SS 
aN 
On the Geology of the Northwestern Regions of America. 333 
Bear Lake, would carry the waters of the Missouri and the upper 
portions of Churchill, and Mackenzie Rivers into Lake Winipeg 
and convert the plain country bordering on the Rocky Mountains, 
into an inland sea. Even at the present level the Missouri has 
twice within the last thirty years, inundated the valley of the 
Red River, flowing into Lake Winipeg; while it is a common 
occurrence for the country through which the lower part of the 
Saskatchewan flows to be laid under water for a distance of 200 
miles above its outlet by an ordinary spring-flood. About forty 
years ago, in a season remembered especially for the land-floods, 
a gentleman in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company was 
drowned on the Frog Portage (the low watershed which sepa- 
tates the Saskatchewan and Churchill Rivers), by his canoe up- 
setting against a tree in passing from one stream to the other. 
€ raised beaches of Lake Superior, rising in four or five 
siiccessive terraces to the height of more than 100 feet above the 
Present surface of the water, and which have attracted the atten- 
tion of Professor Agassiz and the geologists of the Canadian 
Survey, appear to point to the existence at some former period of 
& much greater body of water in this lake, at least, than is at 
Present contained in it, and are to some extent therefore confirm- 
-atory of the view now suggested. 
_ The Eocene basin of the Upper Missouri, with its very marked 
character of freshwater deposition, is stated by Marcou to extend 
along the upper waters of the Saskatchewan as far as Mackenzie 
River. ave no knowledge of any such formation myself, 
although in the unexplored territory west of the Winipeg basin 
ere is undoubtedly ample room for its development. _ Its exist- 
ence, if established, would lend additional probability to the 
inference deducible from the circumstances previously noticed.* 
Territories West of the Rocky Mountains.—Physical Fea- 
the Rocky Mountains has been often mentioned,—the one 
abounding in sandstone with argillaceous limestones, without 
Voleanos or volcanic rocks, while on the other side recent soir 
Tocks prevail (basalts, basaltic lavas, and trachytes),t and the 
* The views here suggested are not to be — as prejudging the question 
p 
80 eni 
Forbes res tin ‘lj f the Guif Stream at some 
: the probability of the passage 0 rie 
er berthed dp the valley of ee Mississippi (Quart. Journ. Geol. sani big . 
89, cic.),—~a theory of the highest interest and importance m accounting a4 
; of temperature and climate on the surface of our globe, and whic! a “<<; 
sed by its author upon purely physical considerations, is in harmony with a 
Seological facts and evidence which have come under the writer's notice. 
Beg age of freshwater accumulations and deposits suggested in the text comes 
nearer to : : 
_t Dr. Giewinek.. in his Mas of Russian America, assigns the localities of fifty- 
tiv Natieed Coast of Ameried. They lie in a line running 
. 
of aL |of Prince of Wales Island, in lat. 56° N, following the course 
of the coast bio ee HB of Aliaska and the Aleutian Islands. Many of 
