unsorted mass. 
 
 Besides the untravelled fragments, the drift always 
 contains boulders derived from distant localities, to which 
 in many cases we can trace them ; and I may mention a 
 few instances of this to show how extensive has been this 
 transport of detritus. In the low country of Cumberland 
 there are few boulders, but of the few that appear some 
 belong to the hard rocks of the Cobequid hills to the 
 southward; others may have been derived from the 
 somewhat similar hills of New Brunswick. On the 
 summits of the Cobequid hills and their northern slopes, 
 we find angular fragments of the sandstones of the plain 
 below, not only drifted from their original sites, but 
 elevated several hundreds of feet above them. To the 
 southward and eastward of the Cobequids, throughout 
 Colchester, Northern Hants, and Pictou, fragments from 
 these hills, usually much rounded, are the most abundant 
 travelled boulders, showing that there has been great 
 driftage from this elevated tract. Near the town of 
 Pictou, where a thick bed of a sandy boulder-deposit 
 occurs, this is filled with large masses of sandstone 
 derived from the outcrops of the beds on higher ground to 
 the north ; but with these are groups of travelled stones 
 often in the lower part of the nuiss. Near the steam 
 ferry wharf, in the town of Pictou, I observed one such 
 group, consisting of the following, all large boulders and 
 lying close together — two of red syenite, six of gray 
 granite, one of compact gray felsite, one of hard con- 
 glomerate, two of hard grit. The two last were probably 
 Lower Carboniferous, the others derived from the older 
 crystalline rocks. All may have been drifted by one berg 
 or ice-floe from the flanks of the Cobequid range of hills. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 169 
 
 or from the similar hills to the east and south. In like 
 manner, the long ridge of trap rocks, extending from cape 
 Blomidon to Briar island, has sent off great quantities of 
 boulders across the sandstone \alley which bounds it on 
 the south and up the slopes of the slate and granite hills 
 to the southward of this valley. Well-characterized 
 fragments of trap from Blomidon may be seen near the 
 town of Windsor ; and I have seen unmistakable frag- 
 ments of similar rock from Digby neck, on the Tusket 
 river, thirty miles from their original position. On the 
 other hand, numerous boulders of granite have been 
 carried to the northward from the hills of Annapolis, and 
 deposited on the slopes of the opposite trappean ridge ; 
 and some of them have been carried round its eastern 
 end, and now lie on the shores of Londonderry and 
 Onslow. So also, while immense numbers of boulders 
 have been scattered over the south coast from the granite 
 and quartz rock ridges immediately inland, many have 
 drifted in the opposite direction, and may be found 
 scattered over the counties of Antigonish, Pictou and 
 
 stratified gravel on boukler-clay, Merigonish, N.S. 
 
 Colchester. A few boulders, apparently of Laurentian 
 rock from Labrador, occur on the north coast of Nova 
 Scotia, and Dr. Honeyman has recorded similar boulders 
 near Halifax on the Atlantic coast. These facts show 
 that the transport of travelled blocks, though it may here 
 as in other parts of America have been principally from 
 
170 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the northward, has by no means been exclusively so; 
 boulders having been carried in various directions, and 
 more especially from the more elevated and rocky dis- 
 tricts to the lower grounds in their vicinity. Professor 
 Hind has shown the existence of a similar relation 
 between the boulders of New Brunswick and the hilly 
 ranges of that country. 
 
 Such observations as I have been able to make in Nova 
 Scotia and New Brunswick, and those of Hind, Matthews 
 and others, show a general southerly and south-easterly 
 direction of striation, with some local variations. The 
 Keports of Mr. E. Chalmers of the Geological Survey of 
 Canada have, however, contributed a large mass of new 
 material,* and have gone far to enable us to distinguish 
 the effects of local glacier action from those of sea-borne 
 ice. It would appear, from these observations, that while 
 local glaciers have been shed in different directions, even 
 from the comparatively low mountains of the maritime 
 provinces, a large and even dominant influence has been 
 exercised by marine agencies. The tables of striation in 
 Mr. Chalmers' Report of 1888-9 are especially worthy of 
 study in this respect. His general results for southern 
 New Brunswick are thus stated : j- " Co-ordinating the 
 data at hand respecting the glaciation of the region, it 
 would seem that the theory of local glaciers on the higher 
 grounds and ice-bergs or floating ice upon the lower, 
 during the post-tertiary submergence of these, is sufficient 
 to account for all the facts coming under observation." 
 
 * Report Geol. Survey of Canada, 1885 and following years. 
 
 t Report of 1889, Ottawa, 1890. See also papers by Mr. Chalmei-s 
 in Ganadian Record of Science, and Trans. Royal Society of Canada, 
 1886, p. 139. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 171 
 
 This general statement appears to me to apply throughout 
 the maritime provinces, though there are many local 
 complexities, owing to the peculiar orographieal and 
 geographical features of the region. 
 
 The following notes relate to a few special features 
 referred to in my previously published papers, and to the 
 occurrence of marine fossils in the maritime provinces. 
 
 The travelled and untravelled boulders are usually 
 intermixed in the drift. In some instances, however, the 
 former appear to be most numerous near the surface of 
 the mass, and their horizontal distribution is also very 
 irregular. In examining coast sections of the drift we 
 may find for some distance a great abundance of angular 
 blocks, with few travelled boulders, or both varieties are 
 equally intermixed, or travelled boulders prevail ; and we 
 may often observe particular kinds of these last grouped 
 together, as, for instance, a number of blocks of granite, 
 greenstone, syenite, etc., near each other, as if they had 
 been removed from their original beds and all deposited 
 together at one operation. On the surface of the country 
 where the woods have been removed, this arrangement is 
 sometimes equally evident ; thus hundreds of granite 
 boulders may be seen to cumber one limited spot, while in 
 its neighbourhood they are comparatively rare. It is also 
 well known to the farmers in the more rocky districts that 
 many spots which appear to be covered with boulders 
 liave, when these are removed, a layer of soil comparatively 
 free from stones beneath. These appearances may in some 
 instances result from the action of currents of water, which 
 have in spots carried off the sand or clay, leaving the 
 boulders behind ; but in many cases this is manifestly the 
 original arrangement of the material, the superficial layer 
 
172 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 of boulders belonging to a more recent driftage than that 
 of the underlying mass in which boulders are often much 
 less abundant. 
 
 Boulders or travelled stones are often found in places 
 where there is no other drift. For example, on bare 
 granite hills, about 500 feet in height, near St. Mary's 
 river, there are large angular blocks of quartzite, derived 
 from the ridges of that material, which abound in the dis- 
 trict, but which are separated from the hills on which the 
 fragments lie by deep valleys. 
 
 In Nova Scotia, beds with marine shells have been found 
 by Mr. Matthew at Horton bluff, but not elsewhere, though 
 the boulder-clay is often covered with beds of stratified 
 sand and gravel. Tlie only evidence of land life, in 
 the boulder period, or immediately before it, that I have 
 noticed, is a hardened peaty bed which appears under the 
 boulder-clay on the north-west arm of the river qf Inhab- 
 itants in Cape Breton. It rests upon gray clay similar to 
 that which underlies peat bogs, and is overlaid by nearly 
 twenty feet of boulder-clay. Pressure has rendered it 
 nearly as hard as coal, though it is somewhat tougher and 
 more earthy in appearance. It has a shining streak, 
 burns with considerable flame, and approaches in its 
 characters to the brown coals or more imperfect varieties 
 of bituminous coal. It contains many small roots and 
 branches, apparently of a taxine tree, with debris of swamp 
 plants. The vegetable matter composing this bed must 
 ■have flourished before the drift was spread over the surface. 
 
 In New Brunswick, stratified clays holding marine 
 shells have been found overlying the boulder-clay, or in 
 connection with it, especially in the southern part of the 
 
 * Geol. Survey of Canada, 1889 and previous years. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 173 
 
 province, where deposits of this kind occur similar to 
 those found in Canada and in Maine, though apparently 
 on a smaller scale. These deposits, as they occur near 
 St. John, consist of gray and reddish clays, holding fossils 
 which indicate moderately deep water, and are, as to 
 species, identical with those occurring in similar deposits 
 in Canada and in Maine. They would indicate a some- 
 what lower temperature than that of the waters of the 
 bay of Fundy at present, or about that of the northern 
 part of the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 In Bailey's Eeport on the Geology of Southern New 
 Brunswick, Professor Hartt has given a list of the fossils 
 of these beds, as seen at Lawlor's lake. Duck cove and 
 St. John, which I re-published with some additions in 
 Acadian Geology. 
 
 These New Brunswick beds are strictly continuous 
 with, and equivalent to those which extend along the 
 coast of New England, and thence ascend into the valley 
 of lake Champlain, while on the other side they may be 
 considered as perfectly representing in character and 
 fossils the Leda clay of Eastern Canada. They are 
 remarkably like both in mineral character and fossils to 
 the Clyde beds of Scotland, which are probably their 
 equivalents. The points of resemblance of the Leda clay 
 of the coast of Maine, and that of the St. Lawrence, and 
 Labrador, were noticed by me in my paper of 1860, 
 already referred to, and have been more fully brought 
 out by Dr. Packard, who describes the Leda clay as it 
 occurs at several localities from Eastport to cape Cod. 
 Along this whole coast it retains its Labradoric or gulf of 
 St. Lawrence aspect, though with the introduction of 
 some more southern species, and the gradual failure of 
 some more arctic forms. South of cape Cod, as in the 
 
174 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 modern sea, the Pleistocene beds assume a much more 
 southern aspect in their fossils, the boreal forms altogether 
 disappearing. For a very full exhibition of these facts, I 
 may refer to Dr. Packard's paper. 
 
 The stratified sand and gravel of Nova Scotia rests 
 upon and is newer than the boulder-clay, and is also 
 newer than the stratified marine clays above referred to. 
 Its age is probably that of the Saxicava sand of the St. 
 Lawrence valley. The former relation may often be seen 
 in coast sections or river banks, and occasionally in road 
 cuttings. I observed some years ago an instructive 
 illustration of this fact in a bank on the shore a little to 
 the eastward of Merigomish harbour. At this place the 
 lower part" of the bank consists of clay and sand with 
 angular stones, principally sandstones. Upon this rests a 
 bed of fine sand and small rounded gravel with layers of 
 coarser pebbles. The gravel is separated from the drift 
 below by a layer of the same sort of angular stones that 
 appear in the drift, showing that the currents which 
 deposited the upper bed have washed away some of the 
 finer portions of the drift before the sand and gravel were 
 thrown down. In this section, as well as in most others 
 that I have examined, the lower part of the stratified 
 gravel is finer than the upper part, and contains more sand. 
 
 In some cases we can trace the pebbles of the gravels 
 to ancient conglomerate rocks which have furnished them 
 by their decay; but in other instances the pebbles may 
 have been rounded by the waters that deposited them in 
 their present place. In places, however, where old pebble 
 rocks do not occur, we sometimes find, instead of gravel, 
 beds of fine laminated sand. A very remarkable instance 
 of the connection of superficial gravels with ancient 
 pebble rocks occurs in the county of Pictou. In the coal 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 175 
 
 formation of this county there is a very thick bed of 
 conglomerate, the outcrop of which, owing to its compara- 
 tive hardness and great mass, forms a high ridge extending 
 from the hill behind New Glasgow across the East and 
 Middle rivers, and along the south of the West river, and 
 then, crossing the West river, re-appears in Eogers' hill. 
 The valleys of these three rivers have been cut through 
 this bed, and the material thus removed has been heaped 
 up in hillocks and beds of gravel, along the banks of the 
 streams, on the side toward which the water now flows, 
 which happens to be the north and north-east. Accord- 
 ingly, along the course of the Albion Mines Railway and 
 the lower parts of the Middle and West rivers, these 
 gravel beds are everywhere exposed in the road-cuttings, 
 and may in some places be seen to rest on the boulder- 
 clay, showing that the cutting of these valleys was 
 completed after the drift was produced. Similar instances 
 of the connection of gravel with conglomerate occur near 
 Antigonish, and on the sides of the Cobequid mountains, 
 where some of the valleys have at their southern entrances 
 immense tongues of gravel extending out into the plain, 
 as if currents of enormous volume had swept through 
 them from north to south. 
 
 The stratified gravels do not, like the older drift, form a 
 continuous sheet spreading over the surface. They occur 
 in mounds and long ridges, or eskers, sometimes extending 
 for miles over the country. One of the most remarkable 
 of these ridges is the " Boar's Back," which runs along the 
 west side of the Hebert river in Cumberland. It is a 
 narrow ridge, perhaps from ten to twenty feet in height, 
 and cut across in several places by the channels of small 
 brooks. The ground on either side appears low and flat. 
 For eight miles it forms a natural road, rough, indeed, but 
 
176 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 practicable with care to a carriage, the general direction 
 being nearly north and south. What its extent or course 
 may be beyond the points where the road enters on and 
 leaves it, I do not know ; but it appears to extend from the 
 base of the Cobequid mountains to a ridge of sandstone that 
 crosses the lower part of the Hebert river. It consists of 
 gravel and sand, whether stratified or not I could not 
 ascertain, with a few large boulders. Another very singu- 
 lar ridge of this kind is that running along the west side 
 of Clyde river in Shelburne county. This ridge is higher 
 than that on Hebert river, but, like it, extends parallel to 
 the river, and forms a natural road, improved by art in 
 such a manner as to be a very tolerable highway. Along 
 a great part of its course it is separated from the river by 
 a low alluvial flat, and on the land side a swamp intervenes 
 between it and the higher ground. Shorter and more 
 interrupted ridges of this kind may also be seen in the 
 country northward and eastward of the town of Pictou. 
 In sections they are seen to be stratified, and they 
 generally occur on low or level tracts, and in places where, 
 if the country were submerged, the surf or marine currents 
 and tides might be expected to throw up ridges. The 
 presence of boulders shows that ice grounded on these 
 ridges, and it, probably by its pressure, in some instances, 
 modified their forms. These eskers, or "horse-backs," 
 must not, however, be regarded as glacier moraines, to 
 which in structure they generally bear no resemblance. 
 
 Mr. Chalmers has in New Brunswick endeavoured, with 
 some success, to distinguisli those that belong to river 
 valleys and glaciers from those that are marine. 
 
 The Eev. Mr. Paisley has published in the Canadian 
 Naturalist (1872) a list of shells obtained from a railway 
 cutting on the Tattagouche river, near Bathurst, in New 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 177 
 
 Brunswick. They were found iu beds of Leda clay 
 passing upwards into sand and gravel. At the Jacquet 
 river, in the same district, the bones of a small cetacean 
 have been found, and have been described by Dr. Gilpin 
 and Dr. Honeyman.* They were referred by Dr. Gilpin 
 to Belioga Vermontana of Thompson from the Pleistocene 
 of Vermont. Similar bones have been found in the Leda 
 clay of the St. Lawrence valley, and have been compared 
 by the late Mr. Billings with the skeleton of the recent 
 B. catodon, L., of the St. Lawrence, with which the 
 so-called B. Vermontana is probably identical, as the 
 specimens above referred to, and examined by Billings, 
 certainly were. 
 
 Mr. Matthew has found Tellina Gi'oeidandica at Horton 
 Bluff, in beds probably of the age of the Saxicava sand. 
 Mr. Matthew has also published f a valuable synopsis of 
 the fossils found up to 1876 in the Post-pliocene of New 
 Brunswick, in which the number of species of mollusca is 
 raised to more than thirty. He notes the important fact 
 that the shells found on the coast of the bale de Chaleurs 
 are of more northern type than those in the bay of Fundy, 
 which conform more nearly to the assemblage found in 
 these deposits on the New England coasts, so that the 
 existing geographical regions were already to some extent 
 established on' the coast of ISTorth America in the period 
 of the Upper Leda clay. 
 
 It is probably to the more modern part of the Pleisto- 
 cene, if not to a more recent period following the elevation 
 of the land, that the bones of the mastodon found in cape 
 Breton, and described in "Acadian Geology," belong. To 
 
 * Trans. Nova Scotia Institute, Vol. III. 
 t Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VIII. 
 13 
 
178 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 this later or post-glacial age also belong the boulder 
 pavements of lakes, the shore ridges, the oyster beds and 
 the sand dunes described in the same work and in the 
 " Supplement " to it (page 17). 
 
 VI. — Loioer St. Laivrence — North Side. 
 
 Descriptions of the Pleistocene deposits of this region 
 are contained in several of my papers above cited, but I 
 shall here give a summary of these, with some corrections 
 and additional facts obtained within the past few years. 
 
 Saguenay River. — I have already, in part first, referred 
 to the glacial striation of this region, and perhaps no 
 better example could be found of those lateral valleys 
 along which ice seems to have been poured into the St. 
 Lawrence from the north. The gorge of the Saguenay is 
 a narrow and deep cut, running nearly !N".W. and S.E., or 
 at right angles to the course of the St. Lawrence, and of 
 the Laurentian ridges. It extends inland more than 
 forty-five miles, and then divides into two branches, one 
 of which is occupied by the continuation of the river to 
 lake St. John, the other by Ha-Ha bay and a valley at its 
 head. In the lower part of its course, as far as Ha-Ha 
 bay, this gorge is from 50 to 140 fathoms deep below the 
 level of the tide in the St. Lawrence, indicating an eleva- 
 tion of the land to that extent or more, at the time when 
 it was excavated. In some places the cliffs on its banks 
 rise abruptly to 1,500 feet above the water level, so that 
 its extreme depth is nearly 2,400 feet, while its width 
 varies from about a mile to about one and a-half. The 
 striated surfaces and the roches moiUonn^es seen in this 
 gorge and on the hills on its sides, to a height of at least 
 300 feet, shew that in the glacial period a powerful 
 stream of ice must have flowed down the gorge into the 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 179 
 
 St. Lawrence, though whether this was wholly a glacier 
 or in part a fiord leading from one, like many of those in 
 Greenland, does not certainly appear. Possibly, with 
 different levels of the land, these conditions may have 
 alternated. I cannot imagine anything more like what 
 the Saguenay may have been, than the Franz Joseph fiord 
 in east Greenland.* 
 
 The strikes of the gneiss on the opposite sides of the 
 Saguenay indicate that it occupies a line of transverse 
 fracture, constituting a weak portion of the Laurentian 
 ridges, and this has evidently been smoothed and deepened 
 by water and ice under conditions different from the 
 present, in which it is probable that the channel is being 
 gradually filled with mud. Its excavation must have 
 taken place during a period of continental ele\'ation in oi' 
 after the Pliocene period, and previous to the deposition 
 of the thick beds of marine clay (Leda clay) which appear 
 near its mouth and in its tributaries, sometimes passing 
 into boulder-clay below, and capped by sand and gravel. 
 It is indeed not improbable that in the later Pleistocene 
 it was in great part filled up with such deposits, which 
 have been swept away in the course of the re-elevation of 
 the land. 
 
 At Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where the 
 underlying formation is the Laurentian gneiss, the Pleis- 
 tocene beds attain to great thickness, but are of simple 
 structure and only slightly fossiliferous. The principal 
 part is a stratified sandy clay with few boulders, except 
 in places near the ridges of Laurentian rocks, when it 
 becomes filled with numerous rounded blocks and pebbles 
 of gneiss. This forms high banks eastward of Tadoussac. 
 
 * Second German Expedition, 1870. See also a paper by Prof. 
 Laflamrae, Trans. R.S.C. 
 
180 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 It contains a few shells of Tellina Grmnlandica and Leda 
 glacialis, and a little inland, at Bergeron river, it also 
 contains Cardium Islandicum, Astarte elliptica, and Rhyn- 
 chonella psiUacea. It resembles some of the beds seen on 
 the south side of the river St. Lawrence, and has also 
 much of the aspect of the Leda clay, as developed in the 
 valley of the Ottawa. On this clay there rest in places 
 thick beds of yellow sand and gravel. 
 
 At Tadoussac these deposits have been cut into a 
 succession of terraces which are well seen near the hotel 
 and old church. The lowest, near the shore, is about ten 
 feet high ; the second, on which the hotel stands, is forty 
 feet ; the third is 120 to 150 feet in height, and is uneven 
 at top. The highest, which consists of sand and gravel, is 
 about 250 feet in height. Above this, the country inland 
 consists of bare Laurentian rocks. These terraces have 
 been cut out of deposits, once more extensive, in the 
 process of elevation of the land ; and the present flats off 
 the mouth of the Saguenay would form a similar terrace 
 as wide as any of the others, if the country were to 
 experience another elevatary movement. On the third 
 terrace I observed a few large Laurentian boulders, and 
 some pieces of red and gray shale of the Quebec group, 
 indicating the action of coast-ice when this terrace was 
 cut. On the highest terrace there were also a few 
 boulders ; and both terraces are capped with pebbly sand 
 and well-rounded gravel, indicating the long-continued 
 action of the waves at the levels which they represent. 
 
 Murray Bay, etc. — At Murray bay. Petit Mai bay, and 
 Les Eboulements, as noticed above, the system of Pleisto- 
 cene terraces is well developed. On the west side of 
 Murray bay, the Cambro-Silurian rocks of White point, 
 immediately within the pier, form a steep cliff, in the 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 181 
 
 middle of which is a terraced step marking an ancient sea 
 level. At the end nearest the pier the sea has again cut 
 back to the old cliff, leaving merely a narrow shelf ; but 
 toward the inner side this shelf rapidly expands into the 
 sandy flat along which the main road runs, and which is 
 continuous with the lower plain extending all the way to 
 the head of the bay. In this flat the upper portion of the 
 Pleistocene deposit seems to consist principally of sand 
 and gravel, resting on stony clay. In the former, which 
 corresponds to the Saxicava sand of Montreal, I found 
 only a few valves of Tellina Qrmnlandica, which is still 
 the most abundant shell on the modern beach. In the 
 latter, corresponding to the Leda clay, which is best seen 
 in some parts of the shore at low tide, I found a number 
 of deep water shells of the following species, all of which, 
 except Spirorbis spirillum and Aphrodite Grcenlandica, 
 have been found in these deposits at Quebec and 
 Montreal : 
 
 Fusus tornatiis. 
 
 Trophon scalariforme. 
 
 Margarita helicina. 
 
 Cylichna occulta. 
 
 Pecten Islandicus. 
 
 Tellina calca.rea. 
 
 Leda truncata. 
 
 Saxicava rugosa. 
 
 Aphrodite Grcenlandica. 
 
 Mytilus edidis. 
 
 Mya arenaria. 
 
 Balanus Hameri. 
 
 Spirorhis spirillum. 
 
 S. vitrea. 
 
 Serpida vermicularis. 
 
182 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 These shells imply a higher beach than that of this 
 lower flat, which is not more than thirty feet above the 
 present sea level. Accordingly, above this are several 
 higher terraces. (See Supra under " Terraces and Kaised 
 Beaches.") The second principal terrace, which forms a 
 steep bank of clay some distance behind the main road, is 
 116 feet in height, and is of considerable breadth, and has 
 on its front in some places an imperfect terrace at the 
 height of 81 feet. It corresponds nearly in height with 
 the shoulder over which the road from the pier passes. 
 Upon it, in the rear of the property of Mr. Duberger, is 
 a little stream which disappears underground, probably in 
 a fissure of the underlying limestone, and returns to the 
 surface only on the shore of the bay. Above this is a 
 smaller and less distinct terrace, 139 feet high. Beyond 
 this the ground rises in a steep slope, which in many 
 places consists of calcareous beds, worn and abraded by 
 the waves, but showing no distinct terrace ; and the 
 highest distinct shore mark which I observed is a narrow 
 beach of rounded pebbles at the height of more than 300 
 feet ; but above this there is a flat at the height of 448 
 feet. This beach appears to become a wide terrace further 
 to the north, and also on the opposite side of the bay. 
 It probably corresponds with the highest terrace observed 
 by Sir W. E. Logan at bay St. Paul, and estimated by 
 him at the height of 360 feet. 
 
 As already stated, three of the principal terraces at 
 Murray bay correspond nearly with three of the principal 
 shore levels at Montreal ; and in various parts of Canada 
 two principal lines of old sea beaches occur at about 100 
 to 150 feet, and 300 to 350 feet above the sea, though 
 there are others at different levels. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 183 
 
 In the Pleistocene period the valley of the Murray bay 
 river has been filled, almost or quite to the level of the 
 highest terrace, with an euorniously thick mass of mud 
 and boulders, washed from the land and deposited in the 
 sea-bed during the long period of Pleistocene submergence. 
 Through this mass the deep valley of the river has been 
 out, and the clay, deprived of support and resting on 
 inclined surfaces, has slipped downward, forming strangely 
 shaped slopes, and outlying masses, that have in some 
 instances been moulded by the receding waves, or by the 
 subsequent action of the weather, into conical mounds, so 
 regular that it is difficult to convince many of the visitors 
 to the bay that they are not artificial. Sir W. E. Logan, 
 in his report on the district, has, in my view, given the 
 true explanation of these mounds, which may be seen in 
 all stages of formation on the neighbouring hill-sides. 
 Their effect to a geological eye is to give to this beautiful 
 valley an unfinished aspect, as if the time elapsed since its 
 elevation had not been sufficient to allow its slopes to 
 attain to their fully rounded contour. This appearance is 
 no doubt due to the enormous thickness of the deposit of 
 Pleistocene mud, to the uneven surfaces of the underlying 
 rock, and possibly also in part to the earthquake shocks 
 which have visited this region. 
 
 At the mouth of the Murray Bay river, the boulder- 
 clay rests directly on the striated rock-surfaces, and 
 is a true till, filled with the Laurentian stones and 
 boulders of the inland hills, though resting on Cambro- 
 Silurian limestone. It is evidently marine, since it 
 contains shells of Leda glacialis ; and many of the stones 
 are coated with Bryozoa and Spirorbis. It is also observ- 
 able that on the N.E. sides of the limestone ridges the 
 boulders are more numerous and larger. Above the 
 
184 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 boulder-clay may in some places be seen a stratified sandy 
 clay, which further up the river attains to a great 
 thickness. It contains Saxicava rugosa, Tellina Grce/n- 
 landica and Tellina calcarea, as well as Leda glacialis. The 
 most recent deposit is a sand or gravel, often of consider- 
 able thickness, and in some of the beds of gravel the 
 pebbles are more completely rounded than those of the 
 modern beach. 
 
 I have already stated my reasons for believing that the 
 upper part of the valley of the Murray Bay river may 
 have been the bed of a glacier flowing down from the 
 inland hills toward the St. Lawrence. N.W. and S.E. 
 striae attributable to this glacier were seen at an elevation 
 of 800 feet, and the marine beds were traced up to almost 
 the same height, above which, to a height of about 1,200 
 feet, loose boulders were observed and glaciated rock- 
 surfaces, but no marine deposits. It is probable, there- 
 fore, that at a time when the sea extended up to an 
 elevation of 800 feet, the higher part of the valley may 
 have been filled with land ice. Whether the bergs from 
 this, drifting down toward the St. Lawrence, produced 
 the N.W. striation observed at a lower level, or whether 
 at a previous period, when the land was higher, the ice 
 extended farther down, may admit of doubt. Certainly no 
 land ice has extended to a lower level than about 800 feet 
 since the deposition of the marine boulder and Leda clay. 
 
 Very large boulders occur in this vicinity. One observed 
 on the beach on the east side of the bay, is an oval mass 
 of lime felspar, thirty feet in circumference, lying like 
 most other large boulders in this region, with its longer 
 axis to the N.E. 
 
 Les Moulements. — At this place the Laurentian hills 
 rise to a great height near the shore, and the Pleistocene 
 
SOME LOCAL DKTAILS. 185 
 
 beds present the exceptional feature of resting on a soft 
 and decomposed shale (Utica shale). This rock might 
 indeed be mistaken for drift but for its stratification, 
 and it must have been decomposed to a great depth by 
 sub-aerial action and subsequently submerged and covered 
 by the Pleistocene beds. Its preservation is the more 
 remarkable that the clay overlying it contains very large 
 Laurentian boulders, which must have been quietly de- 
 posited by floating ice. Only a few shells of Tellina 
 Grcenlandica were observed in these clays. 
 
 The remarkable series of terraces seen at this place, 
 and noticed in chapter second, rising to 900 feet in height, 
 are all cut out of the Pleistocene beds and decomposed 
 shale, and even the highest presents large boulders. In 
 examining such terraces it is always necessary to distin- 
 guish between the clays out of which the terraces have 
 been cut and the more modern deposits resting on the 
 terraces. Both may contain fossils, but those of the 
 original clay are in this region mostly of deeper water 
 species than those in the overlying superficial beds. 
 
 I attribute the preservation of the- thick beds of boulder- 
 clay and the decomposed shale at Les Eboulements, to the 
 fact that no transverse valley exists here, and that a point 
 of high Laurentian land projects to the north-east, so as 
 to shelter this place from forces acting in that direction. 
 I have observed this appearance on the lee or south-west 
 side of other projecting masses of hard rock, and as the 
 decomposed shale must be a monument remaining from 
 the Pliocene elevation of the land, it shows that no 
 powerful eroding force had acted between that time and 
 the period of the N.E. arctic ice-laden currents. 
 
 It is perhaps deserving of notice that the thick beds of 
 soft material at Les Eboulements have been cut into 
 
186 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 many irregular forms by modern subaerial causes of 
 denudation, and also by landslips; which last have been in 
 part connected with the earthquake shocks with which 
 this part of the coast has been visited more than any 
 other district of Canada. 
 
 Above Les Eboulements, bay St. Paul presents features 
 similar to those of Murray bay, and then the Laurentian 
 land of cape Tourment comes boldly forward to the shore 
 of the river. Above this the conditions are similar to 
 those observed in the neighbourhood of Quebec. 
 
 VII. — Lower St. Lawrence.- — Soidh Side. 
 
 The Eeport of the Geological Survey of Canada (1863) 
 includes all that is yet known of the Pleistocene 
 formations at Gasp^, and thence upward to Trois Pistoles. 
 According to this Report, the boulder-clay and overlying 
 sands and gravels are extensively spread over the peninsula 
 of Gasp^. On the Magdalen river they have been traced 
 up to a height of 1,600 feet above the sea, though marine 
 shells are not recorded at this great height. Terraces 
 occur at various elevations, and in one of the lower at 
 port Daniel, only fifteen feet above the sea, marine shells 
 occur. On the coast westward of cape "Rosier, terraces 
 occur at many places, and of different heights, and marine 
 shells have been found ninety feet above the sea. I have 
 not had opportunities to examine these deposits to the 
 eastward of the place next to be mentioned. 
 
 Trois Pistoles. — At this place one of the most complete 
 and instructive sections of the Pleistocene in Canada 
 has been exposed by the deep ravine of the river, and by 
 the cuttings for the Intercolonial Eailway. The most 
 important terrace at the mouth of the Trois Pistoles 
 river, that in which the railway cutting has been made, is 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 187 
 
 about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the 
 sea, and is composed of clay, capped with sand and gravel. 
 At no great distance inland, there rises a second terrace 
 one hundred and sixty feet higher than the first, or about 
 three hundred and ten feet above the sea. In some 
 places the front of this terrace is cut into two or more. 
 It consists of clay capped with sand and gravel, with some 
 large stones and Laurentian boulders. Still farther inland 
 is a third terrace, the height of which was estimated at 
 four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet. 
 
 In the first mentioned of the above terraces, a very 
 deep railway cutting has been made, exposing a thick bed 
 of homogeneous clay of a purplish gray colour, and 
 extremely tenacious. It contains few fossils ; and these, 
 as far as I could ascertain, exclusively Leda glacialis. It 
 is, in short, a typical Leda clay, and its thickness in this 
 lower terrace can scarcely be less than one hundred and 
 twenty feet. As the inland terraces are probably also 
 cut out of it, this may be less than half of its maximum 
 depth. Under the Leda clay a typical boulder-clay had 
 been exposed at one place in digging a mill sluice. It 
 seemed to be about twenty feet thick, and rests on the 
 smoothed edges of the shales of the Quebec group. 
 
 Though the Leda clay at the Trois Pisioles seems 
 perfectly homogeneous, it shows indications of stratifica- 
 tion, and holds a few large Laurentian boulders, which 
 become more numerous in tracing it to the westward. A 
 short distance westward of Trois Pistoles, it is seen to be 
 overlaid by a boulder-deposit, in some places consisting of 
 large loose boulders, in others approaching to the character 
 of a true boulder-clay or associated with stratified sand 
 and gravel. We thus have boulder-clay below, next 
 Leda clay, and above this a second boulder-drift associated 
 
188 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 with the Saxicava sand, and apparently resting on the 
 terraces cut out of the older clays. This is the arrange- 
 ment which prevails throughout this part of Canada. It 
 is modified by the greater or less relative thickness of the 
 boulder-clay and Leda clay, by the irregular distribution 
 of the overlying sands, and by the projection through it 
 of ridges of the underlying rocks. 
 
 The section at Trois Pistoles may be represented as 
 follows in descending order : 
 
 1. Sand and Gravel, capping the terraces cut in the 
 
 previous deposits, and forming slight ridges or 
 eskers in some of the lower levels. It contains on 
 the lower terraces a few shells of Leda and Tellina. 
 At the bottom of this deposit there are seen in 
 places many large boulders of Laurentian and 
 Lower Silurian rocks, resting on the Leda clay 
 below. 
 
 2. Leda Clay, exposed in the railway cutting and seen 
 
 also in the edge of the second terrace. Thickness 
 one hundred and twenty feet or more. It holds 
 a few large boulders and shells of Leda glacialis — 
 the latter uninjured and with the valves united. 
 
 3. Boulder-clay, or hard gray till, with boulders and 
 
 stones. Seen in a mill-sluice near the bridge, and 
 estimated at twenty feet in thickness at this place, 
 though apparently increasing in thickness farther 
 to the westward. 
 
 4. Shales of Siluro-Cambrian age, seen in the bottom of 
 
 the river near the bridge. They are smoothed 
 over, but show no striae, though they have 
 numerous structure lines which might readily be 
 mistaken for ice-striae. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 189 
 
 To the eastward of the mouth of Trois Pistoles river, 
 the first terrace ahove mentioned is brought out to the 
 shore by a projecting point of roclc In proceeding west- 
 ward toward isle Verte, it recedes from the coast, leaving 
 a flat of considerable breadth, which represents the lowest 
 terrace seen on this part of the St. Lawrence, and is 
 elevated only a few feet above the sea. This flat is in 
 many places thickly strewn with large boulders, probably 
 left when it was excavated out of the clay. In proceeding 
 westward the first or railway terrace of Trois Pistoles, 
 inland of the flat above mentioned, is seen to consist of 
 boulder-clay, either in consequence of this part of the 
 deposit thickening in this direction, or of the Leda clay 
 passing into boulder-clay. It still, however, at isle Verte, 
 contains a few shells of Leda glacialis in tough reddish 
 clay holding boulders. 
 
 Riviire-du-Loivp and Gacouna. — The country around 
 Cacouna and Eiviere-du-Loup rests on the shales, sand- 
 stones, and conglomerates of the Quebec and Potsdam 
 groups of Sir W. E. Logan. As these rocks vary much in 
 hardness, and are also highly inclined and much disturbed, 
 the denudation to which they have been subjected has 
 caused them to present a somewhat uneven surface. 
 They form long ridges running nearly parallel to the 
 coast, or north-east and south-west, with intervening 
 longitudinal valleys excavated in the softer beds. One of 
 these ridges forms the long reef off Cacouna, which is 
 bare only at low tide; another, running close to the 
 shore, supports the village of Cacouna ; another forms the 
 point which is terminated by the pier ; a fourth rises into 
 Mount Pilote ; and a fifth stretches behind the town of 
 Eivifere-du-Loup. 
 
190 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 The depressions between these ridges are occupied with 
 Pleistocene deposits, not so regular and uniform in 
 their arrangement as the corresponding beds in the great 
 plains higher up the St. Lawrence, but still presenting a 
 more or less definite order of succession. The oldest 
 member of the deposit is a tough boulder-clay, its cement 
 formed of gray or reddish mud derived from the waste of 
 the shales of the Quebec group, and the stones and 
 boulders with which it is filled partly derived from the 
 harder members of that group, and partly from the 
 Laurentian hills on the opposite or northern side of the 
 river, here more than twenty miles distant. The thick- 
 ness of this boulder-clay is, no doubt, very variable, but 
 does not appear to be so great as farther to the eastward. 
 
 Above the boulder-clay is a tough clay with fewer 
 stones, and above this a more sandy boulder-clay, con- 
 taining numerous boulders, overlaid by several feet of 
 stratified sandy clay without boulders ; while on the sides 
 of the ridges, and at some places near the present shore, 
 there are beds and terraces of sand and gravel, constituting 
 old shingle beaches apparently much more recent than 
 the other deposits. 
 
 All these deposits are more or less fossiliferous. The 
 lower boulder-clay contains large and fine specimens of 
 Leda glacialis and other deep-water and mud-dwelling 
 shells, with the valves attached. The upper clay is 
 remarkably rich in shells of numerous species ; and its 
 stones are co\'ered with Polyzoa and great Acorn-shells 
 {Balanus Hameri), sometimes two inches in diameter and 
 three inches high. The stratified gravel holds a few 
 littoral and sub-littoral shells, which also occur in some 
 places in the more recent gravel. On the surface of some 
 of the terraces are considerable deposits of large shells 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 191 
 
 of Mya truncata, but these are modern, and are the 
 " kitchen-middens " of the Indians, who in former times 
 encamped here. 
 
 Numbers of Pleistocene shells may be picked up 
 along the shores of the two little bays between Cacouna 
 and Eiviere-du-Loup ; but I found the most prolific 
 locality to be on the banks of a little stream called the 
 Petite Eiviere-du-Loup, which runs between the ridge 
 behind Cacouna and that of Mount Pilote, and empties 
 into the bay between Eivifere-du-Loup and the pier. In 
 these localities I collected and noticed in my paper on 
 this place * more than eighty species, about thirty-six of 
 them not previously published as occurring in the Pleisto- 
 cene of Canada. 
 
 We have thus at Eiviere-du-Loup indubitable evidence 
 of a marine boulder-clay, and this underlies the represen- 
 tative of the Leda clay, and rests immediately on striated 
 rock surfaces, the striae running north-east and south-west. 
 
 The Cacouna boulder-clay is a somewhat deep-water 
 deposit. Its most abundant shells are Leda glacialis, 
 Nucula tenuis, and Tellina proxima, and these are imbedded 
 in the clay with the valves closed, and in as perfect 
 condition as if the animals still inhabited them. At the 
 time when they lived, the Cacouna ridges must have been 
 reefs in a deep sea. Even Mount Pilote has huge 
 Laurentian boulders high up on its sides, in evidence 
 of this. The shales of the Quebec group were being 
 wasted by the waves and currents; and while there is 
 evidence that much of the fine mud worn from them was 
 drifted far to the south-west to form the clays of the 
 Canadian plains, other portions were deposited between 
 
 * Canadian Naturalist, April, 1865. 
 
192 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the ridges, along with boulders dropped from the ice 
 which drifted from the Laurentian shore to the nortli. 
 The process was slow and quiet ; so much so, that in its 
 later stages many of the boulders became encrusted with 
 the calcareous cells of marine animals before they became 
 buried in the clay. ISfo other explanation can, I believe, 
 be given of this deposit ; and it presents a clear and 
 convincing illustration, applicable to wide areas in Eastern 
 America, of the mode of deposit of the boulder-clay. 
 
 A similar process, though, probably, on a much smaller 
 scale, is now going on in the Gulf.- Admiral Bayfield has 
 well illustrated the fact that the ice now raises, and 
 drops in new places, multitudes of boulders, and I have 
 noticed the frequent occurrence of this at present on the 
 coast of Nova Scotia. At Cacouna itself, there is, on 
 some parts of the shore, a baud of large Laurentian 
 boulders between half tide and low-water mark, which 
 are moved more or Iqss by the ice every winter, so that 
 the tracks cleared by the people for launching their boats 
 and building their fishing-wears, are in a few years filled 
 up. Wherever such boulders are dropped on banks of 
 clay in process of accumulation, a species of boulder-cla}% 
 similar to that now seen on the land, must result. At 
 present such materials are deposited imder the influence 
 of tidal currents, running alternately in opposite 
 directions ; but in the older boulder-clay period, the 
 current was probably a steady one from the north-east, 
 and comparatively little affected by the tides. 
 
 The boulder-clay of Cacouna and Eiviere-du-Loup, 
 being at a lower level and nearer the coast than that 
 found higher up the St. Lawrence valley, is probably newer. 
 It may have been deposited after the beds of boulder-clay 
 at Montreal had emerged. That it is thus more recent. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 193 
 
 is further shown by its shells, which are, on the whole, a 
 more modern assemblage than those of the Leda clay of 
 Montreal. In fossils, as well as in elevation, these beds 
 more nearly resemble those on the coast of Maine. It 
 would thus appear that the boulder-clay is not a continuous 
 sheet or stratum, but that its different portions were 
 formed at different times, during the submergence and 
 elevation of the country ; and it must have been during 
 the latter process that the greater part of the deposits 
 now under consideration were formed. 
 
 The assemblage of shells at Eiviere-du-Loup is, in 
 almost every particular, that of the modern gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, more especially on its northern coast. The 
 principal difference is the prevalence of Leda arctica in 
 the lower part of the deposit. This shell, still living in 
 Arctic America, has not yet occurred in the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, but is distributed throughout the lower part of 
 the Pleistocene deposits in the whole of Lower Canada 
 and' New England, and appears in great numbers at 
 Eiviere-du-Loup, not only in the ordinary form, but in the 
 shortened and depauperated varieties which have been 
 named by Eeeve Z. siliqiia and Z. sulcifera. 
 
 Of Astartc Zaurcntiuaa, supposed to be extinct, and 
 which occurs so abundantly in the Pleistocene at Montreal, 
 few sjDecimens were found, and its place is supplied by 
 an allied but apparently distinct species, to be noticed in 
 the sequel, which is still abundant at G-asp^ and Labrador, 
 and on the coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
 It must be observed that though the clays at Eiviere- 
 du-Loup are more recent than those of Montreal, they are 
 still of considerable antiquity. They must have been 
 deposited in water perhaps fifty fathoms deep, and the 
 bottom must have been raised from that depth to its 
 
 14 
 
194 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 present level; and in the meantime the high cliffs now 
 fronting the coast must have been cut out of the rocks of 
 the Quebec group. 
 
 The order of succession of beds, as seen in the banks of 
 the Little Eivifere-du-Loup, may be stated as follows, in 
 descending order : 
 
 1. Large loose boulders, mostly of Laurentian rocks, seen 
 
 in the tops of ridges of rock and gravel. One angu- 
 lar mass of Quebec group conglomerate was observed 
 ninety feet in circumference and ten to fifteen feet 
 high. Near it was a rounded boulder of Anorthosite 
 from the Laurentian.. 13 feeb long. 
 
 2. Stratified sand and gravel resting on the sides of the 
 
 ridges of rock projecting through the drift. Thick- 
 ness variable. 
 
 3. Stratified sandy clay and sand with Tellina Grcenlandica 
 
 and Buccinum. 10 feet. 
 
 4. Gray clay and stones. Bhynconella psittacea, and 
 
 Terebratulina Spitzbergensis, &c, 1 foot or more. 
 
 5. Gray clay with large stones, often covered with Bryozoa 
 
 and Acorn-shells. Tellina calcarea very abundant, 
 also .Leda arctica. 3 feet. 
 
 6. Tough, hard, reddish clay, with stones and boulders, 
 
 passing downward into boulder-clay, and holding 
 
 Leda arctica. 6 feet or more. 
 It was observable that the boulders were more abundant 
 on the south side of the ridges than on the north ; and 
 between Eivi^re-du-Loup and Quebec there are numerous 
 small ridges and projecting masses of rock rising above 
 the clays, which generally show the action of ice on their 
 N.E. sides ; while the large boulders lying on the fields are 
 seen to have their longer axes N.E. and S.W. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 195 
 
 At the Petite Eivi^re-du-Loup the surface of the red clay 
 (No. 6 above) was observed to have burrows of My a arenaria 
 with the shells (of a deep-water form) still within them. 
 
 I have already had occasion, in Chapter III., to notice 
 the Pleistocene and modern deposits as seen at Little 
 Metis, and may refer to that chapter for such details as 
 are of interest. 
 
 VIII. — Rimr St. Lawrence above Quebec, and Ottawa Valley. 
 
 Quebec and its Vicinity. — The deposits at Beauport, near 
 Quebec, were described by Sir C. Lyell in the Geological 
 Transactions for 1839 ; and a list of their fossils was given, 
 and was compared with those of Montreal in my paper of 
 1859. As exposed at the Beauport Mills, the Pleistocene 
 beds consist of a thick bed of boulder-clay, on which rests 
 a thin layer of sand with Rhynconella psittacea and other 
 deep-water shells. Over this is a thick bed of stratified 
 sand and gravel filled with Saxicava rugosa and Tellina. 
 Scattered Laurentian boulders here, as at Montreal and 
 elsewhere, occur in the beds with the shells. In a brook 
 near this place, and also in the rising ground behind Point 
 Levis, the deep-water bed attains to greater thickness, but 
 does not assume the aspect of a true Leda clay. Above 
 Quebec, however, the clays assume more importance ; and 
 between that place and Montreal are spread over all the 
 low country, often attaining a great thickness, and not 
 unfrequently capped with Saxicava sand. At Cap a la 
 Eoche the officers of the Geological Survey have found a 
 bed of stratified sand under the Leda clay. The Beauport 
 deposit is evidently somewhat exceptional in its want of 
 Leda clay, and this I suppose may have been owing to the 
 powerful currents of water which have swept around Cape 
 Diamond at the time of the elevation of the land out of 
 
196 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the Pleistocene sea. The layer of sand at the surface of 
 the boulder-clay is evidently here the representative of 
 the Leda clay, and affords its characteristic fossils, vyhile 
 the stones projecting above the boulder-clay are crusted 
 with Bryozoa and Acorn-shells. At St. Mcholas, there is 
 a sandy boulder-clay, not unlike that of Eivi^re-du-Louj), 
 which has afforded some very interesting fossils. It is 
 stated in the Eeport of the Survey to be one hundred and 
 eighty feet above the sea. 
 
 Montreal. — In the neighbourhood of Montreal very 
 interesting exposures of the Pleistocene beds occur, and 
 with the terraces on the Mountain have been described in 
 my papers of 1857 and 1859. I may here merely condense 
 the leading facts, adding those more recently obtained. 
 
 An interesting section of the deposits is that obtained at 
 Logan's Farm, which may be thus stated in descending 
 order : „ . 
 
 ft. in. 
 
 Soil and sand 1 9 
 
 Tough reddish clay O4 
 
 Gray sand, a few specimens of Saxicava riujosa, Mytilus edvMs, 
 Tellina Gnenlandica, and Mya arenaria, the valves generally 
 united 8 
 
 Tough reddish clay, a few shells of Astarte Laiirentiana, and 
 
 Leda ghiclcdis 1 1 
 
 Gray sand, containing detached valves of Saxicava rugosa, Mya 
 truncata, and Tellina Grmnlandica : also Trichotropis bore- 
 aliii, and Balanus crenatus ; the shells, in three thin layers.. S 
 
 Sand and clay, with a few shells, principally iSaa;icara in detached 
 
 valves 1 3 
 
 Band of sandy clay, full of Natica clausa, Trichotropis borealis, 
 Fusus tornatus, Buccinum glaciate, Astarte Laurentiana, 
 Balanus crenatus, &c., &c., sponges and Foramini/era. 
 Nearly all the rare and deep-sea shells of this locality occur 
 in this band 3 
 
 Sand and clay, a few shells of Astarte and Saxicava, and remains 
 
 of sea-weeds with Lepralia attached ; also Foramini/era ... 2 
 
 Stony clay (Boulder-clay). Depth unknown. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 197 
 
 In this section the greater part of the thickness corres- 
 ponds to the Leda clay, which at this place is thinner and 
 more fossiliferous than usual. Along the south-east side 
 of the Mountain, and in the city of Montreal, the beds 
 have been exposed in a great number of places, and are in 
 the aggregate at least 100 feet thick, though the thickness 
 is evidently very variable. The succession may be stated 
 as follows : 
 
 1. Saxicava Sand. — Fine uniformly grained yellowish and 
 
 gray silicious sand with occasional beds of gravel in 
 some places, and a few large Laurentian boulders, 
 Saxicava, Mytilus, &c., in the lower part. Thickness 
 variable, in some places 10 feet or more. 
 
 2. Leda Clay. — Unctuous gray and reddish calcareous clay, 
 
 which can be observed to be arranged in layers 
 varying slightly in colour and texture. Some of 
 these layers have sandy partings in which are 
 usually Foraminifera and shells or fragments of 
 shells. In the clay itself the only shells usually 
 found are Leda arctica and a smooth deep-water 
 form of Tellina Grcenlandica ; but toward the 
 surface of the clay, in places where it has not been 
 denuded before the deposition of the overlying sand, 
 there are many species of marine shells. A few 
 large boulders are scattered through the Leda clay. 
 
 3. Boulder-clay. — Stiff gray stony clay, or till, with large 
 
 boulders and many glaciated stones, often of the same 
 Trenton rocks which occur on the flanks of the 
 mountain. It is of great thickness, though it has been 
 much denuded in places, and has not been observed 
 to contain fossils. It is especially thick at the south 
 and south-west sides of the Montreal mountain. 
 
198 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 The Montreal mountain, like other isolated trappean 
 hills in the great plain of the lower St. Lawrence, presents 
 a steep, craggy front to the north-east, and a long slope or 
 tail to the south-west ; and in front of its north-east side 
 is a bare, rocky plateau of great extent, and at a height of 
 about 200 feet above the river. This plateau must have 
 been produced by marine denudation of the solid mass of 
 the mountain in the Pleistocene period, and proves an 
 astonishing amount of this kind of erosive action in hard 
 limestones interleaved with trap dykes, and which have 
 been ground and polished with ice at the same time that 
 the plateau was cut into the hill. By ice, also, must the 
 debris produced by this enormous erosion have been 
 removed, and piled along the more sheltered sides of the 
 hill in the boulder-clay. 
 
 With regard to the crag-and-tail attitude of Montreal 
 mountain, I have to observe that in large masses of this 
 kind reaching to a considerable height, and rising above 
 the Pleistocene sea, the north-east, or exposed, side has 
 been cut into steep cliffs, but in smaller projections of the 
 surface over which the ice could grind, the exposed side is 
 smoothed, or " moutonnee," and the sheltered side is 
 angular. A little reflection must show that this must 
 be the necessary action of a sea burdened with heavy 
 floating ice. 
 
 These facts have been well illustrated in the extensive 
 limestone quarries lying on the plateau already referred 
 to behind the city of Montreal, and north-east of the 
 Montreal mountain. At this place the surface of the 
 limestone has been polished and striated, the direction of 
 the striae ranging from N. 50° E. to N. 70° E. Not only 
 has the surface been intensely glaciated, but ledges of 
 rock of great size have been lifted up and pushed to the S.W. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 
 
 199 
 
 toward the mountain. On the glaciated surface lies 
 boulder clay holding local and travelled boulders. Above 
 this is clay and sand in layers, with numerous shells of 
 
 many species, capped by sand 
 and gravel filled with Saxicava. 
 On the surface are here and 
 there groups of Laurentian 
 boulders. A few years ago all 
 these appearances were well 
 seen, but at present the quarry- 
 ing operations have been carried 
 toward the 8. E. side of the 
 ridge where the eroded surface 
 of the limestone is covered only 
 with a little soil. Farther open- 
 ing to the eastward may again 
 expose the glacial deposits. The 
 appearances at this place are, 
 I think, conclusive as to the 
 action of floating ice drifting 
 up the river valley from the 
 N.E. The direction of striation 
 and of movement of material 
 and the marine character of 
 the deposits all testify to this. 
 We have already seen that 
 beaches holding littoral shells 
 occur at Montreal mountain 
 <Si -tJ south-west of this limestone 
 
 plateau up to a height of 470 feet, and at one place in the 
 mountain toward its northern side there is a small plain, 
 in the subsoil of which there occur shallow-water shells 
 
 Ktn- 
 
 -1 - ^ 1 
 
 te* 
 
 
 te 
 
 
 
 " - "ill 
 
 1 
 
 S~ 3 
 
 m^ 
 
 r - - ■§ = 
 
 w3^t 
 
 1 m 
 
 Xlp-cc 
 
 1 ^ o 
 
 
 
 1 i; 
 
 
 ^y 
 
 J»- EH 
 
 1 - fl 
 
 
 R 
 
 U ^^° 
 
 1 r 
 
 )°r ~ ^ 1 
 
 ™ I 
 
 n -&S 
 
 ,^ tl 
 
 m ~ ■ ^ s 
 
 o 
 
 
 „( 
 
 C 
 
 
 koV — ^ »; 
 
 
 
 foOfl - " (S 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 vX — ° oj 
 ;0 i 
 
 \ 
 
 y - 1 
 
 
 
 kL ^ 
 
200 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 at an elevation of about 560 feet above the sea. Lauren- 
 tian boulders, probably drifted on ice in the later glacial 
 age, are found at a still higher level. 
 
 The site of the Peter Eedpath Museum presents 
 another interesting example of the special features of the 
 drift-deposits on the south side of Montreal mountain. 
 The first floor of the museum is 160 feet above the level 
 of the sea, which is about the height to which intense 
 glaciation and boulder-clay extend on the mountain,* the 
 terraces above this level being of sand and gravel, and 
 the limestone and trap of the mountain weathered and 
 deeply decomposed and not covered with the boulder-clay. 
 Thus the foundations of the building were excavated into 
 a slope at the exact junction of the glaciated and non- 
 glaciated surface. The excavation for the front of the 
 building was made in tough boulder-clay, with large 
 Laurentian and limestone boulders, and this rested on an 
 intensely glaciated rock surface of limestone, with striae 
 bearing S. 33° W. The rear of the building was cut into 
 the same limestone, not glaciated, and decomposed to a 
 depth of 20 feet or more into an earthy, crumbling 
 mass, still showing the stratification and fossils of the 
 formation. 
 
 There could not be a finer illustration of the " ice-foot " 
 of the margin of the old Pleistocene sea ; and any idea 
 of glacier action was excluded by the directions of the 
 striae, and by the absence of any lateral moraine. 
 
 The most strongly marked terraces on the Montreal 
 mountain are at heights of 470, 440, 386, and 220 feet 
 above the sea, but there are less important intermediate 
 
 * The heavy glaciation on the plateau north-east of the mountain 
 extends up to about 180 feet. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 201 
 
 terraces. The highest terrace holds littoral marine shells, 
 which also occur on a little plateau at a height of 560 
 feet. On the highest of these, on the west side of the 
 mountain, over Cote des Neiges village, there is a beach 
 with marine shells, and on the summit of the mountain, 
 at a height of about 750 feet, there are rounded surfaces, 
 possibly polished by iloating ice at the time of greatest 
 depression, though no striation remains, and large Lauren- 
 tian boulders, which must have been carried probably a 
 hundred miles from the Laurentian regions to the N.E., 
 and over the deep intervening valley of the St. Lawrence.* 
 
 I have already, in the earlier part of this section, noticed 
 the striation on rock surfaces at Montreal, and may merely 
 add that it is often very perfect, and must have been pro- 
 duced by a force acting up the St. Lawrence valley from 
 the north-east, and planing all the spurs of the mountain 
 on that side, while leaving the mountain itself as a bare 
 and rugged unglaciated escarpment. In the streets of 
 Montreal the true boulder-clay is often exposed in excava- 
 tions, and is seen to contain great numbers of glaciated 
 stones, most of which are of the hardened Lower Silurian 
 shales and limestones of the base of the mountain ; and, 
 though no marine shells have been found, the sub-aquatic 
 origin of the mass is evidenced by its gray unoxidised 
 character, and by the fact that many of the striated stones 
 at once fall to pieces when exposed to the frost, so that 
 they cannot possibly have been glaciated by a sub-aerial 
 glacier. 
 
 At the Glen brick-work, near Montreal, the Leda clay 
 and underlying deposits have been excavated to a consid- 
 
 * Lyell ("Travels in North America," vol. 2, p. 140) very well 
 describes the Pleistocene of the vicinity of Montreal. 
 
202 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 erable depth, and present certain remarkable modifications. 
 The section observed at this place is as follows : 
 
 ft. iu. 
 
 1. Hard gray laminated clay, Foraminifera and Leda, in thin 
 
 layers 7 
 
 2. Red layer, in two bands 6 
 
 3. Sandy clay 1 
 
 4. Gray and reddish clay 9 
 
 5. Hard buff sand, very line and laminated 15 
 
 6. Sand with layers of tough clay, holding glaciated stones, and 
 
 very irregularly disposed 4 
 
 7. Fine sand 1 
 
 8. Gray sand, with rounded pebbles, and laminated obscurely 
 
 and diagonally 4 
 
 9. Fine laminated yellow sand 3 
 
 10. Gravel 4 
 
 11. Very irregular mass of laminated sand, with mud, gravel, 
 
 stones and large boulders 12 
 
 56 10 
 
 The whole of these deposits, except the Leda clay, are 
 very irregularly bedded, and are apparently of a littoral 
 character. They seem to show the action of ice in shallow 
 water before the deposition of the Leda clay. The only 
 way of avoiding this conclusion would be to suppose that 
 the underlying beds are really of the age of the Saxicava 
 sand, and that the Leda clay has been placed above them 
 by slipping from a higher terrace ; but I failed to see good 
 evidence of this. A little farther west, at the gravel pits 
 dug in the terrace for railway ballast, a deep section^s 
 exposed, showing at the top Saxicava sand, and below tMs 
 a very thick bed of sandy clay with stones and boulders, 
 constituting apparently a somewhat arenaceous and par- 
 tially stratified equivalent of the boulder-clay. A little 
 above this place, at the brick-works, the Saxicava sand 
 is seen to rest on a highly fossiliferous Leda clay, which 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 203 
 
 probably here intervenes between the two beds seen in 
 contact nearer the edge of the terrace. 
 
 Ottawa River. — The Leda clay and Saxicava sand are 
 well exposed on the banks of the Ottawa ; and Green's 
 creek, a little below Ottawa city, has become celebrated 
 for the occurrence of hard calcareous nodules in the clay, 
 containing not only the ordinary shells of this deposit, but 
 also well-preserved skeletons of the Capelin (Mallotus), of 
 the Lump-sucker (Cyclopterus), and of a species of stickle- 
 back (Gasterosteus), of a Gottus, and of a species of seal. 
 Some of these nodules also contain leaves of land plants 
 and fragments of wood, and a fresh-water shell of the 
 genus Lynmea has also been found.* At Packenham 
 Mills, west of the Ottawa, the late Sheriff Dickson found 
 several species of land and fresh-water shells associated 
 with Tellina Grcenlandica and apparently in the Saxicava 
 sand. These facts evidence the vicinity of the Laurentian 
 shore, and indicate a climate only a little more rigorous than 
 that of Central Canada at present. They were noticed in 
 some detail in my paper of 1866 in The Ganadian Naturalist. 
 
 Another illustration of the margin of the sea in this 
 direction is afforded by the discovery of the bones of a 
 whale at Smith's Falls, Ontario, in a bed of gravel, with a 
 few marine shells, lying on the margin of the old Lauren- 
 tian shore in this locality at a height of 420 feet above the 
 level of the sea, an elevation not very different from that 
 of one of the principal terraces with sea shells on Montreal 
 mountain. 
 
 The marine deposits on the St. Lawrence are limited, as 
 already stated, to the country east of Kingston ; and the 
 clays of the basin of the great lakes to the south-westward 
 
 * See notices of these fossils in Chapter V. 
 
204 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 have, as yet, aiforded no marine fossils. Prof. Bell, of the 
 Geological Survey, has, however, found that two hundred 
 miles north of lake Superior the marine deposits reappear. 
 
 In the above local details, I have given merely the facts 
 of greatest importance, and may refer for many subor- 
 dinate points to the papers catalogued in the introduc- 
 tion to this memoir, and to the reports of the Geological 
 Survey of Canada. 
 
 IX. — Western Districts. 
 
 In the Province of Ontario, west of the marine deposits, 
 which may be roughly stated to extend as far as Kingston, 
 the upper and lower drift are developed much in the same 
 manner as to the eastward, and contain many travelled 
 boulders from the Laurentian country to the north. The 
 middle Pleistocene deposit, however, corresponding to the 
 Leda clay, and the greater part of which has been desig- 
 nated the Erie clay, is not only destitute of marine fossils, 
 but contains so little protoxide of iron that when burned it 
 does not assume a red colour, and it also contains fossil 
 plants, which will be noticed in the sequel, becoming thus 
 a " forest bed " or interglacial deposit. The plants are of 
 boreal rather than arctic species.* It would thus appear 
 that, in the middle Pleistocene, land and fresh-water con- 
 ditions prevailed in the region of the great lakes. 
 
 Dr. Frank D. Adams has recently made microscopical 
 examinations of specimens of the typical Erie clay from 
 the St. Clair tunnel, where it appears to be composed of 
 dibris, both from the Laurentian cystalline rocks and the 
 Erian beds of the district.f 
 
 * Dawson and Penhallow, Pleistocene Flora of Canada, Bui. Am. 
 Geological Society, 1890 ; Hinde, Interglacial Beds, Canadian 
 Journal, 1877. 
 
 + Trans. Royal Society of Canada, 1891. 
 
SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 
 
 205 
 
 The comparative table given in chapter II. shows that 
 somewhat similar conditions prevail over the great plains 
 
 ,d 
 
 1. Section of Drift on Millc River — (a) Boiilder-clay ; (&) older river alluvium ; (c) newer 
 
 river alluvium ; (d) surface matter. 
 
 2. Section of Drift at Long River— (a) Lower drift, chiefly local, and with false bedding 
 
 (6) upper drift with large travelled boulders. [After Dr. G. M, Dawson.] 
 
 west of lake Superior, the formation of which have been 
 described by Dr. G. M. Dawson in his Report on the 49th 
 
206 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Parallel and in his paper on the Superficial Deposits of 
 the Plains. To these reference may be made for details. 
 
 The sections given in the figures represent some features 
 of these deposits, and are interesting as showing its 
 massive character in some places, and the fact of an 
 underlying deposit of v?ater-sorted material. The general 
 structure, however, appears to be that stated in Chap. II., 
 namely, an under and upper boulder-deposit, separated 
 by beds of stratified silt, and sometimes holding vegetable 
 matter. 
 
 I do not propose to extend these local details into the 
 vast regions lying in the Arctic basin, north of the 
 Laurentian water-shed and west of the basin of the great 
 lakes in Manitoba and the jSTorth-west and in British 
 Columbia. These regions have been described, the latter, 
 from personal knowledge, and both, with reference to all 
 the available authorities, by my son, Dr. G-. M. Dawson, 
 F.E.S., and I may refer to his two memoirs : " Notes on 
 the Geology of the Northern Part of the Dominion of 
 Canada," Eeports Geological Survey of Canada, 1887 ; 
 and " On the Later Physiographical Geology of the Eocky 
 Mountain Eegion in Canada," Transactions of Eoyal 
 Society of Canada, 1890. In these papers will also be 
 found copious references to all previous explorations and 
 sources of information. 
 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. 
 
 The following plate, drawn under my own direction, is intended to 
 present, as faithfully as possible, the characters of some of the more 
 rare and critical shells of the Canadian Pleistocene. 
 
 Fig. 1. Asiarte, Banksii — A full-grown specimen of the ordinary 
 type. Rivi6re-du-Loup. 
 
 Fig. 2. Astarte Laurentiana — An average full-grown specimen. 
 Montreal. 
 
 Fig. 3. Astarte lactea — Ordinary type. Portland, Maine. 
 
 Fig. 4. Astarte Elliptica — A specimen with the ribs extending nearer 
 to the ventral margin than usual. Portland, Maine. 
 
 Fig. 5. Buccinum tenue — Full-grown specimen. Rivitre-du-Loup. 
 5a — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 6. Buccinum cyaneum — Full-grown specimen. Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 6a — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 7. Buccinum midulatum — (Var. of undatum) — Immature shell, 
 broken at lip. Rivifere-du-Loup. la — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 8. Buccinum glaciale — Tuberculated variety. Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 8a — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 9. Buccinum glaciale — Smooth variety. Rivifere-du-Loup. 9a — 
 Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 10. Buccinum ciliatum — (Fabriclus, not Gould) — Smooth variety, 
 somewhat decorticated. Montreal. 10a— Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 11. Buccinum ciliatum — {Fabricius, not Gould) — Small but 
 mature specimen. Recent Murray Bay. 
 
 Fig. 12. Buccinum Grcenlandicum — Adult specimen. St. Nicholas. 
 12a — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 13. Choristes elegans — (Carpenter) — Adult specimen. Montreal. 
 13a — Sculpture enlarged. 
 
 Fig. 14. Capulus commodtis — Pt. Levis, Quebec. 
 
Fossils— Plate I. 
 
 Drawn by A.L.U. 
 
 Characteristic Pleistocene Shells (see table of reference on previous page). 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 
 
 This chapter is necessarily for reference rather than 
 for reading. It represents, however, a large amount of 
 patient work, and furnishes some of the most important 
 data for conclusions as to the climate and physical con- 
 ditions of the Pleistocene age. In this connection it will 
 be observed that the greater part of the fossils recorded 
 are from the St. Lawrence valley and the Atlantic coast, 
 and from other areas in the arctic basin and west coast 
 which were submerged in the Pleistocene ; and that the 
 evidences of life ' belong chiefly, though by no means 
 exclusively, to the middle Pleistocene. 
 
 The lists of Pleistocene fossils of Canada, published 
 previously to 1856 by Ly ell and others, included only 
 about 26 species. In my papers published between that 
 year and 1863, the number was raised to nearly 80. 
 These lists were tabulated, along with some additional 
 species furnished in M.S., in the Eeport of the Geological 
 Survey for 1863, the list there given amounting to 83 
 species, exclusive of Foraminifera. In my paper on the 
 Post-pliocene of Eivi^re-du-Loup and Tadoussac, published 
 in 1865, I added 38 species, and in the " Notes on the 
 Post-pliocene of Canada " many others were introduced. 
 15 
 
210 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 The number will be still further augmented in the 
 following revision, which will afford a very complete 
 view of the subject up to the present time ; and though 
 additional species will no doubt be found, yet all the 
 principal deposits have been so carefully explored, that 
 only very rare forms can have escaped observation. For 
 some of the additional species included in the present list 
 I am indebted to Prof. Kennedy (now of Windsor, N".S.), 
 the late Dr. Anderson (of Quebec), the late Sheriff 
 Dickson (of Kingston), Mr. T. Curry (of Montreal), Lieut.- 
 Colonel Grant (of Hamilton), , Dr. Packard, Mr. G. F. 
 Matthew, Eev. Mr. Paisley, and other friends, to whom 
 reference will be made in connection with the several 
 species in the catalogue. 
 
 In so far as nomenclature is concerned, I have, wherever 
 possible, retained the generic and specific names of the 
 list published in 1872. Where errors had been com- 
 mitted, the names are of course changed, and any new 
 generic names or possible identifications with other species 
 are noted in brackets or otherwise. 
 
 In the case of the recent species of marine animals, 
 those quoted are largely from my own dredgings in 
 the Lower St. Lawrence, which I have prosecuted for 
 many years with the view of ascertaining the modern 
 habitats of the Pleistocene species ; and reference is made 
 to other collectors where advantage has been taken of 
 their labours. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, F.G.S., paleon- 
 tologist to the Geological Survey of Canada, for his kind- 
 ness in looking over the list and adding some valuable 
 corrections and suggestions. Mr. Lambe, of the Geological 
 Survey, has also kindly examined the sponges, and given 
 me his views as to their relations. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 211 
 
 The fossils contained in the following lists have been 
 presented to the Peter Eedpath Museum of McGill 
 University, Montreal, and are now exposed in its cases. 
 
 ANIMAL FOSSILS. 
 PROVINCE PROTOZOA. 
 
 (1) Foraminifera. 
 
 Nodosaria (Glandulina) Icevigata. 
 
 (Var. DenlcUina communis). 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal. 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence, 30 to 300 fathoms. G. M. D* 
 
 This species is very rare in the Post-pliocene, but sometimes of 
 large size and of different varietal forms. 
 
 Lagena sulcata (Var. distoma). 
 
 (Var. semistUcata). 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; Quebec ; Murray Bay ; Antioosti ; 
 Rivifere-du-Loup ; Portland (Maine). 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, 18 to 313 fathoms. G. M. D. British 
 Columbia. + 
 
 Rather rare in the Pleistocene as well as in the recent. 
 
 Entosohnia glohosa. 
 
 coatata. 
 
 marginata. 
 
 squamosa. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Leda clay ; Labrador ; Rivifere-dii-Loup ; Anti- 
 oosti ; Murray Bay ; Quebec; Portland (Maine). 
 
 Recent — Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 20 to 313 fathoms. G.M.D. 
 
 Generally diffused in the Pleistocene, and presenting the same range 
 of forms as in the recent ; but not common. I regard the supposed 
 species of Entosohnia above named as merely varietal forms. 
 
 * The initials G. M. C, refer to the List of Foraminifera by Dr. 
 G. M. Dawson in The Canadian Naturalist, 1870. 
 
 t This and other species from British Columbia are from a memoir 
 by Whiteaves on collections of Dr. 6. M. Dawson. Trans. R. S. Can., 
 Vol. IV., 1887. 
 
212 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Sulimina Presli. 
 
 (Var. squamosa). 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Leda clay ; Labrador ; Rlviire-du-Loup ; Murray 
 Bay ; Quebec ; Portland (Maine). 
 
 Recent — Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 10 to 313 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 
 Fossils— Plate II. 
 
 Pleistocene Foraminifera. — 1, Nonionina scapha (Var. Labradoriea) ; 2, Polystomella 
 unibUicatula ; 3, QuinquelocuUna seminulum; 4, Polymorpliina lactea (2 varieties) ; 
 5, Entosolenia globosa ; 6, E. costata. (All magnified.) 
 
 Generally diffused in the Pleistocene. In the recent it seems to be 
 mostly a deep-water form. What Parker and Jones call the essentially 
 arctic form B. elegantissima is not uncommon, though other forms 
 also occur. 
 
 Polymorphina lactea. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Leda clay ; Labrador ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Murray 
 Bay. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 213 
 
 Recent— Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 30 to 313 fathoms. G. M. I). 
 British Columbia. 
 
 Not uncommon in the Pleistocene, particularly in the deeper part 
 of the Leda clay. Less common recent. I observed in the Riviere- 
 du-Loup gatherings a small individual of this species with the internal 
 pipe at the aperture characteristic of Entosolenia, which is also some- 
 times observed in recent specimens. 
 
 Truncatidina lobatvia. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Labrador ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Antioosti. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, very common 30 to 50 fathoms. British 
 Columbia. 
 
 This species is much less common in the Pleistocene than in the 
 recent. 
 
 OrbuUna universa. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Labrador. 
 This may be regarded as a rare and somewhat doubtful Pleistocene 
 fossil. It has not yet been recognized in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 Gldbigerina buUoides. 
 
 Fossil — Rivi^re-du-Loup ; Antioosti. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St, Lawrence, more especially in the deeper water, 
 where it is common. It is very rare in the Pleistocene. 
 
 Pulmnvlina repanda. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Leda clay ; Biviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; 
 Labrador ; Quebec ; Portland (Maine). 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence, 30 to 313 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 
 Somewhat rare both in the Pleistocene and recent, and of the small 
 size usual in the arctic seas. 
 
 Polystomella crispa. — (Var. stricUopunctaCa). 
 
 (Var. arctica). 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Leda clay ; Labrador ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Murray, 
 Bay ; Quebec ; Portland (Maine) ; St. John, N.B. 
 
 Recent — Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 30 to 40 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 British Columbia. 
 
 Very common, especially in depths of 10 to 40 fathoms. This is by 
 far the most abundant species in the Pleistocene deposits, as it is also 
 in all the shallow parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence at present, and 
 
214 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 alao in the Arctic Seas, according to Parker and Jones. It ia the 
 only species yet found in the Boulder-clay of Montreal, and this very 
 rarely. 
 
 Nonionina scapha. 
 
 (Var. Labradorica). 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Antioosti ; 
 Labrador; Murray Bay ; Quebec; St. John, N.B. 
 
 Recent — Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 10 to 313 fathoms. (G. M. D. ) 
 British Columbia. Var. Labradorica is the deeper vrater form and is 
 rare in the Leda clay. 
 
 TeMvlaria pygmcea. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Labrador ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Quebec ; also at 
 Portland (Maine). 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, 10 to 30 fathoms. 
 
 The Textularise are rare and of small size, both in the Pleistocene 
 and recent. 
 
 Gomuspira foliacia. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal. 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence, 16 to 250 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 
 This species is rare both fossil and recent. 
 
 Quinquelocidina (Miliolina) semimdum. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal; Labrador ; Quebec; Portland (Maine). 
 British Columbia. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, 10 to 313 fathoms, most abundant in 
 shallow water. G. M. D. 
 
 This species is by no means common and not usually large in the 
 Pleistocene. It is more abundant in the clays of Maine than in 
 those of Canada. 
 
 Bilocnlina ringens. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; Labrador ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray 
 Bay ; Quebec. 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence, 30 to 313 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 
 Rather rare in the Pleistocene as well as in the recent. 
 
 TrUocvlina tricarinata. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Rivi6re-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; Quebec. 
 
 Recent — Gaspe, 30 to 50 fathoms. G. M. D. 
 
 Rare both in Pleistoene and recent, but perhaps more generally 
 diffused in the former. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 215 
 
 Lituola and Saccammina. 
 
 A very few minute sandy forms referable to these genera are found 
 among the finer parts of the washings from Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 Euglypha ? 
 
 A single minute test, apparently identical in form with that of 
 Euglypha alveolata, was found in washing the Rivi6re-du-Loup clays. 
 
 la general terms it may be stated that all the species 
 of Foraniinifera found in the Pleistocene still inhabit 
 the gulf and river St. Lawrence. Several species found 
 in the gulf of St. Lavcrence have not yet been recognized 
 in the Pleistocene, and these are mostly inhabitants of 
 depths exceeding 90 fathoms, or among the more southern 
 forms found in the gulf. 
 
 On the whole, the assemblage, as in the northern part 
 of the gulf of St. Lawrence at present, is essentially 
 arctic, and not indicative of depths greater than 100 
 fathoms, which would seem to have been the maximum 
 depth of the sea of the Leda clay, and corresponds with 
 well-marked terraces on the hills. 
 
 The sandy forms, which are not uncommon in the Gulf, 
 are very rare in the Pleistocene; but this may be 
 accounted for by the greater difficulty of washing them 
 out of the clay, or possibly their cementing material may 
 have decomposed, allowing them to fall to pieces. As the 
 epidermal matter of shells is often preserved, the last 
 supposition seems less likely. The Leda clays are, 
 however, usually very fine and calcareous, so that there 
 was probably more material for calcareous than for arena- 
 ceous forms. 
 
 The Foraminifera are very generally diffused in the 
 Pleistocene clays, though much more abundant in some 
 layers thap. in others. They may easily be detected by a 
 
216 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 pocket lens, and are usually in as fine preservation as 
 recent specimens, especially in the deeper and more 
 tenacious layers of the Leda clay. They are, however, 
 usually more abundant in the somewhat arenaceous layers 
 near the top of the Leda clay, and immediately below the 
 Saxicava sand, and especially where this -layer contains 
 abundance of shells of mollusca. I have nowhere found 
 them more abundant or in greater variety than at the 
 Glen brick-work near Montreal, on the McGill College 
 grounds, and at Logan's Farm. At the Glen brick-work 
 a few worn specimens of Polystomella are contained in 
 the beds underlying the Leda clay and equivalent to the 
 boulder-clay, which, however, has in general, in the vicinity 
 of Montreal, as yet afforded no marine fossils. 
 
 In searching for Foraminifera in the clays of Eiviere- 
 du-Loup, I have observed in the finer washings several 
 species of Diatomacefe; and among these a species of 
 Coscinodiscus very frequent in the deeper parts of the 
 gulf of St. Lawrence. But on the whole diatoms appear 
 to be rare in these deposits. In the Kivi^re-du-Loup 
 clays I have also observed the pollen grains of firs and 
 spruces. 
 
 The nomenclature used above is that of Parker and 
 Jones, in their paper on the North Atlantic Soundings, in 
 the Transactions of the Eoyal Society. For figures of the 
 species, I may refer to that memoir, and to my previous 
 papers published in the Canadian Naturalist. 
 
 (2) Porifera. 
 Tethea Logani. Dawson. 
 
 Leda clay, Montreal. This species has not yet been recognized in a 
 living state. Its spicules in considerable masses, looking like white 
 fibres, are not uncommon in the Pleistocene at Montreal. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 
 
 21*7 
 
 According to Mr. Lambe, this species is a tetractinellid sponge ; 
 but possibly different forms have inadvertently been included under 
 one name. 
 
 Fossils— Plate III. 
 
 fP^ 
 
 & 
 
 Tethea Logani. — (a) Mass of mdiating sincules in clay ; (&) Spicules ; (c, d) Portions 
 of spicules enlarged, Ophioglypha Sarsii, 
 
 Tethea ? 
 
 Another silicious sponge is indicated by little groups of small 
 spicules found at the Tanneries, near Montreal, by Mr. G. T. Kennedy, 
 and at Rivifere-du-Loup by the author. Its spicules are long and acerate, 
 and much more slender than those of Tethea Logani. 
 
218 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 PROVINCE CCELENTERATA. 
 
 Hydrozoa. 
 
 N"o distinct organisms referable to the above group 
 have yet been found in the Pleistocene deposits of 
 Canada. As our recent fauna includes no stony coral, 
 and the recent species of the gulf of St. Lawrence have 
 no parts likely to be preserved other than minute spicules, 
 this is not to be wondered at. In washing the clays for 
 Foraminifera, however, numerous fragments are obtained, 
 which resemble portions of the horny skeletons of hydroids, 
 though not in a state admitting of determination. 
 
 PROVINCE ECHINODERMATA. 
 
 (1) OphiuHdea. 
 Ophioglypha Sarsii. Lutken. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, near St. John, New Brunswick ; Mr. Matthew. 
 
 Recent — River St. Lawrence, at Murray Bay ; Kamouraska ; also 
 found of large size in deep water in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by Mr. 
 Whiteaves. 
 
 Ophiacantha Spinulosa, M. and T. (0. hidentala, Retzius). 
 
 Fossil ^Tanneries, collected by Prof. Kennedy and Mr. Currie. 
 Recent — Cape Cod to Greenland, Norway and Spitzbergen. 
 
 Amphiura Sp. Montreal, Mr. Currie. 
 
 Solaster {Grossaster) papposec, M. and T. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, Mr. Kennedy ; Green's Creek. 
 Recent — Labrador, Murray Bay, Metis, Gaspe. 
 
 Ophiocoma or Amphiura. 
 
 Fragments of a small species of opliiuroid starfish not determinable, 
 have been found in the Leda clay at Montreal, and in nodules at 
 Green's creek. 
 
 (2) Echinoidea. 
 
 Elwyechinus (Strongylocentrotus) drobachiensis. Miiller. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Beauport ; Riviere-du-Loup ; St. Nicholas ; 
 Montreal. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 219 
 
 This species is rare in the Pleistocene, but very common in all parts 
 of the gulf of St. Lawrence at present. Also west coast British 
 Columbia. * 
 
 (3) Holothuridta. 
 
 Psolns (Lophothuria) Fabricii, Dur. and Kor. 
 
 Scales of an animal of this kind have been found in the Leda clay at 
 Montreal. They may belong to P. phantopus, or to the species 
 P. (Lophothuria) Fabricii, also found on our coasts ; from the form of 
 the plates, I suppose most likely to the latter species, and to a young or 
 small individual. P. Fabricii is very abundant at Little Metis, where 
 the other species also occurs. 
 
 PROVINCE MOLLUSCA. 
 
 Introductory. — In preparing this, the largest and most 
 important part of my catalogue, I have to acknowledge 
 my obligations to the late Dr. P. P. Carpenter, for his 
 kind aid in comparing all the more critical species of 
 shells, and in giving me his valuable judgment as to their 
 relations and synonymy, which I have in nearly every 
 case accepted as final. I am also indebted to Dr. Carpenter 
 for many of the notices of West-coast shells. 
 
 To Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, F.G.S., I am indebted for 
 reviewing the Polyzoa and comparing them with Smitt's 
 N"orwegian catalogues, and also for many valuable facts as 
 to shells obtained in his dredgings in the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. The Eev. T. Hincks, F.R.S., has also given me 
 valuable information on the Polyzoa. 
 
 To the late Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.E.S., and the late 
 Mr. E. McAndrew, F.E.S., of London, my grateful acknow- 
 ledgments are due for aid and information, and also for 
 
 * Names of recent shells from British Columbia, except when other- 
 wise credited, are quoted from papers of Mr. Whiteaves on collections 
 of Dr. G. M. Dawson; Trans. R. S. Canada, Vol. IV., 1886; Geol. 
 Survey of Canada, 1878-9. 
 
220 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 the opportunity of comparing my specimens with those 
 in their collections. 
 
 My comparisons with recent species have been made to 
 a great extent with specimens dredged by myself, in the 
 gulf and river St. Lawrenee, and especially at Murray 
 bay and Metis, where the marine fauna seems to be more 
 nearly related to that of the Pleistocene than in any part 
 of the gulf of St. Lawrence with which I am acquainted. 
 I have also to acknowledge the use of specimens from 
 Greenland, from Prof. Morch; from Norway from Mr. 
 McAndrew ; from Nova Scotia from Mr. Willis ; as well 
 as the use of the large and valuable collections of Dr. 
 Carpenter and Mr. Whiteaves. 
 
 All the references in the following pages, except where 
 authors are quoted, and many of these last, have been 
 verified by myself by actual comparison of specimens. 
 
 The principal works to which I have referred in the 
 publication of the catalogue are the following : 
 
 Beechey's Voyage, Natural History Appendix. 
 
 Belcher's Last of the Arctic Voyages, do. 
 
 Bell, Report on Invertebrata of Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 Busk, Polyzoa of the Crag. 
 
 Crosskey on Post-pliocene of Scotland. 
 
 Eabrioius, Fauna Groenlandica. 
 
 Forbes and Hanley, British MoUusca. 
 
 Gould, Invertebrata of Massachusetts, edited by Binney. 
 
 Jeffreys' British Conohology. 
 
 Lyell on Shells collected by Captain Bayfield ; and Travels in North 
 
 America. 
 Matthew on Post-pliocene of New Brunswick. 
 Middendorff, Shells of Siberia. 
 
 Packard on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine. 
 Prestwich on the English Crag. 
 Sars on the Quaternary of Norway. 
 Stimpson, Shells of Hayes' Expedition, &c. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 
 
 221 
 
 Whiteaves, Lists of Shells from Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian 
 
 Naturalist. 
 Wood, Crag MoUusca. 
 
 Fossils— Plate IV. 
 
 1 
 
 Pleistocene Polyzoa (magnified).—!, Lepralia qvad/rieortiuta ; 2, L.hyalina and L.pertusa. 
 
 Willis, Lists of Shells of Nova Scotia. 
 
 Also various recent papers by Jeffreys, Hincks, Brady, Verrill, 
 Sars and others. 
 
222 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Class I. — MoLLrscoiDBA. 
 Sub-Class 1. — Polyzoa. 
 Membi'anipora catinidaria. Jameson. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport ; Labrador ; Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe ; * Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Memhranipora Lacroixii, Audouin. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe ; Labrador (Packard). 
 Entirely agrees with recent examples from Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 Membrampora lineata. Linn. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe. 
 
 Memhranipora pilosa. Linn. 
 St. John (Matthew). 
 
 Hippothoa expansa, Dawson. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport ; Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent — Gasp6 ; Labrador ; Maine (Packard). 
 
 ScMzoporella hyalina. Johnston. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport ; Riviere-du-Loup ; St. John (Matthew). 
 Recent — Gaspe. 
 
 Lepralia pertmsa. Esper. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport ; Labrador ; Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gasp6 ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Lepralia quadricornuta. Dawson. 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal. 
 Not yet found recent. 
 
 Mr. T. Curry, of Montreal, has recently found specimens in a very 
 perfect state. They show that the cells are sculptured in a papillo- 
 striate manner, and that the ovi-capsules are globular and granulate. 
 Some cells have a projection for u, vibraculum or avicularium at one 
 
 * The references to Gasp^ are from my list contributed to the Rept. 
 Geol. Survey, 1858 — Bell and Richardson, collectors ; and from subse- 
 quent dredgingg by myself and Mr. Whiteaves. 
 
I'LEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 223 
 
 side of the aperture A few have two of these. Old colonies have a 
 pitted calcareous deposit between the cells. The large size and narrow 
 aperture vpith deep sulcus in front and four spines beliind are as in the 
 specimens formerly described. 
 
 Specimens of this species were sent in 188.3 to Rev. Thomas Hincks, 
 and he writes to me as follows ; ' ' The specimens of Lepi'alia quadri- 
 cornvia which you were kind enough to send me reached me in perfect 
 safety, and I have been much interested in examining them. None of 
 the specimens that I had seen previously showed the real character of 
 the orifice, and I was therefore led to refer your species to L. coccmea, 
 which, in most points of structure, it closely resembles. Indeed, the 
 only difference of much significance is found in the form of the mouth, 
 but this is very marked and distinctive. I am now fully convinced that 
 your species is a good one, and shall take an early opportunity of 
 correcting the error in my ' History. ' It has a special interest as being 
 the only Post-pliocene form that is not known to have survived. " 
 
 Lepralia spinifera? Busk. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 L. Violacea ? Johnston. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 L. variolosa. Johnston. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe. 
 
 L. globifera. Packard. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Pordla Belli. (Lepralia Belli. Dawson.) 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gasp^ ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 This species, according to Hincks, is identical with Porella 
 Coricinna. Busk. 
 
 Porella eleganttda. D'Orbigny. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup ; Montreal (Curry). 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspe. 
 
 Very fine and frequent in 10-30 fathoms opposite Cape Rosier 
 Village. J. F. W. 
 
224 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Porella compressa. Sowerby. ( = Oelleporaria swrcularis. Packard. ) 
 
 Fossil — Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Gasp^. 
 
 Abundant in 10-50 fathoms everywhere in the Gulf, and often 
 drifted down to lower levels. J. F. W. 
 
 Smittia producta. Packard. (Sp.) 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Gasp^ ; Murray Bay. 
 
 Smittia trispinosa. Johnston. 
 Fossil — Rivi^re-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gasp6 ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Crihrilina punctata? Hassall. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Gaspe. 
 
 Mttcronella Peachii. Johnston. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe. 
 
 Mucrondla ventricosa. Hassall. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence. 
 
 Myriozoum planum. Uawson. (Sp.) 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gasp^. 
 
 Myriozoum sub-gracile. D'Orbigny. 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspe. 
 
 Cdlepora pumicosa. Ellis. 
 St. John (Matthew). 
 
 Tubulipora fimbria, Lara. ( = T. flahdlaris. Johnston, non Fabr. ) 
 Fossil — Beauport ; Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gaspe, Labrador (Packard) ( = T. Pataata, Wood). 
 
 Idmonea atlantica. Forbes. 
 
 Fossil — Rivifere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent — I believe this to be identical with the species found in the 
 gulf of St. Lawrence, and referred by Dr. Packard and Mr. Whiteaves 
 to the above. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 225 
 
 Diastopora obelia. Johnston. 
 Foaail — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 Recent — Gasp6. 
 
 Crisia ebumea. Ellis. 
 
 Fossil— Montreal. A specimen collected by Mr. Curry is referred to 
 this species by Mr. Whiteaves. 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard). In 96 fathoms, Trinity Bay, N. 
 Shore St. Lawrence R. J. F. W. 
 
 Alecto. (Sp.) 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 lAchenopora hispida. Fleming. (Sp. ) 
 
 Fossil — Rivi^re-du-Loup. Patches on shells, somewhat worn, but 
 referable to this common North Atlantic species. 
 
 2. — Sub-Class — Brachiopoda. 
 RTiynchonella psittacea. Gm. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Beauport ; Autioosti ; Riviere- 
 du-Loup. Abundant. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay and Gaspe ; Little Metis ; 
 Kamouraska; British Columbia ; Labrador (Packard) ; 
 Gulf St. Lawrence. Generally on stony bottoms 10 
 fathoms and over. Arctic seas generally ; also Crag of 
 England and glacial beds. 
 
 In a bed of stony clay at Riviere-du-Loup, this 
 
 shell is very abundant, with less abundant specimens 
 
 of the next species. It occurs living in precisely the 
 
 same relations and in great abundance at Murray 
 
 Bay, in about 20 fathoms. 
 Pleistocene Brauhi- 
 
 opods.— 1. Eliyii- 2'erebratella Spitzbergeiisis. Davidson. 
 
 chonella psittacea 
 2.TerebratellaSpitz- Fossil— Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 bergeiisis. Recent — Murray Bay ; also at several localities 
 
 in the gulf of St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Nova Scotia (Willis). 
 
 This species has been found in the Pleistocene of Canada, hitherto 
 only at Riviere-du-Loup, and is rare. It appears to be a rare shell in 
 every part of the Gulf where it has hitherto occurred, except at 
 Murray bay, where it is not uncommon, and is found attached to 
 stones in 20 to 25 fathoms, associated with Ehynchondla psittacea. 
 16 
 
226 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 Fossils— Plate V. 
 
 
 ii' 
 
 
 Pleistocene LameUibranchs.~-l, Mya trunca'a-~Ya.i\ Uddevallensis ^Montreal] 2, Mya 
 truncata~\av. communis— Portland ; 3, Macoma calcarea; 4, Leda arctica; 5, Mod- 
 iolaria nigra; 6, Saxicava rugosa — Var. arctica — Montreal ; 7, Panopea Norvegica, 
 Rivi6ie-du-Loup. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 227 
 
 Class II. — Lamellibranchiata. 
 Pholas {Zirphea) crispata. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Maine (Packard). 
 
 I iiave not found this species fossil in Canada, but it exists as a 
 living shell on the New England coast generally, in Northumberland 
 strait ; gulf of St. Lawrence, and, according to Bell, as far to the 
 north-west as Rimouski. Puget Sound (U.S. Expl. Exped.) Queen 
 Charlotte Islands (Whiteaves). 
 
 it has perhaps extended its northern limit to Canada since the 
 glacial period. On the European coast it is a northern shell, reaching 
 south to the Mediterranean. 
 
 Saxicava rugosa. Lamarck (and var. arctica). 
 
 Fossil — Saxicava sand and top of Leda clay, Montreal; St. Nicholas, 
 Ottawa; L'Orignal; Chaudiere Station; Upton, P.Q.; Stormont, Ont. ; 
 Quebec ; Murray Bay ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Trois Pistoles ; Tadoussac ; 
 Auticosti ; Labrador ; Lawlor's Lake ; Bathurst ; New Richmond ; * 
 Vancouver Island (G. M. Dawson) ; New Brunswick ; Maine, &c. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence ; coast of Nova Scotia ; and New 
 England and northern seas generally ; also British Columbia and west 
 coast of America as far as Mazatlan. (P. P. Carpenter). 
 
 Very abundant in the more shallow-water portions of the Pleisto- 
 cene throughout Canada, and presenting all the numerous varietal 
 forms of the species in great perfection. It is relatively much more 
 abundant in the drift-deposits than in the gulf of St. Lawrence at 
 present. Pieces of limestone which have been bored probably by this 
 shell, are not rare in the drift at Montreal. 
 
 This is a widely distributed arctic species, and is found in the 
 Pleistocene deposits of Europe, and as far back as the Miocene. 
 
 Panopcea Norvegica. Spengler. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay ; Rivifere-du-Loup. Very rare. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; dredged in Gaspe Bay, 30 and 40 fathoms, 
 by Mr. Whiteaves; Halifax (Willis); Grand Manq,n (Stimpson); 
 Arctic and northern seas generally. 
 
 It is very rare in the Pleistocene, a few valves only having been 
 found at Riviere-du-Loup. The specimens are small, and much 
 inferior to those found in the Scottish Clyde beds, of which I have a 
 specimen from Rev. H. Crosskey. 
 
 * For shells from this locality I am indebted to Dr. Thornton, of 
 New Richmond. 
 
228 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Myatruncaia, Linn. (And var. Uddevallensis.) 
 
 Fossil — Saxicava sand and Leda clay; Montreal ; Quebec ; Rivifere- 
 du-Loup ; Anticosti ; Goose River, N. Shore, River St. Lawrence ; 
 New Richmond ; Portland ; New Brunswick (Matthew) ; Labrador 
 (Packard) ; Greenland (Moller) ; also in the Pleistocene of Europe. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Tadoussac ; Riviere-du-Loup ; British Col- 
 umbia ; Gulf St. Lawrence, but rare in comparison with its abundance 
 in the drift. Generally distributed in the Arctic seas and North 
 Atlantic, American coast as far south as Cape Cod ; Puget Sound 
 ( = preciosa Gould, P. P. C. ) 
 
 The variety usually found in the Pleistocene of Canada is the short 
 or Uddevallensis variety, which is that occurring in the arctic seas at 
 present, while in the Gulf St. Lawrence the ordinary long variety is 
 found almost exclusively. At Portland, Maine, however, the long 
 variety lived in the Pleistocene, and occasional specimens are found at 
 Riviere-du-Loup and New Richmond. The form Uddevaileiisis occurs 
 living in Labrador (Packard), and I have found it at Tadoussac and 
 Little Metis. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that while the present species is more 
 abundant than the next in the Pleistocene, it is much more rare in the 
 Gulf at present. It also occurs in deeper water. 
 
 In collecting recent specimens of Mya truncata and M. 
 arenaria at Little Metis, I have had opportunity to ob- 
 serve their habits and varieties in a manner to illustrate 
 the differences above noticed. 
 
 At the head of Little Metis Bay, where the water is 
 shallow and warm, and the bottom is soft mud and sand, 
 a large variety of Mya arenaria is very plentiful in the 
 flats bare at low tide; so much so that the place is resorted 
 to by fishermen from localities lower on the coast for 
 bait. It sometimes attains the length of 4J inches, and 
 has a thick, dense shell, without perceptible epidermis, 
 and often with radiating bands. So far as I am aware, 
 neither Mya truncata nor the peculiar variety of M. 
 arenaria referred to below, occurs on this part of the 
 coast. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 229 
 
 I have not infrequently dredged Mya trimcata, usually 
 the long variety, but sometimes the short Uddevalensis 
 variety, in deep water outside the bay, but have not seen 
 it above low-water mark, though it occurs not far from 
 this line ; and, on the opposite side of the river St. 
 Lawrence, I have found it at Tadoussac, where the water 
 is still colder, close to low-water mark. I was not aware 
 till lately that Mya arenaria occurred on the compara- 
 tively steep and stony shore outside the bay, and it is 
 certainly not found there inside of the low-water limit. 
 
 In 1888, however, after a heavy easterly gale, great 
 numbers of Mya arenaria, in a living state, and a few 
 specimens of M. truncata, were thrown up on the beach, 
 and must have been derived from the mud disturbed 
 by the breakers at no great distance outside of low- 
 water mark, or on a slight bank a little further seaward. 
 The former were all of small or moderate size, some- 
 what round and flat in form, much wrinkled and 
 covered with a thick brown epidermis which . extended a 
 little way beyond the posterior end of the shell, which 
 was, however, rounded and not truncated, and destitute 
 of the corneous tube of M. truncata. Still, many of the 
 specimens might, at first sight have been mistaken for 
 M. truncata, with the tube partly broken off. This 
 enabled me, for the first time, to understand the remark 
 of Fabricius, that in Greenland the two species are so 
 similar, that but for the hinge and the tube they might 
 be confounded. With these were thrown up specimens 
 of M. truncata, which must have lived with the others, 
 the inner limit of M. truncata probably overlapping the 
 outer limit of M. arenaria. The short or Uddevalensis 
 variety of trimcata was, however, very rare, only a few 
 shells in a perfectly recent state having been found, and 
 
230 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 they probably lived in somewhat deeper and colder water 
 than the others. The water, I may add, on this coast is 
 so far affected by the arctic current as to be quite cold, 
 except near the shore and in shallow bays, and the species 
 dredged in 10 to 15 fathoms arc, in general, similar to 
 those of the Labrador coast, belonging rather to the boreal 
 than to the Acadian fauna. With the Myas were cast up 
 shells of Solenensis, var. Americanus of Carpenter, and of 
 Machaera costata, the latter sometimes of large size, 
 though it is more abundant in the warmer water at the 
 head of the bay, where Purpura Lapillus, a rare shell on 
 this coast, also occurs on the reefs. 
 
 It is evident that though there is no passage from one 
 species into the other, the long variety of Mya truncata 
 represents the extreme limit of modification of that 
 species for a shallow and warm-water habitat, while the 
 small epidermis-clad variety of M. arenaria represents its 
 extreme modification for deeper and colder water than 
 usual ; and along the coast at Metis these two varieties 
 meet. 
 
 The coldness of the Pleistocene seas thus explains the 
 occurrence, in the upper Leda clay, of the peculiar small 
 and epidermis-clad variety of M. arenaria and of the 
 short form of Mya truncata. The conditions in the colder 
 parts of the river St. Lawrence approach in these respects 
 to those of the Pleistocene, though they are no doubt 
 more fully realized in the arctic seas. 
 
 As I have remarked in my notes on the Post-pliocene, 
 the brown wrinkled epidermis-clad variety of M. arenaria 
 occurs plentifully along with M. Uddevalensis in the 
 upper Leda clay at Eiviere-du-Loup. 
 
 From the accounts of arctic collectors from Fabrieius 
 downwards, it would appear that in Greenland, as in 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 231 
 
 Pleistocene Canada, M. truncata is very abundant, and 
 occurs at low water in the sands, as M. arenaria does 
 further south. It would seem also that it forms a large 
 part of the food of the walrus and other animals, and is 
 much used by the inhabitants. It also appears that a 
 small variety of M. arenaria, with brown epidermis, is 
 most common in Greenland, and occurs with Mya truncata, 
 which is, however, more plentiful. The description given 
 by Fabricius of M. arenaria obviously agrees with that of 
 my small and brown variety from Metis. 
 
 It is interesting to note the companionship of these 
 allied species in the North Atlantic throughout the Pleis- 
 tocene and Modern periods, and the range of varietal 
 forms applicable to each, according to the conditions to 
 which they have been exposed, along with their continued 
 specific distinctness, and the preference of each for certain 
 kinds of environment, so that in some places one, and in 
 others the other, predominates, while this relative predo- 
 minance, as well as the prevalence of certain varietal 
 forms, might no doubt be reversed by change of climate 
 or of depth. 
 
 ; aj'enaria. Linu. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay and lower part of Saxlcava sand ; Montreal ; 
 Upton ; Quebec ; Murray Bay ; Labrador ; Duck cove and Lawlor's 
 lake. New Brunswick (Matthew) ; Anticosti ; Goose River ; New 
 Richmond; Tatagouche River, N.B. (Paisley); Gardiner, Maine; 
 Upton, P. Q. ; Portland, Maine ; Greenland (MoUer) ; also in the Post- 
 pliocene of Europe. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Rivifere-du-Loup, &c. Very abundant 
 throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence and coast of Nova Scotia and New 
 England, also Arctic seas generally. Mr. Jeffreys considers it identi- 
 cal with M. Japonica. Jay. This or allied in W. America, P. P. C. 
 
 In the Gulf this species grows to a large size ; I have a specimen five 
 inches long from Gaspi ; but in the Post-pliocene it is small and often 
 of a short and rounded variety. This is especially the case inland, as 
 
232 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 at Montreal. At Riviere-du-Loup a small thin variety with a strong 
 epidermis and attenuated posteriorly, is found in situ in its burrows in 
 tlie Leda clay. It is a deep-water variety. Some large specimens 
 in collections from this place, I have reason to believe, are from aboriginal 
 kitchen-middens. 
 
 Pandora (Kennerlia) glacialis. Leach. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay ; St. John, New Brunswick (Matthew) ; Saco, 
 Maine. 
 
 Recent —Caspe (Whiteaves) ; Murray Bay; Labrador (Packard); 
 Little Metis. 
 
 This species, which was at first confounded with Pandora trilineata, 
 is apparently quite distinct, and on the evidence of the hinge would 
 seem to belong to a different genus. Much nearer to Pandora pinna, 
 Mont. ; = P. ohtusa Forbes and Hanley. J. F. W. Jeffreys regards 
 these as varieties of P. inequivalvis. 
 
 Lyonsia arenosa. MoUer. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay ; Montreal (rare and small) ; Riviere-du-Loup, 
 common ; Duck Cove, N.B. (Matthew) ; Saco, Maine ; also in Greenland 
 (Moller). 
 
 Recent — Murray Biy, Riviere-du-Loup, Little Metis and Gasp^ ; 
 Halifax (Willis) ; Greenland (Moller) ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Some specimens from Portland are much larger than those from 
 Rivifere-du-Loup and Montreal, and Mr. Whiteaves finds individuals an 
 inch long, living at Gasp^. 
 
 Thracia Gonradi, Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossil — Saco (Packard). 
 
 Not yet found fossil in Canada, but recent, though rare, in Nova 
 Scotia (Willis) ; and at Gasp^. Abundant and large in Shediac Bay 
 (J. F. W. ) Also, though apparently rare, in Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Has probably extended its northern limit to Canada, since the 
 glacial period. 
 
 Macoma Grmnlandica. Beck. ( ilfacoma /)-a(/ffis Fabr. sp. J. F.W.) 
 
 Fossil — Saxioava sand and Leda clay ; Montreal ; Ottawa ; Perth, 
 Ont. ; Pakenham Mills, Cornwall ; Clarenoeville ; Upton ; Quebec ; 
 Murray Bay ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Chaudi^re Station ; Antioosti ; Upton, 
 P. Q. ; Stormont, Ont. ; Labrador ; Lawlor's lake and Bathurst, N. B. ; 
 Campbellton, P.E.I. ; Westbeaoh, Maine ; Greenland (Moller). 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 233 
 
 Recent — Everywhere on the coasts of the gulf and river St. 
 Lawrence, as a common littoral shell. I have found it as far up the 
 river as Kamouraska. 
 
 A thin and delicate variety with smooth epidermis is found in the 
 Leda clay ; coarser and more wrinkled varieties in the Saxicava sand. 
 Larger specimens are found at Quebec and Riviere-du-Loup than more 
 inland. 
 
 In the modern Gulf, the small and depauperated varieties are 
 littoral and near the brackish water, the finer varieties passing into 
 Macoma fusca of Say, which is a southern variety, are found on the 
 coast of Nova Scotia and in the bay of Fundy. This shell is repre- 
 sented in the European seas and Post-pliocene deposits by the closely 
 allied species M. solidida or Balthica, which seems to pass through a 
 corresponding series of varieties, but to be distinct. On the western 
 American coast it is similarly represented by M. inconspicua. Mr. 
 Tryon and Mr. Whiteaves believe the three forms to be conspecific. 
 
 It is said to be the Tdlina Fabricii of Hanley, and I have specimens 
 from Greenland from Morch labelled T. tenera. The T, tenera of 
 Lsach, however, is proxima, Brown, teste Hanley. It is apparently 
 the Venus /ragilis of Fabricius. 
 
 It is one of the most common and abundant shells of the Pleis- 
 tocene, as it is of the American coast from Greenland to New 
 England. 
 
 Macoma calcarea. Chemnitz. 
 
 Fossil — Leda and boulder-clays ; Montreal; Quebec; Murray Bay; 
 Riviere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; New Richmond ; Goose River ; Chau- 
 diere Station; Duck Cove, St. John, N.B. (Matthew) ; Maine ; Labra- 
 dor ; Greenland (MoUer) ; also European Pleistocene. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gasp6 ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Arctic seas gener- 
 ally, and on the American coast south to Massachusetts. 
 
 This shell is extremely abundant in the Leda and boulder-clays, and 
 often occurs in the clay with the valves attached. It is also of large 
 size and in fine condition, especially at Rivi6re-du-Loup. It is Tellina 
 proxima, Brown, T. sabiUosa, Spengler, and T. sordida of Couthuoy. 
 According to Hanley, the T. lata of Gmelin was founded on a figure 
 of this shell. British Columbia. 
 
 Macoma inflata. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup. Rare. 
 
 Recent^Murray Bay ; and dredged in deeper parts of the gulf of 
 St. Lawrence by Mr. Whiteaves. 
 
234 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 I am not aware where this little shell has been described, nor what 
 is its range. It seems identical with a specimen in Jeffrey's collection 
 labelled Tellina fragilis, Leach, from Spitzbergen. The Pleistocene 
 specimens are larger and better develope'd than the recent, except some 
 dredged by Mr. Whiteaves on the north shore, and I would infer from 
 this that the shell is Arctic. 
 
 Cyrtodaria siliqua. Daudin. 
 
 Fossil— Rivi6re-du- Loup; Labrador (Packard) ; Greenland (MoUer). 
 I have seen in the Post-pliocene of Canada, only an imperfect and 
 decorticated specimen of the young shell from Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent— Little Metis ; Cape Breton ; Prince Edward Island ; 
 Gaspe ; Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and coasts of Nova Scotia and New 
 England. 
 
 Mactra (Spisula) ovalis. Gould. M. polynema. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — Boulder clay ; Cape Elizabeth, Maine. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gaspe ; Labrador (Packard) ; also coast of 
 New England. 
 
 I found, many years ago, a few specimens of this shell at a, cove 
 where a number of species of marine shells occur in boulder-clay, and 
 it was published in my list of shells from this place in my paper on the 
 Post-pliocene of Labrador, Maine, (fee. It is credited by Packard to 
 " Zeeb's Cove," Cape Elizabeth, which may probably be the same place 
 where I procured it. This species has not yet been found within the 
 limits of Canada in the Pleistocene, though this and the related 
 species or variety, M. solidissima, is found living in Labrador, and 
 Matthew records it from upper Leda clay, St John. It has perhaps 
 moved northward since the glacial period. 
 
 Mesodesma {Oeronia) deaurata. Turton. 
 
 Fossil — Matane River (Bell) ; Little Metis. I have not seen it in 
 any other locality ; and it occurs only on the lowest terrace, so that 
 possibly it is modern. 
 
 Recent — Abundant at Tadoussao ; Little Metis ; and elsewhere in 
 Gulf and River St. Lawrence ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 This must be a modern species on our coasts ; but according to 
 Wood it is found in the Red Crag of England. 
 
 Venej-icardia (Cardita) boreaiin. Conrad. 
 
 Fossil — Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas to Long Island ; Little Metis, and common 
 throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It would seem to have been 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 235 
 
 much less generally distributed in the Pleistocene. Western 
 America as far south as Catalina Island, P. P. C. British Columbia. 
 
 Astarte Laurentiana. Lyell. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal, abundant ; Beauport and Riviere-du 
 Loup, rare. 
 
 Recent— Greenland (Morch) ; Labrador (Packard) ; Murray Bay. 
 
 This shell may be a variety of the next species ; but it is at least 
 a very distinct varietal form. It is distinguished by its very fine and 
 uniform concentric striation, passing to the ends of the valves and to 
 the ventral margin. There are two varieties, a flatter, and a more 
 tumid. I have the former from Greenland named by Morch A. 
 Banksii, and the latter named A. striata ; but they are different from 
 shells indicated by these names in Gould aud elsewhere. The only 
 recent specimens that I have seen from the gulf of St. Lawrence, which 
 can be referred to this species, are a few I dredged at Murray Bay. 
 A. Laurentiana is very abundant at Montreal, but much more rare 
 nearer the coast. It is evidently an arctic form. (See Figure, Plate I. ) 
 
 Astarte (Nicania) Banksii. Leach. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Rivifere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; Little Metis ; 
 Kamouraska, abundant ; Quebec, not infrequent ; Montreal, very rare ; 
 Labrador (Packard) ; St. John (Matthew) ; Portland, Maine, also 
 Uddevalla, Clyde beds and Crag. 
 
 Recent — Abundant at Gasp6 and elsewhere in Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 and also Arctic seas and coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
 This shell is that named A. Banksii, in Gould's last edition, 
 also in Beeohey's voyages. It is easily distinguished from the last 
 species by its coarser striation, fading toward the ends and also toward 
 the margin of the shell. It is, however, about the same size, but less 
 delicate and symmetrical in form. It is the common small Astarte of 
 the gulf of St. Lawrence, and also of the Post-pliocene of Rivifere-du- 
 Loup ; but becomes very rare at Montreal, where it is replaced by 
 A. Laurentiana. This species was named A. compressa in my former 
 lists, and it is certainly very near to European specimens of that 
 species, especially to the fossils from the Clyde beds and the Crag. 
 (See Figure, Plate I.) 
 
 Astarte elliptica. Brown. 
 
 Fossil — Labrador ; Saguenay ; Portland, Maine. 
 
 Recent — Labrador ; Murray Bay ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; 
 Kamouraska ; Gasp^ ; coast of Nova Scotia, &c. Also Greenland ; 
 Norway (typical) ; Scotland. 
 
236 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Specimens from the Clyde beds are perfestly identical with ours. 
 It is also found in the Post-pliocene of Norway and rarely in the Crag. 
 It is a northern species, meeting on the American coast the closely 
 allied forms A. undata and A. lens, into which, however, it does not 
 seem to pass. The two latter species, being more southern forms, arc 
 not found in the Pleistocene. A small form of A. crebricostata 
 ( = lens) is very abundant in 200 fathoms gulf St. Lawrence, J. F. W. 
 
 A. Omalii of S. Wood from the Crag, is very near to this species, 
 but is at least a distinct variety. 
 
 Astarte elliptica. Brown, has been shown by Sylvanus Hanley to be 
 the Venus compressa, Linn. Hence it is the true A. compressa. 
 J. F. W. 
 
 I regard this as Astarte lactea Brod and Sby. ; and A. semisulcata. 
 Leach, but as probably distinct, as Astartes go, from A. borealis, (= A. 
 arctica). (See Figure, Plate I. ) 
 
 Astarte arctica, MoUer, (var. lactea.) 
 
 Fossil — Labrador (Packard); St. John (Matthew); Portland, Maine; 
 also Greenland (Mbller). 
 
 Recent — Gaspe ; Little Metis ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; also Arctic seas ; 
 Norway (typical). 
 
 This species has been found in the Pleistocene of Canada, only in 
 Labrador and New Brunswick ; and is rare in the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. It is our largest Astarte and I believe it to be identical 
 with A. lactea, Brod. and Sow., and A. semistdcata, Gray. Fossil 
 specimens from Portland are precisely similar to recent ones from 
 Gasp^ dredged by Mr. VVhiteaves and referred by him to A. lactea. 
 But he regards A. borealis as probably distinct. Specimens from 
 Norway (A. arctica) and from Clyde beds (A. borealis) are smoother 
 and less ribbed than ours. British Columbia. (See Figure, Plate I.) 
 
 Other species of Astarte. 
 
 At Murray bay, there occurs very rarely a transversely elongated 
 and regularly striated Astarte with delicately wrinkled epidermis, 
 which seems to be identical with A. Bichardsonii from the Arctic seas 
 as described but not as figured by Reeve ; but A. Richardsonii is 
 generally regarded as young A. lactea. A similar species or variety 
 occurs, but very rarely, fossil at Rivifere-du-Loup. Matthew mentions 
 A. compressa from Pleistocene at St. John. A. sulcata (undata), 
 A. crebricostata (= A. lens), A. castanea, and A. quadrans have not 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 237 
 
 yet been found fossil, though the three former at least live in the gulf 
 of St. Lawrence.* 
 
 Cardiwm pinnulatum. Conrad. 
 
 Fossil — -Leda clay; Lawlor's Lake and St. John, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, and coast of Nova Scotia and New 
 England. 
 
 Oardium Islandicum. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; Saguenay ; Little Metis ; 
 _ Vancouver Island (G. M. D.) ; Portland, Maine ; Lawlor's Lake, N.B. ; 
 Greenland (Moller). 
 
 Recent — Rivifere-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; from Greenland to New 
 England. 
 
 Our fossil specimens are mostly small, and similar to the northern 
 variety or sub-species named by Stimpson O. Hayseii, and which also 
 occurs living as far south as Nova Scotia, and seems to be the C ciliatum 
 of Fabricius. Decorticated specimens are not distinguishable from 
 G. Daiosonii of Stimpson, from the Pleistocene of Hudson's Bay ; of 
 which I have seen only specimens in this state. 
 
 Oardium {Serripes) Grcerdandicum. Chemnitz. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay and boulder-clay, Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup ; 
 Murray Bay; Lawlor's Lake, &c., N.B. (Matthew); New Richmond; 
 Restigouche ; Bathurst (Paisley) ; Cape Elizabeth, Maine ; Labrador 
 (Packard) ; Greenland (Moller) ; Chaudiere Station. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gasp^ ; Gulf St. Lawrence, sometimes of 
 large size ; Arctic seas, and Greenland to Cape Cod. 
 
 This shell is somewhat rare and of small size in the Post-pliocene, 
 and has not yet been found higher up the St. Lawrence than Quebec. 
 Specimens of good size occur at Portland. 
 
 Kellia Svhorhicularis. Mont. 
 Black Point, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 * Astarte quadrans, Gould, has been dredged, living, off Esquimaux 
 point, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence. Astarte crenata, Gray, 
 and a small form of A. crebricostate, Forbes (= A. lens, Stimpson), 
 have been dredged in 200 to 300 fathoms between Anticosti and the 
 south shore. The form of A. undata, Gould, which comes closest to 
 A. stdcata, is abundant, living, in Northumberland straits and 
 between Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. J. F.W. A. castanea 
 occurs in Minas basin, Bay of Fundy. 
 
238 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Oryptodon Oouldii. Philippi. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. Rare. Matthew records a species supposed to 
 be distinct from G. Gouldii at St. John. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay ; Gasp^ (Whiteaves) ; Little Metis ; Kamour- 
 aska ; Greenland to New England. 
 
 The European form C. flexuosa (Axinus flexuosus) is usually regarded 
 as distinct, and is found as far north as Spitzbergen, and in the Crag, 
 the Clyde beds, and the Norway Post-pliocene, and in British Columbia. 
 Jeffreys, however, considers the difference merely varietal, and ' it 
 certainly seems to diminish or disappear in the northern and glacial 
 specimens. 
 
 According to Mr. Whiteaves this species has a great range in depth 
 in the gulf of St. Lawrence, being found, living, from 20 to 300 fathoms . 
 
 Sphaerium ? 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, with fresh-water bivalves and Tellina 
 Grcerdandica. The specimens were too imperfect for certain deter- 
 mination. 
 
 Unio rectus. Lamarck. 
 
 Fossil — Clarenceville, Lake Champlain (Dickson), with Mya aren- 
 aria, Tellina Grcenlandica, &e. 
 
 Recent — River St. Lawrence. 
 
 Unio Cardium? Rafinesque. 
 
 Fossil — With the preceding. This and the preceding species were 
 represented by large and thick shells better developed than those of 
 the River St. Lawrence at present. It is probably the same with 
 U. ventricosus, Barnes. 
 
 Unio ellipsis. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Toronto ; Interglacial Beds. 
 Recent — River St. Lawrence. 
 
 Mylilus edulis. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Acton ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Quebec ; Chaudiere 
 Station ; Anticosti ; Labrador (Packard) ; Lawlor's lake, N.B. 
 (Matthew) ; Greenland (Moller). 
 
 Recent— North Atlantic and Arctic seas generally ; British Columbia 
 and North Pacific (= trossuliis, Gould) ; as far south as Monterey. 
 
 The variety most commonly found in the Pleistocene is a small, 
 oval, tumid form, allied to variety elegans of British writers. This 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 239 
 
 variety still lives at Tadoussao, and is apparently characteristio of 
 situations where the water is cold and exposed to intermixture of fresh 
 water. The ordinary variety occurs at Portland, and also in some of 
 the upper beds at Rivifere-du-Loup. At Montreal only the small oval 
 variety occurs. This variety is also found in the Clyde beds and in 
 the Crag. 
 
 Modiola modiolus. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal, very rare. 
 
 Recent — Labrador to New England ; very common on the coasts of 
 Nova Scotia and New England ; North Pacific ; found sparingly along 
 the Vancouver and Californian coasts till it is replaced in the Gulf 
 fauna by M. capax, Conrad. 
 
 This species becomes rare to the northward ; and this, as well as its 
 being proper to rooky shores rather than to clays and sands, may 
 account for its rarity in the Canadian Pleistocene. It is, however, 
 common in the glacial beds of Europe. 
 
 Modiolaria nigra. Gray. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Rivi^re-du-Loup (small variety nexa ; also large 
 and fine) ; very large and well preserved in nodules at Kennebeck, 
 Maine ; Labrador (Packard, if his 31. discrepans as I suppose) ; Black 
 Point, N.B. ? (Matthew). (See Plate V., Fig. 5.) 
 
 Recent— Gulf of St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Little Metis ; Riviere- 
 du-Loup. Very large and fine on coast of Nova Scotia (Willis) and as 
 far north as Greenland (if. discors, L.) ; British Columbia. 
 
 Modiolaria corrugata. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay, Little Metis and Cacouna ; precisely similar 
 to the shells from the Pleistocene. Also Greenland (MoUer) ; Labrador 
 (Packard) ; and south to Cape Cod. 
 
 Modiolaria discors. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport, of good size ; Greenland (MoUer) ; Montreal (Mr. 
 Kennedy). 
 
 Recent — Labrador to New England ; Little Metis ; Riviere-du- 
 Loup ; British Columbia. Specimens from Gasp^ are precisely similar 
 to the fossil. This shell is no doubt identical with M. Icevigata, of 
 Gray, and possibly with the M. discrepans of some other authors. 
 It is, however, the same with that figured in Binney's Gould as 
 M. discors. 
 
240 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Crenella glandula. Totten. 
 
 This species, which is at present quite common in the Gulf St. 
 Lawrence, is indicated in my formerly published lists as a Montreal 
 fossil; but I have mislaid the specimens, and cannot therefore now 
 repeat the comparisons with the recent shells. It is probably C /aba 
 of Fabrioius. 
 
 According to Mr. Whiteaves this is quite distinct from G. decmsata, 
 Montagu, both being found living in Gasp^. 
 
 NuciUa tenuis. Montagu. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; Saco (var. infiata) ; Rivi6re-du-Loup, 
 Bay de Chalexir (Matthew) ? Green's Creek, Ottawa River. 
 
 Recent — North Shore ; also Gulf St. Lawrence to Gasp^ (Whiteaves) ; 
 Little Metis (type and var. infiata; also European coasts and British 
 Columbia. 
 
 N. expansa. Reeve. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay and boulder-clay, Rivifere-du-Loup ; Saco; 
 Westbrook, Duck Cove, St. John, N.B. (Matthew) ; Pakenham? 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Murray Bay ; Little Metis ; Arctic 
 seas. 
 
 I doubt if this is not a large and well-developed northern form of 
 N. temiis. 
 
 N. antiqua. Morch. From Leda clay of Maine ; seems to be a variety 
 of the last. 
 
 Leda pernula. Muller. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Riviere-du-Loup ; New Richmond ; New Bruns- 
 wick (Matthew) ; Portland ; Saco ; Lawlor's Lake, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Kamouraska ; Arctic seas and south to New 
 England. 
 
 This shell occurs very abundantly at Riviere-du-Loup ; and the 
 specimens found there show that no specific line can be drawn between 
 the forms known as pernula, buccata (Steenst.), tenuisvlcata, Gould, and 
 Jacksonii, Gould. Slender and flattened varieties are pernula and 
 tenuisvlcata, shorter and more tumid forms are buccata ; and specimens 
 decorticated so as to show the origin of the hinge teeth are Jacksoni. 
 Comparison of specimens from Greenland, Norway, Labrador, the 
 Gulf St. Lawrence, and New England, confirms this conclusion. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 241 
 
 Leda minuta. Fabricius. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Montreal ; RlviSre-du-Loup ; St. John, &c. 
 (Matthew) ; Greenland (MoUer) ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Kamouraska ; also British Columbia ; Arctic 
 seas, Gulf St. Lawrence ; coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
 The fossil specimens occur abundantly with the last species at 
 Riviere-du-Loup, and are quite similar to those dredged at Murray 
 Bay. This was called L. caudata in my former lists. 
 
 Leda jrygmma. Munster. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay. Green's Creek, Ottawa ; Saoo, Maine ; also 
 English Crag and other Glacial beds. 
 
 Recent — North European seas ; but not yet recognized on the 
 American coast. According to Mr. Jeffreys and Dr. Carpenter, our 
 drift-shells are referable to the variety or species Toldia dbyssicola of 
 Torell. 
 
 Toldia {Portlandia) arctica. Gray. ( = Leda glacialis, a,TLte.) 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay and Boulder clay, Montreal ; Quebec ; Ottawa 
 River; Rivifere-du-Loup ; St. John, N.B.,&c. ; Portland and Saco, 
 Maine ; also in Pleistocene of Norway (Sars), and of Scotland (Crosskey). 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas. 
 
 This shell is most abundant, and generally diffused in the Leda clay ; 
 and the variety ordinarily found at Montreal and Rivi^re-duLoup is 
 precisely identical with the ordinary Arctic form. A long variety, 
 called L. intermedia by Sars, is also found at Montreal, though rarely. 
 A short variety, common in the Pleistocene at Murray Bay, is 
 similar to the L. siliqua of Reeve from the Arctic seas ; and young and 
 depauperated varieties resemble L. aulcifera of the same author. The 
 abundant material from the Pleistocene shows that these are all 
 varietal forms. (Plate V. , Fig. 4. ) 
 
 This shell is Yoldia arctica of Sars, but not of MoUer and Morch. 
 It is Y, truncata of Brown. It is Portlandia glacialis of Gray, and 
 Leda Portlandica of Hitchcock. 
 
 Yoldia lucida, Lov^n (which is abundant living in the deeper parts 
 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence) resembles the young form of this species, 
 but the two are probably quite distinct. J. F. W. 
 
 Yoldia limatula. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Riviere-du-Loup. Yoldia sapotilla is recorded 
 by Matthew from Black Point, N.B. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gulf St. Lawrence to Long Island. 
 17 
 
242 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 This shell has been found as yet only at Riviere-du-Loup, where 
 the specimens however are as good as those now living in the Gulf. 
 It will be observed, however, that though they have the number 
 of teeth of Y. limatula, they approach in form to the allied species 
 or variety Y. sapotilla, a, shell which occurs in Greenland and thence 
 to New England, and which I strongly suspect is merely a, short 
 variety bearing a similar relation to Y. liniatvla to that which 
 Mya UddevaZlensis bears to the ordinary M. truncata ; but Jeffreys 
 considers it distinct. Y. sapotilla is, I may mention, the Y. arctica of 
 Morch, as proved by a specimen from his collection now in my possession. 
 
 Yoldia myalis. Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossil — Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Riviere-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; Kamouraska ; Gaspe 
 (Whiteaves) to south of Cape Cod. This shell is supposed to be 
 identical with hyperborea, Lov^n, from Spitzbergen. 
 
 Leda fossa. Baird. 
 
 Fossil — Vancouver Island (Dr. G. M. Dawson). 
 Pecten Grcenlandicus. Chemnitz. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Portland and Saco, Maine ; not yet found in 
 Canada. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves), in deep water 200 to 300 
 fathoms. 
 
 This species is found in the Clyde beds and in Greenland ; and if, as 
 Jeffreys supposes, identical with P. similia (Laskey), it is a shell of 
 very wide distribution in the Atlantic, as well as in geological time. 
 Though not yet found in Canada as a Pleistocene fossil, its occurrence 
 as a fossil in Maine and recent in the Gulf St. Lawrence, renders it 
 probable that it may yet occur in our Leda clays. 
 
 Pecten tenuicostatus. Mighels. ( = P. Mogellanicus. Lamarck. ) 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, St. John, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 Recent — Labrador to Cape Cod. 
 
 This shell has not yet been found in the Pleistocene of the St. 
 Lawrence valley; but since, according to Packard, it is common in 
 Labrador, there is nothing remarkable in its occurrence at St. John. 
 
 Pecten Islandicus. Chemnitz. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup; Quebec; Anticosti; Labrador (Packard) ; 
 St. John, N.B. (Matthew); Portland, Maine ; Greenland (Moller); also 
 Crag, Clyde beds, and Post-pliocene of Norway. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 243 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Murray Bay ; Gasp6 ; Gulf St. Lawrence, 
 and from Greenland to Connecticut. 
 
 This is a shell which is very durable, and retains even its colour 
 when imbedded in the clays. In this it excels the Tellinas, Astartes, 
 Saxicava and Ledas ; though these in turn are always much better 
 preserved than the Mytili and Modiolse. 
 
 Ostrea Virginiana. Lister. 
 
 I have picked up a loose specimen at Saco which has the appearance 
 of being a fossil specimen from the Leda clay, and Mr. Paisley has 
 sent me specimens from the Bay des Chaleurs, which are said to have 
 come from Pleistocene beds 16 feet from the surface.* 
 
 Class III. — Gasteropoda. 
 
 Philine lineolcUa. Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossilt — Montreal, rare. 
 
 Recent — Gasp^ ; Grand Manan (Stimpson) ; Nova Scotia (Willis). 
 It is Philine lima, Brown, according to Jeffreys. 
 
 Cylichna cdba. Brown. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Rivifere - du - Loup ; also in the Clyde beds. 
 (Plate VI., Fig. 11.) 
 
 Recent — Gaspe ; Labrador (Packard) ; Gulf St. Lawrence, common 
 (Whiteaves) ; Arctic seas generally. Same or similar on West Coast 
 at Sitka (P. P. C.) 
 
 Cylichna oryza. Totten. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 Recent— Coast of New England. Jeffreys regards it as B, utricidus. 
 Poviehi. 
 
 Cylichna nucleola. Reeve. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; rare, and perhaps doubtful. 
 Recent — Arctic seas. 
 
 * At present, however, its occurrence as a Pleistocene species must 
 be regarded as doubtful, more especially as in modern times it does not 
 occur in the colder parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 t Except when otherwise stated, all the Gasteropods are found in 
 the Leda clay, or at its junction with the Saxicava sand. 
 
244 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 Fossils. — Plate VI. 
 
 /C\ 
 
 \VI • ^ 
 
 Some Characteristic Gastropods.— 1, Neptunea despecta; 2, Admete viridula; 3, Tritono- 
 Jusus Kroycri; 4, Natica clausa; 5, Scalaria Grcenlandica ; 6, Vdutina zonata; 
 7, Acirsa Eschrichtii; S, Triohotropis Arctica; 9, Lepeia caeca; 10, Amicula Emer- 
 sonii; 11, Cylichna alba ? 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS 245 
 
 Cylichna occidta. Mighels and Adams. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Maine. 
 Recent — Greenland to New England. 
 
 Cylichna- striata. Brown. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup and Clyde beds. 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas. JeflFreys thinks this the same with the pre- 
 ceding species. 
 
 Haminea solitaria. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; rather common. 
 
 Recent — New England and northward. 
 
 If this species is rightly determined, it furnishes a curious instance 
 of a somewhat southern species occurring in the drift of Montreal. 
 The Haminem, however, can scarcely be identified by weathered or 
 fossil specimens, so that this may possibly be a northern form distinct 
 from solitaria. 
 
 Diaphana debilis. Gould. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Greenland to New 
 England. 
 
 Jeffreys considers it the same with B. hyalina, Turtou. If so, it 
 is a shell of the Clyde beds and of the Arctic seas generally. 
 
 Utriculus pertenuis. Mighels. 
 
 Fossil— Montreal. 
 
 Recent— Labrador (Whiteaves) ; Gulf St. Lawrence, and south to 
 Cape Cod. According to Jeffreys it is U. turritiis, MoUer, Greenland. 
 
 Patula striatella. Anthony. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham, Saxicava sand. 
 
 Lymnea umbrosa. Say. 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 Lymnea caperata. Say. 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 LimiKea palustris. MuUer. {=L. elodes, Say.) 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand. 
 
246 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Plan(yrhis bicarinatus. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand. 
 
 Planorbis trivohis. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand. 
 
 Planorbis parvus. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand. 
 
 All of the above pulmonates are modern Canadian species, and seem 
 to have been drifted by some fresh- water stream into the sea of the 
 Saxicava sand and Leda clay. 
 
 Siphono-dentalium vitreum. Sars. 
 
 Fossil — Leda clay, Murray Bay ; also Norway (Sars). 
 Recent — Gulf of St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; coast of Norway (Sars). 
 It is a rare deep-water shell. 
 
 Amicula (Stimpsmiella) Emersonii. Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossil— Montreal. (Plate I., Fig. 10.) 
 
 Recent —Murray Bay ; Little Metis ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Halifax ; 
 coast of New England. 
 
 My specimens are merely detached valves. They Indicate an 
 animal quite similar to specimens from Halifax referred to this species, 
 but dififer slightly from specimens from Murray Bay. Dr. Carpenter 
 has labelled the drift f orm var. "altior.'' The differences among the 
 recent specimens, as well as the fossil valves, are discussed in the 
 "Contributions to a Monograph of the Chitonidse," prepared by Dr. 
 Dall partly from Dr. Carpenter's notes, and printed by the Smithsonian 
 Institution. 
 
 PuncUirdla (Cemoria) noachina. Linn. 
 
 Fossil— Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup; Clyde beds. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gasp^ ; Murray Bay ; Labrador ; Gulf St. 
 Lawrence generally; and throughout the Arctic seas and North 
 Atlantic. 
 
 A cmaia testtidinalis. MoUer. 
 
 Fossil — Labrador. 
 
 Recent — Tadousac ; Little Metis ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; 
 Gaspi ; Pictou ; Gulf St. Lawrence generally ; and throughout the 
 Arctic seas and North Atlantic. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, 247 
 
 My only fossil specimen, obtained from Dr. Packard, is of the 
 small, elevated and depauperated variety so common at Murray Bay 
 and the north shore of the Gulf. It is curious that this common 
 modern species is so very rare in the Pleistocene. 
 
 Le.pe.ta cceca. MoUer. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Quebec ; Labrador ; European 
 Post-pliocene. (Plate VI., Fig. 9.) 
 
 Recent — Gasp^ ; Labrador ; Arctic seas generally ; and coast of 
 New England rarely. 
 
 This shell is not at all rare, living at Gasp^, and fossil at Rivifere- 
 du-Loup. Carpenter remarks that some of my Montreal specimens 
 have the characters of variety striata of MiddendorflF from Siberia. 
 
 Capuliis Ungaricus. Lin. (commodus ? Middendorfif. ) 
 
 Fossil— Point Levi, near Quebec. One specimen only, found by 
 
 Mr. Gunn and communicated by Dr. W. J. Anderson. Another and 
 
 larger collected at Montreal (Prof. Kennedy) ; Scotland (Jefireys). 
 
 (Plate L, Fig. 14.) 
 
 Recent — Spitzbergen ; Greenland ; Norway. I have not found this 
 
 shell recent in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 This species is fossil at Uddevalla, and is supposed to be the same 
 
 with G. fallax and C oUiquattis of Wood from the English Crag. If 
 
 a form of Capidus Ungaricus, it has been repeatedly dredged alive off 
 
 the New England coast, in deep water, by Verrill. 
 
 Crepidula fomicata, L. 
 
 Baron de Geer, in his visit to Canada, 1891, was so fortunate as to 
 find at the Mile-End Quarries, in the Saxioava sand, a small specimen 
 of this shell, the first hitherto found in Canadian Pleistocene. 
 
 Margarita hdicina. Fabrioius. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Murray Bay. 
 
 Young specimens resemble M. acuminata of Mighels. Broad speci- 
 mens resemble M. Campanulata, Morse. 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas ; Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and coast of New 
 England. Also British Columbia. It is M. Arctica, Leach. 
 
 Margarita argentata. Gould. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. Rare. 
 
 Recent — Labrador and Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Murray 
 Bay; Gaspe ; Rivi6re-du-Loup ; Littl& Metis; coast of New England 
 and Nova Scotia ? Possibly the same with M. glauca, MoUer, from 
 Greenland. 
 
248 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Margarita cinerea. Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossil— Rivi6re-du-Loup ; Portland. 
 
 Recent — Gasp^ ; Labrador ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; 
 Murray Bay ; Greenland to New England ; var. striata, Dall, Sitka. 
 
 Cyclostrema (MOlUria) costulata. MoUer. 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Clyde beds ; Uddevalla. 
 Recent — Gaspd ; Arctic seas to New England. 
 
 Cyclostrema Cutleriana. Clark. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. Rare. 
 
 This is an Arctic and British shell, as yet recognized only at 
 Montreal. 
 
 Turritella erosa. Couthuoy 
 
 Fossil — Labrador ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Montreal ? 
 
 Recent— Little Metis; Murray Bay; Nova Scotia; Greenland to 
 New England. 
 
 Turritella reticulata. Mighels. 
 
 Fossil^Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent— 6asp6 ; Labrador to Gulf St. Lawrence ; also fishing banks, 
 Nova Scotia (Willis) ; British Columbia. 
 
 My specimens received from Dr. Packard are marked T. costulata 
 but seem rather to be the above species. 
 
 Turritella aciciUa. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — Rivi4re-du-Loup ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay ; coast of New England. 
 
 There may be some reason to doubt whether this is not a variety of 
 T. erosa. It is quite possible that the above species should be regarded 
 as Mesalios. 
 
 Campdoma decisum. Say. ( = Paludina decisa, Say. ) , 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, Saxioava sand. 
 RecenlP-Eastern America generally. 
 
 Valvata tricarinata. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, with the preceding. 
 
 Recent — Eastern America generally. 
 
 Jeffreys regards this as a variety of V. piscinalis. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 249 
 
 Amnicola limosa. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Pakenham Mills, with the preceding. 
 Becent — Hudson's Bay to Virginia. 
 This was A. porala of the previous lists. 
 
 Littoriiia rudis. Martin. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup ; also Clyde beds and Uddevalla. 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas to New England and European coasts. 
 
 L. tenebrosa, which may be regarded as a variety, is also found at 
 Rivifere-du-Loup, Little Metis, and Kanjouraska. 
 
 Rissoa castanea, MoUer. 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 Recent— Gasp^ ; Labrador, Trinity Bay (Whiteaves). 
 
 Rissoa exarata, Stimpson. 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 Recent — New England. 
 
 Oingula Jan Meyeni. Friele. {Sissoa scrobiculata of iovmer lists.) 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 Becent — Greenland ; Gulf St. Lawrence, 200 to 300 fathoms, large ; 
 and small, Gasp^, 30 fathoms (Whiteaves). 
 
 Beta harpylaria. Couthuoy. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Murray Bay ; River Charles, &c.. New 
 Brunswick (Matthew) ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Labrador (large specimens). 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence ; very fine at Murray Bay, and similar 
 to large specimens from Rivi^re-du-Loup ; Rivi^re-du-Loup ; Little 
 Metis ; Kamouraska ; coast of New England. It is B. Woodiana, 
 MoUer. (J. F. W.) 
 
 Bda elegant. Moller. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Murray Bay. 
 
 Recent — Greenland and Norway ; closely allied to next species. 
 
 Bela pyramidalis. Strom. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; also Crag, Clyde beds and Uddevalla. 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; 
 Murray Bay ; Rivi^re-du-Loup ; Kamouraska, and south to Cape Cod ; 
 Arctic seas generally. It is the B. phurotomaria of Couthouy, and 
 
250 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 B. Vahlii of Beck. According to Dr. Carpenter the species is 
 an uncertain one, having apparently varieties connecting it with 
 B. harpvlaria, B. bicarinata, and B. violacea. 
 
 Beta turricuia. Montagu. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Labrador ; also Red Crag and 
 Uddevalla (Jeffreys). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gulf of St. Lawrence and coast of Nova 
 Scotia and New England. 
 
 I include under this name B. nobilis of Moller ; B. Americana, 
 Packard ; B. scalaris, Moller ; B. exarala, MuUer, Morch ; and 
 B. angiUata, Reeve. The var. nobilis is found at Montreal and Gaspe ; 
 also young shells not distinguishable from exarata. Var. sccUans, 
 occurs at Riviere-du-Loup and Labrador. This shell is a, widely- 
 diffused and somewhat variable northern species. Mr. Whiteaves, 
 however, regards B. nobilis, B. exarata, and B. scalaris as distinct. 
 
 Btla Trevelliana. Turton. 
 
 Fossil — Rivifere-du-Loup ; Labrador ; also Clyde beds and Norway 
 (Jeffreys). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; Arctic seas, 
 and Greenland to Massachusetts. It is probably B. decussata of 
 Couthuoy. B. excurvata (Carpenter), from Puget Sound, may prove 
 another variety. British Columbia, according to Whiteaves.* 
 
 Bela violacea. Mighels and Adams. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Riviere-du-Loup ; British Columbia ; 
 Murray Bay ; Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspd (Whiteaves) ; Fishing 
 banks Nova Scotia (Willis) ; Massachusetts (Stimpson). Possibly 
 B. bicarinata of Couthuoy. 
 
 Bela cancellaia. Mighels and Adams. 
 
 Fossil — Little Metis ; Murray Bay ; Labrador (Packard) ; Casco 
 Bay (Gould). This shell may be B. impressa. Beck. In any case the 
 fossils are identical with the modern Murray Bay specimens. It also 
 occurs living in Gasp^ Bay (Whiteaves). 
 
 * Whiteaves doubts whether the true Bda turricuia or the 
 B. Trevelyana have been found in the St. Lawrence. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 251 
 
 Natica clausa. Brod. and Sowerby. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Rivl6re-du-Loup ; St. John, &c., N.B. 
 (Matthew) ; Labrador ; Anticosti ; Chaudiere Station ; Portland, 
 Maine ; Vancouver Island. (G. M. D.) (Plate VI., Fig. 4.) 
 
 Recent — Greenland to Cape Cod ; Little Metis ; Gasp^ ; Tadousao ; 
 Kamouraska ; also British Columbia. 
 
 Common and extensively distributed in the Post-pliocene of Europe, 
 from Norway to Sicily, and found at an elevation of 1330 to 1360 feet 
 in Moel Tryfaen, Wales. (Darbyshire). It has been identified with 
 N. affinis, Sm., but Sara and Verrell consider this quite different. 
 
 Lunatia heros. Say. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport, a single specimen only, and this of small size ; 
 ELver Charles, N.B. (Matthew); New Richmond; also a depauperated 
 variety ; Benjamin River, supposed by Matthew to be possibly a 
 distinct species or variety. Var. Chalmerni (Matthew). 
 
 Recent — Labrador and southward. 
 
 This species is as old as the Miocene Tertiary ; and in the Pleisto- 
 cene, Canada was probably its extreme northern limit. 
 
 Lunatia Oromlandica. Beck. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; Maine ; 
 also Pleistocene of England, Scotland, and Norway. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gasp6 ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Arctic seas 
 generally ; and extending to Britain and New England, 
 
 L, pallida is the representative of this species on the west coast of 
 America. 
 
 Choristes elegans. Cpr. 
 
 Fossil — Saxicava sand, Montreal. Rare. (Plate I., Fig. 13.) 
 This shell was identified in my former papers with Natica helicoidesj 
 but it is now found to be quite distinct, and Dr. P. P. Carpenter 
 describes it as a new species and genus as follows : 
 
 Genus Choristbs. 
 
 Testa helicoidea, tenuis ; epidermide induta ; anfractus disjuncti ; 
 labriim postice angulatum, antice baud emarginatnm ; labium plana- 
 tum ; columella simplex. Animal ignotum. 
 
 Choristes elegans, n. a. 
 Ch. t. satis elevatsl, tenui, nitente ; epidermide fulv4, tenui, laevi, 
 extus et intus omnino appressa ; anf r. iii. + ....?, vertice nucleoso 
 decoUato, spiraliter obsoletius striatis ; lineia incrementi tenuissimis ; 
 
252 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 spirsi, superne planatS,, suturis maxime impressis, basi tumente ; 
 umbilioo intus majore, extus modioo ; apertur^ sublunat^, postice ad 
 angulum ciro. 30° inclinatk, antice late rotundata ; labro aouto, postice 
 planato ; labio acuto, planato, baud reflexo ; columella postice regu- 
 lariter arcuata, neque emarginat^, nee angulat^, nee iusculptl. 
 
 Long, (apice deeoUato) '82, long. spir. '32, lat. •^6 poll. Div. 90°. 
 
 Hai. Montreal, in strato glaciali, fossilis, rarissime reperta. Mus. 
 Dawson, McGill Coll., Nat. Hist. Soc. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter adds the following remarks : 
 
 While almost all the other drift fossils are of species still living in 
 the neighbouring seas, this is not known, even generically, to be at 
 present in existence. It is hard to pronounce satisfactorily on its 
 relationships. In its thin, coated shell it resembles Velutina ; the 
 striae and loose whirls recall Naticina ; the straight pillar lip reminds 
 us of Fossarus ; while the umbilicus and rounded base, with entire 
 mouth, best accord with the Natica group. With Trichotropis and its 
 congeners I can see no resemblance. One remarkable feature in all 
 the specimens is the decollation of the upper whirls, seen even in a 
 nearly perfect young specimen, '2 across ; other young specimens, even 
 smaller, have only one whirl and a half remaining. The broken 
 portion is filled up not so much by a septum as by a solid thickening. 
 The separation of the whirls is complete from the beginning ; and 
 although, in the parietal portion, they are closely appressed, the 
 smooth and somewhat glossy epidermis is distinctly seen between. 
 The fracture of the mouth in most of the specimens, enables this 
 feature to be distinctly observed ; and would also reveal the "internal 
 groove ' and columellar callosity ascribed to Torellia, did any such 
 exist. 
 
 The straightening of the inner lip, at an angle of 30° from the axis, 
 makes the umbilicus by no means large (for a Naticoid shell) when 
 viewed from the base in the line of the pillar ; but the same cause 
 enlarges it within, recalling the adult appearance of Araphithalamus. 
 The flattening of the upper portion of the whirls gives the shell some- 
 what of an lanthinoid aspect. 
 
 While the analogies of the shell point in so many different directions, 
 it is impossible to assign it even to its family group. It is to be hoped, 
 however, that the dredge will yet reveal its existence in a living state. 
 
 The above species may be supposed to resemble Torellia vestita, 
 Jeffreys, from Norway. Our specimens differ however in form, as 
 above noted, and also in the absence of the tooth in the inner lip, and 
 in the smooth epidermis. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 253 
 
 The shell in question presents the very unusual character of having 
 the whirls appressed, yet quite disconnected ; the smooth epidermis 
 liuiug the umbilical chambers, and conspicuously preserved, even in 
 these fossil specimens, between the closest parts of the parietal region. 
 In this respect it bears the same relation to Torellia as does Latiaxis 
 to Kapana, Separatista to Rhizochilus, or Zanclea to Torinia. It 
 presents a rude resemblance to Separatista Ohemnitzii (Add. Gen. 
 pi. xiv. f. 6), or still more to S. Blainvilhana (Chfenu Man. p. 172, 
 § 853), but without the grooved pillar, or the keels of the latter species. 
 
 As to the " blunt tubercle " or " callous protuberance" of Torellia, 
 described by Mr. Jeffreys, but scarcely to be traced in Mr. Sowerby's 
 figure, it certainly does not exist in our fossils. It is not always a 
 character of importance, as may be seen by comparing Purpura 
 columellaris with P. patula, Cuma tectum with the remaining species 
 of the genus, or the gradual transition from Isapis to Fossarus. The 
 Naticidse are often very irregular in the callous region of the pillar, 
 even in the same species. 
 
 [The late J. Gwyn Jeffreys regarded it as congeneric with his 
 Torellia vestita from the North Atlantic, but specifically distinct. 
 Verrill has, since the discovery of the species in the Pleistocene, 
 dredged specimens in deep water off the New England coast.] 
 
 Velutina zonata. Gould. (Plate VI., Fig. 6.) 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Beauport. 
 
 Recent — Arctic seas to Massachusetts ; Little Metis : Kamouraska ; 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 According to Jeffreys, this shell is the same with V. undata, Smith, 
 from the Clyde beds, and is found in the Crag and in the Post-pliocene 
 of Uddevalla. 
 
 Scalaria Grcenlandica. Perry. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup ; Quebee ; Saco ; also Scottish Post- 
 pliocene and English Red Crag, under same varietal forms as in 
 Canada. (Plate VL , Fig. 5. ) 
 
 Recent — Rivi^re-du-Loup ; Nova Scotia ; Kamouraska ; Arctic seas, 
 and American coast, as far south as Massachusetts. 
 
 The specimens from Rivi^re-du-Loup are very large, one being 
 nearly two inches long ; and, as Dr. Beck has remarked, the varices of 
 some of the specimens are more slender and lamellar than in recent 
 specimens, others, however, are similar to the more common recent 
 variety. 
 
254 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Acirsa Eschrichtii. HolboU. 
 
 Fossil — Quebec ; Rivifere-du-Loup ; Montreal ; most abundant at 
 Riviere-du-Loup. (Plate VI., Fig. 7.) 
 
 Recent— Murray Bay ; Little Metis ; Greenland ; also Eastporfc 
 (Verrill). 
 
 This shell was named in former papers Menestho albvla, the eroded 
 specimens found being referred to that species. It has, however, been 
 correctly described by Dr. Beck in Lyell's paper on Beauport, and 
 named Sccdaria borealis. It is not this species of Gould, however. 
 
 Trichotropis borealis. Brod. and Sow. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Rivi4re-du-Loup ; Chaudifere Station ; Labra- 
 dor, &c. Very abundant at Montreal. 
 
 Recent — Labrador; Little Metis; Murray Bay; Gaspe ; Arctic 
 seaa ; and as far south as Massachusetts ; Alaska (Dall). 
 
 Trichotropis arctica ? Middendorff. 
 
 Fossil— Montreal. Very rare. (Plate VI., Fig. 8.) 
 
 A single imperfect specimen represents this species, which is recent 
 
 at Alaska (Dall) and Behring's Straits. The identification is perhaps 
 
 doubtful. 
 
 The figure given by Reeve of T. Kenseri of Phillippi from Spitz- 
 
 bergen, resembles our shell, except in the small number of revolving 
 
 bands. 
 
 Admete viridvla. Fabricius. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Chaudiere Station. 
 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard); Little Metis; Riviere-du-Loup; 
 Murray Bay ; Gasp^ (Whiteaves) ; also Greenland, Labrador and 
 British Columbia. It is the Tritonium nridulum of Fabricius, and is 
 a rare shell in the Canadian Pleistocene, and in the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 Aparrhais occidentalis. Beck. 
 
 Fossil — Labrador (Bayfield) ; also Packard. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gasp^ ; Labrador to Massachusetts. 
 
 It is remarkable that this species, which is found living from 
 Labrador to Cape Cod, is so rare in the Pleistocene. 
 
 Ptyehatractus Ugatus (= Faseiolaria ligata, Mighels). 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; very rare. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay ; Mingan (Foote) ; Gaspe (Whiteaves) ; Nova 
 Scotia (Willis) ; rare in all these localities. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 255 
 
 A single mutilated specimen alone, as yet, represents this species in 
 my Pleistocene collections. 
 
 A»tyri% HdlhoUii. MoUer. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup ; also glacial beds Britain (Jeffreys). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Kamouraska ; Gasp^ ; Murray Bay ; Labra- 
 dor (Whiteaves). If identical, as I suppose, with ColumbeUa rosacea 
 (Gould), it extends south to New England, and Gould's name has 
 priority. 
 
 Buccinum undatum. Linn. 
 
 var. undvZatum. Holler, 
 var. Labradoricum. Reeve. 
 
 Fossil — Saxioava sand and Leda clay, Riviere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; 
 Labrador ; Duck Cove, St. John, N.B., (Matthew) ; Maine (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Gaspe ; Kamouraska, &o. ; Gulf St. Law- 
 rence ; south Greenland to Nantucket. (See figure, Plate I.) 
 
 I cannot satisfy myself that there is any good specific distinction 
 between this shell and B. undatum of the European seas and glacial 
 beds. It varies very much in size, in slenderness, in the fineness of the 
 spiral striation, in the development of the ribs, in the extension of the 
 mouth, and in the thickness of the shell. The coarser forms are 
 B. Labradoricum, which passes into the ordinary undatum. Medium 
 varieties are B. undvlatum and smooth varieties pass into B. cyaneum 
 and B. Tottenii, which last is the ciliatiim of Gould. 
 
 Buccinum Tottenii. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup, Saxicava sand and Leda clay. 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Murray Bay and Tadoussac ; also Newfound- 
 land Banks. It has some resemblance to B. Humphreysianum, Bennet, 
 but is specifically distinct. It is the B. cUiatum of Gould, but has no 
 connection with the eiliatum of Fabricius, except a slight resemblance 
 to the smoother forms of the latter. It is remarkable for its very 
 regular spiral lines, absence of folds and convex whorls. 
 
 Buccinum cyaneum. Bruguiere. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup, abundant. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay and Tadoussac ; Little Metis ; deeper parts of 
 Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Arctic seas. 
 
 This species or varietal form is well represented in the figure, which 
 is taken from a large Biviere-du-Loup specimen. Being on the one 
 hand very near to if not identical with the smooth varieties of B. 
 
256 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 undulatum, and on the other resembling B. Granlandicum, it has 
 received many names. It is believed to be B. boreale of Leach, and 
 Qrmnlandicum of Morch. It is a very characteristic northern form. 
 (See figure, Plate I. ) 
 
 Buccinum Chmnlandieum. Chemnitz. 
 
 Fossil— Leda clay and boulder clay, Montreal ; St. Nicholas ; 
 Riviere-du-Loup ; Tattagouche River (Paisley). 
 
 Recent — Greenland ; Alaska ? (Dall) ; Little Metis ; Murray Bay. 
 Specimens from Morch are identical with our fossils. This species is 
 probably the B. undatum of Fabricius. It is allied to B. cyaneum, 
 and may possibly pass into it. It may be B. angulomm (Gray). (See 
 figure, Plate I. ) 
 
 Buccinum tenue. Gray. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup, not uncommon; St. John, &c., N.B. 
 (Matthew) ; Greenland (Hayes) ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Murray Bay ; Gasp^ ; Labrador (Packard) ; 
 Alaska (Dall) ; Arctic seas generally. A common arctic species, and 
 now living in the Gulf, though much more plentiful in the Pleistocene 
 beds. (See figure, Plate I.) 
 
 Buccinum ciUatum. Fabricius. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup. 
 
 Recent— Murray Bay ; Little Metis, Riviere-du-Loup ; Greenland 
 (Fabricius) ; Nova Scotia (Willis) ; Alaska (Dall). 
 
 This is the original B. ciliatum of Fabricius, and has been recog- 
 nized as such by Dr. Stimpson. It is easily distinguished by its 
 narrow Nassa-like mouth, armed with a tooth on the front of the pillar 
 lip. It varies much in colour, especially in the longitudinal ribs. The 
 variety found at Montreal is only slightly ribbed. That at Riviere-du- 
 Loup is more distinctly ribbed, tlius resembling the recent specimens 
 from Murray Bay. It is quite distinct from B. ciliatum (Gould), which 
 is very near the smoother varieties of B. undulatum. As it is a rare 
 and little known shell, I have figured two extreme varieties, a fossil 
 specimen from Montreal and a recent from Murray Bay. I submitted 
 specimens of this shell to the late Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys in 1876, and 
 after comparison with the type in Copenhagen he agrees with me in 
 referring them to Fabricius' species. He says it is the species figured 
 by Reeve as B. Moelleri. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 257 
 
 Bumnum glaciate. Liim. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup; Montreal; Anticosti; Labrador (Packard); 
 Black Point, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 Recent— Murray Bay ; Little Metis ; Alaska (Dall) ; Greenland, 
 and Arctic seas generally. 
 
 This shell has the aperture somewhat like that of ciliatum, and a 
 very peculiar sculpture of spiral striae with intervening bands marked 
 with liner striae. It has also a carina angulating the body whorl, and 
 sometimes more than one. In the latter case it passes into B. Orwi - 
 landicum, Hancock (not Chemnitz) or B. Haneochi Morch. The 
 ordinary variety is most common in the modern Gulf, the latter in 
 the arctic seas and in the Pleistocene. This shell, usually much 
 decorticated, is the most common Buccinum in the Pleistocene of 
 Montreal. (See figures, plate I. ) 
 
 Bucdnum plectrum. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil— Riviere-du-Loup ; rare. 
 
 Recent — Murray Bay ; Portland, Maine (Stimpson) ; Behring's 
 Straits (Stimpson) ; Alaska (Dall). 
 
 This may be a variety of the preceding species, but can be distin- 
 guished from it and grows to a larger size. It has the sculpture of 
 B. glaciate with the aperture of B. undulatum. Recent and fossil 
 specimens are quite similar. 
 
 The northern Buccina are involved in so much confusion that I 
 have made them a subject of special study, and have sedulously 
 collected all the forms recent and fossil. I have been very much 
 aided in this by the abundance of specimens of the more arctic forms 
 at Riviere-du-Loup, and the occurrence of most of them recent at 
 Murray Bay and Tadoussac, and I feel confident that the names given 
 in this list represent forms actually occurring as distinct in nature, 
 though some of them may not be distinct specific types. I believe 
 however, that B. ciliatum, B. glaciate, B. undulatum, B. tenue and 
 B. Oroinlandicum, are probably entitled to this rank. The others 
 appear to me, on comparison of large numbers of specimens, to graduate 
 into one or other of the above forms. 
 
 I have given in the engraved plate representatives of the more 
 critical forms, which will enable them to be recognized. 
 
 In the drift the Buccina often part with their outer coat of 
 prismatic shell, and in this decorticated state are very diifioult to 
 determine. 
 18 
 
258 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Triionofusua Kroyeri. MoUer. 
 
 Fossil — Biviere-du-Loup ; Labrador (Packard) ; New Richmond ; 
 River Charles, N.B. (Matthew). 
 
 Recent— Little Metis ; Gulf St. Lawrence and Arctic seas. First 
 recognized as this species by Mr. Whiteaves. Specimens from Spitz- 
 bergen in Mr. McAndrew's collection are perfectly similar to ours. 
 Packard found it not uncommon at Labrador, but it seems rare in other 
 parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, In some previous lists it has 
 appeared as B. cretaceum (Reeve), which seems to be an error. Alaska 
 (Dall). (Plate VL, %. 3.) 
 
 Sipho Spitzbergenais. Reeve.* 
 
 Fossil — Montreal (small and rare). 
 
 Recent — Little Metis ; Murray Bay to Gasp^ ; also Spitzbergen, 
 and probably Sea of Okotsk ; N.W. coast (Dall). 
 
 Only one specimen occurred at Montreal, and was an unknown form 
 until I fortunately dredged a few specimens at Murray Bay. It is a 
 beautiful species, evidently quite distinct from 8. Islandicus. From 
 Middendorff's description and figure, I think it not improbable that it 
 may be the same with his Tritonium ScTiantaricum, from the sea of 
 Okotsk. I was not aware that it had been found on our coast, except 
 at Murray bay, until these sheets were going through the press. 
 Young specimens ^are remarkably like in form and sculpture to 
 Fasciolaria ligata, which is found with it at Murray bay. Reeve's 
 figure in Belcher's " Last of the Arctic Voyages," well represents our 
 specimens, though perhaps a very little coarser in sculpture. 
 
 Neptunea despecta, L. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; New 
 Richmond, River Charles, &o., N.B. (Matthew) ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 Recent— Little Metis, large specimens ; Gaspe Bay, large specimens 
 (Whiteaves) ; Labrador (Packard). 
 
 This shell is not uncommon in the drift, and owing to its dense 
 texture is generally in good preservation. It ranges from the typical 
 Fusus tornatiiK of Gould to F. despectKS of Linnaeus, as described by 
 Fabricius, from Greenland, and shells of similar form from the British 
 Crag are considered by S. Wood as varieties of F. antiquns.f Dr. P. 
 
 * Verrill calls this Sipho Hvidus, and holds that it is distinct from 
 Fkiaus Spitzbergenais, Reeve. (J. F. W. ) 
 
 t The C. despecttts of Reeve, however, is a very different species, 
 from the Arctic regions of the North Pacific. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 259 
 
 P. Carpenter thiuks that this and the British J?, antiguus may prove 
 to belong to one very variable species. The F. despectus is an Arctic 
 form. The F. tomatus is recent, and is the form now found iu the Gulf 
 and River St. Lawrence, where it is much larger and better developed 
 than in the Pleistocene. C. decemcostatus is more southern. 
 
 Neptunea decemcostata. Say. 
 
 Fossil— Portland, Maine. 
 
 Recent — Magdalen Islands and Gasp^ Bay (Whiteaves) ; coasts of 
 Nova Scotia and New England. 
 
 This species has not yet been found in the Pleistocene of Canada, 
 where it is represented by C. toruatns. There are still two opinions as 
 to whether Say's species is identical with C. lyratus (Mart.) =Midden- 
 dorffii (Cooper) from the Pacific coast. The latter is variable, and 
 graduates towards tomatus (Gould), but the living New England shells 
 are tolerably constant in character. 
 
 Trophon acalariforme. Gould. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Labrador. 
 
 Recent — Greenland (Hayes) ; Little Metis ; Murray Bay ; Nova 
 Scotia (Willis) ; Gaspe and North Shore (Whiteaves). 
 
 It is a rare shell in the Pleistocene, but of large size and in good 
 condition, 
 
 Trophon clathratmm. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Riviere-du-IiOup ; Anticosti ; also 
 glacial beds of Europe. 
 
 Recent — Riviere-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; Greenland and Arctic seas 
 generally ; Labrador ; Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves). The allied 
 species or variety, T. Gunneri, has been found living at Gasp^ by 
 Whiteaves, and occurs at Little Metis, but not fossil as yet. British 
 Columbia ; Alaska (Dall). 
 
 PROVINCE ANNULOSA. 
 AnnvZata, 
 Serpula wrmicida/ris. Linn. 
 
 Fossil— Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Riviere. du-Loup. 
 A small species of Serpula, apparently the above, though perhaps 
 the determination may be regarded as uncertain. 
 
260 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Vermilia serrida. Stimpson. 
 
 Fossil — RiviSre-du-Loup, on shells. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence. It is quite likely the Greenland species 
 identified by Fabricius with Serpula triquetra. 
 
 Bpiochmtopterus typus. Sars. 
 Fossil — Labrador (Packard). 
 Recent — Labrador (Packard) ; Norway (Sars). 
 
 Spiroi-bis glomerata {Stimpsoni, Verrill). MuUer. 
 
 Fossil— Riviere-du- Loup; Little Metis; Labrador (Packard) ; Green- 
 land (Fabr.) ; Gaspe. This species is SpirorMs Stimpsoni of Verrill, 
 being regarded by him as distinct and new. 
 
 Spirorbis vitrea. Fabricius. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Murray Bay. Very 
 common on stones and shells. 
 
 Recent— Little Metis ; Greenland (Fabricius) ; Gulf St. Lawrence. 
 
 Spirorbis borealis. Daudin. 
 
 Fossil— Riviere-du-Loup, on shells. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence ; Greenland (Fabricius). 
 
 Spirorbis lueidus. Fleming. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup, on the inside of shells. 
 
 Recent— Gulf St. Lawrence ; Fishing Banks, American Coast 
 (Gould). 
 
 Spirorbis carinata. Montague. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup, on shells. 
 
 This is a Spirorbis with one carina, found also in the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, and possibly the same with the S. contoHuplicata of 
 Fabricius from Greenland ; Little Metis. 
 
 The beautiful Spirorbis caneellata of Fabricius, so common in the 
 modern Gulf of St. Lawrence, and also in Greenland, has not yet been 
 found in the Pleistocene. 
 
 Nereis pelagica. Linn. 
 
 Fossil — Green's Creek (collection of Mr. J. Stewart, Ot*^awa, and 
 J.W. D.) 
 
 The specimens are in the nodules from this locality. They resemble 
 at first sight whitish strips of calcareous matter about four inches in 
 length and scarcely two lines in breadth. This strip of calcite is a 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, 261 
 
 longitudinal section through the body of the worm, and shows nothing 
 of its external characters, and the somites of the body are indicated 
 only by the tufts of brown bristles or setse at intervals along the sides. 
 In the best specimen these are in the middle portion of the body, from 
 a tenth to a twelfth of an inch apart. On the anterior segments they 
 are closer together, the body having apparently been contracted in that 
 part. Each foot, as indicated by the setae — the soft parts having 
 entirely perished — seems to have had one strong spine and several 
 others, very fine and hair-like, in a separate bundle. When disengaged 
 from the matrix (which can easily be done by treating a small portion 
 with diluted acid) and examined microscopically, they seem to be 
 simple, nearly straight and pointed. Near what seems to be the ante- 
 rior extremity are obscure indications of one of the horny mandibles. 
 These characters, as far as they go, would indicate a ohaetopod worm or 
 "sea centipede," and, of the species known to me on our coasts, they 
 resemble most closely that above named, which seems to be the W. caeca 
 of Pabricius, and is a common and widely distributed species in the 
 North Atlantic and Arctic seas. 
 
 PROVINCE ARTHROPODA. 
 
 Glass IV. — Crustacea. 
 
 The most abundant species are bivalve Entomostraca, 
 which occur in great numbers in the Leda clay, associated 
 with Foraminifera. The species in my collection have 
 been kindly determined by Mr. J. S. Brady, who enumerates 
 the following: — 
 
 Oyihere MacGhesneyi, nov. sp. 
 " Dawsoni (Brady). 
 " globulifera (Brady). 
 " Logani, nov. sp. 
 Cyiheridea papulosa (Bosquet). 
 ' ' punctiUata (Brady). 
 " Sorbyana (Jones). 
 " Mulleri. 
 Cythe/rv/ra Soiertsoni (Brady). 
 Oytheropteron eomplanatum, nov. sp. 
 
 infiatum (B., C, and R., MS.) 
 " , angulatum{B.tC., and B., MS,) 
 
 Micythere argus. 
 
262 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 As the paper was re-printed in the Canadian Naiuralist 
 (Vol. v., N.S.) it is unnecessary to notice these species 
 further here, except to state that out of twenty-nine 
 species of recent Ostracods obtained by Mr. Brady from 
 material from the Gulf St. Lawrence, furnished by me, 
 thirteen have been recognized in the Pleistocene of 
 Canada and Maine. It is further remarkable that out 
 
 Fossils. — Plate VII, 
 
 Pleistocene Crustacea.— 1, Balamis Hamerl (one of the body valves); 2, B. Hameri 
 (opercular valves); 3, Cytheridm MuUeri — (a) valves united; (6) left valve; 
 (c) natural size. 
 
 of thirty-three fossil species from Maine and Canada, no 
 less than twenty-three occur in the Scottish glacial beds 
 and twenty-five are living in the British seas, while six 
 are new species. 
 
 Balanus Hameri. Asoanma, 
 
 Fossil —Montreal ; St. Nicholas ; Quebec ; Anticosti ; Riviere-du- 
 Loup ; also, Uddevalla ; Russia (Murchison) ; Greenland (Spengler). 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 263 
 
 Recent — Coast of Nova Scotia. I have obtained specimens from Mr. 
 Downes of Halifax, but have not elsewhere seen the species recent. 
 It is B. Uddevallensis of lists of Scandinavian fossils and B. tulipa of 
 MuUer. It is a widely diflfused Arctic and North Atlantic species. 
 
 This Acorn-shell is very abundant at Riviere-du-Loup, and fine 
 specimens are found entire, attached to stones and boulders in the 
 boulder-elay. 
 
 Very fine specimens are also obtained at River Beaudette, about 
 34 miles west of Montreal. This locality is noteworthy as being 
 further west than the others mentioned. The specimens are also 
 interesting from their remarkable perfection and the large masses 
 which they form, some of which contain as many as a dozen individuals 
 attached to each other. They were collected by Mr. A. W. MoNown, 
 of Riviere Beaudette, and by Mr. Stanton, C.E., of Lancaster. 
 
 The animals seem to have been covered, when living, with an irrup- 
 tion of sand, for the opercular valves of many of them are still in place, 
 and, owing to a slight infiltration of calcareous matter, the radial plates 
 and opercular valves have been cemented together, which accounts for 
 their perfect preservation. It is to be observed, however, that the 
 shells of Balani are composed of a remarkably dense and indestructible 
 calcium carbonate, much less perishable than the shells of most moUusks. 
 
 The original attachments of the animals, so far as observed, have 
 been on pebbles on the surface of clay, and as these afforded space only 
 for one or two individuals, the young were obliged to attach themselves 
 to the old in successive generations, forming grotesque groups, which 
 still remain, entire. They are associated with Saxicava rugosa, Mya 
 arenaria and Macoma Qrmrdandiea. 
 
 Balanus porcatus. DaCosta. 
 
 Fossil — Beauport ; glacial beds of Europe. 
 
 Recent — Gulf St. Lawrence, and coast of New England ; Labrador 
 (Packard) ; and Arctic and Northern seas generally. It is no doubt 
 Lepas balanus of Fabrioius from Greenland. 
 
 Much more rare in the Pleistocene than the preceding species. 
 
 Balanus crenatus. Brug. 
 
 Fossil — Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; St. John, 
 N.B. (Matthew) ; Labrador (Packard) ; Portland, Maine ; glacial beds 
 of Europe ; Vancouver Island (G. M. D.) 
 
 Recent— Arctic and northern seas, Greenland ; Gulf St. Lawrence 
 and American coast. It seems to be Lepas balanaris of Fabrioius, 
 from Greenland. 
 
264 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Balanus halanoidea. 
 
 Fossil— Portland, Maine. Not yet in Canada. 
 Eupagurus Bernhardus ? Fabrieius. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-dii-Loup. A small specimen in a Turritella may be 
 the young of this common species. 
 
 Hyas coarctata. Leach. 
 
 Fossil — Riviere-du-Loup. A few claws only found, but evidently 
 of this common Gulf of St. Lawrence species. 
 
 Eatheria Dawsoni. Packard. 
 
 Fossil — Green's Creek, Ottawa. 
 
 A new species found in the nodules containing fishes, &c., and 
 described by Packard as follows* : — 
 
 This Estheria is entirely unlike any northern American or European 
 species, differing decidedly from Estheria morsei or E. eaZdwelli and 
 E, darkii. It rather approaches E. jonem from Cuba in the form of 
 the shell and style of marking of the valves. It does not resemble 
 closely any of the fossil forms figured in Jones' Monograph of Fossil 
 Estherise. The markings, however, present some resemblances to 
 E. middendorfii Jones, but differs in the want of anastomosing cross 
 wrinkles between the ridges. 
 
 One valve and portions of others were preserved ; but none of them 
 show the beaks (umbones), though the form of the remainder of the 
 shell indicates that they were situated nearer the middle of the valve 
 than usual — i.e., between the middle and the anterior third of the shell. 
 The shell is deep, probably more so than in E. joneaii, though the valves 
 have evidently been flattened and somewhat distorted by pressure, but 
 apparently the head-end was more truncated than in E, joneaii, as the 
 edge of the shell and the parallel lines (or ridges) of growth along the 
 head-end are, below, bent at right angles to the lower edge of the shell. 
 The raised lines of growth are very numerous and near together ; they 
 are of nearly the same distance apart above, near the beaks, as on the 
 lower edge. The very numerous lines of growth are thrown up into 
 high sharp ridges, the edges of which are often rough, finely granu- 
 lated, and often the valleys between are rugose on the surface. In one 
 or two places a row of papillje for the insertion of spinules may be seen 
 where the shell has been well preserved, and between many of the lines 
 of growth there are irregular superficial ridges. Length, 10 mm. ; 
 depth, 7.5 mm. 
 
 * American Naturalist, June, 1881. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 265 
 
 The valve is evidently that of an Estheria, much truncated an- 
 teriorly, and with the lines of growth much thicker, higher and closer 
 together than in any North American species known to us, and may 
 prove, when better specimens are found, to be allied to the tertiary 
 Siberian E. middendorfi. 
 
 Insecta. 
 Fornax ledensis. Soudder. 
 
 This is an elytron of a beetle in a nodule from Green's Creek, along 
 with a skeleton of Mallotua Villosus. Soudder, who has kindly exam- 
 ined it, regards it as representing a new species allied to Jf. caleeatua of 
 North America. It has been described by Dr. S. in his volume on 
 Tertiary insects. 
 
 Soudder in his work on Fossil Insects and previously in Reports to the 
 U. S. Geological Survey, notices the insects collected by Hinde in the 
 interglacial beds at Scarborough, on Lake Ontario. He regards these 
 insects as extinct species, but nearly related to modem temperate forms, 
 and in no respect an Arctic assemblage. This agrees with the evidence 
 of the fossil plants. 
 
 PROVINCE VERTEBRATA. 
 
 The vertebrate animals of the Pleistocene are few ; and 
 we can scarcely include in this formation the Mastodon 
 or Mammoth, and their contemporaries, as their remains, 
 so far as known in Canada, are rather Post-glacial or 
 Modern. The fishes are mostly from nodules in the Leda 
 clay, found at and near Green's Creek on the Ottawa 
 Eiver, and are ordinary northern species. 
 
 Class Pisces. 
 Mallotus villosus. Cuvier. 
 
 The common capelin is found in nodules at Green's Creek on the 
 Ottawa. (Plate VII.) 
 
 Osmerus mordax. Gill. 
 
 An imperfect skeleton, apparently referable to the smelt. Green's 
 Creek, Ottawa. 
 
 Coitus (Centrodermichthys).uncinatus. Reinhardt. 
 
 Fossil— Nodules from Green's Creek, collection of Mr. J. Stewart, 
 Ottawa, and of J.W. D. 
 
266 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Fossils. — Plate VIII. 
 
 There have been in my collec- 
 tions for some time two specimens 
 of these nodules, which appear to 
 contain the skeletons of some spe- 
 cies of Coitus or Sculpin. They are, 
 however, imperfectly preserved, so 
 that I have been unable to identify 
 the species. Recently, Mr. J. 
 Stewart, of Ottawa, has kindly 
 placed in my hands a better pre- 
 served specimen, showing more 
 especially the pre-opercular spines 
 
 / 
 
 f 
 
 >'/ 
 
 and pectoral fins in comparatively 
 good preservation, and with the 
 help of these I think I can identify 
 the species, notwithstanding the 
 confusion which at present seems 
 to reign as to our North American 
 cottoids. 
 
 The characters of the hooked 
 spines and of the pectoral fin seem 
 to identify this specimen with Cottus 
 (Centrodermiehthys) uneinatii^ of 
 Gunther's British Museum cata- 
 logue. This is 0. uncinatus of Rein- 
 
•PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 267 
 
 hardt, and Icelua uneinatus of Kroyer and Gill. I feel convinced, 
 also, that it must be the Gottus gdbio of Eabricius, though this is 
 usually identified with C [Chymnacanthus] tricuspis of Reinhardt, » 
 very distinct species. Oottus uneinatus occurs in Greenland and in 
 deeper water as far south as New England, according to Jordan, who 
 creates for it a new genus (Artediellus).* 
 
 The total length of the specimen without the caudal fin, which is 
 absent, is four inches, of which the head measures one inch. It belongs 
 to the collection of Mr. Stewart. The other and less perfect specimens, 
 which I refer to the same species, are in the Peter Redpath Museum. 
 
 Cydopterus lumpus. Linn. 
 
 The lump sucker occurs in nodules at the same place. 
 Oasterosteus aeuleatus f L. 
 
 In nodules at the same place, found by Sheriff Dickson. It closely 
 resembles the two-spined stickleback of the Gulf St. Lawrence, but is 
 not suflSciently perfect for detailed description. 
 
 Salmo aalarf Linn. 
 
 Fossil — A head apparently referable to this species in a nodule from 
 Goose River, north shore of River St. Lawrence. 
 
 Vertebrae and other fragments of fishes not determinable have been 
 found at Riviere-du-Loup and other places. 
 
 Class Aves. 
 A few specimens of feathers have been preserved in nodules at 
 Green's Creek. They have apparently belonged to small wading birds. 
 
 Class Mammalia. 
 Phoea (PagophUus) Qrmnlandica. MuUer. 
 
 A nearly complete skeleton of this species, found some years ago in 
 the Leda clay near Montreal, is now in the collection of the Geological 
 Survey of Canada at Ottawa. Detached bones, also found near 
 Montreal, are in the Peter Redpath Museum of McGill University. 
 
 More than twenty years ago, Mr. Billings, then at Ottawa, obtained 
 a nodule with certain bones enclosed in it from the Pleistocene clays 
 of Green's Creek, on the Ottawa, which have afforded so many beautiful 
 specimens of the Capelin and other fishes, and also of marine shells of 
 northern and cold water types. Mr. Billings regarded the bones as 
 those of the limbs of "a small animal of aquatic habits," but, not being 
 
 * Catalogue of Fishes, Fish Commission Reports. 
 
268 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 able to determine the species, sent the specimen to Dr. Leidy, of Phila- 
 delphia. He recognized the bones as those of the hinder extremity of 
 a young seal, but of what species was uncertain. A good figure and 
 description were published in the first volume of the Naturalist in 1856. 
 No further information bearing directly on this fossil was secured until 
 the discovery some years ago of a jaw bone of a young individual of 
 this species by Sir J. Grant. It is the left ramus of the lower jaw of a 
 young seal, conta;ining a canine and four molar teeth, with an impres- 
 sion of the fifth. It enables us to affirm that the species is Phoca 
 Qranlandica (PagopMlus Ormnlandieus of Gray's catalogue) — the 
 common Greenland seal, and it is of such size that it may have 
 belonged to the same individual which furnished the bones described 
 in 1856, or at least to an animal of the same species and of similar age. 
 
 Beluga catodon {Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas ; Beluga Mrmontana, 
 Thompson). 
 
 Bones of this species have been found at Riviere-du-Loup and at 
 Montreal, in the Saxicava sand near Cornwall (Billings) and in the same 
 deposit near Bathurst (Gilpin and Honeyman). There seems no good 
 reason to believe that the B. Vermontana of Thompson from the 
 Pleistocene of Vermont is distinct from this species. 
 
 Megaptera longimana. Gray. 
 
 Portions of a skeleton of this species were found in 1882 in a ballast 
 pit on the Canadian Pacific Railway, three miles north of Smith's Falls, 
 in Ontario, 31 miles north of the St. Lawrence River. They were im- 
 bedded in gravel along with shells of Tellina Ormiilandica, apparently 
 on a beach of the Pleistocene period at an elevation of 440 feet above 
 the sea, which corresponds nearly with one of the principal sea coast 
 terraces on the Montreal mountain and other parts of the St. Lawrence 
 valley. 
 
 The specimens obtained were presented by Mr. A. Baker, of the 
 C. P. Railway, to the Peter Redpath Museum. They consist of a 
 lumbar and dorsal vertebra and a rib, and correspond with these bones 
 in the species above named, which seems to be Bcdmna hoops of 
 Fabricius. It is still found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is more 
 disposed than the other large whales to extend its excursions some 
 distance into the estuary of the St. Lawrence and other narrow seas. 
 
 Belcher (Last of the Arctic Voyages, 1853) mentions the occurrence 
 of the bones of a large whale imbedded in clay at Mount Parker, at an 
 elevation of 500 feet ; and at Cape D'Israeli » similar specimen at 
 about the same elevation. On the Lower St. Lawrence, bones of large 
 
Pagophilus Grceiilandiats, Mill lev. 
 
 The above illustration, for which I am indebted to Mr. 
 H. M. Ami, F.G.S., represents the jaw of this species 
 (referred to at p. 268), in the collection of Sir James 
 Grant, of Ottawa. 
 
 Mr. Ami has also kindly sent me the names of the 
 following species occurring at Green's Creek, and which 
 are not mentioned in the above lists as from that locality: 
 Asterias, sp., Balanus crenatiis, Mytilus edulis, Macoma 
 fragilis, Natica ajffinis, two additional insects, Tenchrio 
 calculensis, and Byrrhus Ottawaensis. 
 
■ PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 269 
 
 whales are not infrequent on the lower marine terraces, and are re- 
 ported as occurring also on the higher terraces, but this I have not 
 verified by personal observation. They probably belong either to the 
 " Humpback " or to the " Finner '' whale, both of which are occasion- 
 ally present in the Lower St. Lawrence, and are said in former times 
 to have been more numerous. I secured last summer (1891) a large 
 jaw-bone found in digging a cellar in the shelly gravel of the lower 
 terrace at Metis. It is now in the Peter Redpath Museum. 
 
 THE ARCTIC BASIN. 
 
 It may be of interest to add here a list of the species 
 
 recognized by Jeffreys in the collections of Capt. Fielden 
 
 in the Pleistocene of Grinnell Land and North Greenland 
 
 (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1877 p. 230 ; Zoologist, 1877, 
 
 pp. 485-440). It would appear that these shells are found 
 
 at various elevations, from near the sea level to about 
 
 1,200 feet. 
 
 Conchifera. 
 
 Pecten Oromlandicus. Sowerby. 
 
 Pecten Mandicus. L. 
 
 Leda pernida. MuUer. 
 
 Leda aretiea. Gray. 
 
 Leda frigida (Torrell) = Toldia Ifana {8a.is.) 
 
 Axinvs fiexuosus. Montague. Var. Oouldii. 
 
 Area glacialis. Gray. 
 
 Cardium Islandicum. Chemnitz. 
 
 Chemnitz, Conch. Cab., Vol. VI., p. 200, tab. 19, figs. 195, 196. Cir- 
 cumpolar ; frequent in Post-tertiary deposits throughout the north of 
 Europe and America. 
 Astarte lorealk. Chemnitz. 
 Astmrte fabvla. Reeve. 
 
 This species is probably the NiMnia Sanksii of Leaoh, MS., which 
 was figured by the late Mr. G. B. Sowerby in his Supplement to Gray's 
 " Mollusea of Beeehey's Voyage " (1839), pi. XLIV. , fig. 10, as "Aatarte 
 Banksii? (Gray) in Brit. Mus." MoUer included it in his list of 
 
270 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 Greenland MoUusoa under the name " Nicania Banksii, Sab. " Reeve's 
 publication was in 1855. Sowerby's figure, although it represents the 
 shape, does not show the peculiar sculpture of A. fabula. See also 
 A. Orebricostata (Forbes) and A. Sicha/rdsonii. Reeve. 
 
 lellina ealearea. Chemn. 
 
 Tellina ealearea. Chemn., VI., p. 140, tab. 13, fig. 136. For the 
 synonymy and range of this common Arctic shell and " glacial " fossil, 
 see "British Conchology," Vol. II., pp. 389, 390, and Vol. V., p. 187. 
 
 Tliracia dbUqua. Jeffr., sp. n. 
 
 A valve measuring an inch and six-tenths in breadth by an inch and 
 one-tenth in length. It is distinguishable from Thraeia (AmpMdesma) 
 truneaia of Brown, = 2\ myopds (Beck), in having a more oblique or 
 twisted shape, a straight instead of rounded margin in front, and a 
 more gradual or less abrupt slope to each side ; the truncature at the 
 posterior side is broad and regularly curved ; and the surface is 
 puckered, as in Mya truncata. It wants the fiexuosity of T. pubesceiu, 
 but resembles in its outline that species more than T. truncata. T. 
 septentrionalis, Jeffr. (truncata of Mighels and Adams), differs in shape 
 and texture from all the above-named species. Having, however, seen 
 but a single valve, I will not insist on this constituting a new species. 
 
 Mya truncata, L., (var. TTddevallenm). 
 Saxicava rugosa. L. 
 Neaera suhtorta. Sars. 
 
 Solenoccmchia. 
 Biphodentalium vitreum. 
 
 Gastropoda. 
 
 Trochus (Margarita] umbUicalis. Brod. and Low. 
 
 Trichotropis borealis. Brod. and Low. 
 
 Buccinum tenue. 
 
 Buccinum hydrophanum. Hancock. 
 
 Trophon clathratus. L. 
 
 Pleurotoma tenuicostata. Say. 
 
 P. Exarata. MoUer. 
 
 P. Trevdyana. Fischer. 
 
 Cylichna alba. Brown. 
 
 Actinozoa. 
 Fiiniculina quadrangidaris. 
 
 Mr. Norman has examined these organisms, and favoured me with 
 the following memorandum : — 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 271 
 
 " Ftmiculina quadrangiUaris (Pallas) = Pavonaria quadrangidaris. 
 Johnston. 
 
 " Fragments of the full-grown quadrangular calcareous skeleton- 
 rods. They are in good condition, and much more recent-looking and 
 less decayed than a similar rod which I dredged two months ago to the 
 N.E. of the 'Maiden Eock' near Oban. There can be no doubt that 
 this Oban specimen was ' recent ' ; for although I did not dredge it 
 living, it was close to this locality that Mr. McAndrew obtained the 
 first known British example of this species. Funiculina quadrangularis 
 is at present known to range from the Adriatic Sea (KoUiker) to the 
 Minch (' Porcupine' Expedition, 1869) on our own coast, and Kattegat 
 in the Scandinavian Seas (Malm)." 
 
 Foraminifera. 
 Gornuspira foliacea. Philippi. 
 
 Marine Algce. 
 Melobesia polymorpha. 
 
 FOSSIL PLANTS. 
 
 The first locality where fossil plants ia any considerable 
 number were obtained, was Green's creek on the Ottawa, 
 where they owe their preservation to the nodules of cal- 
 careous matter that have enclosed delicate specimens, 
 which otherwise could not have been secured from the 
 soft Leda clay in which the nodules are enclosed.' They 
 are associated with Zeda ardica and with skeletons of 
 Mcdlotv^s and other fishes. In addition to specimens 
 collected by myself, I have examined the collections made 
 by the late Eev. Mr. Bell of L'Orignal, those of the late 
 Sheriff Dickson, and those of the Geological Survey. The 
 whole were described in my paper in the Canadian 
 Naturalist for February, 1866, and included nine or ten 
 species of phaenogams, a moss, and an alga. Subsequently, 
 additional specimens from this place were collected by 
 the late Mr. J. S. Miller, and by Mr. J. Stewart of 
 
272 
 
 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 Fossils.— Plate IX. 
 
 1, Populus 
 
 2, Acer Phisiocenicum. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 273 
 
 Ottawa, and were placed in my hands ; while specimens 
 of wood found at different times in the Leda clay of 
 Montreal were also placed by me in the Peter Eedpath 
 museum. 
 
 The interesting deposits at Scarboro' heights and else- 
 where on Lake Ontario were described by Dr. J. G. Hinde 
 in the Canadian Journal in 1877, and he notices the 
 following plants as found by him : 
 
 Wood of pine and cedar. 
 
 Portions of leaves of rushes, etc. 
 
 Seeds of various plants. 
 
 Hypnum commutatum. 
 
 H. revolvens. 
 
 Fontinalis. 
 
 Bryum. 
 
 Chara, sp. 
 
 More recently Mr. J. Townsend, of Toronto, was so 
 fortunate as to find leaves and fragments of wood, with 
 shells of Melania and Gyclas, in beds apparently of the 
 same age, in excavations in progress on the River Don, at 
 Toronto. 
 
 The section observed at this place is given as follows 
 by Mr. Townsend : 
 
 The locality of the principal vegetable specimens was 
 150 feet from the bank of the Don, and in a cutting 70 
 feet deep. The section showed 26 feet of fine light- 
 colored sand, with layers of clay at bottom. Below this 
 were 24 feet of tough stratified blue clay, the "Erie clay" 
 of the region. At the base of this clay is a seam of 
 reddish ferruginous sand, about three feet thick, and with 
 argillaceous nodules, in which was the maple leaf de- 
 19 
 
274 THE lOE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 scribed by Professor Penhallow. Below this sand were 
 16 feet of alternating sand and dark-colored clay, with 
 fresh-water shells and wood. Below this was the blue 
 till resting on the surface of the Hudson river beds. In 
 this section the upper boulder-clay of Hinde's section is 
 not represented, but only the lower groups as given in his 
 table. The upper boulder-clay is, however, seen on higher 
 ground in the vicinity. 
 
 Dr. J. W. Spencer, who has studied this locality, as 
 well as the whole north shore of Lake Ontario, writes to 
 me that he regards the earthy sand holding wood and 
 fresh-water shells as equivalent to Hinde's " interglacial " 
 beds at Scarboro' heights, and the overlying clay as the 
 so-called " Erie clay," over which, as above stated, is the 
 upper boulder deposit which, in the vicinity of Toronto, 
 has many Laurentian boulders. 
 
 Observations have been made on the interglacial beds 
 of the West by Dr. G. M. Dawson, and are recorded 
 in his reports on the 49th Parallel, and on the geology of 
 the Bow and Belly rivers, and in a paper on borings made 
 in Manitoba and the North-west Territories, in Vol. IV. 
 of the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Canada ; and 
 he has placed in my hands specimens of peat and wood 
 from those regions. In one locality on the Belly river he 
 finds a bed of interglacial peat, hardened by pressure in 
 such a manner as to assume the appearance of a lignite. 
 
 In addition to the vegetable remains found as above 
 stated in the "forest beds" or "interglacial" deposits, 
 trunks of trees and vegetable fragments occur in the 
 boulder-clays themselves, indicatiug either the partial 
 destruction of the older interglacial bed and the mixture 
 of its debris with glacial deposits, or the enclosure of 
 drift-wood in the latter in the manner now so common 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 275 
 
 in the arctic regions, and described by so many arctic 
 explorers.* 
 
 One of the most marked illustrations is that of the 
 boring at Solsgirth, in Manitoba, on the Manitoba and 
 North-western railway, and at an elevation of 1,757 feet 
 above the sea.f At this place the section is as follows : 
 
 Feet. 
 
 1. Loam 2 
 
 2. Hard blue clay and gravel 42 
 
 3. Hard blue clay and stones 10 
 
 4. Hard yellow " hard pan " 12 
 
 5. Softer bluish clay 16 
 
 6. " " " 74 
 
 7. Sand with water 
 
 8. Blue clay with stones 136 
 
 9. Gray clay or shale (Cretaceous ?) 68 
 
 360 
 
 Fragments of wood, more or less decayed and com- 
 pressed, were obtained from depths of 96, 107, 120 and 
 135 feet from the surface. They were thus distributed 
 through a considerable thickness of the clay rather than 
 in a distinct interglacial deposit. It is to be observed, 
 however, they were included within the central part 
 characterized as a softer blue clay, between two beds 
 apparently harder and more stony. 
 
 Additional specimens from this place have recently 
 been obtained by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of the Geological 
 Survey of Canada, and have been kindly communicated 
 to me. Mr. Tyrrell has also found vegetable remains in a 
 
 * See Manual of the Natural History, Geology and Physics of 
 Greenland, by Professor T. R. Jones, issued by the Royal Society of 
 London, 1875, index — "Driftwood." 
 
 + Dr. G. M. Dawson, Trans. Royal Society Canada, Vol. IV., 1887, 
 sec. IV., p. 91. etseq. 
 
276 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 bed under the boulder-clay at Rolling river, Manitoba, 
 which are noticed in Professor Penhallow's paper. They 
 were accompanied with fresh-water shells of the following 
 species, determined by Mr. Whiteaves, F.G.S., Palaeontolo- 
 gist to the Geological Survey of Canada : 
 
 Lymnea catascopium?, variety with very short spire. 
 
 Valvata tricarinata, and a keelless variety. 
 
 Amnicola porata ? 
 
 Planorbis parmis ? 
 
 P. hicarinatus. 
 
 Pisidium abditum. 
 
 Sphcermm striatinum. 
 
 With these was the centrum of a vertebra of a small fish. 
 
 Dr. G. M. Dawson has also found fragments of wood at 
 Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands, in boulder-clay, 
 associated with shells of Leda, etc. 
 
 As elsewhere stated, at River Inhabitants, in Cape 
 Breton, there is an iridurated peat with branches of 
 Taxiis and remains of swamp plants helow the boulder-clay. 
 
 The whole of the above collections have been placed in 
 the hands of Prof, Penhallow, of' McGill University, for 
 revision and determination, and his results have been 
 published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of 
 America, Vol. I., to which reference may be made for 
 details. 
 
 The whole number of Canadian species has thus been 
 raised to 33, as follows : — 
 
 1. Asimina triloba, Dunal. Don River, Toronto (Townsend). 
 
 2. Braaenia peltata, Pursh. Green's Creek nodules (Miller). 
 
 3. Drosera roiundifoUa, L. Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).* 
 
 * Collection of Sir William Dawson in Peter Redpath Museum. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 277 
 
 4. Acer aacclmrinum, Wang. Green's Creek, Ottawa ( J. W. Dawson). 
 
 5. Acer pleistoeenicum, sp. nov. Don River, Toronto (Townsend). 
 
 6. Potentilla anserina, L. 
 
 Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson and Miller). 
 
 7. CfayVmsacia resinosa, Torr. and Gray. 
 
 Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson). 
 
 8. Menyanthes trifoliata, L. Leda clays, Montreal.* 
 
 9. Vlmus racemosa, Thomas, Don River, Toronto (Townsend). 
 
 10. Populm laZsamifera, L. Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson). 
 
 11. Poindus grandideiitata, Michx. 
 
 Leda clays, Montreal (Weston). 
 Green's Creek nodules (Stewart). 
 
 12. Pieea alba. Link. Bloomington, 111. (Andrews). 
 
 13. Larix aTmrieana, Michx. Leda clays, Montreal (Weston). 
 
 14. Thuya oeeidentalis, L. 
 
 Leda clays, Montreal (J. W. Dawson). 
 Leda River, Manitoba (Dr. G. M. Dawson). 
 Marietta, Ohio (Newberry). 
 
 15. Taxus baccata, L. 
 
 Don River, Toronto (Townsend). 
 
 Solsgirth, Manitoba (G. M. Dawson and Tyrrell). 
 
 Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell). 
 
 Cape Breton (Sir William Dawson). 
 
 Bloomington, 111. (Andrews). 
 
 1 6. Potamogeton perfoUatm, L. Green's Creek, Ottawa ( J. W. Dawson). 
 
 17. Potamogeton pusillus, L. Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson). 
 
 18. Potamogeton rutilans (?), Wolfgang. Green's Creek nodule (Stewart). 
 
 19. Blodea canadensis (?), Michx. Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell). 
 
 20. ValUsneria (?). Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell). 
 
 21. Oarex magdlanica, Lamarck. 
 
 Green's Creek nodules, Ottawa (Miller and Stewart). 
 
 22. Oryzopsis asperifolia,'iAich.-&. Green'sCreek,Ottawa(J. W.Dawson). 
 
 23. Bromua ciliatus (?), L. Green's Creek, Ottawa (Miller). 
 
 24. Equisetum syhatieum (?), L. Green's Creek nodules (Stewart). 
 
 25. Equisetum Urhosum (?), L. Green's Creek, nodules (Stewart). 
 
 26. Equisetum seirpoides.Michyi. Green's Creek, Ottawa(J. W.Dawson}. 
 
 27. Fontinalis (?), sp. Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson). 
 
 28. Eucus, sp. Green's Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson). 
 
 29. Wavicula lata. Rolling River, Manitoba. 
 
 30. Encyonema prostratum. Rolling River, Manitoba. 
 
 "* Collection of Sir William Dawson in Peter Redpath Museum. 
 
278 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 31. Denticula lauta. Rolling River, Manitoba. 
 
 32. LicmopTiora (1). Rolling River, Manitoba. 
 
 33. Ooeconeis. Rolling River, Manitoba. 
 
 None of the plants above mentioned are properly 
 arctic in their distribution, and the assemblage may be 
 characterized as a selection from the present Canadian 
 flora of some of the more hardy species having the most 
 northern range. Green's creek is in the central part of 
 Canada, near to the parallel of 46°, and an accidental 
 selection from its present flora, though it might contain 
 the same species found in the nodules, would certainly 
 include with these, or instead of some of them, more 
 southern forms. More especially the balsam poplar, 
 though that tree occurs plentifully on the Ottawa, would 
 not be so predominant. But such an assemblage of drift 
 plants might be furnished by any American stream flow- 
 ing in the latitude of 50° to 55° north. If a stream flow- 
 ing to the north it might deposit these plants in still 
 more northern latitudes, as the McKenzie river does 
 now. If flowing to the south, it might deposit them to 
 the south of 50°, In the case of the Ottawa, the plants 
 could not have been derived from a more southern 
 locality, nor probably from one very far to the north. 
 We may therefore safely assume that the refrigeration 
 indicated by these plants would place the region bordering 
 the Ottawa in nearly the same position with that of the 
 south coast of Labrador fronting on the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, at present. The absence of all the more arctic 
 species occurring in Labrador, should perhaps induce us 
 to infer a somewhat more mild climate than this. 
 
 The climatic indications afforded by these plants are 
 not dissimilar from those furnished by a consideration of 
 the marine fauna of the period of the Leda clay. 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 279 
 
 SUMMAEY OF FOSSILS. 
 
 The above lists include, in all, about 240 species, dis- 
 tributed as follows :* 
 
 Plants 33 
 
 Animals —Protozoa, etc 21 
 
 Echinodermata 7 
 
 Mollusca 142 
 
 Annulosa and Arthropoda 30 
 
 Vertebrata 7 
 
 240 
 
 The whole of the marine species, with two or three 
 exceptions, may be affirmed to be living northern or 
 Arctic forms, belonging, in the case of the marine species, 
 to moderate depths, or varying from the littoral zone to 
 say 100 fathoms. The assemblage is identical with that 
 of the northern part of the gulf of St. Lawrence and 
 Labrador coast at present, and differs merely in the 
 presence in the modern gulf of a few more southern forms, 
 especially in its southern part, where the fauna is of a 
 New England type, whereas that of the Pleistocene 
 may be characterized as Labradorian, or at least as corres- 
 ponding to that part of the gulf of St. Lawrence now 
 invaded by the Labrador cold current. 
 
 I would call attention in this connection to the number 
 of species recorded as recent on the evidence of my own 
 dredgings in the lower St. Lawrence at Metis, Kiviere-du- 
 Loup, Murray bay, and Kamouraska. In point of fact 
 nearly all the marine species of the Leda clay and Saxi- 
 cava sand are still living on the coasts opposite the points 
 where the fossils occur. It is to be observed, however, 
 that in the modern river and gulf they are associated with 
 
 * Exclusive of a few fresh-water species mentioned in the text, and 
 of which I have not seen specimens. 
 
280 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 some living species of less boreal forms, not found in the 
 Pleistocene beds. 
 
 Some of the species, it will be seen, are of very wide 
 distribution in the modern seas, occurring in the Pacific 
 as well as in the Atlantic. 
 
 As might have been anticipated from the relations of 
 the modern marine fauna, the species of the Canadian 
 Pleistocene are in great part identical with those of the 
 Greenland seas and of Scandinavia, where, however, there 
 are many species not found in our Pleistocene. The 
 Pleistocene fauna of Canada is still more closely allied to 
 that of the deposits of similar age in Britain and in 
 Norway. Change of climate, as I have shown in previous 
 pages, has been much more extensive on the east than 
 on the west side of the Atlantic, owing to the distribution 
 of warm and cold currents, resulting from the differing 
 elevation of the land. 
 
 It cannot be assumed that the fauna of the older part 
 of the Canadian Pleistocene is different to any great 
 extent from that of the more modern part. Such 
 difference as exists seems to depend on variations of 
 depth or on a gradual amelioration of climate. The 
 shells of the lower boulder-clay, and of those more inland 
 and elevated portions of the beds which may be regarded 
 as older than those of the lower terraces near the coast, 
 are undoubtedly more arctic in character. In some 
 localities they are confined to a few species such as occur 
 in the permanently ice-laden seas of Spitzbergen. The 
 amelioration of the climate seems to have kept pace with 
 the gradual elevation of the land, which threw the cold 
 ice-bearing arctic currents from its surface, and exposed 
 a larger area to the direct action of solar heat, and also 
 probably determined the flow of tlie waters of the Gulf 
 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 281 
 
 Stream into the North Atlantic. By these causes the 
 summer heat was increased, the winds both from the land 
 and sea were raised in temperature, and the heavy 
 northern ice was led out into the Atlantic, to be melted 
 by the Gulf Stream, instead of being drifted to the south- 
 west over the lower levels of the continent. Still the 
 cold arctic currents entering by the straits of Belle-isle 
 and the accumulation of ice and snow in winter, are 
 sufficient to enable the old arctic fauna to maintain itself 
 on the northern side of the gulf of St. Lawrence, and to 
 extend as far as the latitudes of Murray bay and Gaspe. 
 South of Gasp^ we have the warmer New England fauna 
 of Northumberland strait. I may add that some of the 
 varietal peculiarities of the Pleistocene fauna in com- 
 parison with that of the St. Lawrence river, indicate a 
 considerable influx of fresh water, derived possibly from 
 melting ice and snow. 
 
 MAN IN CANADA. 
 
 No remains of man or of his works have yet been 
 found in the Pleistocene of Canada, though discoveries of 
 implements have been recorded from alluvial deposits at 
 depths which indicate a considerable historical antiquity ; 
 still they do not go farther back than the Modern period, 
 properly so called. Nor am I aware that human remains 
 have been found in those early Modern gravels, alluvia, 
 and sub-soils of bogs, which seem to be the repositories of 
 the remains of the Mastodon and Mammoth. 
 
 The Post-glacial, or early Modern period in Canada, 
 was, as indicated in a previous chapter, characterized by 
 an elevation of the land to a greater height than at 
 
282 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 present, accompanied with a marked amelioration of 
 climate, connected, perhaps, with the narrowing of those 
 northern channels which supply drift ice to the north 
 Atlantic, and with a wider heating-surface of low land. 
 In this respect eastern America corresponded with Europe, 
 and a similar mammalian fauna overspread both sides of 
 the Atlantic. In this " Second Continental " period, as it 
 has been called, man certainly appeared in Europe, and 
 not improbably in America, though this may as yet be 
 regarded as uncertain. 
 
 Every reader of the scientific journals of the United 
 States must be aware of the numerous finds of " palaeo- 
 lithic " implements in " glacial " gravels. I have 
 endeavoured to show, in a work published several years 
 ago,* how much doubt attaches to the reports of these 
 discoveries, and how much such of the " palaeoliths " as 
 appear to be the work of man resemble the rougher tools 
 and rejectamenta of the modern Indians. But since the 
 publication of that work, so great a number of " finds " 
 have been recorded, that, despite their individual impro- 
 bability, one was almost overwhelmed by the coincidence 
 of so many witnesses. Now, however, a new aspect has ■ 
 been given to the question by Mr. W. H. Holmes, of the 
 American Geological Survey, who has published his 
 observations in the American Journal of Anthropology and 
 elsewhere, f 
 
 One of the most widely known examples was that of 
 Trenton on the Delaware, where there was a bed of gravel 
 alleged to be Pleistocene, and which seemed to contain 
 enough of " palaeolithic," implements to stock all the 
 
 * " Fossil Men," Hodder & Stoughton, Loudon, 1880. 
 t Science, Nov., 1892. Journal of Geology, 1893. 
 
.PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 283 
 
 museums in the world. The evidence of age was not, 
 however, satisfactory in a geological point of view, and 
 Holmes, with the aid of a deep excavation made for a city- 
 sewer, has shown that the supposed implements do not 
 belong to the undisturbed gravel, but merely to a talus of 
 loose debris lying against it, and to which modern Indians 
 resorted to find material for implements, and ' left behind 
 them rejected or unfinished pieces. This alleged dis- 
 covery has therefore no geological or anthropological 
 significance. The same acute and industrious observer 
 has inquired into a number of similar cases in different 
 parts of the United States, and finds all liable to objec- 
 tions on the above grounds, except in a few cases when 
 the alleged implements are probably not artificial. These 
 observations not only dispose, for the present at least, of 
 palaeolithic man in America, but they suggest the propriety 
 of a revision of the whole doctrine of " palaeolithic " and 
 " neolithic " implements as held in Great Britain and 
 elsewhere. Such distinctions are often founded on forms 
 which may quite as well represent merely local or tem- 
 porary exigencies, or the debris of old workshops, as any 
 difference of time or culture. All this I reasoned out 
 many years ago on the basis of American analogies, but 
 the Lyellian doctrine of modern causes as explaining 
 ancient facts seems as yet to have too little place in the 
 science of Anthropology. It may be added that Wright, 
 in recent papers, attempts to defend some of the " palaeo- 
 lithic " finds against Holmes's criticisms ; and a somewhat 
 active controversy is still in progress. The evidence, 
 however, for the Pleistocene age of any of the genuine 
 implements seems too uncertain to be accepted at present. 
 All that can be affirmed is that there is a certain proba- 
 
284 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 bility that men of the American type existed in America 
 in the Post-glacial or early Anthropic period, and may 
 have been contemporary with the Mastodon and the 
 gigantic animals now extinct. This subject, however, is 
 not within the scope of the present work ; and I have 
 discussed it sufficiently elsewhere.* 
 
 * "Fossil Men." "Modern Science in Bible Lands.'' 
 
135' " 13''"' 12S' IZCT 
 
 Map of tlie Pleistocene Conlilleran Glacier, after Dr. G. M. Dawson. — The short 
 curved lines indicate the glacial margin and movement. The long- black 
 line on East side of the Rocky Mountains, the limit of boulders from the 
 laurentian. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 These have, perhaps, been sufficiently indicated in an 
 incidental manner in the preceding pages ; but it may be 
 well here to note some results of a less special character 
 and bearing on larger biological and cosmical questions. 
 
 With reference to the life of the Pleistocene period, one 
 can scarcely fail to observe that, whatever may have been 
 the lapse of geological time from the period of the oldest 
 boulder-clay to that in which we live, and great though 
 the climatal ■ and geographical changes have been, we 
 cannot affirm that any change, even of varietal value, has 
 taken place in any of the species of the above lists. 
 This appears to me a fact of extreme significance with 
 reference to theories of the modiiication of species in 
 geological time. No geologist doubts that the Pleistocene 
 was a period of considerable duration. The great eleva- 
 tions and depressions of the land, the extensive erosions, 
 the wide and thick beds of sediment, all testify to the 
 lapse of time. The changes which occurred were fruitful 
 in modifications of depth and temperature. Deep waters 
 were shallowed, and the sea overflowed areas of land. 
 The temperature of the waters changed greatly, so that 
 the geographical distribution of marine animals was 
 
288 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 materially affected, and they have had to make important 
 changes of habitat, while some of them have so extended 
 their range as to be found on both sides of the North 
 Pacific and North Atlantic. Yet all the Pleistocene 
 species survive, and this without change. Even variable 
 forms like the species of Buccinum and Astarte show the 
 same range of variation in the Pleistocene as in the 
 modern, and though some varieties have changed their 
 geographical position, they have not changed their 
 character. These changes of geographical position are 
 also very significant, as they seem to show that arctic and 
 temperate varieties are readily convertible into each other 
 when the temperature of the water changes, but revert to 
 the old forms on restoration of the old conditions.* This 
 result is obviously independent of imperfection of the 
 geological record, because there is no reason to doubt that 
 these species have continuously occupied the North 
 Atlantic area, and we have great abundance of them for 
 comparison both in the Pleistocene and the modern seas. 
 It is also independent of any questions as to the limits of 
 species and varieties, inasmuch as it depends on careful 
 comparisons of the living and fossil specimens ; and by 
 whatever names we may call these, their similarity or 
 dissimilarity remains unaffected. We have at present no 
 means of tracing this fauna, as a whole, farther back. 
 Some of its members we know existed in the Pliocene and 
 Miocene without specific difference ; but some day the 
 middle tertiaries of Greenland may reveal to us the 
 ancestors of these shells, if they lived so far back, and 
 may throw further light on their origin. In the mean- 
 time we can affirm that the lapse of time since the Pliocene 
 
 * See above, the remarks on the speoiea of Mya. 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 289 
 
 has not sufficed even to produce new races ; and the 
 inevitable conclusion is that any possible derivation of 
 one species from another is pushed back indefinitely, that 
 the origin of specific types is quite distinct from varietal 
 modification, and that the latter attains to a maximum in 
 a comparatively short time, and then runs on unchanged, 
 except in so far as geological vicissitudes may change the 
 localities of certain varieties. This is precisely the same 
 conclusion at which I have elsewhere arrived from a 
 similar comparison of the fossil floras of the Devonian 
 and Carboniferous periods in America. 
 
 A second leading point to which I would direct atten- 
 tion is the relative value of land ice and water-borne ice 
 as causes of geological change in the Pleistocene. On 
 this subject I have constantly maintained that moderate 
 view which was that of Sir Eoderick Murchison and Sir 
 Charles Lyell, that the Pleistocene subsidence and refrig- 
 eration produced a state of our continents in which the 
 lower levels, and at certain periods even the tops of the 
 higher hills, were submerged, under water filled every 
 season with heavy field-ice formed on the surface of the 
 sea, as at present in Smith's Sound, and also with abundant 
 ice-bergs derived from glaciers descending from unsub- 
 merged mountain districts. These conclusions have been 
 reinforced by the recent establishment of the fact of 
 differential elevation and submergence, whereby the moun- 
 tain ridges retained their elevation even when plains and 
 table-lands were submerged. I need not reiterate the 
 arguments for these conclusions, but may content myself 
 with a reference to the changes of opinion on the subject. 
 The glacier theory of Agassiz and others may be said to 
 have grown till, like the imaginary glaciers themselves, it 
 overspread the earth. All northern Europe and America 
 
 20 
 
290 I'HE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 were covered with a mer-de-glace, moving to the southward 
 and outward to the sea. This great ice-mantle not only 
 removed stones and clay to immense distances, and 
 glaciated and striated the whole surface, but it cut out 
 lake basins and fiords, ground over the tops of the highest 
 hills, and accounted for everything otherwise difficult in 
 the superficial contour of the land. It was even trans- 
 ferred to Brazil, and employed to excavate the valley of 
 the Amazon. But this was its last feat, and it has 
 recently melted away under the warmth of discussion 
 until it is now but a shadow of its former self. I may 
 mention a few of the facts which have contributed to 
 this result. It has been found that the glacial boulder- 
 clays are in many cases marine. Cirques and other 
 alpine valleys, once supposed to be the work of glaciers, 
 are now known to have been produced by aqueous denu- 
 dation. Great lakes, like those of America, supposed to be 
 inexplicable except by glacier erosion, have been found to 
 admit of being otherwise accounted for. The transport 
 of boulders and direction of striation have been found to 
 conflict with the theory of continental glaciation, or to 
 reqviire too extravagant suppositions to account for them 
 in that way. Greenland, at one time supposed to be an 
 analogue of the imaginary ice-clad continent, has proved 
 to be an exceptional case which could not apply to the 
 interior of a wide continental area. The relation of 
 Greenland to Baffin's Bay and Davis straits is indeed 
 similar to that which may have obtained between the 
 Laurentide hills and the submerged valley of the St. 
 Lawrence, or to that of the Cordillera range to seas lying 
 west and east of it. The conditions of modern Greenland, 
 in short, at that time spread southward over the high 
 ridges exposed to the vapour-laden atmosphere of the 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 291 
 
 submerged continental areas, and the greatest of these 
 analogues of Greenland was, no doubt, the Cordilleran 
 system of glaciers depicted in the map prefixed to this 
 chapter. 
 
 It has been the practice of the more extreme glacialists 
 to attribute to their opponents the idea that all glacial 
 work is done by icebergs, whereas they should have known 
 that seas loaded with icebergs imply land covered with 
 snow and ice. Iceberg-work implies glacier-work. It is 
 these glacialists who have persisted in confounding the 
 work of land-ice, icebergs and field-ice, in mixing up the 
 earlier and later drifts, in neglecting the effects of the 
 great movements of elevation and depression which were 
 going on throughout the Pleistocene period, in omitting 
 to consider the effects of the comparatively rapid move- 
 ments of this kind which must have taken place from the 
 crust suddenly giving way under tension, in confounding 
 deposits obviously, from their structure and fossils, marine, 
 with glacier moraines, in quietly assuming for glaciers an 
 extension physically impossible, in neglecting to consider 
 the possibility of tracts of verdure inhabited by animals 
 on the margin of snow-clad hills and table-lands, in exag- 
 gerating the eroding and transporting power of glaciers, 
 and minimizing that of sea-borne ice, and generally in 
 misunderstanding or misrepresenting the glacial work 
 now going on in the arctic and boreal regions. These are 
 grave accusations, but I find none of the memoirs or other 
 writings of the current school of glacialists free from such 
 errors ; and I think it is time that reasonable men should 
 discountenance these misrepresentations, and adopt more 
 moderate and rational views. 
 
 The facts indicate that there was an earlier and later 
 period of glacial action and dispersion of boulders, that 
 
292 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 between these, in the middle Pleistocene period, large 
 portions of the northern parts of the Northern Hemis- 
 phere possessed a climate not much colder than that 
 enjoyed at present, and that in the height of the cold 
 period only a limited portion of the north-east of Europe, 
 the Alpine regions, the Cordillera of North America, the 
 Laurentide hills and the Appalachians were deeply ice- 
 capped, while the ice was flowing on all sides, north as 
 well as south, into submerged areas. 
 
 In so far as Canada is concerned — and Canada includes 
 the northern half of the American continent, the greatest 
 of all the theatres of glacial action — -the history of the 
 Pleistocene period, as stated in the previous chapters, may 
 be summed up as follows, beginning with the continental 
 period of the newer Pliocene : — 
 
 1. In Canada and the eastern part of North America 
 generally, it is universally admitted that the later Pliocene 
 period was one of continental elevation, and probably of 
 temperate climate. It is also evident, from the raised 
 beaches holding marine shells, extending to elevations of 
 600 feet, and from boulder-drift reaching to a far greater 
 height, that extensive submergence occurred in the middle 
 and later Pleistocene. This was the age of the marine 
 Leda clays and Saxicava sands found at heights of 600 ■ 
 feet above the sea in the St. Lawrence valley nearly as far 
 west as Lake Ontario. It was also the time of the 
 extensive drift over the great area of the western plains. 
 
 2. It is reasonable to conclude that the till, or boulder- 
 clay, under the Leda clay, and its equivalents, belongs to 
 the intervening period of probably gradual subsidence of 
 the lower lands, accompanied with a severe climate and 
 with snow and glaciers on all the higher grounds, sending 
 glaciated stones into the sea. This deduction agrees with 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 293 
 
 the marine shells, bryozoa, and cirripedes found in the 
 boulder-deposits on the lower St. Lawrence, with the 
 unoxidized character of the mass, which proves subaquatic 
 deposition, with the fact that it contains soft boulders, 
 which would have crumbled if exposed to the air, with its 
 limitation to the lower levels and absence on the hill- 
 sides, and with the prevalent direction of striation and 
 boulder-drift from the north-east. 
 
 3. All these indications coincide with the conditions of 
 the modern boulder-drift on the lower St. Lawrence and 
 in the arctic regions, where the great belts and ridges of 
 boulders accumulated by the coast- ice would, if the coast 
 were sinking, climb upward and be filled in with mud, 
 forming a continuous sheet of boulder-deposit similar to 
 that which has accumulated and is accumulating on the 
 shores of Smith's sound and elsewhere in the arctic, and 
 which, like the older boulder-clay, is known to contain 
 both marine shells and drift-wood.* 
 
 4. The conditions of the deposit of till diminished in 
 intensity as the subsidence continued. The gathering 
 gTound of local glaciers was lessened, the ice was no 
 longer limited to narrow sounds, but had a wider scope 
 as well as a freer drift to the southward, and the climate 
 seems to have been improved. The clays deposited had 
 few boulders and many marine shells ; and to the west and 
 north there were deposits of land plants, and on land 
 elevated above the water peaty deposits accumulated. 
 
 5. The shells of the Leda clay indicate depths of less 
 than 100 fathoms. The numerous foraminifera, so far as 
 have been observed, belong to this range, and I have never 
 
 * For references, see Royal Society's Arctic Manual, London, 1875. 
 Fielden, Paper on Grinnel Land. Proc. Royal Socy. Dublin, 1878. 
 
294 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 seen in the Leda clay the assemblage of foraminiferal 
 forms now dredged from 200 to 300 fathoms in the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence. 
 
 6. I infer that the subsidence of the Leda clay period 
 and of the interglacial beds of Ontario belongs to the 
 time of the sea beaches from 450 to 600 feet in height, 
 which are so marked and extensive as to indicate a period 
 of repose. In this period there were marine conditions 
 in the lower and middle St. Lawrence and in the Ottawa 
 valley, and swamps and lakes on the upper Ottawa and 
 the western end of Lake Ontario ; and it was at this time 
 that the plants described in previous pages occupied the 
 country. It is quite probable, nay, certain, that during 
 this interglacial period re-elevation had set in, since the 
 upper Leda clay and the Saxicava sand indicate shallowing 
 water, and during this re-elevation the plant-covered 
 surface would extend to lower levels. 
 
 7. This, however, must have been followed by a second 
 subsidence, since the water-worn gravels and loose, far- 
 travelled boulders of the later drift rose to heights never 
 reached by the till or the Leda clay, and attained to the 
 tops of the highest hills of the St. Lawrence valley, 1,200 
 feet in height, and elsewhere to still greater elevations. 
 This second boulder drift must have been wholly marine, 
 and probably not of long duration. It shows little 
 evidence of colder climate than that now prevalent, nor 
 of extensive glaciers on the mountains ; and it was 
 followed by a paroxysmal elevation in successive stages 
 till the land attained even more than its present height, 
 as subsidence is known to have been proceeding in modern 
 times. 
 
 8. For the region between the great lakes and the 
 Eocky mountains and for the Pacific coast the sequence 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 295 
 
 is similar, but there was a greater amount of differential 
 elevation as between the mountains and the plains. In 
 the niountainous regions of the west, also, more especially 
 in the interior of British Columbia, the evidence of great 
 local glaciers is much more pronounced than on our lower 
 mountains of the east. 
 
 I shall not attempt to extend these generalizations to 
 the country south of the Canadian border, but must 
 respectfully warn those of my geological friends who 
 insist on portentous accumulations of land-ice in that 
 quarter, that the material cannot be supplied to them 
 from Canada. They must establish gathering-grounds 
 within their own territory. 
 
 Note on Recent Papers. 
 
 While this work was in the press the discussion of 
 ([uestions relating to the glacial period in the United 
 States and Europe has been actively proceeding. Sir 
 Henry Howorth has treated the subject in an almost 
 exhaustive manner in his work the " Glacial Nightmare,'' 
 in which his point of view is very nearly that of the 
 present work; though not like this confined to the case of 
 Canada. Many important memoirs have also appeared in 
 American and British periodicals, aud in those of the 
 Continent of Europe. Of these I shall notice only the 
 following, as bearing closely on the scope of the previous 
 pages : 
 
 Prof. Bonney, E.E.S., in a paper read before the Eoyal 
 Geographical Society,* discusses in detail the question of 
 glacial erosion, and arrives at the same conclusion which 
 I stated in 1866, after visiting the Savoy Alps, viz., that 
 
 * "Nature," March 30, 1893. 
 
2:) 6 • THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 glaciers are " agents of abrasion rather than erosion," and 
 tliat in the latter their power is much inferior to that of 
 fluviatile action. Nor are glaciers agents in the excava- 
 tion of lake basins, which are to be accounted for in other 
 ways ; and the great gorges and fiords which have been 
 ascribed to them are due to aqueous erosion when the 
 continents were at a high level, before the glacial age. 
 
 An interesting and thoughtful paper, by Warren 
 Upham, has appeared,* in which he institutes a compari- 
 son between " Pleistocene and Present Ice-sheets." The 
 present ice-sheets are stated to be four. (1.) The Ant- 
 arctic or that which fringes the Autartic continent and 
 is probably better entitled to the name than any other ; 
 but which differs from the supposed ice-sheets of the 
 Pleistocene in fronting on the sea and discharging all its 
 produce as floating ice. In this it certainly resembles 
 many of the great local glaciers of the Pleistocene. 
 (2.) The great nevd of Greenland, which, however, dis- 
 charges by local glaciers, and these open on the sea, and 
 which has margins of verdure on its borders in summer. 
 (o.) The Malaspina glacier of Alaska, evidently a local 
 glacier of no great magnitude, though presenting some 
 exceptional features and showing the possibility of the close 
 contact of glacial phenomena and flourishing woodland. 
 (4.) The Muir glacier of Alaska, also a local glacier, but 
 perhaps, like the Malaspina, showing some features illus- 
 trative of local Pleistocene glaciers, more especially in its 
 apparent want of erosive power. 
 
 In the " conferences and comparisons," however, the 
 facts detailed in the earlier part of the paper are placed 
 in comparison with postulates respecting the Pleistocene 
 
 * Bulletin Geol. Society of America, March 24, 1893. 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 297 
 
 which are incapable of proof. (1.) It is taken for granted 
 that the upper limits of glaciation in the mountain ranges 
 of America indicate the thickness of a continental ice- 
 sheet. They probably indicate only the upper limit of 
 the abrasion of local glaciers. (2.) Hence it is computed 
 that the thickness of a continental glacier flowing radially 
 outward in all directions from the Laurentian highlands 
 of Canada, amounted to two miles ; and in connection 
 with this it is stated that the maximum thickness of 
 the great Cordilleran glacier of British Columbia has 
 been estimated to have been about 7,000 feet ; an 
 entirely different thing, and referring to the maximum 
 depth of a local glacier traversing deep valleys. (3.) It 
 is admitted that the assumed continental glacier could 
 not move without an elevation of the Laurentian high- 
 lands to the height of several thousand feet, of which we 
 have no evidence, for the cutting of the deep fiords 
 referred to in this connection must have taken place in 
 the time of Pliocene elevation of the continents before 
 the glacial period. (4.) The Upper and Lower Boulder 
 drift, so different in their characters, are accounted for on 
 the supposition that the former comes from material sus- 
 pended in the ice at some height above its base, the other 
 from that in the bottom of the ice. In like manner the 
 widely distributed interglacial beds holding remains of 
 land plants of North temperate character, are attributed 
 to such small local occurrences of trees on or under 
 moraines as appear in the Alaska glaciers. (5.) The rapid 
 disappearance of the ice is connected with a supposed 
 subsidence of the land under its weight, though from 
 other considerations we know that if this was dependent 
 on such a cause, it must have been going on from the 
 iirst gathering of the ice, so that the required high land 
 
298 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 
 
 could not have existed. All the evidence, however, points 
 to subsidence and elevation owing to other and purely 
 terrestrial causes, and producing not produced by the 
 glaciers of the Pleistocene. 
 
 It may be added that Upham accepts the recency of 
 the glacial period, and its causation by changes of ocean 
 currents, which of course would imply that its date 
 coincided in Europe and America, though not necessarily 
 or probably in the Southern Hemisphere. 
 
 The very important series of papers by Prof. Prestwich 
 which have appeared within the last three years, and in 
 which that veteran and able student of the later geological 
 periods states his conclusions respecting the glacial and 
 Post-glacial deposits of the South of England, contain a 
 mine of information bearing on the glacial period in 
 America. The papers by Hicks, Hughes, Lapworth, Mel- 
 lard Reade, Mcholson and others, respecting the high- 
 level gravels with marine shells in England and Wales, 
 have also elicited facts which tend to bring them into 
 harmony with those of America. The time was when the 
 boulder-clays and raised beaches of Eastern America were 
 explained by earthquake waves and glacier thrusts ; but 
 their vast extent and obviously submarine characters 
 have rendered such contentions untenable, and it may be 
 confidently predicted that this will be their fate in Great 
 Britain also. 
 
i:f^DEX. 
 
 Acadian Bay, 138. 
 Andrews, Dr., 147. 
 Anticosti, 157. 
 Annulosa, 259. 
 Appalachian Glacier, 93. 
 Arctic Basin, 206. 
 Arthropoda, 261. 
 Astronomical Theories, 21. 
 
 Ball on Glacial Age, 21. 
 Bailey, Prof., 173. 
 Bayfield, Admiral, 192. 
 Belle-Isle, 113. 
 Beluga, 177. 
 Beauport, 195. 
 Bell, Dr., 204. 
 Boulder-clay, 27. 
 
 Lower, 37. 
 
 Upper, 59. 
 Boulder-drift, Later, 68. 
 Boulder-belts, Modern, 63. 
 Boulders, 40. 
 
 in the Sea, 101. 
 Bordage Ice, 129. 
 Boars' Backs, 175. 
 Brachiopoda, 225. 
 Bryozoa, 222. 
 
 Canada, Kegions of, 151. 
 
 Cacouna, 189. 
 
 "Challenger" Soundings, 100. 
 
 Chalmers, Mr., 170. 
 Climate and Geography, 76. 
 Climatal Conditions, 134. 
 Claypole, Prof., 146. 
 Cordillera, 33. 
 Cordilleran Glacier, 89. 
 Coteau de Missouri, 117. 
 Crag and Tail, 198. 
 
 Date of Glacial Period, 22, 144. 
 Dawson, Dr. G. M., 33, 89. 
 on Missouri Coteau, 117. 
 Deposits, Summary of, 75. 
 Depression, Continental, 132. 
 Divisions of Canada, 151. 
 Drumlins, 116. 
 Drift to North, 87. 
 
 Eboulements, 185. 
 Echinodermata, 218. 
 Elevation, Continental, 132. 
 EUs, Dr., 94. 
 Erie Clay, 57. 
 Eskers, 61, 176. 
 Eternity, Cape, 73. 
 
 Forest Beds, 56, 205. 
 Fossils, 206, 209. 
 
 Geographical Changes, 76. 
 Gilpin, Dr., 177. 
 
300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Glaciers, Limits of Action of, 13. 
 
 Action of, 80. 
 
 Motion of, 81. 
 
 Conditions of, 82. 
 
 Cordilleran, 89. 
 
 Apalachian, 9.3. 
 
 Laurentide, 93. 
 Glaciation, Marine, 111. 
 Grant, Col., 157. 
 Green's Creek, 203. 
 Grant, Sir James, 268. 
 
 Hartt, Prof., 173. 
 
 Hinde, Prof. H. Y., 108, 155. 
 
 Ice-bergs of Belle-Isle, 113. 
 Ice-freshets, 127. 
 Ice, Bordage, 128. 
 
 in Estuaries, 129. 
 Ice, Sea-borne, 105. 
 Inland Cliffs, 61. 
 Insecta, 265. 
 Interglacial Beds, 56, 205. 
 
 Kaims, 61. 
 
 Labrador, 155. 
 
 Lake Basins, 49. 
 
 Lake of the Woods, 119. 
 
 Lake Ridges, 56. 
 
 Lake Margins, 115. 
 
 Leda Clay, 53. 
 
 List of Papers, 25. 
 
 Little Metis, Boulder-belt at, 63. 
 
 Local Details, 151. 
 
 Logan, Sir W. , 5. 
 
 Low, Mr. , on Hudson's Bay, 95. 
 
 Lyell on Pleistocene, 3. 
 
 Mammoth, 265. 
 Man, 147, 281. 
 
 Map of N. America, 77. 
 Mastodon, 265. 
 Matthews, Mr., 170, 172, 177. 
 McConnell, Mr. R. G., 91. 
 Metis, Boulder-belts at, 63, 195. 
 Missouri Coteau, 117, 123. 
 Montreal, 196. 
 
 Moraine, Terminal, 79, 84, 117, 124. 
 Moraines, Torell on, 97. 
 Mourlon, Dr., 148. 
 Murray Bay, 182. 
 Terraces at, 66. 
 
 Newfoundland, 154. 
 New Brunswick, 166, 170. 
 Newberry, Dr., on old erosion, 49. 
 
 on Western Drift, 56. 
 Niagara, Recession of, 145. 
 Northward Drift, 87, 91. 
 Nova Scotia, 166. 
 
 Ontario, 205. 
 Ottawa River, 203. 
 
 Pan Ice, 109. 
 Papers, List of, 25. 
 Packard, Dr., 155. 
 Paisley, Mr., 176. 
 Plains, Western, 119, 205. 
 Plants, Fossil, 17, 271. 
 Porifera, 216. 
 Polyzoa, 222. 
 Prestwich, Prof., 298. 
 Prince Edward Island, 161. 
 Protozoa, 211. 
 
 Pleistocene, Tabular View, 28. 
 Series of Events in, 74. 
 
 Quebec, Vicinity of, 195. 
 
 Rae, Dr. John, 105. 
 
 Recency of Glacial Age, 22, 144. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 301 
 
 Regions of Canada, 151. 
 Redpath Museum, 200. 
 Richardson, Mr., 157. 
 Rivifere-du-Loup, 189. 
 Rocky Mountains, 121. 
 Roches Moutonn^s, 44. 
 
 Saguenay Valley, 71, 178. 
 Saxicava Sand, 59. 
 Sea-borne lee, 105. 
 Section Missouri Coteau, 118. 
 
 at Merigonish, 169. 
 
 at Rivifere-du-Loup, 194. 
 
 at Montreal, 196. 
 
 at Redpath Museum, 199. 
 
 at Glen Brick-work, 202. 
 
 at Long and Milk Rivers, 204. 
 Shore Ice, 107. 
 Spencer, Dr., 146. 
 St. Anthony, Falls of, 147. 
 St. Lawrence, North Shore, 178. 
 
 South Shore, 186. 
 
 Striation, Glacial, 41. 
 Succession of Events in Pleisto- 
 cene, 74. 
 
 Table of Pleistocene, 28. 
 
 of Kainozoic, 36. 
 Tadoussac, 180. 
 Terraces, 61. 
 
 Height of, 67. 
 Theories of Drift, 13. 
 Torell, Dr., 96. 
 Trois Pistoles, 186. 
 
 Upham, Dr. Warren, 296. 
 
 Vaughan, Mr., 112. 
 
 Vertebrata, 265. 
 
 Vegetation of Pleistocene, 17, 271. 
 
 Winchell, Prof., 147. 
 Woeickoff, Dr., 81. 
 Woodward, Mr. R. S., 146. 
 
 Erratum. — Page 195, line 4, for "chapter III." read "chapter II." 
 
 In Memoriam. — While this work was passing through the press, 
 intelligence arrived of the death of my esteemed friend. Dr. John Rae, 
 F.R.S., one of the most intrepid and successful of arctic explorers, and 
 a diligent and accurate observer of the phenomena of nature in those 
 dreary yet interesting regions with which he was so familiar. Some 
 observations on shore ice, kindly contributed by him, are given at 
 page 105 of this work. 
 
BOOKS 
 
 Special Discounts 
 
 given on 
 
 Large Cash Orders 
 
 and to 
 
 Educational Institutions 
 
 and Libraries. 
 
 The Scientific Publishing Company, 
 
 PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS, 
 
 27 Park Place, New York. 
 
Books 
 
 The Best in the World on 
 
 the Subjects Treated. 
 
 American Methods of Copper Smelting. By Dr. E. D. 
 
 PsrEHS. Elaborately illustrated. Kevised. Cloth, pp. 398, 12mo. 
 Price 14.00. 
 
 The metallurgy of liead and the Desilverlzation of Base 
 Bullion. By H. O. HoFMAN, E. M., Ph. D., Associate Professor 
 of Mining and Metallurgy, Mass. Institute of Technology. Ela- 
 borately Illustrated. Cloth, pp . Hi, 12mo. Price $6.00. 
 
 The JHetallnrgy of Steel. By Henry M. Howe, A. M., S. B.. 
 Mining and Metallurgical Engineer. Cloth, pp. 392, royal quarto. 
 Illustrated. Price JIO.OO. 
 
 manual of Ctualitatlve Bloivplpe Analysis and Deter- 
 minative mineralogy. ByDr. F. M. Endlich. Illustrated. 
 Cloth, pp. 456, 12mo. Price $4.00. 
 
 An Outline of Qualitative Analysis. By John A. Miller, 
 M. Sc, A M., Ph. D., Prof, of Chemistry, Niagara University. 
 Cloth, 12ino. Price $1.50. 
 
 Gems and Precious Stones of North A merica. By Georqe 
 Fkkdbrick Kunz, Gem Expert with Messrs. Tiffany & Co. Illus- 
 trated with eight colored Plates and numerous minor Engrav- 
 ings. Cloth, pp. 336, quarto. Price $i0,00. 
 
 The Ore Deposits of the United States. A Treatise on 
 Economic Geology. By J. F. Kemp, A. B.. E. M., Prof, of Geol- 
 ogy, Columbia College. Elaborately illustrated. Cloth, pp. 302, 
 12mo. Price $4.00. 
 
 The Phosphates of America. Where and How They Occur. 
 How They Are Mined, and What They Cost. By Dr. Francis 
 Wyatt. Revised. Illustrated. Cloth, pp. 283, 12mo. Price 
 $4.00. 
 
 Florida, South Tarolina and Canadian Phosphates. 
 
 Giving a Couiplate Account of their Occurrence, Methods and 
 Cost of Production, Quantities Raised, and Commercial Import- 
 ance. By C. C. HOYKR MiLLAE. Cloth, pp. 217, 12rao. Price $2.50. 
 
 Mining itccldents and Their Prevention. With discus- 
 sions by leading experts. By Sir Fhedekick Augustus Abel. 
 Cloth, pp. 421, 12mo. Price $4.00. 
 
 The 'lining Ijaws ot the Bepuhlfc of Colombia. Trans- 
 lated and edited by Charles Bullman, M. E. Cloth, pp. 107, 
 12mo. Price $1.50. 
 
Books ^ ^ Continued. 
 
 Chemical and Geological Essay*. B7 T. Sterky Hunt. 
 M. A., LL. D. Cloth, pp. 489, 12mo. Price $2.50.. 
 
 Chemical and Geological Essays. A Second Series; Mineral 
 Physiology and Physiography. By T. Sterby Hunt, M. A., 
 LL.D. Cloth, pp. 710, 12mo. Price J5.00. 
 
 A Ne\F Basis for Chemistry: A Chemical Philosophy. 
 
 By T. Sterrt Hunt, M. A.. LL. D. Cloth, pp. 247, 16mo. Price 
 $2 00. 
 
 Systematic Mineralogy. Based on a Natural Classification. 
 By T. Sterry Hunt, M. A., LL. D. Revised. Cloth, pp. 391, 
 12mo. Price $5.00. 
 
 CnlTcrsal Bimetallism and an International JHonetary 
 Clearing House. A Record of the World's Money. By R. 
 P. Roth WELL, C. E., M. E. Cloth. Price 75 cents. 
 
 Parliamentary Tactics ; or, Bnles for Debate. For the 
 
 use of the Presiding Officer and Public Spealsers. By Harry W. 
 Hoot. Fancy cloth. Price 50 cents. 
 
 The Canadian Ice Age. Being notes on the Pleistocene Geology 
 of Canada, with Especial Reference to the Life of the Period and 
 itsClimatal Conditions. By Sir J. Wilt.iam Dawson, C. M. G.. 
 LL.D., F. R. S., F. G. S., etc. Illustrated. Cloth, pp. 301, 12mo. 
 Price S2.00. 
 
 The Jnineral Industry. Its Statistics, Technology and Trade 
 in the United States and other Countries from the Earliest Times 
 Edited by Richard P. Rothwell, C. E., M. E., Editor of the 
 "Engineering and Mining Journal.'' 
 
 Vol. L Statistics to end of 1892. Cloth, pp. 628, 8vo. Price 82.50. 
 
 Vol. IL Statistics to end of 1^93. Cloth, 8vo. Price ?5 00. 
 
 THE ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL- 
 the representative Mining and Metallurgical paper 
 of the World.-Published Weekly. Illustrated. 
 Subscription pricei United StateSi Mexico 
 and Canada, $5 per year. All other coun- 
 tries in the Postal Union, $7. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 Publishers and Booksellers, 
 NEW YORK: LONDON: 
 
 27 Park Place. 20 Bucklersbury. 
 
tteENeJ!^?™^oi"™*i. 
 
 Mining 
 
 RICHARD P. ROTHWELL, C. E., M. E., Editor. 
 
 ROSSITER vr. RAYMOND, Ph. D., M. E. Special. Contributor. 
 
 SOPHIA BRAEUNLICH, Business Manager. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO., Publishers, 
 
 The Engineering and Mining Journal is the best, 
 the most influential, and widest circulated 
 Mining Paper in the world. The technical 
 information it gives, its Financial 
 Market Reports, and its Fearless and 
 Impartial Criticisms of things 
 calculated to injure Legitimate 
 Mining investments have 
 gained for it the admira- 
 tion and confidence of 
 the entire mining 
 industry. 
 
 The Largest Circulation of any Teciinical Paper in America. 
 
 THE BEST ADVERTISING MEDIUM. 
 
 Subscription, including postage.— For the 
 United States. Canada and Mexico, 35.00 per 
 Annum; 32.50 for Six Months. Foreign Countries 
 in the Postal Union and Australia, ,S7.00. 
 
 27 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK.