An Outline rf /he Geology of Vancouver Island. 77 



AN OUTLINE OF 1 HE GEO LOG ) OF VANCOUVER 

 ISLAND. 



If we study the past history — not political, but geological — ot 

 the great island of Vancouver, and in fact of all the territory 

 surrounding the Straits of Georgia, San Juan de Fuca, and ot 

 Puget Sound, we will find, that in geological aspect, the country 

 mentioned is no less interesting than the f?.mous volcanic regions 

 of the more southern part of this continent. If a student dis- 

 satisfied with the Neptunic world of British Columbia turns his 

 mind toward that of Pluto, he will have his curiosity well satis- 

 fied ; or it, tired with investigation of prehistoric glaciers, pre- 

 lers to fathom the mystery of the coal-bearing regions, he will 

 also find himself before an interesting problem. The geology of 

 the country mentioned above is interesting like its fauna and 

 flora ; it contains many epochs and many formations. There 

 was a time when Vancouver Island was a low country, probably 

 a prairie land, and at the end of the Tertiary period there was 

 no Fraser River, no Straits of Georgia and Fuca, no Puget 

 Sound. At that time volcanic forces began to work, here with 

 terrible fury, there slowly rents and fissures were made, and 

 now instead of a prairie we have a mountainous country, trav- 

 ersed by rapid streams, and cut by ravines and canyons The 

 formation of the country shows plainly this mighty working of 

 the mysterious forces of nature. 



Again there was a time when there were stupendous glaciers 

 between the island of Vancouver and the mainland . According 

 to Dr. George M. Dawson, the whole Queen Charlotte Sound 

 was at one time occupied by a great glacier. A second glacier 

 of equal magnitude occupied the whole Strait of Georgia, hav- 

 ing, in some places, a width of fifty miles, a minimum thickness 

 of 300 feet in the northern part and of about 700 feet in its south- 

 eastern extremity. And this extremity was near the doors of 

 the now beautiful city of Victoria. Dr. Dawson further states 

 that evidence was found in the vicinity of Victoria and Nanaimo, 

 to prove that when the Strait of Georgia glacier decreased, and 

 shrank back, the land was at a lower level than now, and the 

 deposits lound in these localities containing marine shells, were 

 lormed at or near the wasting edge of the glacier. The curious 

 reader will find the evidence advanced by the bold savant in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vols. XXXIV and 

 XXXVII. 



The climate of Vancouver and the neighboring country, as it 

 is now, prevents the formation of glaciers as they existed in the 

 ages gone by. Still it is not improbable that the country may 

 again beome a sheet of ice. Many scientists, especially Professor 

 Agassiz, demonstrated that at the end of the Tertiary period the 

 northern hemisphere north of forty degrees was covered with ice 

 as Greenland is in our day. The climate is mild and genial, 

 but should the average temperature of the Straits of Georgia 



