TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



iSoba ^cotian Mititntt of Science 



SESSIONS OF 1921-1922 



(Vol. XV. Part 4) 



The Effects of Glaciation in the Vicinity of Wolfville, 

 N. S. — By Frederick C. Churchill, Wolfville, N. S. 



(Read 13 March. 1922) 



About a mile east of Wolfville post office there lies a gorge 

 occupied by a small brook, the waters of which flow northward 

 into the Minas Basin and thus drain part of the Wolfville ridge. 



This valley, called Evan's Gorge, runs at right angles to the 

 Gaspereau River. The tiny brook begins its flow at the summit 

 of the ridge, and as one looks to the south towards the Gaspereau 

 he will see only a slight depression without any stream. Down 

 this slope a little surface or sheet wash finds its way to the river 

 below, and the hillside is more or less swampy, being kept moist 

 by springs. 



Looking northward from the water-shed, the head of the gorge 

 is surrounded by a basin-shaped depression, cut in the arkosic 

 sandstone of the Horton Series which underlies this region. An 

 escarpment of sandstone crosses the head of the gorge, at the 

 crest of the ridge. Here the perpendicular drop to the bottom 

 of the valley is about fifty feet, and it seems reasonable to sup- 

 pose that this escarpment was at one time the location of a 

 waterfall when the valley was occupied by alarger stream than 

 the present one. 



This basin-shaped depression is now the site of a stagnant 

 pool, almost entirely fed by springs and well filled by vegetation 

 adapted to such places. Continuing north and along the valley, 

 we see overlapping rock spurs for several hundred feet, and 

 throughout this distance it has a zigzag course, both facts point- 



(161) 



