144 R. CHALMERS ON GLACIATION 
the facts would indicate that, as already stated, the watershed here was occupied by ice 
which moved down the slopes, mainly following the drainage channels. It is probable, 
however, that the watershed was nothing more than a gathering ground for the snow and 
névé which, after motion began, became converted into local glaciers. My investigations 
in New Brunswick have shown that certain portions of the interior were either covered 
by snow only during the ice age, or if by ice, that it was motionless, or nearly so, as the 
rock-surface in places has escaped abrasion. It is only reasonable to infer that a similar 
condition of things prevailed in South-Hastern Quebec; and hence it appears to have 
been chiefly along the valleys, and on the slopes and marginal areas that the principal 
work of glaciation was effected. 
In regard to the Pleistocene subsidence, it will be seen that the facts point to a down- 
ward movement of the land in the Lower St. Lawrence of 345 to 375 feet below the 
present high tide level. Above the 375 feet contour line, the uneven character of the 
surface, the general absence of foreign boulders and the more angular forms of such as are 
met with, support the conclusion that the submergence did not exceed that limit. 
In the Baie des Chaleurs basin, however, a careful examination failed to detect any 
evidence of a subsidence greater than 180 to 200 feet below the existing sea level. The 
data on which this conclusion is based will be found in my report to the Director of the 
Geological Survey of Canada, Annual Report, Vol. I, 1885, and in that about to be 
published in Vol. II, 1886. 
All the evidence at hand goes to show that the downward movement of the land in 
the Pleistocene period was greater, with reference to the present sea level, north of the 
Appalachian Mountains than south of them. The facts, it must be admitted, are 
extremely fragmentary, but it would appear that the upper limit of the subsidence does not 
present the form of a regular curve from south to north, nor perhaps in any other direc- 
tion. Each of the great Palæozoic basins seems to have been unequally affected by the 
oscillatory movement, and, moreoyer, it is probable that the changes of level have been 
unequal also in different parts of these areas. 
The results of observations thus far made, as regards the subjects under discussion in 
this paper, may therefore be summarized as follows :— 
(1) The glaciation of South-Hastern Quebec and Northern New Brunswick in the 
Post-Tertiary age was effected largely by local glaciers, which moved northward and 
southward from the highest land or watershed adjacent to the Notre Dame Mountains, 
this watershed forming a gathering ground for the snow and mnévé which sent local 
glaciers down the valleys and along the lines of drainage into the St. Lawrence valley on 
the one hand, and the Baie des Chaleurs, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and St. John valley, on the 
other. 
(2) The Baie des Chaleurs and St. Lawrence estuary must have been, at least, partially 
open during the period of extreme glaciation, the former east of Belledune and Bonaven- 
ture Points; but how far westward the St. Lawrence basin was open, has not yet been 
determined. 
(3) The surface of the rocks along the south side of the St. Lawrence below the 345 
feet contour line has been, in many places, striated by bodies of ice, which moved up or 
down the valley, or perhaps both ways, and which appear certainly to have been floating 
ice or icebergs, as shown by Sir William Dawson. 
