Geological Society of London, 419 



2. '' On the Drift of Brazil." By C. Lloyd Morgan, Esq., F.G.S., 

 Assoc. E.S.M. 



The author described the position and mode of occurrence of large 

 boulders of gneiss and granite in the red drift of Brazil on the 

 slopes of hills even at considerable elevations, and stated that, like 

 Professor Agassiz, he could not see how these could have been trans- 

 ported to their present positions except by the agency of ice. At 

 the same time he stated that none of these boulders exhibit any 

 glacial scratches, nor are any such markings perceptible on exposed 

 rock surfaces ; their absence on the latter he thought might be due 

 to weathering. The surface of the gneiss on which the red drift 

 lies is, however, moutonnee. The author remarked with regard to 

 the great glacier which Prof. Agassiz imagined to have filled the 

 valley of the Amazons, that the Andes from which he supposed it 

 to have come are more than 1500 miles from Rio, and that right 

 across the country there stretches an almost continuous series of 

 mountains and hills. He also called attention to the existence of 

 mountains in eastern Brazil of sufficient height to have nourished 

 glaciers, but at the same time remarked that the question of the 

 origin of the supposed glaciers cannot be satisfactorily answered 

 until the boulders found in the clay have been traced to their sources. 

 For his own part he is inclined to believe that the drift, if of glacial 

 origin, was not formed by glaciers taking their rise in any of the 

 peaks indicated by him, but by an almost universal South- American 

 ice-sheet. 



3. " Recent Glacial and Aqueous Action in Canada and the Drift- 

 Uplands of the Province of Ontario." By the Rev. Wm. Bleasdell. 

 Communicated by the President. 



The author stated that an enormous amount of glacial action takes 

 place every winter in Canada, especially on the River St. Lawrence 

 and its large lakes. " Anchor ice " and " Pack ice " are drifted 

 down the stream, abrading and carrying off piece-meal the various 

 small islands studded along its course. A " shove," as it is termed, 

 often takes place on the breaking up of the ice ; the broken blocks 

 of ice are piled up and jammed together, damming up the river, 

 and destructive floods ensue when the icy barrier gives way. 

 Several examples of these phenomena which came under his notice 

 are recorded by the author. 



At Presqu'ile Point, Lake Ontario, "banks" of ice are formed 

 by the dashing up of the water. These banks exercise an abrading 

 influence on the shore. In the winter of 1874-75 these ice- 

 " banks " were greater than ever known previously, extending 300 

 feet out into the lake, whilst some of the " hummocks " of ice were 

 20 feet high. Some sixteen years ago a portion of the shore 40 feet 

 wide was laid bare in one winter. The rocks thus exposed were 

 finely polished, grooved, and scratched. These marks have now 

 been obliterated by the very agent that formerly produced them. 

 The author also gives several instances of the formation and cutting 

 through of sandbanks and headlands. The cutting back of the 



