OF THE ORIGIN OF BOULDERS. 1G7 



came these 1 " has been the question of the inquisitive 

 of all ages, " and how came they there 1 " 



There may, for aught we know to the contrary, 

 be more than one answer to these questions; but 

 there is at least one which is quite satisfactory as to 

 how and whence at least some of them have come. 

 Ice was the means of conveying these boulders to 

 their present positions. 



It has been said that once upon a time a large 

 part of this country was under the dominion of ice, 

 even as the polar regions and some of the moun- 

 tains and valleys of Norway are at the present 

 day; that the boulders we see in elevated places 

 were conveyed thither by glacier action ; and that 

 when the glacial period passed away, they were left 

 there on the hill-sides sometimes almost on the 

 mountain-tops. But this is not the question we are 

 considering just now. We are now inquiring into 

 the origin of those huge boulders that are found 

 upon our coasts and on the coasts of other lands 

 boulders which could not have rolled down from the 

 hills, for there are no hills at all near many of them; 

 and those hills that are near some of them are of 

 different geological formation. 



This question will be answered at once, and one 

 of the phenomena of arctic ice and oceanic agency 

 will be exhibited, by reference to the recent dis- 

 coveries of the celebrated arctic voyager, Dr. Kane 

 of the American Navy. 



While wintering far beyond the head of Baffin's 



