27 



NOTES 



ON 



THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF 

 WESTERN CANADA, 



BY 



W. TOPLEY, Esq., F.G.S., 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ENGLAND, PRESIDENT OF THE 

 geologists' ASSOCIATION. 



zbth NOVEMBER, 1884, 



The object of this paper was to give a brief account of 

 Western Canada, and more especially of such parts of the 

 country as were seen during the excursion of the British 

 Association. The most important excursion was that to the 

 Rocky Mountains. Starting from Toronto, the party took 

 rail to Owen's Sound ; then steamer over Lakes Huron and 

 Superior to Port Arthur, then again the railway, past 

 Winnipeg and over the Prairies, to the Rocky Mountains. 



The country between Lake Superior and the Rockies 

 may be divided into four zones, each corresponding with 

 geological structure. 



(a.) The most Easterly zone is that between Lake Superior 

 and the Red River Valley. This is a wooded hilly region, 

 formed chiefly of crystalline Laurentian rocks, the oldest 

 rocks known. The rocks lie at steep angles, often almost 

 verticle, the edges of the beds having been worn away by 

 long continued denudation. In long past geological times 

 these Laurentian rocks may have stood up as great mountain 

 chains; but what we now see are only the stumps and cones 

 of the old mountains. The latest denudation has been that 

 of the glacial period, when a great sheet of ice overspread 

 the whole of Canada, and stretched far into the United 



