194 Canadian Record of Science. 



even line of surface at the top which shows that.it was 

 carried into its position by the action of water. 



Passing close to the shore for a distance of about half a 

 mile the limit of the bank is reached, and it is then seen 

 to sweep away from the river in a curving line until it 

 joins the high ridge formed by the tail or continuation of 

 Eigaud Mountain. 



As the train advances and both sides of the lake come 

 into view together, it can now be seen that there is a 

 similarity between the banks on both sides of the water, 

 and that they present the appearance which is seen when 

 a railway embankment or a dam has been broken ; thus 

 giving the impression that a great bank or dam extended 

 across the whole width of the lake, which has been broken 

 and cut away by the water, leaving only the two ends 

 which now form the bank on each side of it. 



As it is a well-established fact that the tendency of a 

 steep bank is to become flattened by the constant action 

 of the ordinary forces of nature, and these banks as well 

 as those of the St. Pierre Valley, which were first noticed, 

 are still steep and regular, it may further be inferred that 

 these chancres took place at a comparatively recent period 

 of geological time. 



Passing quickly over another alluvial plain flanked on 

 the South by Kigaud Mountain and crossing a small 

 river which flows past the western end of the mountain, 

 the country becomes uneven with rounded gravelly hills 

 and occasional outcrops of limestone, until the half-way 

 point between Montreal and Ottawa is reached at Van 

 Kleek Hill, beyond which great stretches of peat bogs, 

 bounded by well-defined raised beaches, begin and extend 

 over almost the whole of the distance to Ottawa. 



If a journey is made in the Spring, these bogs are 

 usually covered with water for a great distance, repro- 

 ducing to some extent the former conditions when this 

 region was a vast lake extending in places to the base of 

 the Laurentians to the north and beyond the line of 







