[TYRRELL] PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 21 
I did not observe any other and higher beaches on Hayes river 
and its tributaries until the summits of the hills overlooking the 
Shamattawa river were reached, where a strongly marked gravel 
beach at an approximate elevation of 300 feet above the sea occurs 
- on the summit of a ridge of till. Above this elevation no old beaches 
were recognized in the vicinity of the river. On Chacutinow or 
“The Hill,” which rises 461 feet above the river at its base, or to a 
height of approximately 900 feet above the sea, no old beaches were 
found, though its upper portion, which is of gravel, is ideally consti- 
tuted for the preservation of such beaches. 
The profile surveys of the Hudson Bay Railroad will doubtless 
furnish the elevation of many of the old shore lines of Hudson Bay. 
One of these old beaches is marked on the profile at miles 380, about 
the middle of Township 90, Range 3, East of the Second Meridian 
East and 3 miles north of Nelson river, with an elevation of 290 
feet above sea level, corresponding closely with the Shamattawa 
beach. 
On Severn river sections of gravel beaches and terraces were 
seen at several places on the tops of the banks as we passed in our 
canoes, but, unfortunately, it was impossible for us to stop to examine 
them, or to make any reasonably close determination of their char- 
acter and elevation. 
In the country north of Churchill river, and west of Hudson 
Bay I have already recorded the occurrence of old post glacial shore 
lines with the following approximate elevations in feet above the sea, 
viz.: 190, 220, 235, 260, 280, 310, 340, 360, 405, 430, 440, and 490; 
while at the head of Owl river, and to the south of Fox river on the 
winter route from York to Norway House, I estimated the height 
of the highest beach at 600 feet above the sea.! Doubtless the exact 
elevation of this latter beach will be determined before long by the 
surveys which are now in progress throughout that country. 
Valleys 
On the western branch of Hayes river, which is commonly used 
as a canoe route from Lake Winnipeg to York Factory, the stream 
does not flow in a well-defined valley until after it leaves Swampy 
Lake. Above that lake the country, with its rough uneven surface, 
is underlain by hard, unweathered rock, and the drainage. flows into 
the depressions where it forms lakes. Over the lowest part of the 
rim of each of these lakes the water spills by a rapid or series of rapids 
into a lake at a lower level, thus forming a connected but tortuous 

! Report on the Doobaunt, Kazan, and Ferguson Rivers, by J. B. Tyrrell. 
An. Rep. Geol. Sur. Can., Vol. IX, 1896. Pt. F., pp. 191-193, Ottawa Govt., 1897. 
