74 ALEXANDER MURRAY ON THE 
own specific gravity, would descend with irresistible force upon the already encumbered 
bottom, to scoop out the great holes we find in the bay and in the arms above, and finally © 
would push up terminal and lateral moraines, which partly still remain on the banks of the 
Humber arm, and block up entirely the chasm through which the river of the present day 
finds its way to the sea. A local glacier would be situated at Deer Pond, but would extend 
much farther than the modern lake, the stream from which would descend in the opposite 
direction to the present flow of the river, to deposit the boulder-drift we find at the Seal 
Rocks and above, on the west branch of the Humber, while it would also pass up- 
wards to the Grand Pond, bearing along with other débris, the vast accumulation of bould- 
ers which now so encumber the Junction Rapids ; finally joining with the mass which at that 
time was scooping out the great basin, which is now represented by the Grand Pond. We may 
again suppose that the ice, forced into the position of St. George’s Bay, would creep up 
the sloping sides of the Laurentian hills, which to-day are extensive marshes, so as ultimately 
to envelop Hare Head and the neighboring mountains (then about 500 feet high), whence 
the mass, receiving fresh impetus from accumulated snow and ice, would descend to plough 
out and fill up the space represented by the Grand Pond, and thence proceed through the 
straits (the present valleys of the east branch of the Humber and Indian Brook of Hall’s 
Bay) into Notre Dame Bay. A similar process may have gone on between St. George’s Bay 
and the mountains around the sources of the Exploits, and great local glaciers may have 
occupied the sites of Victoria and other lakes, which would send down tributaries to the 
sea, at the present site of Red Indian Lake, while the mass was gradually forcing its way 
down, guided by the more elevated grounds which now constitute the valley of the river 
to the position of the Bay of Exploits and thus onwards towards the ocean. 
The third great rock basin excavated by an advancing glacier is supposed to have 
been at the position of the great Gander Lake, while still far below the sea level; which 
glacier may have been fed from the mountainous range of Mount Peyton, proceeding from 
the west and south-west ; one mass following down the upper valleys of the river, from 
the regions around the Partridge-berry Hills. A tributary probably joined somewhere 
near the present outlet of the lake, which, after joining the main body, turned off in the 
direction of the river’s bed, towards the outer ocean beyond Gander Bay. The glacier of 
Gander Lake piled up the boulder-drift at the west end of the lake, and swept over the 
ridge at Butt’s Pond to Freshwater Bay. 
Capt. Kerr in his notes upon glacial moraines, remarks as follows: “The glaciers have 
left their records in grooves, scratches, and moraines, the lateral moraines on the dividing 
ridges of the valleys. These are most likely represented by the perched and strewed blocks 
on the hills, water and ice in some cases having removed the smaller materials to the low 
lands from the steep hillsides. The grand terminal moraine probably exists in the 80-fathom 
bank across the mouth of Conception-Bay, within which is 100 to 140 fathoms, and gradually 
deepening to seaward. A remarkable terminal moraine of the smaller system, is at the 
entrance to Holyrood Bay, extending quite across with thirteen fathoms over it. Itis three 
cables broad, convex to seaward and concave on the land side, with forty fathoms close 
within and without. There is indication of another terminal moraine of the smaller 
system across the entrance to Collier's Bay, with less than twenty fathoms over it, and forty 
fathoms within and without. This extends only half across the bay from the west shore. 

