538 



APPENDIX. 



[No. I. 



make. During our journey from York Factory to Fort Enterprise, we seldom 

 had an opportunity of ascending out of the valley of the river through which 

 our route lay, and any blocks of stone observed in such a situation may as 

 readily be supposed to have been transported by the river as by a more 

 general cause. On the Barren Grounds, where we adopted a different style of 

 travelling, the loose stones which were very numerous, even in the most ele- 

 vated situations, were, as far as we observed, similar to the rocks on which 

 they rested, and may be supposed to be the more durable remains of the 

 covering strata, which have been destroyed by long-continued action of 

 the atmosphere. Their angular forms and their resting-places, often upon 

 the very summit of the hills, militate against their having travelled from a 

 distance. 



The very general, though rude, resemblance these blocks bore to large 

 crystals is a remarkable circumstance, and seems to indicate a crystallization 

 in the great of the red granite, of which they were very frequently composed, 

 and of whose beds or strata they are perhaps the remains. 



We may conclude with observing, that the preceding details shew that in 

 the regions we traversed, the rocks of the primitive, transition, secondary, and 

 alluvial classes have the same general composition, structure, position, and 

 distribution, as in other parts of America which have been examined ; and as 

 these agree in all respects with the rock formations in Europe and Asia, they 

 may with propriety be considered as universal formations, parts of a grand 



and harmonious whole, the production of infinite wisdom 



