I 



172 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 



of boulders belonging to a more recent driftage than that 

 of the underlying mass in which boulders are often much 

 less abundant. 



Boulders or travelled stones are often found in places 

 where there is no other drift. For example, on bare 

 granite hills, about 500 feet in height, near St. Mary's 

 river, there are large angular blocks of quartzite, derived 

 from the ridges of that material, which abound in the dis- 

 trict, but which are separated from the hills on which the 

 fragments lie by deep valleys. 



In Nova Scotia, beds with marine shells have been found 

 by Mr. Matthew at Horton bluff, but not elsewhere, though 

 the boulder-clay is often covered with beds of stratified 

 sand and gravel. Tlie only evidence of land life, in 

 the boulder period, or immediately before it, that I have 

 noticed, is a hardened peaty bed which appears under the 

 boulder-clay on the north-west arm of the river of Inhab- 

 itants in Cape Breton. It rests upon gray clay similar to 

 that which underlies peat bogs, and is overlaid by nearly 

 twenty feet of boulder-clay. Pressure has rendered it 

 nearly as hard as coal, though it is somewhat tougher and 

 more earthy in appearance. It has a shining streak, 

 burns with considerable flame, and approaches in its 

 characters to the brown coals or more imperfect varieties 

 of bituminous coal. It contains many small roots and 

 branches, apparently of a taxine tree, with d^hris of swamp 

 plants. The vegetable matter composing this bed must 

 have flourished before the drift was spread over the surface. 



In New Brunswick, stratified clays holding marine 

 shells have been found overlying the boulder-clay, or in 

 connection with it, especially in the southern part of the 



* Geol. Survey of Canada, 1889 and previous years. 



