Glacial Phenomena of Canada, 325 



ARTICLE XXV. — On Some of the Glacial Phenomena of 

 Canada and the north-eastern Provinces of the United 

 States daring the drift period. By Professor Andrew 

 C. Ramsay, F.R.S., F.G.S., Local Director of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of Great Britain. 



(From the Journal of the Geological Society of London.) 



Glacialized condition of the Laurentine Mountains ; and the 

 drift-deposits of Montreal. — In the Straits of Bellisle, the barren 

 coast of Labrador consists partly of low patches of red sandstones, 

 &c, lying almost horizontally on the Laurentian series — that most 

 ancient system of gneiss and granite which forms the eastern extre- 

 mity of the great Laurentine chain. These gneissic rocks are 

 rounded and largely mamillated, as if by the action of ice ; and all 

 the distant hills, quite bare of trees, possess the same sweeping 

 contours. The gnarled strata of the lofty Bellisle itself, to the 

 very summit, show unequivocal signs of the same abrasion, their 

 well-worn outcrops presenting none of those jagged outlines that 

 all highly-disturbed beds are apt to assume when exclusively wea- 

 thered by air, rain, and open frost. Similar forms prevail far up 

 the St. Lawrence, on its north shore, easily distinguishable in spite 

 of the forests which, before we reach the Saguenay, rise to the tops 

 of the mountains, leaving here and there unwooded rocky patches. 

 Further up the river, by the Isle aux Coudres (about 50 miles 

 below Quebec), I became more and more impressed by similar 

 appearances. Not a peak is to be seen ; and to the top every hill 

 seemed moutonnee. Like much of Wales, Ireland, and the High- 

 lands of Scotland, the country appeared moulded by ice. 



On the south side of the river the country is low, being formed 

 of Silurian strata chiefly covered with drift from the Laurentine 

 chain ; and the vast quantity of boulders and smaller stones that 

 cover the land help to impress on it a poor agricultural character. 



Approaching Montreal, the gneissic mountains recede to the 

 northwest ; and both banks of the river are low, except where an 

 occasional boss of greenstone pierces the Silurian strata. Mon- 

 treal Mountain, about a mile behind the city, is one of these, rising 

 boldly out of the terraced drift of the plain. 



This drift consists of clay, with Laurentian boulders and boul- 

 ders of greenstone from the mountain, both mixed with subangular 

 gravels of Utica slate and Trenton limestone, which formations rise 

 on its flanks. Many of the boulders and smaller stones are grooved, 

 or more finely scratched, in a manner undistinguishable from 

 the scratched stones of the British and Alpine drift or of Alpine 



