in the North- West Territories of Canada. 397 



coarse red granite on the shore is polished and scored with glacial 

 markings trending southward. At Fort Churchill the low granite 

 knolls, and the high bare rounded hills of green feldspathic quartzite, 

 are scored by three sets of strias, the two most recent of which are 

 very distinct, while the earliest, wherever seen, is rather obscure. 

 This latter trends N. 80° E. (or S. 70° W. ?), and is not improbably 

 merely an early variation of the next, which trends N. 55° E. This 

 set of gi'ooves and striee is very strongly marked on all the southern 

 and south-western slopes, against which the glacier pressed heavily 

 on its way down the valley of the Churchill Eiver to Hudson Bay, 

 but the eastern sides of the hills show comparatively few traces of 

 this glaciation. 



Crescentric cross-fractures are common in the grooves, and these 

 all lie with their concave sides towards the north-east, or towards 

 the point of the compass to which the glacier moved. The most 

 recent set of strise is found on the summits and northern sides of 

 the hills, and points southward, the strise being found to vary from 

 S. 5° W. to S. 10° E. 



From the above record of stri^ it will be seen that one of the 

 great gathering grounds for the snow of the Glacial period in North 

 America was a comparatively short distance west of the northern 

 portion of Hudson Bay, and from that centre or gathering ground 

 the ice flowed not only towards the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay, 

 but it extended a long distance westward towards the Mackenzie 

 River, and southward towards the great plains, while Hudson Bay 

 was probably then to a great extent open water. From it the 

 moisture would be derived which fell as snow near its western shore. 



The older geology of the country is known over such a small 

 portion of the total area that it is impossible to draw any definite 

 conclusions from the direction of transportation of boulders ; but 

 on the west shore of Hudson Bay the boulders were such as would 

 be derived from the Laurentian, Huronian, and Kewenawan rocks 

 to the west, and there were no signs of the limestones, etc., from 

 the islands in the Arctic Ocean or Hudson Bay. On the Telzoa 

 Eiver the boulders showed no evidence of having been derived from 

 the west coast of Hudson Bay. 



Drumlins or ridges of Till are almost everywhere found in the 

 less rocky areas. Eskers are also common, either rising in high 

 narrow elongated hills, or running as long sandy ridges, keeping 

 their courses, which are parallel to the" glacial striee, over hills and 

 through valleys and lakes quite regardless of the surface contour of 

 the country. In the more southern districts these are wooded with 

 large white spruce, which rise conspicuously above the stunted black 

 spruce on the surrounding low land. 



After the ice receded from the lower country the land was about 

 400 feet below its present level. On the lower side of a long 

 portage a short distance below Doobaunt Lake the first well-defined 

 raised beach and terrace was seen, and from that point all the way 

 down the river to Hudson Bay old strand lines could be seen on the 

 sides of all the prominent hills. 



