PHYSICAL AND CLIMATAL CONDITIONS. ,S|) 



"The facts avuiliible for this iiortlicrn part of the con- 

 tiiiout and the Arctic islands thus I'athcr jioiiit to a 

 iiioveineiit of ice outward in all directions from the j^reat 

 Laurentian axis or plateau, which extcnids from I^ahrador 

 round the soutiiern extremity of Hudson bay to the 

 Arctic sea, than to any general tlovv of ice from north to 

 south, from the vicinity of the <j;eogra])hical pole." 



The same writer, in his more recent [lajx^r on the 

 Itocky mountains, refers to the facts, that while the 

 Cordilleran glacier discharged to the northward, the 

 McKenzie liiver valley is shown to present similar 

 jthenomena, and that the absence of drift in the northern 

 ]iart of the Yukon district and along the arctic coast as 

 far as the McKenzie river (Dease and Sim])Son) shows 

 that this region may have been land enjoying a moderate 

 climate at the same early I'leistocene period in which 

 the mountains of Uritish C'olund)ia were covered with ice.* 



The observations of Dr. (1. M. Dawson in the Cordil- 

 leran region of British Columbia, already mentioned, are 

 so important in this regard,-f- and are presented in so 

 compact and clear a fonn, that I may be excused for 

 ([uoting froni his account of the great Cordilleran glacier 

 of the west, which may l)e regarded as a specimen of 

 those great local glaciers which accumulated in Pleistocene 

 times on all the high mountains near the coasts of the 

 continents, or which were surrounded by submerged 

 plains capable of afi'ording vapours to be precipitated 

 upon their summits. Let it be observed in this connec- 

 tion ^^hat the plains east of the Jiocky mountains were 



* See also observations of Mr. R. G. McConnell, Bui. Geol. Soc. 

 America, Vol. I., and I. C. Russell, in the same volume. 



t Later Physiographical Geology of the Rocky Mountain Region in 

 Canada, Trans. R.S.C., 1890. 



