174 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



Edward Island thus appears to have received boulders from both 

 sides of the gulf of St, Lawrence during the later Post-pliocene 

 period ; but the greater number from the South side, perhaps be- 

 cause nearer to it. It thus furnishes a remarkable illustration 

 of the transport of travelled stones at this period in different 

 directions, and in the comparative absence of travelled stones in 

 the lower Boulder -clay, it furnishes a similar illustration of the 

 homogeneous and untravelled character of that deposit, in circum- 

 stances where the theory of floating ice serves to account for it, 

 at least as well as that of land-ice, and in my judgment greatly 

 better. 



3. Nova Scotia and New Brunsicich. 



[n these Provinces the circumstances are entirely different from 

 those in Prince Edward Island, the country consisting of Carboni- 

 ferous and Triassic plains, with ranges of older hills, often meta- 

 morphic, and attaining elevations of 1200 feet or more. It may, 

 perhaps, be best in the first instance to present a summary of the 

 phenomena, as I have given them in my Acadian Greology, and to 

 add such additional facts and inferences as the present state of 

 the subject may require. 



The beds observed may be arranged as follows, in descending 

 order. 



1 . Gravel and sand beds, and ancient gravel ridges and beaches, 

 indicating the action of shallow water, and strong currents and 

 waves. Travelled boulders occur in connection with these beds. 



2. Stratified clay with shells, showing quiet deposition in deeper 



water. 



3. Unstratified Boulder-clay, indicating, probably, the united 

 action of ice and water. 



4. Peaty deposits, belonging to a land surface preceding the 

 deposit of the Boulder-clay. 



As the third of these iormations is the most important and 

 generally diffused in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we shall 

 attend to it first, and notice the relation of the others to it. 



The Unstratified Drift or Boulder clay varies from a stiff clay 

 to loose sand, and its composition and colour generally depend 

 upon those of the underlying and neighbouring rocks. Thus, 

 over sandstone it is arenaceous, over shales argillaceous, and over 

 conglomerates and hard slates pebbly or shingly. The greater 



