SECRETARY'S REPORT. 173 



and slopes of the mountains and the rolling country between 

 the river basins. All of that, I say, is of foreign origin, and 

 you will at once perceive how that is connected with those huge 

 masses of loose boulders which are scattered over the country ; 

 and when you stand at a place where those large boulders are 

 actually mixed with similar but smaller material, you very soon 

 become satisfied that the cause which transposed those large 

 masses of loose rocks, different from the rock underneath, is 

 also the cause which has transported the mineral material which . 

 has accompanied these large boulders, the whole of which is 

 called " drift," and the large boulders " erratic boulders." 

 Now, the cause which has transported these loose materials has 

 produced that drift, which, modified by the plough, by the inter- 

 ference of man, has furnished our agricultural soil ; and the 

 question which it is proposed now to consider is, Whence did 

 these materials come, and how were they transported ? And in 

 order to explain that, I must go very far out of the way ; for, 

 iii themselves, these materials hardly furnish us the means of 

 ascertaining how they have been transported. 



There is one fact which is unmistakable, and that is, that all 

 these loose materials rest upon the surface of rocks which are 

 generally smooth, polished, grooved, and scratched uniformly ; 

 and these marks upon the surface of the rocks, which are 

 immovable, and from the foundation of this drift, trend north 

 and south, — deviating somewhat to the east and west. Evi- 

 dently, therefore, the movement which transported all these 

 loose materials was from the north, southward. Now, various 

 theories have been found to explain the transportation of these 

 loose materials. Inundations, floods, currents, have, been sup- 

 posed to have swept over the country and to have carried 

 forward in their course all these loose materials. There is one 

 fundamental and radical objection to that theory ; and that is, 

 these loose materials are not arranged as water would arrange 

 them. "Water, acting in any way that water can act, either as 

 a tide, as currents moving in one direction, or as a freshet, will 

 carry the finer material to a greater distance in the direction in 

 which the current flows, and drop sooner the larger materials. 

 The larger materials will sink first to the bottom, and on top of 

 them, the smaller materials will gradually be accumulated, 

 until the most minute materials form the top of the accumula- 



