PHYSICAL -FEATURES OF NOVA SCOTIA.—MURPHY, 135 
ourselves whether these markings were caused by a slow grind- 
ing process, or by the abrasion of icebergs striking, rocking or 
slipping on an inclined rock surface, we will, I have no doubt, 
conclude that the former, viz, the slow grinding process, was the 
much more likely to produce them. 
If we judge from effect, there is no reason whatever that Dr. 
Honeyman’s theory, which is, also, I believe, that of Sir William 
Logan and Professor Hind, that larger masses of ice moving in 
glacial form over the surface, and carrying with it pebbles and 
boulders, is not the correct one to assign to the work performed. 
There are so many evidences which tend to establish it, both 
from a mechanical and theoretical point of view, that it would 
be superfluous here to mention them. They are plainly given 
in Dana's text-book of American geology, as well as by Profes- 
sor Tyndall and other writers, who have made the subject a 
study. 
We cannot, however, stop here: there are other features to be 
accounted for; they are, viz:—The old sea beaches and a local 
drift, which must have occurred at a more recent period. For, if 
these beaches then existed, and also the local drift, which I shall 
hereafter more particularly refer to, any glacial movement must 
have carried them with it, and deposited them elsewhere in a 
much more irregular manner than their present appearances 
would indicate. 
I have been considering this matter, and give some notes on 
the subject for what they are worth. 
Every practical miner in our gold fields knows (for every 
miner in Nova Scotia is also a prospector or searcher for paying- 
quartz leads on its surface), that if he finds a boulder shewing 
gold, he will invariably look for the lead or quartz vein to the 
north of where he finds it, so sure is he of finding the lead to 
correspond in width and richness as is indicated by the boulder, 
and that he will exhaust, probably, all his means in the search, or 
succeed in the find. The direction in which to prosecute the search 
and the distance, which will vary generally, according to the 
depth of the drift, is so well understood as to become proverbial. 
The quartz boulders are not at all weather-worn, their edges 
