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 

 Funcly 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 t he powerful influence of a continental glacier to 



* See Chalmers Report on the Surface Geology of Eastern New Brunswick, 1895, 

 pages 95 and 108. 



