134 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NOVA SCOTIA.—MURPHY. 
A large extent of its surface is so much denuded of drift that 
any extensive forest fire burns up all the clothing on patches of 
its surface, leaving the rocks so bare that the miner is invariably 
tempted to prosecute a search. 
The presence of granite patches here and there at the existing 
surface, shewing that the denudation had reached so far, and the 
evidences of a granite nucleus in the higher ridge outcropping in 
like manner, shews that most of the strata under which the 
granite was consolidated have been reduced to a mere shell by 
denudation, a work which we could scarcely attribute to 
depletion by icebergs alone. 
And again, the markings are mostly flutings or furrowings, and 
the mechanical action which caused them can be more reasonably 
attributed to a slow grinding process than to the force of impact 
by icebergs, which would exhibit more denticulated or notched 
abrasion. . 
The nature and extent of the work performed in excavating 
and removing a depth of rock surface probably greater in height 
than some of our present mountains, and extending over two 
hundred miles in length, could, to our senses, be more reasonably 
assigned to the agencies exerted in the glacial period or ice age, 
than any other we can conceive. If we assume a uniformity of 
action, and adopt the assumption that the whole slope of’ our 
Atlantic sea board was being sculptured or shorn at one and the 
same time by glaciers moving from the north, we can comprehend, 
to some extent, the cause of the glacial markings. The theory of 
Dr. Honeyman, of the drift from the north, is the only one that 
will truly reconcile us to the great effect produced. If denudation 
other than that of glaciers contributed to reduce the rock surfaces 
now visible above the sea level, they must have exerted their 
influence before the Post Pliocene period. The flutings, as I 
would call them, are, no doubt, the work of large superimposed 
masses moving slowly; and these traces are on the floor, on . 
the surface of our rocks only,—they have not been observed 
lower, so far as I can ascertain. 
If we carefully observe the fluted-like etchings visible on the 
rock surfaces of Nova Seotia, with the view of determining for 
