[COLEMAN] GLACIAL HISTORY 35 



The present sea level must have been permanent for a vastly longer 

 time than any halt in the rise of land which preceded it. 



Glaciation of the Magdalen Islands 



The Magdalen Islands, near the middle of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, have until recently been considered unglaciated. Richardson, 

 who reported on their geology in 1880^ found no evidence of glaciation 

 except a few drift boulders of granite, quartzite and schist, which 

 might be accounted for by floating ice; and Chalmers, who visited 

 the islands specially to study their Pleistocene geology, states positive- 

 ly that they are non-glaciated, referring particularly to the rotted 

 rock immediately beneath the soil; though he thinks it possible that 

 evidences might be found "of at least the impingement of floating ice 

 against the slopes or coast borders of the islands."^ J. M. Clarke 

 also found that "the soil of the islands is essentially residual. The 

 islands have never been subjected to glacial action;" though boulders 

 have been brought by icebergs and floe ice^. 



In 1913, however, J. W. Goldthwait visited the islands, and 

 during the twenty minutes stay of the steamer at Amherst Island, 

 found a deposit of boulder clay with glaciated stones not far from the 

 pier. He concluded that the deposit is glacial till and not formed by 

 floating ice. Evidence obtained on the other islands of the group, 

 though less conclusive, confirmed this view*. 



Sailing from Souris, I visited Amherst Island in June, 1918, and 

 spent two days examining its surface features. The till described by 

 Goldthwait as forming a clifï beside the inner basin was naturally 

 visited first, and I can confirm, in the main, his account of the deposit. 

 It consists of unstratified sand containing many small striated stones. 

 None that I found were certainly of foreign origin, all being sand- 

 stones or green basic eruptives, such as might have come from the 

 Demoiselle hills. 



Similar till was found at various points along the road toward 

 the west side of the island, which was followed for four miles. The 

 cuttings for grading the road furnished shallow exposures of the soil, 

 drift sand, and in places the sandy till. Striated stones were collected 

 at several localities, the highest point at which they were observed 

 being inland at about 105 feet above sea level. Among the stones 



1 Geol. Surv. Can., Vol. 1879-80, pp. 8 and 9 G. 



2 Geol. Surv. Can., Vol. VII, 1894, 48 and 9 M and 91 M. 



3 New York State Mus. Bull. No. 149, 7th Rep. of Director, 1910. 

 * Geol. Surv. Can., Mus. Bull. No. 14, 1915, pp. 6, etc. 



