30 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



strong and undoubted evidence of disturbance and of transport ( 

 the materials of which it is composed. And it is in the transport€ 

 beds of sand and coarse gravel, that we sometimes find the brok€ 

 shell'- of the mya and saxacava. The boulders which are four 

 at Beauport, in Canada East, in the midst of shells, were ui 

 questionably dropped from icebergs, for it would be contrary 

 reason and fact, to suppose for a moment, that the delicate ter 

 bratula psittacea could have been moved with the drift or disturbi 

 by currents, and maintain their perfect integrity. 



I will state farther, in this connexion, that I am forced to diff 

 from Mr. Lyell and some other geologists, as it regards an esse 

 tial change of temperature at the period of the tertiary or drii' 

 But I do not propose to state my objections, in this place. I ha- 

 but one subject more which I wish to bring before this Associ' 

 tion, viz: the immediate agent which was instrumental in f' 

 transportation of drift. On this subject, I would speak with d 

 deference to the opinions of others. But I will observe, geneicA 

 ly, that I believe no one agent — no one cause — no one theory, w( 

 be found adequate to the explanation of all the phenomena of ti 

 drift of this country and of Europe — applying the word drift ' 

 all accumulations of sand, gravel and boulders, except those whi 

 are now forming by rivers. 



The observations of Agassiz and Prof. Forbes, go to show ti 

 the movements of glaciers are, and have been, causes. Obser^ 

 tions of most navigators show, that for transportation, icebergs 

 causes — and all may see, that waves in shallows do wash up ridg 

 of sand and gravel parallel to coasts. But what agent transport 

 the great mass of the drift of New-England and New-York. ( 

 this point, I maintain that moving water in a given direction, 

 the essential element of our reasoning. This moving water ma 

 or may not, transport ice — ice, if moved, must be moved by watilf 

 Starting with this element, and taking into view all the phenomf 

 na of drift and of scorings of rocks, I find no agent or power ad 

 quate to the solution of these phenomena, hut the rush of^ 

 northern sea, or waters over a part of this Continent, produced i 

 a subsidence of land, and aided, perhaps, by the rise of the bottc^^j 

 of the sea to the north. By this power, all the loose materic 

 were pushed forward, en masse, and transported south, both scorin ^^ 



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