OBSERVATIONS ON SUPPOSED GLACIAL DRIFT. 255 



snountains, and along the crest of the Iiill-r:un:;es, nhoiit a mile off on 

 either side, they seem as if they hnd been dropprd lik-e hail. It is 

 not difficult to sec that mnny of these i-OL-k-lnignients are of local 

 origin, but others have evidently travelled far, on account of their 

 smooth outline. From a gneissoid dome, T see that they are piled 

 to a considerable height between hills 300 and 400 feet high ; and 

 from the comparatively sharp edges of many around me, the parent 

 rock cannot be I'ar distant." 



Oa all sides of Caiiboo Lnke, 110 miles in an air-line from the 

 Gulf, and 1870 feet above it, :i conflagrMtion had swept away trees, 

 grasses, and mosses, with the exception of a point of forest uhich 

 came down to the water's edge and formed the western limit of the 

 living woods. The long lines of enormous unworn boulders, or 

 fragments of rock?, skirting the east branch of the Moisie at this 

 point were 3j0 doubt literal glacial moraines. The coarse sand in 

 the broad valley of the river was blown into low dunes, and the 

 surrounding hills were covered with millions of erratics. No glacial 

 striae were observed here, but the gneissoid hills were rounded and 

 smoothed at their summit; and the flanks were frequently seen to 

 present a rough surface, as if they had been recently exposed by 

 land-slides, which were frequently observed, and the cause which 

 produced them, namely, frozen waterfalls. 



No clay or gravel was seen after passing the mouth of Cold-water 

 Eiver, 40 miles from the Gulf, and 320 feet above it. The soil, 

 where trees grew, was always shallow as far as observed ; and 

 although a very luxuriant vegetation existed in secluded valleys, yet 

 it appeared to depend upon the presence of labradorite-rock or a 

 very coarse gneissoid rock, in which flesh-coloured felspar was the 

 prevailing ingredient. 



Observers iu other parts of the Labrador Peninsula have recorded 

 .the vast profusion in which erratics are distributed over its surface. 

 There is one observer, however, well known in another branch of 

 science, who has left a most interesting record of his journey in the 

 Mistassinni country, between tlie St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the 

 Saguenay and Eupert's iliver, in Hudson's Bay. Andre Michaux, 

 the distinguished botuiist, traversed the country between the St. 

 Lawrence and Hudson's Bay in 1792. He passed through Lake 

 Mistassinni; and in iiis manuscript notes, which were first printed 

 in 1861, for private circulation, at Quebec, a brief description of the 

 Journey is given. "The whole Mistassinni country," says Michaux^ 



