288 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



adduced by the glacialists, in support of the coDtinentnl glacier, 

 is the so-called terminal moraine, represented in Canadian North- 

 West Territories and North-Western States by those ridges of 

 drift hills, known as Coteau de Missouri, Coteau des Prairies, 

 Kettle Moranies (of Wisconsin), the ridges about the southern 

 end of Lake Michigan, across Ohio and Pennsylvania, the range 

 of drift hills of New Jersey, and the drift hills of Long Island. 



The whole of Long Island is composed of stratified drift (con- 

 sidered by Prof. Dana to have been deposited by the glacier ice 

 water). Several, at least, of the so-called moraines of New York 

 and Ohio, represented by the ridges south of Lakes Ontario and 

 Erie, are evidently old water margins. The ridges south and 

 west of Lake Michigan, constituing the so-called Kettle Moraines, 

 are rudely stratified, according to Dr. E. Andrews, of Chicago. 

 x\nd the described structure of the North-western Coteau, con^ 

 taining so much gravel and boulders, even if the greater protion 

 be not stratified, together with the flat country to the north and 

 north-east (whence much drift material from the lower level of 

 the valley of Lake Winnipeg was transported westward and 

 southward to much higher altitudes) makes us look with doubt 

 upon much that has been written about these regions, in support 

 of the favorite Ice-Sheet theory. 



With equal propriety could we call the Artemisia gravel and 

 the Oak ridges (to be referred to under Terraces) as terminal 

 moraines of the Province of Ontario ; (at least the former of 

 these ridges rises to an elevation little inferior to the Coteau des 

 Prairies). These highest and most distant ridges, surrounding 

 the great lake basins containing unstratified boulder clay would 

 be just what one would expect to find where the laden ice, from 

 northern highlands, after crossing this island sea, became 

 stranded, and finally melted as the old hills were sinking to, 

 or rising from the sea. 



However, it is not my purpose to discuss the subject of the 

 Glacial Geology of America, but only to describe some of the 

 surface features in the " Region About the Western End of Lake 

 Ontarion," and see what lessons can be derived therefrom. 



Agents of Glaciation. — Glaciation of rock surfaces can be 

 produced by the action of the glaciers containing stones, or by 

 that of floating ice shod with rocky matter. Ice of itself, unless 

 frozen to its bed has no important erosive action. In fact, the 

 principal erosion beneath a glacier is produced by the action of 



