THE LA URENTIAN PENEPLAIN 637 



plutonic rocks, chiefly granite and diabase, are prevalent, rise into rather 

 important elevations; while those regions which are underlain by the slaty 

 member of the Huronian, are on the other hand low and flat. A remarkable 

 resemblance exists between the contour of the surface, occasioned by the 

 presence of the diabase rocks, and that produced by the heavy-bedded and 

 massive quartzite, that forms the highest member of the Huronian exposed in 

 this district, both rising into comparatively high rounded or broken ridges and 

 rendering the stretches of country where such rocks prevail, exceedingly 



rough and hilly This rough and broken contour is in marked contrast 



to the flat surface characteristic of the region in which the slates obtain. 

 (4 p. 21.) 



McOuat also draws attention to the general level character of 

 the country south of Lake Abitibi, and mentions the occurrence 

 of two remarkable hills which rise more than 700 feet above the 

 general level. Lawson in his report on the Rainy Lake country 

 also draws attention to the generally even character of the sur- 

 face, and mentions the striking contrast offered by several ridges 

 which rise prominently above the generally even surface. 

 (19, p. II.) 



Farther northwest, near Lake Winnipeg we find " The country 

 near the river (Berens) .... is made up of many low hum- 

 mocky, gneiss hills, which seldom rise twenty feet above the 

 water, and are partly covered with a heavy clay soil" (Low, 21, 

 p. 5). Nearer the sub-divide we find "The surrounding country 

 is a vast, level swamp, broken only by a few knobs of gneiss, 

 that rise from ten to fifty feet above the general surface" 

 (21, p. II). 



Bell, describing the country along the upper Albany, also 

 draws attention to the generally level character of the district 

 (7, p. 18). J. B. Tyrrell's description of the physical features of 

 the district along the line of the Doobaunt, Kazan, and Ferguson 

 Rivers is as follows : 



The general relief of the whole country is very low and unpronounced, 

 much of it having the appearance of vast undulating plains underlain by 

 sandy or stony till and covered with stunted spruce and larch or short grass 

 and deciduous northern plants. Here and there rise rounded rocky hills, the 

 highest of which in the neighborhood of Kasba Lake have altitudes of about 

 1,700 feet above sea-level. Northeast of Doobaunt Lake some prominent 

 hills of green trap and red conglomerate form conspicuous features in the 



