32 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



NOTES ON THE GLACIATION OF BRITISH 



COLUMBIA. 



By George M. Dawson, D.S., Assoc. R.S.M., F.Gr.S., 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



While engaged in geological work in British Columbia during 

 the seasons of 1875 and 1876 many points bearing on the glacial 

 period, or epoch of extreme cold and great accumulation of ice 

 which immediately preceded the present condition of affairs, 

 came under notice. The regions more particularly examined 

 during these years were in the interior of the province south of 

 the 54th parallel of latitude, and about the Strait of Georgia on 

 on the coast. Journeys of a more hurried character in other 

 parts of the country enabled me, however, to extend the general 

 conclusions arrived at so as to embrace the greater part of the 

 area of the province. These proved to be of considerable 

 interest, and important particularly in doing away with the 

 apparently anomalous absence of traces of general glaciation on 

 the Pacific slope, a hypothseis based on certain statements rather 

 loosely made, which were afterwards extended to an area greater 

 than they were at any time intended to cover. My observations 

 above referred to, were embodied in a communication presented 

 to the Geological Society, forming an extension to the coast 

 of the Pacific of investigations formerly carried, in the vicinity 

 of the 49th parallel, across the width of the great plains from 

 the Laurentian axis to the Rocky Mountains.* This paper 

 has been printed with a map and illustrations in the Quarterly 

 Journal of the Society. f 



In a country with such pronounced physical features as British 

 Columbia, the solution of the problems ofi"ered by the traces 

 remaining to us of the glacial period, is by no means so simple as 

 in less rugged districts, and it becomes necessary to keep clearly 

 in view the chief outlines of its orography, and to endeavour in 

 the field and at the time of observation to bring before the mind 

 the various possible causes of each particular phenomenon. 



* Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Vol. XXXI, p. 603. 

 t Ibid, Vol. XXXIV, p. 89. 



