220 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



But while assertino- the existence of the old and lost river aloner 

 the whole course indicated, Dr. Newberry does not allow that the 

 excavation of the lake beds is due to its action. He inclines to 

 the view that though a small and shallow or narrow channel 

 existed previously, yet the formation of these broad hollows in 

 which our great lakes lie was the work of another and later agent. 

 He says (Vol, I, p. 49) : " The basin of l^ake Erie in all its 

 length and breadth — as well as the smaller but deeper one of 

 Lake Ontario, and the broader and far deeper ones of Lake 

 Michigan and Lake Huron — has been excavated by mechanical 

 force from the solid rock. The agents were the same that have 

 produced all the great monuments of erosion seen elsewhere — 

 water and ice, and of the two that which was by far the more 

 potent, and that which alone could excavate broad boat-shaped 

 basins such as these, was icc." 



To this view there are many formidable objections, some of 

 which are very evident. Allusion was made to one of them in 

 the former paper, which may however be repeated here. Speak- 

 ing of the glacial markings in the basin of Lake Erie, Dr. New- 

 berry says (Geol. of Ohio, Vol. VTI, p. 10) : " The glacier which 

 moved from the east westward in the lake basin, following the 

 continental glacier, was a local glacier of later date, and the one 

 by which the excavati n of the lake basin was principally effected." 

 But on the same page we read : " In this portion (N.W.) of the 

 State, a series of glacial marks which have a nearly north and 

 south bearing are obliterated (nearly ?) by the stronger, fresher, 

 and more numerous grooves, of which the bearing is nearly east 

 and west." 



As was before remarked, it seems utterly impossible to attri- 

 bute the excavation of the bed of Lake Erie, which means the 

 removal of about 1000 feet of rock, to a glacier which was evi- 

 dently unable to remove pre-existing grooves upon the surface 

 over which it flowed. 



Again (Vol. Ill, p. 47) Dr. Newberry quotes from a paper 

 published by Mr. G. J. Hinde, in which that writer mentions 

 having traced glacial furrows at the eastern end of Lake Ontario 

 from one hundred feet above the lake to the water's edge in a 

 southwesterly direction, and also having found similar striae at 

 the south-western end of the lake running the same course. 

 " This striking instance of glacial action seems to me," he adds, 

 '' to furnish strong proof of the basin of this lake at least having 

 been excavated by ice." 



