FORMER GLACIATION XEAR BUTE INLET. 89 



been from north, northwest, northeast, and east to the opposite point, modi- 

 fied by the sinuosities of the valleys through which it passed."* 



Mr. Dawson continued his observations from Vancouver Island northward 

 through the Straits of Georgia for some distance along the coast ; but he 

 states that his opportunities for examining the remarkable fiords by which the 

 coast of the main-land is indented were but limited. The only one ascended 

 to its head was Bute Inlet, the mouth of which is about opposite the centre of 

 Vancouver Island, in latitude 50" 30'. Of this he speaks as follows : " This 

 chasm, forty miles in length, and running into the centre of the coast range, 

 is surrounded by mountains which, in some places, rise from its borders in 

 cliffs and rocky slopes to a height of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. It must have 

 been one of the many tributaries of the great glacier of the Strait of Georgia, 

 and accordingly shows evidence of powerful ice-action. The islands about 

 its mouth are ruches moidonnees, polished and ground wherever the original 

 surface has been preserved. In Sutil Passage, near its entrance, grooving 

 appears to run about S. 30" ^y. A precipitous mountain on Valdez Island, 

 opposite Stuart Island, and directly blocking the mouth of the inlet, though 

 3,013 feet high, has been smoothed to its summit on the north side [the 

 Inlet has an almost exact north and south coarse] while rough towards the 

 south. The mountain-side, above Arran Passage, shows smooth and glisten- 

 ing surfaces, at least 2,000 feet above its face ; and in general all the moun- 

 tains surrounding the fiord present the appearance of having been heavily 

 glaciated, with the exception of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet of the highest 

 peaks. The high summits are rugged and pointed, and may either never 

 have been covered bj* glacier-ice, or owe their different appearance to more 

 prolonged w^eathering since its disappearance. In some places parallel flut- 

 ings high up on the mountain-sides evidence the action of the glacier; while 

 in others it is only attested by the general form of the slopes, or detected 

 under certain effects of light and shade. At the mouth of the Howathco 

 River, discharging into the head of Bute Inlet, striation shows a direction of 

 movement S. 22° E. ; but in every case the motion appears to have been 

 directly down the valley, and to have conformed to its changes in course." 



The above citations seem to include all of importance that can at present 

 be stated in reference to the former glaciation of the Coast Mountains, oppo- 



* This quotation from Jlr. Eichanlson's report has been given by Mr. Dawson in liis article on the Sniierlicial 

 Geology of British Columbia, previously referred to ; but all of it which relates to the conforming of the direction 

 of the ice-grooves with that of the valleys, and the deflection upward from the level of the water, which seems to 

 indicate iceberg or shore-ice action, has been omitted by him. 



