110 Directions of Scratching s and Furrows 



This is the very theory which I advocate ; and unless the ad- 

 vocates of an iceberg-theory go to that length in their pre- 

 mises, I venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that 

 they will find the source of their icebergs fall short of the 

 requisite conditions which they must assume, upon due con- 

 sideration, to account for the whole phenomena as they have 

 really been observed. 



But without discussing any farther the theoretical views 

 of the question, let me describe more minutely the facts, as 

 observed on the northern shores of Lake Superior. The 

 polished surfaces, as such, are even, undulating, and termi- 

 nate always above the rough lee-side turned to the south, 

 unless upon gentle declivities, where the polished surfaces ex- 

 tend in unbroken continuity upon the southern surfaces of the 

 hills, ^s well as upon their northern slopes. On their eastern 

 and western flanks, shallow valleys running east and west 

 are as uniformly polished as those which run north and south ; 

 and this fact is more and more evident, wherever scratches 

 and furrows are also well preserved and distinctly seen, and 

 by their bearings we can ascertain most minutely, the direc- 

 tion of the onward movement which produced the whole 

 phenomena. Nothing is more striking in this respect than 

 the valleys or depressions of the soil running east and west, 

 where we see the scratches crossing such undulations at right 

 angles, descending along the southern gentle slope of a hill, 

 traversing the flat bottom below, and rising again up the next 

 hill south, in unbroken continuity. Examples of the kind 

 can be seen everywhere in those narrow inlets, with shallow 

 waters intersecting the innumerable highlands along the 

 northern shores of Lake Superior, where the scratches and 

 furrows can be traced under water from one shore to the 

 other, and where they at times ascend steep hills, which they 

 cross at right angles along their northern slope, even when 

 the southern slope, not steeper in itself, faces the south with 

 rough escarpments. 



The scratches and furrows, though generally running north 

 and south, and deviating slightly to the east and west, pre- 

 sent, in various places, remarkable anomalies, even in their 

 general course along the eastern shore of the lake. Between 



