OF LAKE AREA OF WESYERN CANADA. 229 
of the earlier investigators of our geology, and, notably, by Mr. Roy, 
im his ‘much-discussed paper on the terraces of Lake Ontario, commu- 
nicated to the Geological Society of London, in 1837.* The difficulty 
of finding a satisfactory location for a barrier of this kind, led Sir 
Charles Lyell, however, to reject the idea of an original lake ex- 
tension, and to refer the formation of our terraces entirely to the 
action of the sea, during the slow uprise of the land at the com- 
mencement of the present epoch. In this, he has been followed 
by all geologists who have subsequently examined these terraces. 
The difficulty may perhaps be surmounted, by assuming the earlier 
and greater elevation of that portion of the country lying to the east 
of the gneissoid belt which connects our northern Laurentian dis- 
trict with the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The subse- 
quent depression of this region would open an eastern outlet to the 
lake-waters, and gradually lower these to their present levels. But 
whatever the explanation, the undoubted fact remains, that, at the 
close of the Drift period, a vast fresh-water sea extended over the 
greater portion of Western Canada, and at a level of at least 500 
feet above the present surface of Lake Ontario. 
Whilst the mollusca of this ancient lake were identical with ex- 
isting species, its shores were peopled by the mastodon and the 
mammoth, and probably by other extinct forms of life, together with 
various species that still survive. A great question remains to be 
solved, Our gravel beds may perhaps reply to this, and reveal 
to us, that here, as in Europe, man and the departed mammoth once 
trod the earth together. Could this be established, the discovery 
would be fraught with even deeper interest than that which attaches 
itself to exhumed human relics of the ancient plains of Picardy and 
the gravel-beds of Suffolk. Our Indian arrow-heads are disentombed 
by hundreds: the connecting link of the extinct tooth or bone may 
not be long forthcoming.t 
* See likewise the paper already referred to, by Sandford Fleming. C.E., on the physical 
characters of the Nottawasaga Valley —Can. Jour. First Series, Vol.I. Mr. Roy’s paper, 
I believe, was never printed. 
¢ Since writing the above, Albert Koch’s account of the discovery of the Missouri masto- 
don has come under the author’s notice. In this account, published in 1841, it is stated that 
the mastodon bones were found in more or less immediate association with large arrows 
heads. The same writer also attests to the discovery of wrought implements in connexion 
with Edentate remains in Gasconade county, Missouri. 
