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[From a photograph by Henderson. ]

THE

CANADIAN ICH AGE

BEING 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.R.S., F.G.S., &c.

MONTREAL
WILLIAM V. DAWSON
1893

thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, by Wit1am V.
in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.

688350
ig RD tee

‘““WITNESS” PRINTING HOUSE,
MONTREAL, ©

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 ina
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. Richardson, 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.

McGIL.L CoLLEGE,
MONTREAL, 1893.

_

CONTENTS.

PAGE,
CHAPTER I.--Hisroricat Derarts,—Extracts from previous

Publications— Lists of Papers ; : ; ; er) ae

CHAPTER II.—Tue Succession or Derostrs.—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 . ; ; 2 ~ i SF

CHAPTER III.—Puysicat anp CiimaTAL ConpiTions.—General
Conditions—Causes of Glaciation and Distribution of Erratics
—Glaciers—Cordilleran, Laurentide and Apalachian—Differ-
ential Elevation— Views of Dr. Torell . ; : mae S

CHAPTER IV.—PuysicaL AND CiIMAaTAL ConpDiITIONs (cont.)
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 Locat Deratts.—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.—Puetsrocene Fosstts.—Animal Fossils, Proto-
zoa—Ccelenterata —Echinodermata— Mollusca, etce.— Annul-
osa—Arthropoda—Vertebrata—Fossils of the Arctic Basin—
Fossti Plants—Summary of Fossils—Man in Canada. . 209

CHAPTER VII.—GENERAL CoNCLUSIONS . , : : . 287

LS a re

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2 es

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 ; ‘ : ; : F 62-69
Terraces at L’Anse 4 Loup, Sheree : ; ; oo
Saguenay Chasm ; i : ; ; Ps #5
Ideal Maps of North America. ; ; , EE
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, Meriyomish, N.S. ; . 169
Section at Montreal . : ; ’ ; ; : . 199
Sections Western Boulder Clay 5 ; . 205
Arctic Shells in the Pleistocene . : . . 208
Pleistocene Foraminifera. ‘ : : ‘ : ‘ 2
Pleistocene Sponge and Star-fish : . 217
Pleistocene Polyzoa . . 221
Pleistocene Brachiopods . _. ; . 225
Characteristic Lamellibranchs , : ‘ : . 226
Characteristic Gastropods . ' ; ; . 244
Pleistocene Crustaceans ; : ; : . 262
Pleistocene Fishes ; : . ; : . 266
Pleistocene Plants. : ; ‘ : . 272

Glacier of the Cordillera . , ; : ; ‘ . . 286

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Glaciated Laurentian hills, north shore of St. Lawrence, opposite Kamouraska.

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THE

ICE AGE IN CANADA.

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

» 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 sand 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, ete., 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 ” :—

“Tf 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 which 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 quantities 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 8.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 Record 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, Ramsay 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 gained 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 first instance, in the form of
extracts from publications dating some of them nearly
thirty years ago.

In a paper published in the “ Canadian Naturalist” in
1860, and specially devoted to the description of glacial
phenomena in Labrador, Maine, etc., the following words
oceur 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 aretie
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
absolutely 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 Jeast 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,t 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.

+ 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. 11

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 ICE AGE IN CANADA.

heat, advantages which must have existed to a less extent
in western Europe.*

“Tt 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
ereatest 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+ 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 bowlder-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.

rn
+ - 4, -
oe ee ee

. ae aval
ee? ee ae UL eee

= wee ae

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—Jirst, 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:

“J. 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 uneyen
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.

“Tt 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
oceasioned 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
earried 50 to 100 miles from points of scarcely greater
elevation, and over a valley in which the striz are in a
direction nearly at right angles with that of the probable
driftage of the boulders. Quite as striking examples
oceur 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, Riviere 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 inarine 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 times 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 having
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. 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
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 summer 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 above 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
ereatest 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 “ Notes,” 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, I 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. & 8S. 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 abandonment 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

es

ee

iF lt Race lege

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 Robert 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 Croll 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.

99 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

—

active and voluminous 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,t 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,t
in which he endeavours to harmonise the doctrines of
great ice-sheets and local glaciers, he admits 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.

t ‘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 North 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
“Recent 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 Gutigents 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 Cordilleran glacier lay between the range of the

24 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Rocky 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
odth and 59th parallels. Thence the ice flowed north-
ward 350 miles, and southward about 600 miles, diverging,
in the intervening 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 moved 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 Record of
Science.”

References to memoirs by other authors will be found
in their proper places in the subsequent chapters.

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 25

LIST OF PAPERS ON PLEISTOCENE OF CANADA,

Notice of the Pleistocene Geology of Nova Scotia.—‘‘ Acadian
Geology,” 1855.

On the Newer Pliocene and Post-pliocene of the Vicinity of
Montreal.—Canadian Naturalist, 1857.

Additional Notes on the Post-pliocene Deposits of the St.
Lawrence Valley.—Jb, 1859.

On the climate of Canada in the Post-Pliocene Period. —Jb. 1860.

On Post-Tertiary Fossils from Labrador.—Jb, 1860.

On the Geology of Murray Bay (Part 3, Post-pliocene Deposits,
—Ib. 1861.

Address as President of the Natural History Society of Montreal.
—Ib. 1864.

On the Post-pliocene Deposits of Riviére du Loup and Tadous-
sac.—Ib. 1865.

Comparison of the Icebergs of Belle-isle and the Glaciers of
Mont Blanc, with reference to the Boulder-clay of Canada.—
Ib. 1866.

On the Evidence of Fossil Plants as to the Post-pliocene climate
of Canada.—Jb. 1866.

Report of Geology of Prince Edward Island.—1871.

Notes on the Post-pliocene Geology of Canada, pp. 112 and
Figures.—Montreal, 1872. Also Canadian Naturalist, N.S.,
Vol. VI.

Address to Natural History Society of Montreal.—1874.

Note on a Fossil Seal.—Canadian Naturalist, 1877.

Supplement to Acadian Geology.—1878.

Notice of Woeickkoff on Glaciers.—Canadian Naturalist, Vol. X.

Canadian Pleistocene.—London Geological Magazine, 1883.

On the Skeleton of a Whale found at Smith’s Falls, Ontario. —
Canadian Naturalist, 1883.

Geology of the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway.—Journal
Geological Society, London, 1884.

Boulder Drift and Sea Margins at Little Metis.—Canadian
Record of Science, 1886.

Pleistocene Fossils from Anticosti.—Jb. 1886.

Balanus Hameri and Varieties of Mya arenaria and M, truncata
in the Pleistocene.—Jb. 1889.

On a Fossil Fish and Marine Worm.—ZJb. 1890.

The Pleistocene Flora of Canada (with descriptions of the plants
by Prof. Penhallow).—Bul. 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. 8. 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. R. Jones and Dr. Parker and Mr. G. M.
Dawson for help with the Foraminifera. Other names of
contributors of information will be mentioned in the notes
and in the lists of fossils.

CHAPTER IL.
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
“Tnter-glacial.” A similar order is observed in other
parts of America, and also in Western Europe.

* Pleistocene Flora of Canada, Bul. Geol. Soc. of America, Vol. I.

28

THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

COMPARATIVE TABLE.

Montreal and lower St.

North shore of Lake Belly river, North-

Lawrence. Ontario. west Territory.
J. Wm. DAwson. J. G. Hrnpe. G. M. Dawson.
a; x i;

Surface soil, post-
glacial alluvia & peat.

Surface soil, strati- Surface soil and
fied sand and gravel. prairie alluvium.

{ II. II. LE?
Surface boulders, Boulders, sand, ete. | Upper boulder clay.
Saxicava sand and Laminated clay. Up-
gravel. Boulders in per boulder deposit.
and below sand.
ITI. ITI. IIT.

Upper Leda clay,
marine shells and drift

|
| IV.

Lower boulder clay

Stratified sand and Gray sand with iron-
clay, with fresh-water stonenodules. Brown-

a plants. Lower Leda shells and plants. ish sandy clay. Car-
o . :
8 | lay, marine shells and bonaceous layers and
3 drift plants. peat. Gray sand and
Ay ironstone.

IV.
Lower boulder clay.

i

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.
V.

Paleozoic rocks,
often striated.

V.
Cretaceous beds.

vs

Paleozoic rocks,
often striated.

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.

alluvia and gravels, peaty f phas, modern fresh-water shells.
deposits, lake bottoms, ete.

(6) Saxicava sand and gravel, \ Shallow-water fauna of boreal
often with numerous travelled | character, more especially Saai-
boulders (upper boulder de- | cava rugosa and its varieties.
posit), probably the same Bones of whales, ete.
with Algoma sand, etc., of
inland districts. -

(c) Upper Leda clay, and pro- Holds in eastern Canada a
bably Saugeen clay * of | marine fauna identical with that
inland districts; clay and | of the northern part of the gulf
sandy clay, in the lower St. | of St. Lawrence at present ; and
Lawrence, with numerous | locally affords remains of a boreal
marine shells. / flora.

(d) Lower Leda clay; fine clay, Holds Leda (Portlandia) arctica
often laminated, and with a | and sometimes Tellina groenlan-
few large travelled boulders, ; dica; and seems to have been
probably equivalent to Erie | deposited in very cold and _ ice-
clay + of inland districts. laden water.

(e) Lower stratified sands and | These represent land surfaces

(a) Post-glacial deposits, river } Remains of Mastodon and EI-

SS

gravels (Syrtensian deposits f and sea and coast areas immedi-
of Matthew). t ately posterior to the boulder clay.
(f) Boulder clay or till; hard In the lower St. Lawrence region
clay, or unstratified sand, | holds a few marine shells of arctic
with boulders, local and | species. Farther inland is non-
travelled, and stones often | fossilferous, but has usually the
striated and polished. chemical characters of a marine
deposit.

Norr.—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 (f) 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.

+ Supplement to Acadian Geology, 1878. Notes on Post-pliocene
of Canada: Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VI., 1871.

{t 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 striz 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 Céteau, 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 ice.+

The lower Leda clay (d) seems in all Helects 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.

=o: thal

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 longimana) from gravel north of the outlet of
lake Ontario and 420 feet above the level of the sea,
which is not improbably contemporaneous with the Leda
clay of lower levels, and much higher than deposits near
lake Ontario regarded as of lacustrine origin.t 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, though 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.

+ Canadian Naturalist, Vol. X., No. 7.

39 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, ete., which are
often regarded with 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 (0) 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 glaciation 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 these 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.t

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 Rocky Mountain Region of
Canada,” | already referred to.

* G. M. Dawson, Reports on British Columbia, and Superficial
Geology of British Columbia, Journal Geol. Society, 1878. Memoir
on Rocky Mountains, Trans. R. 8. 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. 8., Canada, 1890.

4

34 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

SCHEME OF CORRELATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF THE GLACIAL
PgeRIOD IN THE CORDILLERAN REGION AND THE REGION OF
THE Great Pains (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 clay of the
plains.

Correlative elevation of the
western part of the great plains,
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 Rocky 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
relative levels becoming nearly as
at present. Probable formation
of the Missouri Coteau along a

eS ee eee a——— =

yor" ~~ . ——
eT ee eae ee ee, ee ee ee ee ae

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 35

Cordilleran Region.

probably formed at this time,
though perhaps in part during the
second maximum of glaciation.

Renewed elevation of the Cor-
dilleran region with one well
marked pause, during which the
littoral stood about 200 feet lower
than at present. Glaciers much
reduced and diminishing, in con-
sequence of general amelioration
of climate toward the close of the
glacial period.

Region of the Great Plains.

shore-line during this period of
rest.

Simultaneous elevation of the
great plains to about their pres-
ent level, with final exclusion of
waters in connection with the sea.
Lake Agassiz formed and even-
tually drained toward the close of

- this period. This simultaneous

movement in elevation of both
great areas may probably be con-
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
_ oceasion 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 latter
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 Paleozoic, 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 plants. 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 extensive 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 tne action of floating ice as well as of land ice.

ea ooo on a
ee a a Ee ee ee ae ee a

a

EE. FO ee a

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 37

(6) 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 Mopern or Post-Guiactat.—Second continental
period, in which the land regains almost all the
extension of the Pliocene time. Age of the Mammoth
and Mastodon and of Paleeocosmic man.—Post-glacial
Fauna.

MODERN OR RECENT.—Submergence of short duration,
terminating the age of Palzeocosmic man. Re-eleva-
tion of continents to present levels. 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
the lower levels a true “Tull,” 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, ete., the boulder-clay is fos-
siliferous, containing especially Leda glacialis, and often
having boulders and large stones covered with Balanus
Hameri and with Bryozoa, evidencing that they have for
some time quietly reposed in the sea bottom before being
buried in the clay. This is indeed the usual condition of
the boulder-clay in the lower part of the St. Lawrence
river.* Further up, in 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. Nlt. 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 other 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 oceur 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, ana
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, I 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.

;

Ma a as iat i i A

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. Al

The boulder-clay locally presents, as above stated, indi-
eations 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 in 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.S8. 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 8. 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 im
two 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 the 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 same locality. Hence it
becomes an important question to ascertain the relative
ages of the striation, and also the 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 mountain, 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
direction, 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 5. 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 %., 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 seis 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 8.W. side had protected —
the softer limestone. The locality is to the -N.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

Ad 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 8.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 N. 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 8S. 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

a
:.
4

;

!
J
a
.

”

=! Se a es ee

—" a

ee

eS ere

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. Im 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. R. 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 8.E. set of striae which were observed

4G 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 8.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 the 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 the 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. AT

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 Gaspé,
afford indications of local glaciation, and Mr. R. Chalmers
has shown that the movement of ice froin this elevated
region has been both south toward the baie 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 land _ 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 many
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 8.W., while any obstrue-
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, Crosskey, 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
royal 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 currents over the American land 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 Report 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 by geologists. I thus referred to
it in 1864.*

“Our American lake-basins are cut out deeply in the
softer strata. Running 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.
Glaciers 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 continuous eroding force on rocks of
unequal hardness.

* Presidential Address to Nat. Hist. Soc. 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.

“T 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. Iam sure that this is the case with many of
the indentations of the coast of Nova. Scotia, which are
eut 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 depesit 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

—~
ee aes _ =

ee cee, ee ee ee

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 large 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 alternations of layers in the deposit.

The modern deposit in the gulf of St. Lawrence, the
chemical characters and coloration of which I explained

5A 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.

The 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 Foraminifera. The most abundant
of these in the Leda clay is Polystomella striatopunctata
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 Laurentian 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 even 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. Newberry has given a
summary of the facts in his Report 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 Report, 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 seat- —

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 Ridges,’ 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 asa 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

Saf ye

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 5

deposit occurring on higher ground and farther from the
sea.

Where the Leda clay rests on marine boulder-clay, the
ehange 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
eurrent 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-
ever, that I know any case in Canada where I can
certainly affirm 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 0
CARY 5 koe ox a eel ah aw ERR Cae ee 10 0
Fine gray sand (shells of Valvata, &c.).... 0 2
GUAM Fissy se Ae Seah gig bd 9 oe ee EAS Oh a 1 0
Gray sand, laminated (7'ellina Greenlandica) 0 3
UO id deste shay ated MeN Sy a SNES 0 8
Light gray sand (Valvata, Cyclas, Paludina,

Planorbis and Tellina)............0.4-. 0 3
ONES A cite aint aie oer Ea ee. Pea ae 1 2
Brown sand and layers of clay (Planorbis

RAE OME. Fn ork oa an opie nals Aes 0 4

The fresh water species are peculiar to this locality,
and the only marine shell is Tellina Grenlandica,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 Unio rectus and U ventricosus, the latter with the
valves cohering, and a Lymnea. Intimately mixed with
these in sandy clay are valves of Tellina Grenlandica and
Mya arenaria.

I record these facts, without pledging myself to the
conclusion that these deposits really mark 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 OF DEPOSITS. 59

found on the Chaudiére 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 level of
the more celebrated locality of these fossils at Green’s
ereek. Farther, throughout the counties of Renfrew,
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 Saxiwava 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
eases 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 Saxicava 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 Saxicava sand from the houlder-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 Grenlandica, 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 Saxicava 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 Cote 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 gravel 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 be shallow-water deposits, they must, when
at high levels, have been formed 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.

same recession of the sea which
produced the Saxicava sand. At
Montreal, where the isolated mass

beds, constituting Mount Royal,
forms a great tide-gauge for the
recession of the Post-pliocene sea,
there are four principal sea margins,
with several others less distinetly
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

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 Cédte des Neiges, a beach of sand

Fig. 2.—Pleistocene terraces at Tadousac bay. Lower terrace, Leda clay ; upper, sand, with drift-stones and boulders on surface.

of trap flanked with lower Silurian — :

Canada. On this terrace in many _

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. 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 Mal bay and Murray bay, where
they are very well displayed. JI 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 elevated.

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
rocks from the Laurentian of the north shore, here about
thirty-five miles distant at the nearest point. With

* The beach at Cote des Neiges is that described by Sir C. Lyell
in his travels in N. America.
+ 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 flat, 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 gravel, often with frag~
ments of marine shells. Boulders are not numerous on

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 65

this terrace, and are usually merely fragments from ledges
of local sandstone. Bones of large whales occasionally
oecur on this terrace.

Proceeding inland, we find a second terrace about
thirty feet above the sea, and consisting of sand, resting
on hard boulder-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 gravel 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 have 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 8.W. striation. I had no
opportunity to observe the condition of the rock-surface
under the boulder-clay. On the greater part of the

6

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.

TERRACES, NORTH SHORE OF LOWER ST. LAWRENCE.
Heights in English feet, roughly taken with Locke’s level and aneroid.

Murray Bay.

LES W. Side.
EBOULEMENTS. Petite Mat Bay. =—a—_{“ e+ E. Side.
5 RR RAG Bee that y valet $92 .. — eee
BOG Pp An ace ass $48. ine eee —— 2. —-
BIO. Fh wets BOG ice hae lous — .. 448 455
pa dies vhle «ors See aan «ca Wass cai 345 378 346
bs Sn ae a BEC Rea oe ye —— .. 312 .. ——
v's MIS eas ee haere DO Rie ee 5scnivea ee — .. 281 .. 259
Cieeren tj ugg Suni met RS a Sek de os 136 .. 1389 .. —
Apne On ate SAG eis nS acta — ..116 .. 127
petri, ie Seay bra tin atk ee as ees ees 50... BE) i.
>» RE CN OS Hissin. 32 30 —-

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 “
Fo een aemres SrA Chane ici trae er nian SAS 1374
Drilt ridge oust of lake. (oii acs Vola ye sone 810
Water level, Petit lac; appears to discharge over
drift: ridge or Mornings S oii leh ee eee 728
Clay, capped with 10 feet sand..................... 589
Cha GOLTACG ooo sos aR Be Aes ect ahawe ee ee 241

66 bank Murray Bay Fivers \34045 2 73

THE SUCCESSION OF DEPOSITS. 67

Bs. 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 Reports of the
‘Survey and from my own observations, will serve farther
to illustrate this:

Kemptville, sand and littoral shells.................. 250
Winchester, ‘‘ “{ «BO Bey Bene 300
Kenyon, aA du SE Pot ie Pedra the a 270
Lockiel, hs ‘s a fs nae Be Pe eee 264 & 290
Hobbes’ Falls, Fitzroy, sand and littoral shells........ 350
Durham Mills, De L’Isle, ‘“ . Oe ok 5 289
I et Seca Soke a Cece ds ch cea es 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
§$t. 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, but they will probably be found by diligent
search at higher levels. In the arctic region, Captain
Fielden (Journal of Geol. Society of London, Vol. XXXTV.,
1878, p. 566) reports Pleistocene shells, viz. Pecten
Islandicus, Astarte borealis, 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 4 Loup, near Tadousac. Lower terrace, clay; upper, sand.

which it belongs. The assumption that all boulder-drift
may belong 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 Saickerakion 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. 639.

CHAPTER 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 “fist 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 Lower 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
eafions of British Columbia.* It has also been conclu-

* See also Upham, Geol. Magazine, Nov., 1890, and Bul. Geol.
Society Am., Vol. I.; Spencer, Jb., 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 debris 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 + 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 over many years, come to the conclusion that
the Balsfjord. is not of glacial origin, but formed an wneision
or depression in the mountains of older origin than the
glacial age. And this conclusion, I believe, may, wm the
main, apply to the question of the formation of all fjords vn

* Newberry, Hunt, Spencer.

t Superficial Geology of British Columbia, 1878. Later Physio-
graphical Geology of the Rocky Mountains of Canada, Trans. R.S8.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
| wee
HOE Ne.
hy ) ’ ite a
\y 4 R:
4 \S ra 1 AE be
\ Ni \ ~
Tk ee
\ gm kB. a mee 2 ~
\ SA
\ . nN
aad ya
\ \ \

aA |,

~\h Bere

way aN Ni i
ELD NA

Ss bn

Fig. 5.—Higher cliffs of Saguenay gorge.—Cape Eternity.

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.

ee

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. 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.
+ 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, + 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, elad for
the most part with nevé 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.

78 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA,

the equatorial current between North and South Ameriea,
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
paleeogeographical 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. Respecting 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-

1 ars —~ arm
ee a
ee ; Z ‘"

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 ease, 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,} in favour of the instability of the
erust 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

* IT 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 nevé discharges by
local glaciers.

+ ‘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. |

IT.— 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
eoteau 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.t On this
subject 1 may quote here the conclusions of the well-
known Russian 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 niotion, 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 Proc. American Association (Boston, 1880, p. art), and Dana in
American Journal of Science, 1872.

+ 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. Royal Society of
London, XX XVIII, 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 are no glaciers in eastern Siberia, even
in the mountains, where the mean temperature is only 15°
to 16° C., and central Asia generally is unfavourable 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 Russia 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 case would be quite different; as Nares 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 débris 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 Rocky 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 north 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,t
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 and reports already referred to, by Dawson, Bell and
others.

t+ Trans. R.S.C., 1886.

t 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 North Somerset, are
found 100 miles to the north-eastward (Appendix to
M’Clintock’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 Royal 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 (DeRance, 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 other crystalline rocks, not only on
the south shore of Baring island, but also on the hiils
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.

“Tn an account of the scientific results of the ‘ Polaris’
expedition (Nature, Vol. [X.), 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
Géographie, 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 Report Geol.
Survey of Canada, 1885, p. 14, Dp), 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 northern 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 River 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,+ and are 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 Rocky mountains were

* See also observations of Mr. R. G. McConnell, Bul. Geol. Soe.
America, Vol. I., and I. C. Russell, in the same volume.

+ Later Piyslogiiphion! Geology of the ge 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 névé 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 ice-mass 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, flowed through passes in the coast ranges,
and uniting there with ice derived from the western
slopes of these ranges, filled 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.- 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. Russell, of the United States
Geological Survey (1889).t 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, R.

+ 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. Soc. Am., Vol. I., p. 99.

§ Geological Magazine, Dec. 3, Vol. V., p. 348. Annual Report
Geol. Surv. Can., 1887-88, p. 40, B.

99 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.
Russell 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 subaérial 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.t

“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. Soc. Am., p. 140.
+ Narrative of Discoveries on the North Coast of America, 1836-39,
p. 149.

i
a
4
¢
a
S
5

PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 93

north-westward, or a less copious supply of snow in that
direction, 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

eoast 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 Report of the Geological Survey
published in 1879.*

Dr. Ells, in his Report 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 Ripton in the Green mountains at an elevation
of 2,196 feet.+

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 underlying till,

* Report for 1887-8.
+ These observations perfectly agree with those of Chalmers and
the writer, already mentioned.

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,+ 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.
+ Ib., 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 later
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 fi// 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 :

“Tt 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 rownded and scratched, pheno-
mena everywhere recognized as glacial, but, I think, in no
ease 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.” * -

Refusing, 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.

“Tf, 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.

BeoK. aw

ae er en ene Ss ee ae

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 Torell’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 Torell’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, VIIL.,
p. 116, 1878. ;

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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 southern 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 till 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
North 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.

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CHAPTER IV.

-PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS

(CONTINUED).

«LD. —Causes of Glaciation and Distribution of Erratics—Continued.
2._SEA-BORNE ICE.

2. We now come to the question of dispersion of
boulders 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
greater 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, Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., a traveller of
almost unrivalled arctic experience,* and which shows

ay * 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 Repulse 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 fall of the tide is
from eight to ten feet, sometimes more, and that the ice
on Repulse bay attains a thickness of about eight feet. —

“Suppose, then, that a boulder of a good size, say 34
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 included 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.N.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 effected in June, the resulting ‘pans,’ as
the fishermen term them, vary in size froin a few square

* Canadian Naiuralist, 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 Rocks.’ 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 Niatak
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. 111

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 floating 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

'_ “a

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 ina 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
- ground on thé 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 flat-topped with
perpendicular sides, others concave or roof-shaped like

great tents pitched on the sea; others are rounded
9 ;

a =
ae ee ee

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 aretic
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

= ~— es. al aaa ea a

ms ar eae om
eo eee

PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. 115

yalley, 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. 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.

+ Journal of London Geol. Society, Vol. IV., p. 315.

t+ 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- q

land glaciers in Baffin’s bay and elsewhere, such deposits
must be proceeding on a gigantic scale. The Reports 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.+ It is true this is in Drumlins or detached hills,

* Richardson.
+ Am. Journal of Science, May, 1889.

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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.

THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.’

118

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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.

“Tn 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 striz 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 34 feet
to the mile. The height of the watershed region north-
east of the lake has not been actually measured ; but near
Lae 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.

a

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
‘mamillated, unless the glacier be a confluent one pressed
outwards mainly by its own weight and mass.

“Such a glacier, I conceive, inust have oceupied the
Laurentian highlands; and from its wall-like front were
detached the icebergs which strewed the débris 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, we
find evidence of shallow current-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, I 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 Rocky 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 qguartzite-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 débris, as we have seen, reached almost to
the. mountains, while some of the quartzite-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 very deep.

“The emergence of the land would seem to have beer
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 Rocky 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 River valley, or first prairie-level
(which was only gradually drained), and the re-excavation
of the river-courses.

“Tt 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
eoast. 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 ICK AGE IN CANADA.

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 Atlantie,
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 advantage 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
coulées 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 débris 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. Re-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 Rocky 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.

—— me

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 coulées, 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 Rocky 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
Paleozoic beds, at elevations of from 4,200 to above 5,000
feet,* at the foot of the Rocky 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 Rocky 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
fortwri the same explanation applies to that great tail of
débris extending from the southern end of the Missouri
eoteau 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 in certain portions
of the glacial periods, both on the Rocky mountains and

a 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 dééris 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.+

Mr. Chalmers describes the rocks of various paleozoic
periods, along the south side of the bay des Chaleurs, as
presenting a somewhat flat 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.
ft 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
difficult to comprehend.

* Canadian Monthly, Sept. 1875.
10

ee

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 ICE 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 débris, 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 very rapid.”

6.—CONTINENTAL ELEVATION AND DEPRESSION.

6. Before leaving this summary of causes, it 1s 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.

ITT.—Climatal 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

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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 invoking 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.

i ie

136 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

already made in my first chapter 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 lke
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 fossils, infra.

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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
eharacterized 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 bay, 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 which 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 eape 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,
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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
erispata, burrows everywhere in the soft sandstones and

shales; the beautiful Modiola plicatula, forming dense

mussel-banks in the sheltered coves and_ estuaries;
Cytherea (Callista) convexa ; Cochlodesma leana and Cum-
mingia tellinoides ; Crepidula fornicata, the slipper-limpet,
and its variety wnguiformis, swarming especially in the
oyster beds; Nassa obsoleta and Buccinum cinerewm, 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.

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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 Nova 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.* i

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 Nova Scotia, and has shown —

that some of them still exist on the Sable island banks.+

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.

+ Acadian Geology, p. 37.

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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 molluses 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. “4
attention has been directed. Recent 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 séa. 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.

LV.—Date 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-
elysmic 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.
Record of Science.
ll

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 variousiy 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. hk. 8S. Woodward, of the U. 8. 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

* Troquois Beach. Trans. R. 8. Can., 1889.
t American Naturalist, Oct., 1886. Trans. Geol. Socy., 1888.

—————— EO

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
eareful and detailed observations of the later Pleistocene
deposits in that country.t 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
and 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
eumulative 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 the conclusion that man had his origin in

* Journal Geol. Society, Nov., 1878.
+ Trans. Chicago Academy, Vol. II.
+ Journal of Geol. Soc. of London, Aug., 1887.

—

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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 remanié 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.+

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 Academie Roy. de Belgique, 1889.
+ Journal London Geological Society, May, 1889.

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CHAPTER 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.

I— 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

—E LL

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 Rocky 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 débris 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 Rocky 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 nevé, 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.

L1.—Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the Journal of the Geological Society of London for
February, 1871, is a communication from Staff-commander
Kerr, R.N.,in which 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 §.W., ranging from N. 8° E.
to N. 64° E. The remainder are N.W. 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 south 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 Geology 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 remarkable 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 Rink. 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.

Raised 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

ITI.— Anticosti.

On the island of Anticosti Messrs. Hyatt, Verrill and
Shaler found Sawicava arctica in clay at an elevation of
fifteen feet above the level of the sea.

The late Mr. Richardson of the Geological Survey, to
whom we owe most of our knowledge of the geology of
Anticosti, had previously noticed, in his Report 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 Redpath
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 patches
of blue clay in the south-west of Anticosti, in the bed of
Beescia 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. I1., 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.

“ Kight 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 Richardson, 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 Mya truncata, the latter much smaller than .
those at Becscia river and eight miles east of English bay.”
Glaciated or polished flags (chiefly 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 es
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 :

Bucecinum undatwm, ., var. labradoricum. A small and
somewhat short specimen, probably not fully grown.

B. glaciale, L. A decorticated shell, probably this species.

Trophon clathratum, L. (T. scalariforme, Gould). A well-
developed specimen.

Natica afinis. One young shell.

Mya arenaria, 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.

Macoma calcarea, Chem. Large specimens.

Macoma grenlandica, L. One small valve.

Saxicava rugosa, L. Well-developed specimens and appar-
ently common.

Astarte banksti, Leach. One valve.

Balanus crenatus, L.

Rhynchonella 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 grenlandica.
Balanus hamert.

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 Cythere and
Cytheridea. Among the former were the following species:

Polystomella crispa.

Nonionina scapha (and var. labradorica).
Polymorphina lactea.

Truncatulina lobata.

Lagena sulcata.

Entosolenia globosa.

EL. sqwamosa.

Globigerina 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 alinost 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 8.W. and N.E. In the
latter it was 8. 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 Grenlandica.

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

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SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 163

e

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 oceur in the metamorphic districts of Nova Scotia
and New 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 baie 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
earrying 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
eame 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-clay 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
eurrent 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
ereater 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 New 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 oceur in
connection with these beds.

2. Stratified clay with shells, showing quiet deposition
in deeper water.

3. Unstratified boulder-clay, indicating, probably, the
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 Nova 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 untravelled 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 sand 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 mass. 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,

EE ————

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 valley 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

crrrt

Stratified gravel on boulder-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
Reports of Mr. R. 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, fron’ 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: + “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.

+ Report of 1889, Ottawa, 1890. See also papers by Mr. Chalmers
in Canadian Record of Science, and Trans. Royal Society of Canada,
1886, p. 139.

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 3 171

This general statement appears to me to apply throughout
the maritime provinces, though there are many local
complexities, owing to the peculiar orographical 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, ete., 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
have, when these are removed, a layer of soil comparatively
frée 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. The 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 of 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 débris 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 Report 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
oceurs 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 Rogers’ 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 distinguish those that belong to river
valleys and glaciers from those that are marine.

The Rev. 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

Pee ea ee OTe

ae ee

. ‘ x es es a ae |
ee ee Sa re

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 177

Brunswick. They were found in 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 Beluga 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 Bb. Vermontana is probably identical, as the
specimens above referred to, and examined by Billings,
certainly were.

Mr. Matthew has found Zellina Grenlandica at Horton
Bluff, in beds probably of the age of the Saxicava sand.
Mr. Matthew has also published + 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 baie 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 North 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.
+ 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.—Lower St. Lawrence—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 Fiver.—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 $.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 moutonnées 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

OMT SNS oh Belt Eater igh Se PE el

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 elevation in or
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.
Laflamme, Trans. R.S.C.

180 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

It contains a few shells of Zellina Grenlandica and Leda
glacialis, and a little inland, at Bergeron river, it also
contains Cardiwm Islandicum, Astarte elliptica, and Rhyn-
chonella psittacea. 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 Mal 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

ee i im Sere’ ame

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 Grenlandica, 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 Grenlandica,
have been found in these deposits at Quebec and

Montreal :
Fusus tornatus.

Trophon scalariforme.
Margarita helicina.
Cylichna oceulta.
Pecten Islandicus.
Tellina calcarea.
Leda truncata.
Saxicava rugosa.
Aphrodite Grenlandieca.
Mytilus edulis.

Mya arenaria.
Balanus Hamer.
Spirorbis spirillum.
S. vitrea. ;
Serpula 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 Raised
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 caleareous 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 enormously 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
eut, 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 Ledw glacialis ; and many of the stones
are coated with Bryozoa and Spirorbis. It is also obsery-
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 Sazxicava rugosa, Tellina Gren-
landica and Tellina calearea, 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 8.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. ‘Cortailily no a

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 — a

most other large boulders in this region, with its pepe
axis to the N.E.
Les Eboulements.—At this place the Laurentian hills

rise to a great height near the shore, and the Pleistocene _

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 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
Grenlandica 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. an

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.

VIT.—Lower St. Lawrence.—South Side.

The Report of the Geological Survey of Canada (1863)
includes all that is yet known of the Pleistocene
‘formations at Gaspé, 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 Gaspé. 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 Railway. The most
important terrace at the mouth of the Trois Pistoles
river, that in which the railway cutting has been made, is

ee

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 Pistoles 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- — J 4

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 — a

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.

= — OT OO

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 189

To the eastward of the mouth of Trois Pistoles river,
the first terrace above mentioned is brought out to the
shore by a projecting point of rock. 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.

Riviere-du-Loup and Cacowna.—The country around
Cacouna and Riviére-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
Riviére-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 covered with Polyzoa and great Acorn-shells
(Lalanus Hamert), 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

EEE EO
‘
—

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 191

of Mya truncata, but these are modern, and are the
“kitehen-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 Riviere-du-Loup; but I found the most. prolific
locality to be on the banks of a little stream called the
Petite Riviere-du-Loup, which runs between the ridge
behind Cacouna and that of Mount Pilote, and empties
into the bay between Riviére-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 Riviere-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 north.
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. No 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 band of large Laurentian
boulders between half tide and low-water mark, which
are moved more or less 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-clay,
similar to that now seen on the land, must result. At
present such materials are deposited under 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 Riviére-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

e

is further shown by its shells, which are, on the whole, a
more modern assemblagé 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 Riviére-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
Aretie 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 —
Rivitre-du-Loup, not only in the ordinary form, but in the
shortened and depauperated varieties which have been
named by Reeve ZL. siliqua and L. sulcifera.

Of Astarte Laurentiana, supposed to be extinct, and
which occurs so abundantly in the Pleistocene at Montreal,
_ few specimens 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 Gaspé and Labrador,
and on the coast of Nova Scotia.

It must be observed that though the clays at Rivicre-
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 Riviére-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 feet long.

2. Stratified sand and gravel resting on the sides of the
ridges of rock projecting through the drift. Thiek-
ness variable.

3. Stratified sandy clay and sand with Tellina Grenlandica
and Buccinum. 10 feet.

4. Gray clay and stones. Rhynconella psittacea, and

Terebratulina Spitzbergensis, &e, 1 foot or more.

. Gray clay with large stones, often covered with Bryozoa
and Acorn-shells. Zellina 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 Riviere-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 8.W.

Or

SOME LOCAL DETAILS. 195

At the Petite Riviére-du-Loup the surface of the red clay
(No. 6 above) was observed to have burrows of Mya 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.

VILL— River St. Lawrence above Quebec, and Ottawa Valley.

Quebec and its Vicinity.—The deposits at Beauport, near
(Juebec, 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 Saazicava rugosa and Tellina.
Seattered 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
Roche 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 ICK 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, while
the stones projecting above the boulder-clay are crusted
with Bryozoa and Acorn-shells. At St. Nicholas, there is
a sandy boulder-clay, not unlike that of Riviére-du-Loup,
which has afforded some very interesting fossils. It is
stated in the Report of the Survey to be one hundred and
eighty feet above the sea.
-Montreal—tIn the neighbourhood of Montreal very
interesting exposures of the Pleistocene beds occur, and
with the terraces on the Mountain have been described im
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 :
Soil-and. sand); . yecs.nces Hee hp te eek ee he ee ee i 9
Tough reddish clay............ w khiglla «ais % ie Pegenle eet eene oe 0 Of
Gray sand, a few specimens of Saxicava rugosa, Mytilus edulis,
Tellina Grenlandica, and Mya arenaria, the valves generally
vmibed? 2 4. s aa oe ett ee abaya aie 2k 0 8
Tough reddish clay, a few shells of Astarte Laurentiana, and
Bede: Glacigdss..i.:s. Bis sess Bote iter Pe ae abd pr ee
Gray sand, containing detached valves of Saxicava rugosa, Mya
truncata, and Tellina Grenlandica: also Trichotropis bore-
alis, and Balanus crenatus ; the shells, in three thin layers.. 0 8
Sand and clay, with a few shells, principally Saxicava in detached
WAVES 5 3. sccce Bake Sager a epearchas hme ich cn mre Sas eee en a 1 3
Band of sandy clay, full of Natica clausa, T'richotropis borealis,
Fusus tornatus, Buccinum glaciale, Astarte Lauwrentiana,
Balanus crenatus, &c., &c., sponges and Foraminifera.
Nearly all the rare and deep-sea shells of this locality occur
$0) DIS BARGE 2 oc Ko cases ots vetoes cso no bois bites bee 0 3
Sand and clay, a few shells of Astarte and Saxicava, and remains

of sea-weeds with Lepralia attached ; also Foraminifera... 2 0
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, &e., 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 Grenlandica; 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
débris 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 “moutonnée,” 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 8S. 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
© ao many species, capped by sand
a a 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 S.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
‘Sa 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

(a) Boulder-clay. (b) Polished and Striated

(c) Disintegrated Limestone (Trenton). (d) Solid Limestone.

Surface.

/00#1_abore Sea.

T
Section at site of Peter Redpath Museum, Montreal.

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 — 3 :

age, are found at a still higher level.

The site of the Peter Redpath 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-elay.
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 floating 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.

ee ~-<

202 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

erable depth, and present certain remarkable modifications.
The section observed at this place is as follows : _

1. Hard gray laminated clay, Foraminifera and Leda, in thin a

Ryerss . oy oe c5 ve vues as #opaaed dente enon ee ie

2. Red layer, in two bands.:. 0. ...2 isa nee Oo ee 0 6

3. Bandy. clay: s::.:3.% - (siete was paws a te

4. Gray.and reddish clay... .4,....2,4 csnce'n dee el ee 9 0

5. Hard buff sand, very fine and laminated .................. 15 0
6. Sand with layers of tough clay, holding nage stones, and

very a disponed. 1.) 5.5 ae aa ee 4 0

2. Fine sand 3:0 0:5 be ons sih pis ech cus le lane ee Pee | ee,
8. Gray sand, with rounded pebbles, and laminated obscurely

and diagonally, .. . fsc-< <r 0 x¥ sc ten sages ee al a 4 0

9, Fine laminated yellow sand.............:..ccnecceecceess 3.0

RO Grave’ iio aie s hk Meas Ae Signo e eo ataue eal ah ein ee 0 4
ll. Very irregular mass of laminated sand, with mud, gravel,

stones and large boulders, .. .0....4.0j6+ 0 <s.0% 14.9 eee 12 0

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 is
exposed, showing at the top Saxicava sand, and below this
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.

Oitawa 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 Cottus, 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 Lymnea 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 Zellina Grenlandica 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 Canadian 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, afforded 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.

ITX.— 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 désig-
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
débris, both from the Laurentian cystalline rocks and the
Erian beds of the district.+ :

* Dawson and Penhallow, Pleistocene Flora of Canada, Bul. 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 ae

‘atl et ihtiiess SA peer “
\

“hates

ain

2
Y
—_— i naate —_ Pa —
age 2. re
— = soe SS a
——— fe = —
eae 1 = ||} 3}
ae - ‘v —e
Bisx ! 2 Ql! — Sh
\——~ Tzge>-t-2—-Ss, }-—-+- {L
ya pareon ener
RE SHIP =
= : —_ S SS SS aS
<= eS = Se
——— 7 ZZ > =
5 re ZZA ts a
c Z Z, js
< a ZS. Be ZA Z oF
; —<e
= Lage SZ
z= SF ze ve SEA
= EZ FEA Z
aa Za
cn

1. Section of Drift on Milk River—(a) Boulder-clay ; () older river alluvium; (c) newer
river alluvium ; (d) surface inatter.

2. Section of Drift at Long River—(a) Lower drift, chiefiy local, and with false bedding
(>) upper drift with large travelled boulders. [After Dr. G. M. Dawson. ]

west of lake Superior, the formation of which have been
deseribed 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 water-sorted material. The general
structure, however, appears to be that stated in Chap. IL,
namely, an under and upper boulder-deposit, separated
by beds of stratified silt, and sometimes holding vegetable
matter. - oo
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 North-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.R.S.,and I may refer to his two memoirs: “ Notes on
the Geology of the Northern Part of the Dominion of
Canada,” Reports Geological Survey of Canada, 1887 ;
and “On the Later Physiographical Geology of the Rocky
Mountain Region in Canada,” Transactions of Royal
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. Astarte Banksii—A full-grown specimen of the ordinary
type. Riviére-du-Loup.
_ Fig. 2. Astarte Lawrentianwa—An average full-grown specimen.
Montreal. -

Fig. 3. Astarte lactea—Ordinary type. Portland, Maine.

Fig. 4. Astarte Hiliptica—A specimen with the ribs extending nearer
to the ventral margin than usual. Portland, Maine.

Fig. 5. Buceinum tenue—Full-grown specimen. Riviére-du-Loup.
5a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 6. Buccinum cyaneum—Full-grown specimen. Riviére-du-Loup.
6a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 7. Buccinum undulatum—(Var. of wndatum)—Inmature shell,
broken at lip. Riviére-du-Loup. 7a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 8. Buccinum glaciale—Tuberculated variety. Riviére-du-Loup.
8a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 9. Buccinwm glaciale—Smooth variety. Riviére-du-Loup. 9a—
Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 10. Buccinum ciliatum—(Fabricius, not Gould)—Smooth variety,
somewhat decorticated. Montreal. 10a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 11. Buccinum ciliatwum—(Fabricius, not _Gould)—Small but
mature specimen. Recent Murray Bay.

Fig. 12. Buccinum Grenlandicum—Adult specimen. St. Nicholas.
12a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 13. Choristes elegans—(Carpenter)—Adult specimen. Montreal.
13a—Sculpture enlarged.

Fig. 14. Capulus commodus—Pt. Levis, Quebec.

Fosstts—Puate I.

432

ie
i
Ky

f

Drawn by A.L.D.

Characteristic Pleistocene Shells (see table of reference on previous page).

CHAPTER 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,

4 - 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.

“29 The lists of Pleistocene fossils of Canada, published
__ previously to 1856 by Lyell 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 Report of the Geological
_ Survey for 1863, the list there given amounting to 83
species, exclusive of Foraminifera. In my paper on the

i. Post-pliocene of Rivitre-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, Rev. 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.

ca
aa

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 211

The fossils contained in the following lists have been
presented to the Peter Redpath Museum of McGill
University, Montreal, and are now exposed in its cases.

ANIMAL FOSSILS.
PROVINCE PROTOZOA.
(1) Foraminifera,

Nodosaria (Glandulina) levigata.
(Var. Dentalina 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 suleata —— (Var. distoma).
(Var. semisulcata),

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal; Quebec; Murray Bay; Anticosti;
Riviére-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.

Entosolenia globosa.
7 costata.
marginata.
————-squamosa. :
Fossil—Montreal, Leda clay; Labrador; Riviére-du-Loup; Anti-
costi; 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 Hntosolenia above named as merely varietal forms.

* The initials G. M. D., refer to the List of Foraminifera by Dr.
G. M. Dawson in The Canadian Naturalist, 1870.

+ This and other species from British Columbia are from a memoir
by Whiteaves on collections of Dr. G. M. Dawson, Trans. R, 8, Can.,
Vol. IV., 1887.

212 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Bulimina Presli.
——_—+—__—— __ (Var. squamosa).
Fossil—Montreal, Leda clay; Labrador; Riviére-du-Loup; Murray
Bay ; Quebec; Portland (Maine).
Recent—Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 10 to 313 fathoms. G.M. D.

Fosstns—Puate II.

Pleistocene Foraminifera.—1, Nonionina scapha (Var. Labradorica) ; 2, Polystomella
umbilicatula ; 3, Quinqueloculina seminulum ; 4, Polymorphina 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 ; Rivitére-du-Loup; Murray
Bay. ,

PL

Ws PRs >

ary ae

re “Waar

et at ‘eae

pS mat

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, 213

Recent—Gulf and River St. Lawrence, 30 to 313 fathoms. G. M. D.
British Columbia.

Not uncommon in the Pleistocene, particularly in the deeper part
of the Leda clay. Less common recent. I observed in the Riviére-
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.

Truncatulina lobatula.

Fossil—Leda clay, Labrador ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Anticosti.

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,

Orbulina universa.

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal ; Riviére-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.

Globigerina bulloides.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Anticosti.

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence, more especially in the deeper water,
where it is common, It is very rare in the Pleistocene.

Pulvinulina repanda.,

Fossil—Montreal, Leda clay ; Riviére-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. striatopunctata).
(Var. arctica).

Fossil—Montreal, Leda clay ; Labrador; Riviére-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

914 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.
also in the Arctic Seas, according to Parker and Jones. It is the
only species yet found in the Boulder-clay of Montreal, and this very
rarely.

Nonionina scapha.
(Var. Labradorica).

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal; Riviére-du-Loup ; Anticosti ;
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 water form and is
rare in the Leda clay.

Textularia pygmea.

Fossil—Leda clay, Labrador; Riviére-du- -Loup ; Quebec; also at
Portland (Maine).

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence, 10 to 30 fathoms.

The Textularie are rare and of small size, both in the Pleistocene
and recent.

Cornuspira foliacea.
Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal.
Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence, 16 to 250 fathoms. G. M. D.
This species is rare both fossil and recent.

Quinqueloculina (Miliolina) seminulum.

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.

Biloculina ringens.

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal; Labrador; Riviére-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.

Triloculina tricarinata.

Fossil—Leda clay, Riviére-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; Quebec.

Recent—Gaspé, 30 to 50 fathoms. G. M. D.

Rare both in Pleistcene 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 Riviére-du-Loup.

Buglypha?
A single minute test, apparently identical in form with that of
Buglypha alveolata, was found in washing the Riviére-du-Loup clays.

In general terms it may be stated that all the species
of Foraminifera found in the Pleistocene still inhabit
the gulf and river St. Lawrence. Several species found
in the gulf of St. Lawrence 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 than 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 molluseca. I have nowhere found
them more abundant or in greater variety than at the
Glen brick-work near Montreal, on the MeGill 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 Riviere-
du-Loup, I have observed in the finer washings several
species of Diatomacez; 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 Rivitre-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 Royal Society. For figures of the
species, | 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. 217
According to Mr, Lambe, this species is a tetractinellid sponge ;
but possibly different forms have inadvertently been included under

one name,

Fosstts—Puate ITI,

Om

ee
= Ae ah i] \
SiMe!

fy
|
Hit) 4

Tethea Logani.—(a) Mass of radiating spicules in clay ; (b) 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 Riviére-du-Loup by the author. Its spicules are long and acerate,
and much more slender than those of J'ethea Logani.

218 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

PROVINCE CQiLENTERATA.
Hydrozoa.

No 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) Ophiuridea.
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. (O. bidentata, Retzius).

Fossil—Tanneries, collected by Prof. Kennedy and Mr. Currie.
Recent—Cape Cod to Greenland, Norway and Spitzbergen.

Amphiura Sp. Montreal, Mr. Currie.

Solaster (Crossaster) papposa, M. and T.

Fossil—Montreal, Mr. Kennedy ; Green’s Creek.
Recent—Labrador, Murray Bay, Metis, Gaspé.

Ophiocoma or Amphiura.
Fragments of a small species of ophiuroid starfish not determinable,
have been found in the Leda clay at Montreal, and in nodules at

Green’s creek.
(2) Hchinoidea.,

EHuryechinus (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) Holothuridea.
Psolus (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. Iam 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
Norwegian catalogues, and also for many valuable facts as
to shells obtained in his dredgings in the gulf of St.
Lawrence. The Rev. T. Hincks, F.R.S., has also given me
valuable information on the Polyzoa.

To the late Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., and the late
Mr. R. McAndrew, F.R.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.

Fabricius, Fauna Greenlandica.

Forbes and Hanley, British Mollusca,

Gould, Invertebrata of Massachusetts, edited by Binney.

Jeffreys’ British Conchology.

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 ss

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 Mollusca.

Fosstts—Puate LV,

Pleistocene Polyzoa (magnified).—1, Lepralia quadricornuta ; 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.

Crass I.—Mo.uuscorpEa.
Sub-Class 1.—Polyzoa.

Membranipora catenularia. Jameson.

Fossil—Beauport ; Labrador ; Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; * Labrador (Packard),

Membranipora Lacroixii. Audouin, '
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador (Packard).

Entirely agrees with recent examples from Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Membranipora lineata, Linn.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé.

Membranipora pilosa. Linn.
St. John (Matthew).

Hippothoa expansa, Dawson,
Fossil—Beauport ; Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador ; Maine (Packard).
Schizoporella hyalina. Johnston.

Fossil—Beauport ; Riviere-du-Loup ; St. John (Matthew).
Recent—Gaspé.

Lepralia pertusa. Esper.
Fossil—Beauport ; Labrador ; Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; 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 a vibraculum or avicularium at one

* The references to Gaspé are from my list contributed to the Rept.
Geol, Survey, 1858—Bell and Richardson, collectors; and from subse-
quent dredgings by myself and Mr. Whiteaves,

PLEISTOCENE 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 with deep sulcus in front and four spines behind are as in the
specimens formerly described, |

Specimens of this species were sent in 1883 to Rev. Thomas Hincks,
and he writes to me as follows: ‘‘ The specimens of Lepralia quadri-
cornuta 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. coccinea,
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. Iam 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—Riviére-du-Loup.

DL. Violacea? Johnston.

Fossil— Riviére-du-Loup.

LI. variolosa, Johnston.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé.

LL globifera. Packard.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Labrador (Packard).

Porella Belli. (Lepralia Belli, Dawson.)

Fossil— Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador (Packard).
This species, according to Hincks, is identical with Porella

Coricinna. Busk,

Porella elegantula, D’Orbigny.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Montreal (Curry).

Recent—Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspé.

Very fine and frequent in 10-30 fathoms opposite Cape Rosier
Village. J. F. W.

224 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Porella compressa. Sowerby. (= Celleporaria surcularis. Packard.)
Fossil— Riviére-du-Loup. :
Recent—Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspé.

Abundant in 10-50 fathoms everywhere in the Gulf, and often

drifted down to lower levels. J. F. W.

Smittia producta. Packard. (Sp.)
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup. .
Recent—Labrador (Packard); Gaspé; Murray Bay.

Smittia trispinosa. Johnston.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador (Packard).

Cribrilina punctata? Hassall.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.

Gaspé.

Mucronella Peachii. Johnston.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé.

Mucronella ventricosa. Hassall.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence.

Myriozoum planum. Dawson. (Sp.)
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé.

Myriozoum sub-gracile. D’Orbigny.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Labrador (Packard) ; Gaspé.

Cellepora pumicosa. Ellis.

St. John (Matthew).

Tubulipora fimbria. Lam. (= 7’. flabellaris. Johnston, non Fabr.)
Fossil—Beauport ; Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé, Labrador (Packard) (= 7’. Palmata, Wood).
Idmonea atlantica. Forbes.
Fossil—Riviére-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.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.
Recent—Gaspé.

Crisia eburnea. 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— Riviére-du-Loup.

Lichenopora hispida, Fleming. (Sp.)
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup. Patches on shells, somewhat worn, but
referable to this common North Atlantic species.

2.—Sub-Class—Brachiopoda.

Rhynchonella psittacea. Gm. ,

Fossil—Montreal ; Beauport; Anticosti; Riviére-
du-Loup. Abundant.

Recent—Murray Bay and Gaspé; 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 Riviére-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 Brachi-

opods.—1. Rhyn- Terehratella Spitzbergensis. Davidson.
chonella psittacea : ae
2.TerebratellaSpitz- Fossil—Rivitre-du-Loup.

bergensis, 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 Riviére-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 Rhynchonella psittacea,

16

226 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. |

Fosstts—PLate V.

Pleistocene Lamellibranchs.—1, Mya trunca'a—Var. Uddevallensis—Montreal ; 2, Mya
truncata—Var. communis—Portland ; 3, Macoma calcarea; 4, Leda arctica; 5, Mod-
iolaria nigra; 6, Saxicava rugosa—Var. arctica—Montreal ; 7, Panopea Norvegica,
Riviére-du-Loup,

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 227

Cuass I],.—LaMELLIBRANCHIATA.
Pholas (Zirphea) crispata, Linn.

Fossil—Maine (Packard).

IT have 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; Chaudiére Station; Upton, P.Q.; Stormont, Ont.;
Quebee ; Murray Bay; Riviére-du-Loup; Trois Pistoles ; Tadoussac ;
Anticosti; 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.

Panopea Norvegica. Spengler.

Fossil—Leda clay; Riviére-du-Loup. Very rare.

Recent—Little Metis; dredged in Gaspé Bay, 30 and 40 fathoms,
by Mr. Whiteaves; Halifax (Willis); Grand ,Manan (Stimpson) ;
aretic and northern seas generally.

It is very rare in the Pleistocene, a few valves only having been
found at Riviére-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.

Mya truncata. Linn. (And var, Uddevallensis.)

Fossil—Saxicava sand and Leda clay; Montreal ; Quebec; Riviére-
du-Loup ; Anticosti; Goose River, N. Shore, River St. Lawrence ;
New Richmond; Portland; New Brunswick (Matthew); Labrador
(Packard) ; Greenland (Mdller) ; also in the Pleistocene of Europe.

Recent—Little Metis; Tadoussac; Riviére-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
Riviére-du-Loup and New Richmond. The form Uddevallensis 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 44 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 JZ.
arenaria referred to below, occurs on this part of the
coast.

:
F
;
J

a oe ae

ot

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 229

I have not infrequently dredged Mya truncata, 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 inform, 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 IL 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 trwncata 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 — oa

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 are, 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 J. 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 IM. 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 MZ. arenaria
occurs plentifully along with MM. Uddevalensis in the
upper Leda clay at Riviere-du-Loup.

From the accounts of arctic collectors from Fabricius
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 MZ. 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.

Mya arenaria. Linn.

Fossil—Leda clay and lower part of Saxicava 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 (Mdller) ; also in the Post-
pliocene of Europe.

Recent—Little Metis; Riviére-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-
eal 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 Gaspé; 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 Riviére-du-Loup a small thin variety with astrong
epidermis and attenuated posteriorly, is found in situ in its burrows in | 7 “a
the 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 —Gaspé (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. obtusa Forbes and Hanley. J. F.W. Jeffreys regards
these as varieties of P. inequivalvis.

Lyonsia arenosa. Moller.

Fossil—Leda clay ; Montreal (rare and small); Riviére-du-Loup,
common ; Duck Cove, N.B. (Matthew) ; Saco, Maine ; also in Greenland
(Moller).

Recent—Murray Bay, Riviére-du-Loup, Little Metis and Gaspé;
Halifax (Willis); Greenland (Moller) ; Labrador (Packard),

Some specimens from Portland are much larger than those from
Riviére-du-Loup and Montreal, and Mr. Whiteaves finds individuals an
inch long, living at Gaspé.

Thracia Conradi. Couthuoy.

Fossil—Saco (Packard).

Not yet found fossil in Canada, but recent, though rare, in Nova
Scotia (Willis); and at Gaspé. 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 Grenlandica. Beck. (Macoma fragilis Fabr. sp. J. F.W.)

Fossil—Saxicava sand and Leda clay ; Montreal; Ottawa; Perth,
Ont.; Pakenham Mills, Cornwall; Clarenceville; Upton; Quebec;
Murray Bay ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Chaudiére Station ; Anticosti ; Upton,
P.Q. ; Stormont, Ont. ; Labrador ; Lawlor’s lake and Bathurst, N.B. ;
Campbellton, P.E.I. ; Westbeach, Maine ; Greenland (Mdller).

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 Riviére-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. so’idula 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 Tellina Fabricit of Hanley, and I have specimens
from Greenland from Morch labelled 7. tenera. The 7’. tenera of
Leach, however, is proxima, Brown, teste Hanley. It is apparently
the Venus fragilis 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;
Riviére-du-Loup; Anticosti; New Richmond; Goose River; Chau-
diére Station; Duck Cove, St. John, N.B. (Matthew); Maine ; Labra-
dor; Greenland (Miller) ; also European Pleistocene.

Recent—Little Metis ; Gaspé; Riviére-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 Riviére-du-Loup. It is 7’ellina
proxima, Brown, 7’. sabulosa, Spengler, and 7’. sordida of Couthuoy.
According to Hanley, the 7’. lata of Gmelin was founded on a figure
of this shell. British Columbia.

Macoma inflata, Stimpson.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-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 developed 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—Riviére-du-Loup; Labrador (Packard); Greenland (Moller).
I have seen in the Post-pliocene of Canada, only an imperfect and
decorticated specimen of the young shell from Riviére-du-Loup.

Recent—Little Metis; Cape Breton; Prince Edward Island ;
Gaspé ; 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; Gaspé; 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, &c. 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, WM. 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 (Ceronia) 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 Tadoussac; 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.

Venericardia (Cardita) borealis. 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

> Pr earn SS Ps

ul
~~

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 Riviére-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, Riviére-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 Gaspé 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 Beechey’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 Rivitre-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 ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Little Metis ;
Kamouraska; Gaspé; coast of Nova Scotia, &c, Also Greenland ;
Norway (typical) ; Scotland.

*

236 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Specimens from the Clyde beds are perfectly identical with ours.
It is also found in the Post-pliocene of Norway and rarely in the Crag.
It isa northern species, meeting on the American coast the closely
allied forms A. uwndata and A. lens, into which, however, it does not
seem to pass. The two latter species, being more southern forms, are
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 8S. 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. semésulcata,
Lach, but as probably distinct, as Astartes go, from A. borealis, (= A.
arctica). (See Figure, Plate I.)

Astarte arctica, Méller, (var. lactea.)

Fossil— Labrador (Packard); St. John (Matthew); Portland, Maine;
also Greenland (Moller).

Recent—Gaspé ; Little Metis; Riviere-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. semisulcata, Gray. Fossil
specimens from Portland are precisely similar to recent ones from
Gaspé dredged by Mr. Whiteaves 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. Richardsonii from the Arctic seas
as described but not as figured by Reeve; but A. Richardsonii is
generally regarded as young A. /actea. A similar species or variety
occurs, but very rarely, fossil at Riviere-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

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. PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 237

yet been found fossil, though the three former at least live in the gulf
of St. Lawrence.*

Cardium 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.

Cardium Islandicum. Linn.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Murray Bay; Saguenay; Little Metis ;
Vancouver Island (G. M. D.); Portland, Maine ; Lawlor’s Lake, N.B. ;
Greenland (Mdller).

Recent-—Riviére-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 C. 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
C. Dawsonii of Stimpson, from the Pleistocene of Hudson’s Bay; of
which I have seen only specimens in this state.

. Cardium (Serripes) Grenlandicum. Chemnitz.

Fossil—Leda clay and boulder-clay, Quebec; Riviére-du-Loup ;
Murray Bay; Lawlor’s Lake, &c., N.B. (Matthew); New Richmond ;
Restigouche ; Bathurst (Paisley); Cape Elizabeth, Maine; Labrador
(Packard) ; Greenland (Méller) ; Chaudiére Station.

Recent—Little Metis; Gaspé; 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 Suborbicularis. 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. wndata, Gould, which comes closest to
A. sulcata, 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.

Cryptodon Gouldii. Philippi.

Fossil—Montreal. Rare. Matthew records a species supposed to
be distinct from C. Gouldii at St. John.

Recent—Murray Bay; Gaspé (Whiteaves) ; Little Metis ; Kamour-
aska ; Greenland to New England. i

The European form C. flexuosa (Awinus 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 dep
in the gulf of St. Lawrence, being found, living, from 20 to 300 fathoms.

Sphaerium ?

Fossil—Pakenham Mills, with fresh-water bivalves and Tellina
Grenlandica. The specimens were too imperfect for certain deter-
mination.

Unio rectus. Lamarck.

Fossil—Clarenceville, Lake Champlain (Dickson), with Mya aren-
aria, Tellina Grenlandica, &c.
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.

Mytilus edulis. Linn.

Fossil—Montreal; Acton; Riviére-du-Loup; Quebec ; Chaudiére
Station ; Anticosti; Labrador (Packard); Lawlor’s lake, N.B.
(Matthew); Greenland (Moller).

Recent—North Atlantic and Arctic seas generally ; British Columbia
and North Pacific (= trossulus, 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

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PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, 239

variety still lives at Tadoussac, and is apparently characteristic 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 Riviére-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 spécies becomes rare to the northward ; and this, as well as its
being proper to rocky 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 Kurope.

Modiolaria nigra. Gray.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-du-Loup (small variety nexa ; also large
and fine); very large and well preserved in nodules at Kennebeck,
Maine ; Labrador (Packard, if his M. discrepans as I suppose) ; Black
Point, N.B.? (Matthew). (See Plate V., Fig. 5.)

Recent—Gulf of St. Lawrence (Whiteaves) ; Little Metis; Riviére-
du-Loup. Very large and fine on coast of Nova Scotia (Willis) and as
far north as Greenland (J. discors, L.); British Columbia.

Modiolaria corrugata. Stimpson.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup.

Recent—Murray Bay, Little Metis and Cacouna ; precisely similar
to the shells from the Pleistocene. Also Greenland (Méller) ; Labrador

(Packard) ; and south to Cape Cod.

Modiolaria discors.

Fossil—Beauport, of good size ; Greenland (Méller) ; Montreal (Mr.
Kennedy).

Recent—Labrador to New England; Little Metis; Riviére-du-
Loup; British Columbia. Specimens from Gaspé are precisely similar
to the fossil. This shell is no doubt identical with M. lwvigata 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. faba
of Fabricius.

According to Mr. Whiteaves this is quite distinct from C. decussata,
Montagu, both being found living in Gaspé,

Nucula tenuis. Montagu.

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal ; Saco (var. inflata) ; Riviére-du-Loup,
Bay de Chaleur (Matthew)? Green’s Creek, Ottawa River.

Recent—North Shore; also Gulf St. Lawrence to Gaspé (Whiteaves) ;
Little Metis (type and var. inflata ; also European coasts and British
Columbia.

N. expansa. Reeve.

Fossil—Leda clay and boulder-clay, Riviere-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. tenuis.

N. antiqua. Morch. From Leda clay of Maine ; seems to be a variety
of the last.

Leda pernula. Muller.

Fossil—Leda clay, Riviére-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 Riviére-du-Loup; and the
specimens found there show that no specific line can be drawn between
the forms known as pernula, buccata (Steenst.), tenwisulcata, Gould, and
Jacksonii, Gould. Slender and flattened varieties are pernula and
tenuisulcata, 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.

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PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 241

Leda minuta. Fabricius.

Fossil—Leda clay, Montreal; Riviére-du-Loup; St. John, &c.
(Matthew) ; Greenland (Méller) ; 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
Riviére-du-Loup, and are quite similar to those dredged at Murray
Bay. This was called LZ. caudata in my former lists.

Leda pygmea. Munster.

Fossil—Leda clay, Green’s Creek, Ottawa; Saco, 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 Yoldia abyssicola of
Torell.

Yoldia (Portlandia) arctica. Gray. (= Leda glacialis, ante.)

Fossil—Leda clay and Boulder clay, Montreal; Quebec; Ottawa
River; Riviére-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 Riviére-du-Loup 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. sulcifera 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 Méller and Morch.
It is Y. truncata of Brown. It is Portlandia glacialis of Gray, and
Leda Portlandica of Hitchcock.

Yoldia lucida, Lovén (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, Riviére-du-Loup. Yoldia sapotilla is recorded
by Matthew from Black Point, N.B.
Recent—Little Metis; Gulf St. Lawrence to Long Island.
Ly ae

242 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

This shell has been found as yet only at Riviére-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. limatula to that which
Mya Uddevallensis bears to the ordinary M. truncata; but Jeffreys
considers it distinct. Y. sapotilla is, I may mention, the Y. arctica of
Morch, as proved bya specimen from his collection now in my possession.

Yoldia myalis. Couthuoy.

Fossil—Labrador (Packard).

Recent—Riviére-du-Loup; Little Metis; Kamouraska; Gaspé
(Whiteaves) to south of Cape Cod. This shell is supposed to be
identical with hyperborea, Lovén, from Spitzbergen.

Leda fossa. Baird.
Fossil—Vancouver Island (Dr. G. M. Dawson).

Pecten Grenlandicus. 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. similis (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—Riviére-du-Loup; Quebec; Anticosti; Labrador (Packard) ;
St. John, N.B. (Matthew); Portland, Maine ; Greenland (Moller); also
Crag, Clyde beds, and Post-pliocene of Norway.

OS

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PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 243

Recent—Little Metis ; Murray Bay; Gaspé; 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 Modiole.

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.*

Cuass III.—Gasreropopa.

Philine lineolata. Couthuoy.
Fossil +—Montreal, rare.

Recent—Gaspé ; Grand Manan (Stimpson) ; Nova Scotia (Willis).
It is Philine lima, Brown, according to Jeffreys.

Cylichna alba. Brown.

Fossil—Montreal; Riviére-du-Loup; also in the Clyde beds.
(Plate VI., Fig. 11.)

Recent—Gaspé ; 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. utriculus,

Povichi.

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.

+ 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.

Fossits.—Puate VI.

Some Characteristic Gastropods.—l, Neptunea despecta; 2, Admete viridula ; 3, Tritono-
fusus Kroyeri; 4, Natica clausa; 5, Scalaria Grenlandica; 6, Velutina zonata ;
7, Acirsa Eschrichtii ; 8, Trichotropis Arctica; 9, Lepeta cacca; 10, Amicula Emer-
sonti; 11, Cylichna alba ?

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PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS 245

Cylichna occulta. Mighels and Adams.

Fossil—Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Maine.
Recent—Greenland to New England.

Cylichna striata. Brown.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup and Clyde beds.

Recent—Arctic seas. Jeffreys 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 Haminee, however, can scarcely be identified by weathered or
fossil specimens, so that this may possibly be a northern form distinct
from solitaria,

Diaphana debdilis. Gould.

Fossil—Montreal.

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves); Greenland to New
England,

Jeffreys considers it the same with B. hyalina, Turton. 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. twrritus, Miller, Greenland.

Patula striatelia. Anthony.
Fossil—Pakenham, Saxicava sand.

Lymnea wmbrosa. Say.
Fossil—Montreal.

Lymnea caperata. Say.
Fossil—Montreal.

Limnea palustris. Muller. (=. elodes, Say.)
Fossil—Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand,

246 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Planorbis bicarinatus. Say.

Fossil—Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand.

Planorbis trivolvis. 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 (Stimpsonella) Emersonii. Couthuoy.

Fossil—Montreal. (Plate I., Fig. 10.)

Recent—Murray Bay; Little Metis; Riviére-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 differ slightly from specimens from Murray Bay. Dr. Carpenter
has labelled the drift form var. ‘‘altior.”” The differences among the
recent specimens, as well as the fossil valves, are discussed in the
‘** Contributions to a Monograph of the Chitonide,” prepared by Dr.
Dall partly from Dr. Carpenter’s notes, and printed by the Smithsonian
Institution.

Puncturella (Cemoria) noachina. Linn.

Fossil—Quebec ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Clyde beds,

Recent—Little Metis; Gaspé; Murray Bay; Labrador; Gulf St.
Lawrence generally; and throughout the Arctic seas and North
Atlantic.

Acmea testudinalis. Moller.

Fossil— Labrador,

Recent—Tadousac ; Little Metis; Riviére-du-Loup ; Murray Bay;
Gaspé; 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.

Lepeta ceca, Moller.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Quebec ; Labrador ; European
Post-pliocene. (Plate VI., Fig. 9.)

Recent—Gaspé; Labrador; Arctic seas generally; and coast of
New England rarely.

This shell is not at all rare, living at Gaspé, and fossil at Riviére-
du-Loup. Carpenter remarks that some of my Montreal specimens
have the characters of variety striata of Middendorff from Siberia.

Capulus Ungaricus. Lin. (commodus? Middendorff.)

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 (Jeffreys).
(Plate I., 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 C. fallax and C. obliquatus of Wood from the English Crag. If
a form of Capulus Ungaricus, it has been repeatedly dredged alive off
the New England coast, in deep water, by Verrill.

Crepidula fornicata, L.

Baron de Geer, in his visit to Canada, 1891, was so fortunate as to
find at the Mile-End Quarries, in the Saxicava sand, a small specimen
of this shell, the first hitherto found in Canadian Pleistocene.

Margarita helicina. Fabricius.

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; Gaspé ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; coast of New England
and Nova Scotia? Possibly the same with M. glauca, Moller, from
Greenland. .

248 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Margarita cinerea, Couthuoy.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Portland.

Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador; Riviére-du-Loup; Little Metis ;
Murray Bay; Greenland to New England ; var. striata, Dall, Sitka.

Cyclostrema (Mélleria) costulata. Miller.

Fossil—Montreal ; Clyde beds ; Uddevalla.
Recent—Gaspé ; 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 ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Montreal ?
Recent—Little Metis; Murray Bay; Nova Scotia; Greenland to
New England.

Turritella reticulata. Mighels.

Fossil—Labrador (Packard).

Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador to Gulf St. Lawrence ; also fishing banks,
Nova Scotia (Willis) ; British Columbia.

My specimens received from Dr. Packard are marked 7’. costulata,
but seem rather to be the above species.

Turritella acicula. Stimpson.

Fossil—Riviére-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 Mesalic.

Campeloma decisum. Say. (= Paludina decisa, Say.)
Fossil—Pakenham Mills, Saxicava sand.
Recent—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.

a a ae ‘e

_ PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 249

Amnicola limosa. Say.
Fossil—Pakenham Mills, with the preceding.
Recent—Hudson’s Bay to Virginia.
This was A. porata of the previous lists.

Littorina rudis. Martin.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; also Clyde beds and Uddeyalla.
Recent—Arctic seas to New England and European coasts.

L. tenebrosa, which may be regarded as a variety, is also found at
Riviére-du-Loup, Little Metis, and Kamouraska.

Rissoa castanea. Maéller.

Fossil-—Montreal.
Recent—Gaspé ; Labrador, Trinity Bay (Whiteaves).

Rissoa exarata. Stimpson.

Fossil—Montreal.
Recent—New England.

Cingula Jan Meyeni. Friele. (Rissoa scrobiculata of former lists.)

Fossil— Montreal.
Recent—Greenland ; Gulf St. Lawrence, 200 to 300 fathoms, large ;
and small, Gaspé, 30 fathoms (Whiteaves).

Bela harpularia, Couthuoy.

Fossil—Montreal ; Quebec ; Murray Bay; River Charles, &c., New
Brunswick (Matthew); Riviére-du-Loup ; Labrador (large specimens).

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence ; very fine at Murray Bay, and similar
to large specimens from Riviére-du-Loup; Riviére-du-Loup; Little
Metis; Kamouraska; coast of New England. It is B. Woodiana,
Moller. (J. F. W.)

Bela elegans. 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 ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Kamouraska, and south to Cape Cod;
Arctic seas generally. It is the B. plewrotomaria 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. harpularia, B. bicarinata, and B. violacea,

Bela turricula. Montagu.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-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. exarata, Muller, Morch; and
B. angulata, Reeve. The var. nobilis is found at Montreal and Gaspé ;
also young shells not distinguishable from exarata. Var. scalaris,
occurs at Riviére-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.

Bela Trevelliana. Turton.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Labrador ; also Clyde beds and Norway
(Jeffreys).

Recent—Little Metis; Riviére-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; Riviére-du-Loup; British Columbia ;
Murray Bay; Labrador (Packard); Gaspé (Whiteaves); Fishing
banks Nova Scotia (Willis); Massachusetts (Stimpson). Possibly
B, bicarinata of Couthuoy.

Bela cancellata. 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 Gaspé Bay Sei ti

* Whiteaves doubts whether the true Bela turricula or the
B. Trevelyana have been found in the St. Lawrence.

. PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 251

Natica clausa, Brod. and Sowerby.

Fossil—Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviére-du-Loup; St. John, &c., N.B.
(Matthew); Labrador; Anticosti; Chaudiére Station; Portland,
Maine ; Vancouver Island. (G. M.D.) (Plate VI., Fig. 4.)

Recent—Greenland to Cape Cod ; Little Metis ; Gaspé; Tadousac ;
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 Sars and Verrell consider this quite different.

Lnnatia heros. Say.

Fossil—Beauport, a single specimen only, and this of small size ;
River Charles, N.B. (Matthew); New Richmond; also a depauperated
variety ; Benjamin River, supposed by Matthew to be possibly a
distinct species or variety. Var. Chalmersi (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 Grenlandica. Beck.

Fossil—Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviére-du-Loup; Anticosti; Maine ;
also Pleistocene of England, Scotland, and Norway.

Recent—Little Metis; Gaspé; Riviére-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 helicoides;
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 CHORISTES.
Testa ‘helicoidea, tenuis ; epidermide induta ; anfractus disjuncti ;
labrum postice angulatum, antice haud emarginatum ; labium plana-
tum ; columella simplex. Animal ignotum.

Choristes elegans, n. 8.

Ch, t. satis elevata, tenui, nitente ; epidermide fulva, tenui, levi,
extus et intus omnino appressi; anfr. iii. + ....?, vertice nucleoso
decollato, spiraliter obsoletius striatis ; lineis incrementi tenuissimis ;

252 _ THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

spira superne planata, suturis maxime impressis, basi tumente ;
umbilico intus majore, extus modico; apertura sublunata, postice ad
angulum circ. 30° inclinata, antice late rotundata ; labro acuto, postice
planato ; labio acuto, planato, haud reflexo; columella postice regu-
lariter arcuata, neque emarginata, nec angulata, nec insculpta.

Long. (apice decollato) *82, long. spir. *32, lat. °76 poll, Div. 90°.

Hab. 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 Amphithalamus.
The flattening of the upper portion of the whirls gives the shell some-
what of an Janthinoid aspect.

While the analogies of the shell point in so many different directions, _
it is impossible to assign it even to itsfamily group. Itis to be hoped,
however, that the dredge will yet reveal its existence in a living state.

The above species may be supposed to resemble 7'oredlia 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
lining 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 Rapana, Separatista to Rhizochilus, or Zanclea to Torinia. It
presents a rude resemblance to Separatista Chemnitzit (Add. Gen.
pl. xiv. f. 6), or still more to S. Blainvilleana (Chénu 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
Naticide 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 Grenlandica. Perry.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Quebee; Saco; also Seottish Post-
pliocene and English Red Crag, under same varietal forms as in
Canada. (Plate VI., Fig. 5.) ‘

Recent—Riviére-du-Loup; Nova Scotia ; Kamouraska; Arctic seas,
and American coast, as far south as Massachusetts.

The specimens from Riviére-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. Holboll.

Fossil—Quebec ;_ Riviére-du-Loup; Montreal; most abundant at
Riviére-du-Loup. (Plate VI., Fig. 7.)

Recent—Murray Bay; Little Metis; Greenland; also Eastport
(Verrill).

This shell was named in former papers Menestho albula, 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 Scalaria borealis. It is not this species of Gould, however.

Trichotropis borealis. Brod. and Sow.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Chaudiére Station; Labra-
dor, &c. Very abundant at Montreal.

Recent—Labrador; Little Metis; Murray Bay; Gaspé; Arctic
seas ; 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 7. Kenseri of Phillippi from Spitz-
bergen, resembles our shell, except in the small number of revolving
bands.

Admete viridula. Fabricius.

Fossil—Montreal ; Chaudiére Station.

Recent—Labrador (Packard) ; Little Metis; Riviére-du-Loup ;
Murray Bay ; Gaspé (Whiteaves); also Greenland, Labrador and
British Columbia. It is the Tritoniwm viridulum of Fabricius, and is
a rare shell in the Canadian Pleistocene, and in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.

Aporrhais occidentalis. Beck.

Fossil—Labrador (Bayfield) ; also Packard.

Recent—Little Metis ; Gaspé ; Labrador to Massachusetts.

It is remarkable that this species, which is found living from
Labrador to Cape Cod, is so rare in the Pleistocene.

Ptychatractus ligatus (= Fasciolaria ligata, Mighels).

Fossil—Montreal ; very rare.
Recent—Murray Bay ; Mingan (Foote) ; Gaspé (Whiteaves) ; Nova
Scotia (Willis) ; rare in all these localities.

——— re

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, 955
A single mutilated specimen alone, as yet, represents this species in
my Pleistocene collections.

Astyris Holbollii. Moller.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; also glacial beds Britain (Jeffreys).
Recent—Little Metis ; Kamouraska; Gaspé; Murray Bay; Labra-
dor (Whiteaves). If identical, as I suppose, with Columbella rosacea
(Gould), it.extends south to New England, and Gould’s name has
priority.

Buccinum undatum. Linn.

var. undulatum. Moller.
var. Labradoricum. Reeve.

Fossil—Saxicava sand and Leda clay, Riviére-du-Loup; Anticosti ;
Labrador ; Duck Cove, St. John, N.B., (Matthew) ; Maine (Packard).

Recent—Little Metis; Gaspé; Kamouraska, &c.; 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 wndatum. Medium
varieties are B. undulatwm and smooth varieties pass into B. cyaneum
and B. Tottenti, which last is the ciliatum of Gould.

Buccinum Tottenii. Stimpson.

Fossil—Riviére-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. ciliatum of Gould, but has no
connection with the ciliatwm 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. Bruguiére.

Fossil—Riviére-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 Riviére-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.

received many names. It is believed to be B. boreale of Leach, an i

Grenlandicum of Morch. It is a very characteristic northern form,

(See figure, Plate I.)

Buccinum Grenlandicum. Chemnitz.

Fossil—Leda clay and boulder clay, Montreal; St. Nicholas; —
Riviére-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. wndatum of Fabricius. It is allied to B. eyanewm, —
and may possibly pass into it. It may be B. angulosum (Gray). (See
figure, Plate I.) 7

Buccinum tenue. Gray.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup, not uncommon; St. John, &., N.B. |

(Matthew); Greenland (Hayes) ; Labrador (Packard). ‘ as

Recent—Little Metis; Murray Bay; Gaspé; 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.)

Buceinum ciliatum. Fabricius.

Fossil—Montreal ; Riviére-du-Loup. a

Recent—Murray Bay; Little Metis, Riviére-du-Loup; Greenland
(Fabricius) ; Nova Scotia (Willis) ; Alaska (Dall).

This is the original B. ciliatwm 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 Riviére-du-
Loup is more distinctly ribbed, thus 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. |

ee

ee ow

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 257

Buceinum glaciale. Linn.

Fossil—Riviére-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 finer striae. It has also a carina angulating the body whorl, and
sometimes more than one. In the latter case it passes into B. Gren-
landicum, Hancock (not Chemnitz) or B. Hancocki 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.)

.
’

Buceinum plectrum. Stimpson.

Fossil— Riviére-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. glaciale 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 Riviére-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. glaciale, B. undulatum, B. tenue and
B. Grenlandicum, 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 difficult to
determine.

18

258 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Tritonofusus Kroyeri. Maller.

Fossil—Riviére-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 VI., fig. 3.)

Sipho Spitebergensis. Reeve.*

Fossil—Montreal (small and rare).

Recent—Little Metis; Murray Bay to Gaspé; 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. Itisa

beautiful species, evidently quite distinct from S. Islandicus. From _

Middendorff’s description and figure, I think it not improbable that it
may be the same with his Tvitonium Schantaricum, 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; Riviére-du-Loup ; Murray Bay ; New
Richmond, River Charles, &c., N.B. (Matthew) ; Labrador (Packard).

Recent— Little Metis, large specimens ; Gaspé 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 tornatus of Gould to F. despectus of Linneus, as described by
Fabricius, from Greenland, and shells of similar form from the British
Crag are considered by 8S. Wood as varieties of F. antiquus.t Dr. P.

* Verrill calls this Sipho lividus, and holds that it is distinct from
Fusus Spitebergensis, Reeve. (J. F. W.)

+ The C. despectus of Reeve, however, is a very different species,
from the Arctic regions of the North Pacific.

<
E
—"

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 259

P, Carpenter thinks that this and the British 7. antiquus may prove
to belong to one very variable species, The JF. despectus is an Arctic
form. The /. tornatus 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 Gaspé 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. toruatus, 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 tornatus (Gould), but the living New England shells
are tolerably constant in character,

Trophon scalariforme, Gould.

Fossil—Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Labrador,

Recent—Greenland (Hayes) ; Little Metis; Murray Bay; Nova
Scotia (Willis) ; Gaspé and North Shore (Whiteaves).

It is a rare shell in the Pleistocene, but of large size and in good
condition,

Trophon clathratum. Linn.

Fossil—Montreal ; Murray Bay ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Anticosti; also
glacial beds of Europe. .

Recent—Riviére-du-Loup ; Little Metis; Greenland and Arctic seas
generally ; Labrador; Gulf St. Lawrence (Whiteaves), The allied
species or variety, 7. Gunneri, has been found living at Gaspé by
Whiteaves, and occurs at Little Metis, but not fossil as yet. British
Columbia ; Alaska (Dall),

PROVINCE ANNULOSA,
Annulata,
‘Serpula vermicularis, Linn.

_ Fossil—Montreal; Murray Bay ; Riviére,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 serrula. Stimpson.
Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup, on shells.

Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence. It is quite likely the Greenland species
identified by Fabricius with Serpula triquetra.

Spiochetopterus typus. Sars.

Fossil—Labrador (Packard).
Recent—Labrador (Packard) ; Norway (Sars).

Spirorbis glomerata (Stimpsoni, Verrill). Muller.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup ; Little Metis ; Labrador (Packard); Green-
land (Fabr.); Gaspé. This species is Spirorbis Stimpsoni of Verrill,
being regarded by him as distinct and new.

Spirorbis vitrea. Fabricius.
Fossil—Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviére-du-Loup ; Murray Bay. Very
common on stones and shells.
Recent— Little Metis ; Greenland (Fabricius) ; Gulf St. Lawrence.

Spirorbis borealis. Daudin.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup, on shells.
Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence ; Greenland (Fabricius).

Spirorbis lucidus. Fleming.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup, on the inside of shells.
Recent—Gulf St. Lawrence; Fishing Banks, American Coast
(Gould).

Spirorbis carinata. Montague.

Fossil—Riviére-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. contortuplicata of
Fabricius from Greenland ; Little Metis.

The beautiful Spirorbis cancellata 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, Ottawa, and
J.W. D.) Jay

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 setz 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 setze—the soft parts having
entirely perished—seems to have had one strong spine and several
others, very fine and hair-like, ina 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 cheetopod 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 JV. caeca
of Fabricius, and is a common and widely distributed species in the
North Atlantic and Arctic seas.

PROVINCE ARTHROPODA.
Class 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 :—

Oythere MacChesneyt, nov. sp.
«© Dawsoni (Brady).
~- & — globulifera (Brady).
‘© Logani, nov. sp.
Oytheridea papillosa (Bosquet).
- punctillata (Brady).
“y Sorbyana (Jones).
“ Mulleri.
Cytherura Robertsoni (Brady).
Oytheropteron complanatum, nov. sp.
* inflatum (B., C., and R., MS.)
ns angulatum (B., C., and R., MS.)
Eucythere argus.

262 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

As the paper was re-printed in the Canadian Naturalist
(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

Fossits.—Puate VII,

Pleistocene Crustacea.—l, Balanus Hameri (one of the body valves); 2, B. Hameri
(opercular valves); 38, Cytheridea Mulleri—(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. Ascanius.
Fossil —Montreal ; St. Nicholas; Quebec; Anticosti; Riviére-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
Muller. It is a widely diffused Arctic and North Atlantic species.

This Acorn-shell is very abundant at Riviére-du-Loup, and fine
specimens are found entire, attached to stones and boulders in the
boulder-clay.

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. McNown,
of Riviére 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 mollusks.

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 Sawxicava rugosa, Mya
arenaria and Macoma Grenlandica.

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 Fabricius from Greenland,

Much more rare in the Pleistocene than the preceding species.

Balanus crenatus. Brug.

-Fossil—Montreal ; Quebec ; Riviére-du-Loup; Anticosti; St. John,
N.B. (Matthew) ; Labrador (Packard); Portland, Maine ; glacial beds
of Europe ; Vancouver Island (G. M. D.)

Recent—Arctie and northern seas, Greenland ; Gulf St. Lawrence
and American coast. It seems to be Lepas balanaris of Fabricius,
from Greenland.

264 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

Balanus balanoides.
Fossil—Portland, Maine. Not yet in Canada.

EHupagurus Bernhardus ? Fabricius.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup. <A small specimen in a Twurritella may be
the young of this common species.

Hyas coarctata. Leach.

Fossil—Riviére-du-Loup. A few claws only found, but evidently
of this common Gulf of St. Lawrence species.

Eistheria Dawsont, 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 Hstheria morsei or EH. caldwelli and
E, clarkii, It rather approaches ZH. jonesti from Cuba in the form of
the shell and style of marking of the valves. It does not resemble
closely any of the fossil fornis figured in Jones’ Monograph of Fossil
Estheriez. 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—z.e., between the middle and the anterior third of the shell.
The shell is deep, probably more so than in #. jonesii, though the valves
have evidently been flattened and somewhat distorted by pressure, but
apparently the head-end was more truncated than in 1, jonesit, 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 whieh are often rough, finely granu-
lated, and often the valleys between are rugose on the surface. In one
or two places a row of papille 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.

ie ee

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 2. middendorfi. |

Insecta.
Fornazx ledensis. Scudder.

This is an elytron of a beetle in a nodule from Green’s Creek, along
with a skeleton of Mallotus Villosus. Scudder, who has kindly exam-
ined it, regards it as representing a new species allied to F. calceatus of
North America. It has been described by Dr. S. in his volume on
Tertiary insects.

Seudder in his work on Fossil Insects and previously in Reports to the
U. 8. 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 modern 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
River, 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.

Cottus (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.

Fosstts.—Puiate 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 Cottus 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

1, Mallotus villosus (Capelin), in nodule.
2, Gasterosteus, in nodule.

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
toidentify this specimen with Cottus
(Centrodermichthys) uncinatus of
Gunther’s British Museum cata-
logue. This is C.wncinatus of Rein-

;

‘PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 267

hardt, and IJcelus uncinatus of Kroyer and Gill. I feel convinced,
also, that it must be the COottus gobio of Fabricius, though this is
usually identified with C. (Gymnacanthus) tricuspis of Reinhardt, a
very distinct species. Oottus uncinatus 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.

Cyclopterus lumpus. Linn.
The lump sucker occurs in nodules at the same place.

Gasterosteus aculeatus? LL.

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 sufficiently perfect for detailed description.

Salmo salar? Linn.

Fossil—A head apparently referable to this species in a nodule from
Goose River, north shore of River St. Lawrence.

Vertebre and other fragments of fishes not determinable have been
found at Riviére-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.
Phoca (Pagophilus) Grenlandica. Muller.

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 Vaturalist 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, containing a canine and four molar teeth, with an impres-
sion of the fifth. It enables us to affirm that the species is Phoca
Grenlandica (Pagophilus Grenlandicus 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 vermontana,
Thompson).

Bones of this species have been found at Riviére-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 Graenlandica, 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 Balewna boops 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 a similar specimen at
about the same elevation. On the Lower St. Lawrence, bones of large

ean

Pagophilus Grenlandicus, Muller.

The above ilustration, 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 crenatus, Mytilus edulis, Macoma
Jragilis, Natica affinis, two additional insects, Tenebrio
caleulensis, and Byrrhus Ottawaensis.

Es.
ie

oy

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 Grenlandicus. Sowerby.

Pecten Islandicus. L.

Leda pernula. Muller.

Leda arctica, Gray.

Leda frigida (Torrell) = Yoldia Nana (Sars. )
Axinus fleeuosus. Montague. Var. Gouldit.
Arca glacialis. Gray.

Cardium Isiandicum. 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 borealis. Chemnitz.

Astarte fabulu. Reeve.

This species is probably the Wicania Banksii of Leach, MS., which
was figured by the late Mr. G. B. Sowerby in his Supplement to Gray's
« Mollusca of Beechey’s Voyage ” (1839), pl. XLIV., fig. 10, as ‘‘Astarte
Banksii? (Gray) in Brit. Mus.” Moller included it in his list of

270 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA,

Greenland Mollusca under the name ‘‘ Nicania Banksti, 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, Crebricostata (Forbes) and A. Richardsonit. Reeve.

Tellina calearea. Chemn.

Tellina calearea. Chemn., VI., p. 140, tab. 13, fig. 1386. 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.

Thracia obliqua. 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 Thracia (Amphidesma)
truncata of Brown, = 7. myopsis (Beck), in having a more oblique or
twisted shape, a straight instead of rounded margin in front, anda
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 flexuosity of 7. pubescens,
but resembles in its outline that species more than 7’ 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. Uddevallensis).

Saxicava rugosa. L.
Neaera subtorta. Sars.
Solenoconchia.
Siphodentalium vitreum.
Gastropoda,
Trochus (Margarita) umbilicalis. Brod. and Low.
Trichotropis borealis. Brod, and Low.
Buccinum tenue.
Buccinum hydrophanum. Hancock,
Trophon clathratus. LL.
Pleurotoma tenuicostata. Say.
P. Hxarata. Moller.
P. Trevelyana, Fischer.
Cylichna alba, Brown.
Actinozoa.
Funiculina quadrangularis,
Mr. Norman has examined these organisms, and favoured me with
the following memorandum :—

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 271

** Funicwina quadrangularis (Pallas) = Pavonaria quadrangularis.
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 Rock’ 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 (Kdélliker) to the
Minch (‘ Porcupine’ Expedition, 1869) on our own coast, and Kattegat
in the Scandinavian Seas (Malm).”’

Foraminifera.

Cornuspira foliacea, Philippi.

Marine Alge.
Melobesia polymorpha.

FOSSIL PLANTS.

The first locality where fossil plants in any considerable
number were obtained, was Green’s creek on the Ottawa,
where they owe their preservation to the nodules of cal-
eareous 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 arctica and with skeletons of
Mallotus and other fishes. In addition to specimens
collected by myself, I have examined the collections made
by the late Rev. 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.

~ Fosstts.—PuLatrr IX,

" f
Aw Wa

(}
Ye
¢

A,
gy
Ni

1, Populus balsamifera. 2, Acer Pleistocenicum.

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 Redpath
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, ete.
Seeds of various plants.
Hypnum commutatum.

HI. revolvens.

Fontinalis.

Brywn.

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 Cyclas, 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 ICE 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. LV.
of the Transactions of the Royal 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, indicating either the partial
destruction of the older interglacial bed and the mixture
of its débris 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 seat At this place the section is as follows:

Feet,
a Re a ge a 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........ Re NN 16
m3 S «rE SCE ee ee 74
7. Sand with water................ ee *
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
tome. 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. et seq.

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., Palzeontolo-
gist to the Geological Survey of Canada:

Lymnea catascopium ?, variety with very short spire.
Valvata tricarinata, and a keelless variety.
Amnicola porata ?

Planorbis parvus ?

P. bicarinatus.

Pisidiwm abditum.

Spherium strvatinum.

With these was the centrum of a vertebra of a small fish.

Dr. G. M. Dawson has also found fraginents of wood at
Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands, in boulder-clay,
associated with shells of Leda, ete.

As elsewhere stated, at River Inhabitants, in Cape
Breton, there is an indurated peat with branches of
Taxus and remains of swamp plants below 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. Brasenia peltata, Pursh. Green’s Creek nodules (Miller).
3. Drosera rotundifolia, L. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).*

* Collection of Sir William Dawson in Peter Redpath Museum.

15.

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS, Pa i

. Acer saccharinum, Wang. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).
. Acer pleistocenicum, sp. nov. Don River, Toronto (Townsend).
. Potentilla anserina, L.

Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson and Miller).

. Gaylussacia resinosa, Torr. and Gray.

Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).

. Menyanthes trifoliata, L. Leda clays, Montreal.*

. Ulmus racemosa, Thomas, Don River, Toronto (Townsend).

~ Populus balsamifera, L. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).
. Populus grandidentata, Michx.

Leda clays, Montreal (Weston).
Green’s Creek nodules (Stewart).

. Picea alba, Link. Bloomington, Ill. (Andrews).
. Larix americana, Michx. Leda clays, Montreal (Weston).
. Thuya occidentalis, L.

Leda clays, Montreal (J. W. Dawson).
Leda River, Manitoba (Dr. G. M. Dawson).
Marietta, Ohio (Newberry).

Taxus baccata, L.
Don River, Toronto (Townsend).
Solsgirth, Manitoba (G. M. Dawson and Tyrrell).
Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell).
Cape Breton (Sir William Dawson).
Bloomington, Il. (Andrews).

. Potamogeton perfoliatus, L. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).
. Potamogeton pusilius, L. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).
. Potamogeton rutilans (?), Wolfgang. Green’s Creek nodule (Stewart).
. Hlodea canadensis (?), Michx. Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell).
. Vallisneria (2). Rolling River, Manitoba (Tyrrell).

. Carex magellanica, Lamarck.

Green’s Creek nodules, Ottawa (Miller and Stewart).

. Oryzopsis asperifolia, Michx. Green’s Creek, Ottawa(J.W. Dawson).
. Bromus ciliatus (2), L. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (Miller).

. Equisetum sylvaticum (2), L. Green’s Creek nodules (Stewart).

. Equisetum limosum (2), L. Green’s Creek, nodules (Stewart).

. Equisetum scirpoides, Michx. Green’s Creek, Ottawa(J.W. Dawson).
. Fontinalis (2), sp. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).

. Fucus, sp. Green’s Creek, Ottawa (J. W. Dawson).

. Navicula lata. Rolling River, Manitoba.

. 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. Liemophora (2). Rolling River, Manitoba.
33. Cocconeis. 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

~_ e

SUMMARY OF FOSSILS.

The above lists include, in all, about 240 species, dis-

- tributed as follows :*

gS 1 SR at a ter a a 33
Animals —Protozoa, etc. ............... ...... 21
Hochinodermata, =. ..........02.00.008 7

a Oe er ae oe 142

Annulosa and Arthropoda............, 30
SS ETRE ae eset iee Sent 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, Riviere-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 the 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 Gaspé.
South of Gaspé we have the warmer New Englaud 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 J 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

289 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 inust be aware of the numerous finds of “ palao-
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 “paleoliths” 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.

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 “ paleolithic,’ implements to stock all the

* «+ Fossil Men,” Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1880.
+ 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
paleolithic man in America, but they suggest the propriety
of a revision of the whole doctrine of “ paleolithic ” 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 “ palio-
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-

Sona” a ees ee

284 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

bility that men of the American type existed in A
in the Post-glacial or early Anthropic period, anc i )
have been contemporary with the Mastodon and
gigantic animals now extinct. This subject, however
not. within the scope of the present work; and I
discussed it sufficiently elsewhere.* "y

™

* «Fossil Men.” ‘Modern Science in Bible Lands.”

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i) = )
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Ser San So Sx
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& ts
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es 7
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135 iar 125 12

us
Map of the Pleistocene Cordilleran 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.

CHAPTER 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
ean 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 modification 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 Buccinwm 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 species 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 Roderick 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 THE 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
require 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

299 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
eround 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
tocky mountains and for the Pacific coast the sequence

oa

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 295

is similar, but there was a greater amount of differential
elevation as between the mountains and the plains. In
the mountainous regions of the west, also, more especially
in the interior of British Columbia, the evidence of great
loeal 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
questions 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, F.R.S., in a paper read before the Royal
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.

296 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA.

elaciers are “agents of abrasion rather than erosion,” and
that 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 Antartic 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 nevé 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.
(3.) 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. (9.) 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
first 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, Nicholson 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.

INDEX.

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, Regions 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.
Ells, 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, 93.
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.
Riviére-du-Loup, 189.
Rocky Mountains, 121.
Roches Moutonnés, 44.

Saguenay Valley, 71, 178.

Saxicava Sand, 59.

Sea-borne Ice, 105.

Section Missouri Coteau, 118.
at Merigonish, 169.
at Riviére-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.RB.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.

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