82 GLACIAL AND SUEFACE GEOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



Three years' exploration, with a strong disposition to develop the flicts of the 

 case, failed to obtain on the shores of Norton Sound, or in the Valley of the 

 Yukon, any evidence whatever of such action. Only once were polished 

 rocks met with, and they proved on examination to be ' slicken-sides ' ; 

 while no instances of transported materials, scratches, boulders, or moraines, 

 were anywhere met with. The rolling and moderately elevated character 

 of the country does not favor the development of local glaciers, such as 

 now exist on the more southern coasts of Alaska. Thomas Simpson espe- 

 cially remarks the absence of drift boulders on the Arctic Coast, west of 

 Return Reef of Franklin. These most characteristic evidences of glacial 

 action, which a child could not overlook, are quite absent in the Valley of 

 the Yukon." 



Here, then, we have trustworthy evidence of an explorer whose attention 

 had been especially directed to this subject, to the effect that no Northern 

 Drift could have originated in higher latitudes and made its way to the 

 south. If there is in any portion of the Coast Ranges of British Columbia 

 drift which has come from the north, it must have originated or started from 

 a point south of Alaska. In other words, somewhere within the ranges in 

 question the detrital materials must have assumed a character quite different 

 from what they have anywhere else in the Cordilleras, and have been swept 

 in a direction longitudinal to the crests of the mountains instead of from 

 them toward the valleys lying between them. 



The principal evidence in favor of the occurrence of material carried 

 southward and of striated surfaces indicating a former general glaciation of 

 the surface independent of the present topography, is supposed to have been 

 obtained on Vancouver Island, the statements in regard to which vary con- 

 siderably. All observers, the writer among the number, have noticed the 

 glaciated rocks in the vicinity of Victoria.* There can be no doubt that the 

 southern end of the island has been passed over by ice ; but it is not so 

 certain whether this was in the form of the glacier or the iceberg. The 

 writer, who by no means claims to have made an exhaustive exploration of 

 the island, saw glacial scratches on the surface near Victoria, and along tlie 

 shore for some distance above. These markings, however, seemed to him to 

 be of the character of those made by icebergs rather than by glaciers. Tliey 

 were especially prominent along the projecting points of rock, and every- 



* Mr. Campbell says, "I found glaciated rocks on the shore, and I was happy in Victoria." Jly Circular 

 Notes, Vol. 1. ).. 102. 



