70 ATEXANDER MURRAY ON THE 
Adirondacks, the evidences seem to me to be in favour of a northern glacial drift having 
excavated all the remainder of the surface which now contains Lakes Superior, Huron, 
Michigan, and possibly the other two. Moreover, I perceive that Mr. Hind gives a gen- 
eral bearing to the ice-markings over the country north of Lake Erie and west of the 
Niagara escarpment of N. 67° W., which if reversed to 8. 67° E. would nearly coincide 
with the bearings recorded by myself, for reasons already given. 
The unconformable relation in Newfoundland of the stratified clays and sands with 
the boulder drift, and the presence of recent marine remains in the former, seem to corres- 
pond with the upper or later superficial deposits in Canada (p. 915, Geol. of Canada), and 
with Mr. Hind’s Nos. 5 and 6, and points to the probability of the deposits being contem- 
poraneous or nearly so. Assuming this contemporaneity, and supposing those clays and 
sands to be undergoing deposition as the glaciers were retreating or had altogether disap- 
peared, a vast area of what is now dry land must have been under water, and the shores of 
Lake Ontario must have stood at a higher level. Of such having at one time been the 
case there is ample evidence in the terraces which have been observed in succession at various 
elevations, from 175 to 996 feet above the level of the present lake (Geol. of Can., p 915), 
while the lowest of these (175 feet) can be traced on both sides of the lake, and particu- 
larly on the south side, where it has been followed from Lewiston to Wayne County in the 
State of New York, a distance of a hundred miles. Freshwater and terrestrial remains 
have been discovered at many points over the Ontario region among the drift deposits, but 
I am unaware of a single instance of marine remains ever having been found on the west 
side of the Adirondacks, although such are abundantly distributed in superficial strata on 
the eastern side of that range to a height of nearly 400 feet above the sea. At p. 13., Geol. 
of Canada, it is shown that a depression of the surface of the land at Lake Oneida, in the 
State of New York, of 442 feet would bring the ocean into Lake Ontario by the valleys of 
the Mohawk and Hudson, as well as by that of the St. Lawrence, and would drown all 
the lower Silurian plain in Eastern Canada, as well as the triangular portion between the 
St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. Such an invasion of the sea would place Lake Ontario’s shores 
210 feet higher than its present level, but so far as I am aware no direct evidence by the 
presence of organisms, such as are so abundant in the lower valley, has ever yet been 
recognized. Moreover, the evidences known appear to point to the existence of a fresh- 
water sea rather than a salt one in the Ottawa region. Freshwater shells have been found 
in stratified sands at heights above the level of Lake Ontario, varying from thirty feet to 
722 feet, and at Burlington Heights, at the western end of the lake, a cutting through the 
bank of stratified sand and gravel revealed the remains of mammoth, wahpiti and beaver 
at a height of seventy feet over the lake, imbedded im a thick deposit of sand. On the 
other hand, the triangular area spoken of between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, be- 
sides marine shells in strata of various elevations, pretty well distributed, contains remains 
of saltwater fish, principally of one species, Mallotus Villosus (Cuvier) or caplin, which 
were found at Green’s Creek, near the City of Ottawa, at 118 feet inclosed in concretionary 
nodules in the clay. Caplin were also found at Chaudière Lake at 183 feet, at the 
Madawaska at 206 feet, and at Fort Coulonge Lake at 365 feet. Marine shells have also 
been found high up on the mountain of Montreal, and are abundant over the low grounds 
of that island. 
