No. 2.] DAWSON — POST-PLIOCENE. 175 



number of the stones contained in the drift are usually, like the 

 paste containing them, derived from the neighbouring rock for- 

 mations. These untravelled fragments are often of large size, 

 and are usually angular, except when they are of very soft mate- 

 rial, or of rocks whose corners readily weather away. It is easy 

 to observe, that on passing from a granite district to one composed 

 of slate, or from slate to sandstone, the character of the loose 

 stones changes accordingly. It is also a matter of ftimiliar obser- 

 vation, that in proportion to the hardness or softness of the pre- 

 vailing rocks, the quantity of these loose stones increases or dimi- 

 nishes. In some of the quartzite and granite districts of the 

 Atlantic coast, the surface seems to be heaped with boulders with 

 only a little soil in their interstices, and every little field, cleared 

 with immense labour, is still half-filled with huge white masses 

 popularly known as "elephants." On the other hand, in the 

 districts of soft sandstone and shale, one may travel some distance 

 without seeing a boulder of considerable size. The boulders are 

 as usual often glaciated or marked with ice-striae. 



Though the more abundant fragments are untravelled, it by no 

 means follows that they are undisturbed. They have been lifted 

 from their original beds, heaped upon each other in every variety 

 of position, and intermixed with sand and clay, in a manner 

 which shows convincingly that the sorting action of running 

 water had nothing to do with the matter ; and this applies not 

 only to stones of moderate size, but to masses of ten feet or more 

 in diameter. In some of the carboniferous districts where the 

 Boulder-clay is thick, as for example, near Pictou Harbour, it is 

 as if a gigantic harrow had been dragged over the surface, tear- 

 ing up the outcrops of the beds, and mingling their fragments in 

 a rude and unsorted mass. 



Besides the untravelled fragments, the drift always contains 

 boulders derived from distant localities, to which in many cases 

 we can trace them ; and I may mention a few instances of this 

 to show how extensive has been this transport of detritus. In 

 the low country of Cumberland there are few boulders, but of 

 the few that appear some belong to the hard rocks of the Cobe- 

 quid hills to the Southward ; others may have been derived from 

 the somewhat similar hills of New Brunswick. On the summits 

 of the Cobequid hills and their Northern slopes, we find angular 

 fragments of the sandstones of the plain below, not only drifted 

 from their original sites, but elevated several hundreds of fee 



