1865.] GEOLOGY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 23T 



has worn away to an escarpment west of Oromocto Lake, and as a 

 glacial stream passing down the valley of the Magaguadavic to the 

 sea. 



" The western extremity of the Coal Measures holds up Lake 

 Oromocto. It has been denuded away by lateral glacial action to- 

 wards the west, until we have the remarkable spectacle presented 

 of a bold escarpment facing the west, holding up a Lake containing 

 10,000 acres, and 115 feet above the valley it overlooks. Lake 

 Oromocto is 370 feet above the sea, the scarpment which overlooks 

 the Magaguadavic is 394 feet, and the river itself flowing at the 

 base of the escarpment is 256 feet above the same level." 



GENERAL DIRECTION OP THE ICE-FLOW IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 



The polishing of some of the harder rocks is extremely beauti- 

 ful, and shows that the action of the ice slowly moving over it 

 must have continued for an exceedingly long period of time. It is 

 not to be supposed that the ice had uniformly one direction : on the 

 contrary, its direction may have varied through an entire quadrant 

 under different conditions. When we look at glacial striae we see 

 only the last record of the moving mass, the last impression of its 

 presence ; but in what direction it moved, or with what effect at 

 any period before the graving of its last striations, we can only- 

 conjecture. 



An inspection of the preceding table, although it is very imper- 

 fect, will show that the direction of the moving mass of ice was 

 generally nearly due north and south. As the glaciers approached 

 the sea they accommodated themselves to the sinuosities of the 

 valleys through which they made their escape, and produced stria- 

 tions in different directions. At a greater elevation and more in- 

 land, what were on the sea-shore mere ice-streams, would be in the 

 interior a uniform or broad glacial mass. Suppose for instance 

 that a mass of ice several hundred feet thick, like that which now 

 covers in part the surface of Greenland,* once extended over the 



* " To have a correct idea of the glacier accumulation in Greenland, 

 we must imagine a narrow continent of ice flanked on its seaward sides 

 by a number of Islands, and in every other direction lost to vision in one 

 continuous and boundless plain. Through the spaces between these ap- 

 parent Islands, the enormous glacial accumulations lowly seek their 

 passage to the sea, and send off an annual tribute to encumber, to cool, 

 and to dilute the waters of the adjoining ocean. The average height or 

 depth of the ice at its free edge in these intervals or valleys between the 



