PHYSICA L FEATURES 111 



being visible for long distances. Areas of heavy drift are found in 

 the northern portions of the townships of Dysart, Anstruther, and 

 the southeastern portion of Carlow. The drift in these stretches 

 of country, and generally every^vhere at the higher levels throughout 

 the area, is unstratified and filled with boulders, the stratified gravels 

 and sands being found about the lakes, and in the river valleys. The 

 drift undoubtedly gives to the plain a somewhat smoother surface than 

 it would present were the surface freed from drift, although the accen- 

 tuation of the country is probably not decreased by its presence, to 

 any considerable extent ; for, while the drift undoubtedly fills many 

 depressions in the subjacent rock surface, it also mantles and thus in- 

 creases the elevation of many of the highest portions of the area. When 

 the drift is very thin and disconnected, or when, as in a few places, it is 

 absent, the country assiunes a very rocky and barren aspect, great 

 expanses of bare roches moutonnees surface extending in every direc- 

 tion. Such tracts are almost exclusively confined to certain develop- 

 ments of granite or diorite, as for instance, those crossed by the Buck- 

 horn road in the township of Glamorgan, or by the Hastings road in the 

 townships of Wollaston and Limerick. Similar drift-free areas are seen 

 in the great Blueberry 'barrens' in southeastern Methuen, as well as in 

 the diorite and granite areas of Cashel and Grimsthorpe. The thin- 

 ness of the drift sheet, or the absence of drift, in the case of the granitic 

 or dioritic areas, is due in part to the fact, that, being composed of 

 rocks which offer a marked resistance to erosion, these areas stand at 

 relatively high levels, while most of the other rocks of the district, being 

 somewhat softer, are apt to form the depressions in the plain, and are 

 there Hkely to be more or less covered by drift. This cause, however, 

 by no means determines the distribution of the drift in all cases, for, 

 as has been shown, many great stretches of granite, forming the higher 

 portions of the area, lie under an almost continuous mantle of drift. 



One of the most characteristic features of the landscape of this 

 region, as of most other parts of the great northern protaxis in Canada, 

 is the immense number of lakes, large and small, which stud its surface. 

 Some 500 lakes occur in the area of 4,000 square miles embraced by 

 the map which accompanies this report, or one lake to about every 

 8 square miles of surface. These lakes range in size from comparatively 

 large bodies of water, like Kawagama lake, which has an area of about 2 2 

 square miles, down to very small lakes or ponds, which cover only a 

 small fraction of a square mile. These lakes are filled with beautifully 

 clear and fresh water, and discharge through the multitude of streams 

 and little rivers, which, with them, constitute the drainage system of 

 the district, and along the course of which are many beautiful water- 

 falls, supplying ample power to mills at various points. By means of 

 these hundreds of lakes and their coimecting streams, it is possible, 

 if the routes be known, to traverse the area in canoes in almost any 

 direction, without making portages of any great length. Thus, there 

 is a good canoe route from Gull lake, in the southwestern portion of 

 the area, northward through the township of Minden to Whitney on 

 the line of the Grand Trunk railway, and thence south through Baptiste 

 lake to Bancroft, on the Central Ontario railway. From thence there 

 is a canoe route to the northeast, down the York branch of the Mada- 



