SECTION IV., 1882. 55 
VII. Glaciation of Newfoundland, 
By ALEx. Murray, C.M.G. 
(Presented May 26, 1882.) 
Any one who has visited the island of Newfoundland, and has taken note of its geo- 
graphical form and features, or observed the manner in which its rocks are rounded, 
polished, and frequently grooved and striated, must have perceived the resemblances dis- 
played to descriptions of like phenomena in other parts of the world, and notably in the 
British Islands, where the agent which has produced such effects is universally admitted 
to have been ice. Whether the glaciers which have at one time traversed the island and 
much of the neighboring continent are to be considered as contemporaneous with the 
later Glacial epoch of Scandinavia and the British Islands, is doubtful ; possibly the former 
are of later date, or may have continued as such long after the latter had ceased to exist ; 
but the results have, at all events, been similar, and evidences of enormous pressure from 
moving masses passing over the surface are as clear in the one case as in the other. Like 
Scotland during the Glacial period, or like Greenland at the present day, there was a time, 
(geologically) not very remote, when Newfoundland was almost or altogether enveloped in 
an icy mantle, the movement of which over its surface has moulded it to its present form. 
In considering the facts observed, the subject suggests these enquiries : Are the records 
left on the rocks of Newfoundland to be attributed altogether to the action of local glaciers 
while the island was surrounded by water as it now is? or was the ice-sheet by which it 
was enveloped only a part of a vast system extending for hundreds or even thousands of 
miles in all directions ? If the latter was the case, was the great sheet in motion ? and if 
so, in what direction did it move ? Many theories have been proposed to account for the 
various glacial phenomena exhibited over the greater part of the North American continent— 
all plausible in themselves, but involving more or less difficulty in reconciling them with 
each other. Consequently, however imperfectly explained or indifferently described, a short 
record of facts, as experienced in Newfoundland, may not be without value, and may, to 
some extent, help to account for the superficial arrangement of material seen at the present 
day. ° 
The evidences, taken all together, appear to me to favor the hypothesis of Agassiz: 
namely, that a vast sheet of ice was spread over the whole of the northern part of the con- 
tinent, one part of which moving eastward down the valley of the St. Lawrence, was piled 
up to a great thickness over Newfoundland ; thence proceeding generally in the same east- 
erly direction, but deviating occasionally by being deflected by local features, such as are 
now represented in the courses of the minor streams and rivers; while the main masses were 
excavating the valleys of the great arteries of the island, and finally wearing out or modi- 
fying the great bays and fiords, which so specially characterize the eastern and parts of the 
southern shore. 
By a glance at the geological map of Newfoundland, it will be seen that the rocks of 
