NARRATIVE. 127 



by the waves and thereby rounded and smoothed, and afterwards cemented 

 together, before the appearance of animal life on the earth. On the other 

 hand it contains trap ; thus trap-dykes must have been thrown up at that 

 early period. Its other elements are jasper, porphyry, agate, quartz, and 

 even mica ; all belonging to the ancient rocks which we have seen on Lake 

 Superior. In one of the bowlders the materials are slightly stratified, so 

 that they had been arranged in layers before they were cemented together. 

 In all of them the cement is more or less vitrified, showing a strong action 

 of heat. This must have been derived from plutonic agencies, so that the 

 plutonic action on the lake commenced before the introduction of animal life. 

 The sandstone formations about Grros-Cap and Batcheewauung Bay indicate 

 in all probability the beaches of the ancient continents from which these frag- 

 ments were detached, and the outlines of the seas by which they were rolled 

 and worn. Afterwards they were conglomerated, and then removed hither 

 by other agencies. This bowlder does not show the marks of having been 

 transported by the action of. water. Its surface is smoothed and grooved in 

 a uniform manner, without the slightest reference to the different hardness 

 of its various materials. Had it been worn into its present shape by the 

 action of water, the harder stones would be left prominent. I have no doubt, 

 from similarity of its appearance in this respect to the rocks of the present gla- 

 ciers of Switzerland, that it has been firmly fixed in a heavy mass of ice and 

 moved steadily forward in one direction, and thereby ground down." 



These remarks being made in the main cabin, in the presence of 

 the Captain and the other passengers, one of the clergymen after- 

 wards took the Professor to task for denying that the world and its 

 inhabitants were all made at once, as if this was a well-understood 

 thing, and got quite indignant, when he would not admit that the 

 Bible had so settled it. His tone on this occasion, (for otherwise he 

 appeared to be a well-bred and educated man,) seemed to indicate a 

 different position of the old theologico-geological question here, a 

 question one would have thought finally disposed of among men of 

 liberal training. 



Aug. 20th. — We stopped this morning at a little settlement on the 

 Grand Manitoulin, whither the Indians come yearly to receive their 

 " presents." A few soldiers are stationed here to keep order on 

 these occasions. It is a significant fact that both here and at Mack- 

 inaw, the ground-rent paid by the British and United States govern- 



