168 GLACIAL SUCCESSION IN CENTRAL LUNENBURG—PREST. 
rivers were deepened. This I attempted to show in a paper 
read before the Institute on February 8th, 1892. These old 
river beds now form the channels of many of our harbours. 
Their formation has been ascribed to the tides, but apparently 
nothing less than the disjointing action of frost, aided by the 
attrition of rocks and gravel urged on by a rapid torrent, could 
cut away those deep and precipituous channels. The modifying 
influences of this epoch have had a very important effect on the 
distribution of the drift in some of our gold districts. At Block- 
house, however, it did not disturb the upper deposits to any 
appreciable extent, so we gave it but little attention. 
As the deposits of the recent era merge into those of the 
historical period, I shall not deal with them. Several facts 
which have lately come to my knowledge possess a peculiar 
interest, inasmuch as they throw some light on that dim period 
that connects the historical with the geological history of Nova 
Scotia. They deserve a critical examination and a more 
extended notice than I am able to give them. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
As this paper is already probably too long, I shall conclude 
it with the following remarks. That there has been a time 
when a continental glacier ploughed its way across the Bay of 
Fundy and the Province of Nova Scotia, seems to be beyond 
doubt, notwithstanding recent assertions to the contrary.* The 
alternative of a local or provincial ice sheet, is not in accord- 
ance with well-known facts except in the latest stages of the 
ice age. How otherwise could boulders of trap from the Bay of 
Fundy surmount the central watershed, and be distributed over 
the whole southern slope from Halifax to Yarmouth? They 
are not a chance occurrence, but are found in abundance in 
nearly every morraine and kame. How could a comparatively 
thin ice sheet flow along such a gentle descent as 1 foot in 340, 
unless it had the powerful influence of a continental glacier to 
* See Chalmers Report on the Surface Geology of Eastern New Brunswick, 1899, 
pages 95 and 108. 
