OSARS. 413 



of the gravels at their southern ends so near the same horizontal line could 

 have been predicted and is just what it ought to be according to that 

 hypothesis. 



There is independent evidence that the sea beat against the ice front, 

 or at least ag-ainst its base, all the time of the retreat back to the highest 

 beaches. This proves a somewhat higher level of tlie sea during the time 

 when the coastal gravels were being deposited, and is presumptive evidence 

 of the presence of the sea over the present land at such a level as would 

 then submerge the basal ice at the fiord line and account for the revolution 

 or transition in the development of the glacial sediments that took place 

 near that line. 



Thus, from whatever point of view we approach the subject, we find 

 the development of the coastal gravels, according to the hj^Dotheses indi- 

 cated, presenting a connected and self-consistent series of phenomena. If 

 so, a corresponding development ought to be found wherever glaciers flowed 

 into the sea from regions where the conditions were such that continuous 

 osars formed on the land. Probably the presence of marginal glacial lakes 

 of fresh water also helped to arrest the enlargement of the subglacial 

 tunnels, but perhaps not so much so as sea water. 



So complex is the problem that it can not be claimed that all the 

 elements have been set forth above. 



OSARS. 



The long continuous ridges, or osars, are a feature of the interior of 

 the State. They are usually continuous for only a few miles and then are 

 interrupted in various ways. Where they go up and over hills the gravel 

 is usually abundant on the northern slopes, while little and sometimes no 

 gravel is found on the tops of the hills, especially when penetrating narrow 

 passes. On steep southward slopes the gravel is often scanty or absent for 

 long distances, and then at the foot of the slope large ridges or often plains 

 are found. Here and there on these steep southern slopes (20 to 80 feet 

 per mile) may be found small masses of bowlderets and bowlders that are 

 well rounded by water. These as truly are the local representatives of the 

 osar as if they formed a large ridge. It is not a definite amount of gravel 

 that is necessary to form an osar or to prove where the glacial river ran. 

 'The above-named gaps in the osars appear to have a direct relation of efii'ect 



