254 OBSERVATIONS ON SUPPOSED GLACIAL DRIFT. 



south edge of the table-land of the Labrador Peninsula (lat. 5Vt 

 60' N, long. G6'-'' W.). and about 110 miles due north of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. Boulders of large dimensions, 10 to 20 feet m 

 diameter, began to be numerous at tlie Mountain Portage, 1460 feet 

 above the sea, and GO miles in an air-line from the mouth of the 

 Moisie lliver. They were perched upon the summits of peaks esti- 

 mated to be 150O feet above the point of view, or nearly 3000 feet 

 iibovo the sea- level, and were observed to occupy the edges of cliffs, 

 to be scattered over the slopes of mountain-ranges, and to be massed 

 in great numbers in the intervening valleys. 



At the " Burnt Portage " on the north-cast branch of the Moisie, 

 saeaily 100 miles in an air-line from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ami 

 1850 feet above the ocean, the low gneissoid hills for mnny milcdt 

 round were seen to be strewed with erratics wherever a lodgment 

 for them could be found. The valleys (one to two miles broad) 

 were not only floored with them, but they lay there in tiers, three or 

 more deep . Close to the banks of the rivers and lakes near the 

 ** Burnt Portage," where the mosses and lichens have been destroyed 

 by fire, very coarse sand conceals the rocks beneath, but on ascend- 

 ing an eminence away from the immediate banks of the river the 

 true character of the country becomes apparent. At the base of 

 the gneissoid hills which limit the valley of the east branch (about 

 three miles broad) at this point, they are observed to lie two or 

 three deep, and although of large dimensions, that is from 5 to 20 

 feet in diameter, they are nearly all ice- or water-worn, with rounded 

 edges, and generally polished or smoothed. These accumulations of 

 erratics frequently form tongues, or spots, at the termination of 

 small projecting promontories in the hill-ranges. I have several 

 times counted three tiers of these travelled rocks where the mosses, 

 which once covered them with a uniform mantle of green, had been 

 burnt ; and occasionally, before reaching the sandy area which is 

 sometimes found on the banks of the river, I have been in danger of 

 slipping through the crevices between the boulders, which were con- 

 cealed by mosses, a foot and more deep, both before and after passing 

 through the '* Burnt Country," which has a length of about 30 miles 

 where I crossed it. I extract the following note from my journal of 

 the appearance of these travelled rocks in the " Burnt" Country " :— ■ 



•* Huge blocks of gneiss and labradorite lie in the channel of the 

 river, or on the gneissoid domes which here and there pierce the 

 sandy tract through which the river flows. On the summit of the 



