404 B. Damon—" The Great Northern Drift:' 



was able to identify as having been derived from the granitic region 

 of Finland, nearly 1000 miles distant, while others have been traced 

 to the rocks which surround the shores of Lake Ladoga, imme- 

 diately north of St. Petersburg. 



The amount of material transported is not to be judged mei'ely 

 from what appears on the surface. When a space has been opened 

 and the soil removed. Boulders are exposed piled one upon the 

 other in heaps to an enormous depth, recalling to one's mind the 

 accumulated masses of rocks on the shore of a lofty line of coast. 

 These quarries in the Boulder formation being, humanly speaking, 

 inexhaustible, will ever be a source of valuable building material to 

 a district where no other stone besides can be obtained ; and when 

 it is further considered that this represents an area of probably 

 1000 miles in one direction, we realize in part the potency of this 

 most ancient but, comparatively speaking, recently recognized of 

 geological agencies Ice — either as Coast-ice, Pack-ice, Glaciers, or 

 Icebergs. 



In the district around Konigsberg other boulders abound from a 

 different region, viz. the Silurian rocks of Sweden. These are so 

 numerous that in the University Museum of that city a really fine 

 collection of Silurian fossils has been formed, derived exclusively 

 from boulders transported over the Baltic. As the cold of the 

 Glacial Period gave way to a more genial climate, the waters formed 

 for themselves outlets to the Baltic in the rivers Vistula, Niemen, 

 Dwina, etc., thus creating so many highways extending far into the 

 interior of the vast corn-growing plains of Eussian Poland. Here 

 during the winte^r and spring barges of enormous dimensions are 

 constructed on the ice ready to float down the stream at the return of 

 summer, laden with wheat, to stock the granaries of their respective 

 ports of Dantzic, Konigsberg, etc., from whence Europe draws much 

 of her supplies of grain. 



This enormous tract consists of almost unbroken alluvial plains, as 

 boundless as the ocean, without a tunnel, a cutting or a bridge being- 

 visible through an entire day's journey. The railroad is so straight 

 and the scenery so monotonous, that the traveller can hardly realize 

 his onward progress ; the track seems ever to converge towards the 

 same vanishing points on the horizon both in front and behind. 

 Having taken this route many years since, and before the completion 

 of the railway into Eussia, I observed how the country on each side 

 of the line of rails has been cleared, and the granite blocks utilised 

 for building purposes, road-metal, etc. 



In the Northern Cemeteries the boulders are also frequently used 

 as tomb-stones ; those being selected that have a wide base ; but no 

 tool is applied to them save for the inscription, which is as simple as 

 the monolith itself. For example : 



' " Admiral Schonbein. 

 1824 — 1875." 



The journey derives additional interest from historic associations, 

 as it was at Kowno, the frontier station, that the French army, con- 

 sisting of 453,000 men, on the 24th and 25th June, 1812, crossed 



