388 ON THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF 



3. That the true drainage channels cut across and drain 

 these crevasses, thus preventing them from becoming tor- 

 rents as they would be if they were the only drainage channels. 

 The same conditions probably prevailed in Nova Scotia where 

 the streams cross the eskers. 



4. Systems of diverging fissures, caused probably by the 

 ice sheet passing over a hill or mountain spur, have been , 

 seen by Shackleton. Corresponding systems of diverging 

 eskers have been seen in Maine and possibly in other countries. 



5. Therefore we know that these crevasses are not a 

 part of the permanent drainage system of Nova Scotia, 

 Sweden or Eastern America. 



6. That these transverse crevasses are being carried 

 forward with all that i§ in them, with slow but invincible 

 power, undoubtedly causing distorted stratification, and a 

 mixed condition of the contents, such as we actually see in 

 our own eskers, is evident. 



7. If there is debris for the subglacial stream to gather 

 up and transport there must be also debris for the transverse 

 crevasse to gather and transport. 



8. While the stream gathers debris only from its line of 

 drainage, the crevasse would gather debris from the whole 

 breadth of country behind it, hence the accumulations must 

 be somewhat different in each. So too, is there a difference 

 to some extent between the contents of the eskers and the 

 valley kames of Nova Scotia. 



9. As to the origin of the esker contents, Prof. Russell 

 says that the lower 50 feet of the Malaspina glacier contains 

 much earth, pebbles and other eroded material; the same 

 is said of some of the Swiss glaciers. 



10. Glaciers carrying debris at last come to a stand-still; 

 and when melting the crevasses must leave their contents 

 behind them in a comparatively undisturbed condition, 

 altogether different from that of the stream gravels and 

 other modified glacial deposits in the line of drainage, as 

 is evident in Nova Scotia. 



