OBSERVATIONS ON SUPPOSED GLACIAL DRIFT. 257 



may be due to glacial action, similar to that observed in the valley 

 of the Moisie Kiver. 



§ 2. The Forced Arrangement of Blocks of Limestone, ^c. , in Boul- 

 der-Clay. 



The forced arrangement of blocks of limestone, slabs of shale, and 

 boulders of the Laurentian rocks, in the Blue Clay at Toronto, 

 formed the subject of a paper which I read before the Canadian 

 Institute seven years ago. A minute description of this arrange- 

 ment was published in my Report of the Assinniboine and Saskat- 

 chewan Exploring Expedition in 1859,* to illustrate a similar 

 arrangement of blocks of limestone and gneissoid rocks in the clay 

 on the south branch of the Saskatchewan observed in 1858. 



I concluded the description of this remarkable arrangement with 

 the following hint at their origin : — " May not the plastic and irre- 

 sistible agent which picked up the materials composing the Blue 

 Clay, and then melting, left them in their present position, have been 

 largely instrumental in excavating the basins of the great Canadian 

 lakes ? "t 



And, in 1860, in a * Narrative of the Canadian Expeditions," I re- 

 marked, " The widespread phenomena exhibiting the greater or less 

 action of ice, such as grooved, polished, and embossed rocks, the 

 excavation of the deep lakes of the St. Lawrence basin, the forced 

 arrangement of drift, the ploughing-up of large areas, and the extra- 

 ordinary amount of denudation at different levels, without the evi- 

 dence of beaches, all point to the action of glacial ice previous to the 

 operations of floating ice in the grand phenomena of the Drift."J 



§ 3. The Driftless Area in Wisconsin. 



In a recent Report on the Greological Survey of the State of 

 Wisconsin, by the distinguished American geologists, Professors 

 James Hall and J. D. Whitney, the remarkable view is advanced by 

 the latter, that there is an area of more than 3000 square miles in 

 extent (long. 90° W., lat. 42° 50^ N.) which has never been over- 

 flowed since the Upper Silurian epoch. Mr. Whitney says|, " If 

 we consider the magnitude and universality of the drift-deposits in 



* Report on the Assinniboine and. Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition. By Henry Youle 

 Hind, M.A., Toronto, 1859. Byre and Spottiswoode, London, 1860 (Blue Book.) 

 t Op. eit. (Toronto), p. 122. 

 % Narrative of the Canadian Expeditions of 1847 and 1858, vol. ii. p. 254. Longman's 1860> 



