86 GLACIAL AND SURFACE GEOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



due south, as nenrlij as can be ascertained. There is no difficulty in .iscertaining 

 the direction of striaj which are well defined, as everj^ geologist knows. 



Mr. Dawson confirmed the investigations of Mr. Bauerman to a certain 

 extent, by finding marine shells in several localities in the so-called glacial 

 drift. It is a little curious that the points where these discoveries were made 

 are not stated ; but from tlie context they would appear to be in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Victoria. His theoretical results are given in the follow- 

 ing words: "There appears to be no escape from the conclusion that a 

 glacier swept over the whole southeastern peninsula of Vancouver Island at 

 some time during the Glacial period ; and on consideration of the physical 

 features of tlie country it becomes apparent that the entire Strait of Georgia 

 between the island and the mainland must have been filled with a threat 

 glacier, with a width in some places of over fifty miles, and a thickness near 

 Victoria of «< least considerably over 600 feet." This last statement of thick- 

 ness seems to depend entirely on the single observation on Mount Douglas, 

 previously referred to, confessedly of an unsatisfactory character, and in con- 

 flict with the observations of the present writer, as well as those of Messrs. 

 Selwyn and Richardson of the Canada Survey. Mr. Dawson himself appears 

 to be struck b}^ some of the difficulties in the way of the adoption of his own 

 theory, for he adds immediately after the lines above quoted : " With all 

 this, however, there has been very little general wearing-down of the rock- 

 surface of the country ; all its main features, and, in man// cases, even the most 

 minute [the italics are the present writer's modification of the original] are 

 clearlji of preglacial origin. The vallej's generally follow bands of limestone 

 and softer schistose and slialy beds, and run as often transverse to, as parallel 

 with, the direction of glaciation ; and besides the general forms of the smaller 

 hills, little rocky knolls and projecting points of rock, while worn and 

 rounded to the north, preserve rough unpolished southern faces. This 

 feature is uiore marked than I have elsewhere observed, and would seem to 

 indicate, even allowing that glaciers do not very rapidly abrade solid rocks, 

 that the ice did not long rasp over this portion of the country, and possibly 

 that it never extended much beyond this point." 



It is surprising that Mr. Dawson did not see how much better the theory 

 of iceberg agencies would ailapt itself to an explanation of the above de- 

 scribed phenomena, than the one which he adopts, namely, that of a great 

 glacier wdiich has no apparent head, and which comes to a sudden stoppage 

 when 600 feet thick, and whose manifestations are almost or quite exclu- 



