90 TIIK KK A(;i': IN CANADA. 



suliiiu'V^'cd at this time, otherwise tlie ('orcliHeraii j^'liicicr 

 could .sciircely huNc existed. 



"The CordilU'iim vc^fioii, in coiisctinenfe of its hij^h 

 eh'vation, iuid pi'ohalily also in jtart fiom othei' ctaieurreiit 

 eaus(!s hy whieh the iioitheni hciiiispln're was aflceled at 

 the ineeptiou of thc^ period of ^laeiaLioii, api)ears to have 

 beeoine at this time pre-eiuinently the condenser of the 

 North Pacifie. Precipitation occurred ujion it chielly in 

 the form of snow, which was so much in excess of the 

 intluence of the summer heat as to accumulate frt»m year 

 to year. Great glaciers formed in the hij^her mountains, 

 prohahly in the first instance amoui^ those situated nearest 

 to the coast ; but eventually the greater ])art of the 

 region became covered and buried either in iirrr or 

 beneath glacier-ice. The directions of motion of the 

 glaciers at first i)roduced was doubtless in conformity 

 with that of the valleys of mountain streams; but at a 

 hiter date, when the Cordillera became completely buried, 

 u general movement was initiated from a region situated 

 between the fifty-fifth and lifty-ninth parallels of north 

 Ifititude, in south-easterly and north-westerly bearings.* 

 The Cordillera, in fact, between the forty-eighth and 

 sixty-third parallels — or for a length of about 1,200 

 miles — seems to have assumed an appearance closely 

 analagous to that of (Ireenland at the present day, save 

 that in conse([uence of the high bordering mountain 

 ranges, with the general trend of these and of the lower 

 intervening country of the interior plateau, the greater 

 part of the ice was forced in this case to follow its length 

 in tl;e directions above indicated, instead of discharging 



* Such general movement probaljly affected only the central portion 

 of the ice-mass by which the '"/ordillera was covered, and there is no 

 reason to suppose that it was otherwise than sluggish. 



