1864.] H. Y. HIND OX GLACIAL DRIFT. 301 



branch (about tbree miles broad) at this point, they are observed 

 to lie two or three deep, and, although of large dimensions, that is 

 from five to twenty feet in diameter, they are nearly all ice or 

 water-worn, with rounded edges, and generally polished or smoothed. 

 These accumulations of erratics frequently form tongues, or spots, 

 at the termination of small projecting promontori^ s in the hill- 

 randies. I have several times counted three tiers of these travelled 

 rocks where the mosses, which once covered them with a uniform 

 mantle of green, had been burnt ; and occasionally, before reach- 

 ing the sandy area which is sometimes found on the banks of the 

 river. I have been in danger of slipping through the crevices 

 between the boulders, which were concealed by mosses, a foot and 

 more deep, both before and after passing through the " Burnt 

 Country," which has a length of about thirty miles where I 

 crossed it. I extract the following note from my journal of the 

 appearance of these travelled rocks in the " Burnt Country " : — 

 " Hu2;e blocks of 2;neiss and labradorite lie in the channel of 

 the river, or on the gneissoid domes which here and there pierce 

 the sandy tract through which the river flows. On the summit of 

 the mountains, and along the crest of the hill-ranges, about a mile 

 off on either side, they seem as if they had been dropped like hail. 

 It is not difficult to see tli^it many of these rock-fragments are of 

 local origin ; but others have evidently travelled far, on account of 

 their smooth outline. From a gneissoid dome, I see that they are 

 piled to a considerable height between hills 300 and 400 feet high; 

 and from the comparatively sharp edges of many around me, the 

 parent rock cannot be far distant." 



On all sides of Cariboo Lake, 110 miles in an air- line from the 

 Gulf, and 1870 feet above it, a conflagration had swept away trees, 

 grasses, and mosses, with the exception of a point of forest which 

 came down to the water's edo-e and formed the western limit of the 

 living woods. The long lines of enormous unworn boulders, or 

 fragments of rocks, skirting the east branch of the Moisie at this 

 point, were no doubt lateral glacial moraines. The coarse sand in 

 the broad valley of the river was blown into low dunes, and the 

 surrounding hills were covered with millions of erratics. No gla- 

 cial striae were observed here, but the gneissoid hills were rounded 

 and smoothed at their summit ; and the flanks were frequently 

 seen to present a rough surface, as if they had been recently ex- 

 posed by land-slides, which were frequently observed, and the 

 cause which produced them, namely, frozen waterfalls. 



