8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The Edmonton region was undoubtedly covered with a sheet of 

 Keewatin ice carrying Archaean stones, but there is no sure evidence of 

 a Cordilleran till sheet. The Rocky Mountain stones may be accounted 

 for as derived from coarse water borne materials, perhaps the Sask- 

 atchewan gravels or perhaps of Laramie age. Better sections must be 

 studied before this point can be finally settled. 



Tpie Pleistocene west of Edmonton". 



The wagon road west of Edmonton to lake Ste. Anne, a distance of 

 about 50 miles, is mostly over a flat clay plain like that already referred 

 to as formed of old lake silts. At St. Albert, 9 miles west of Edmonton, 

 the valley of Sturgeon river shows more than 70 feet of fine silt merging 

 downwards into fine sand, with no stones except a few near the bottom. 



Farther west the country is not quite so flat, and low ridges or the 

 edges of stream valleys show pebbles or small boulders of Rocky Mountain 

 stones; while a few large boulders of granite and gneiss may be seen 

 with the quartzites here and there in the fields, evidently belonging to 

 the last boulder clay. At Beaupré's, about 40 miles west of Edmonton, 

 a well disclosed 20 feet of boulder clay, followed by stratified clay with 

 layers of sand and gravel. A good deal of charcoal was found in the 

 lowest layers, which may be interglacial. From this lo lake Ste Anne 

 is subdued morainic country, partly buried under sand as the lake is 

 approached. A few miles west the counti-y is typically morainic, with 

 i^^egl^lar ridges and kettle valleys, here and there showing many erratics, 

 the larger ones Archaean. This appears to be the last well defined 

 mioraine formed by the Keewatin ice. It is more than 100 miles from the 

 nearest part of the Rocky Mountains. 



From this morainic belt two routes may be followed west to McLeod 

 river, a southern, called the Jasper trail, and a northern, called Jock's 

 trail, Lobstick lake lying between. The southern route, which cor- 

 responds roughly to the line of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, is over 

 flat or rolling plains, largely of clay but with more sandy and stony 

 tracts than are found near Edmonton. In some cases the sand is ridged 

 like dunes or eskers. At various points boulder clay with Archaean 

 stones was seen in stream valleys as at Carrot creek, and there are gener- 

 ally a few boulders of granite or gneiss scattered over the surface. Except 

 in the deeper valleys, such as that of Pembina river, no bed rock was 

 seen. 



On Jock's trail there is less sand and more clay, partly stratified 

 and partly boulder clay; and the relief is greater, hills rising in some 

 cases 200 feet above the vallevs. Some of these hills have a morainic 



