626 PROCEEDINGS OF BOSTON MEETING. 



one to the north and the other to the south. It is a favorite canoe trip to go down 

 the Mattawa from Trout lake near North bay, up the Ottawa, up the Montreal 

 river a short distance, up the north outlet of lake Tamagaming, from this lake 

 down its southern outlet to Sturgeon river, down this to lake Nipissing and thence 

 back to North bay. The surveys for the James bay extension of the Grand Trunk 

 railway were going on during the past season northward from North baj^ From 

 Mr J. C. Bailey, of Toronto, who had charge of the work, I learned much concern- 

 ing the character of the country, and especially of the region surrounding lake 

 Tamagaming. The divides northeast and south of this lake are not high. To the 

 north of North bay for perhaps 40 to 50 miles the land about the sources of the 

 Little Sturgeon, Antoine and Jocko rivers is high ; but considering the low altitude 

 of lake Temiscamang and the others southwestward it seems a pretty safe conjec- 

 ture that the high tract north of Nipissin'g strait was a large island, and that it was 

 bounded toward the east by a broad expanse of water overlying the upper Ottawa, 

 toward the north by a wide strait overlying lake Tamagaming, and to the w^est by 

 an open water surface extending nearly to Cartier. Dr Bell gives the altitude of 

 lake Abittibi as 857 feet and of the pass over the Height of Land between lakes 

 Temiscamang and Abittibi as 957 feet above sealevel. 



CoNcr.rsioNS. 



The belief which I ventured to express in a previous paper * has in the main been 

 verified. At their highest level the Great lakes had open connection with waters 

 to the east through a broad strait at Nipissing, and it now seems probable that 

 tliey had another to the noi'theast. It is not yet proved that these connections 

 were with the ocean, but I believe the evidence tends more and more strongly 

 toward that conclusion. The glacial hypothesis was plausible and useful, but as 

 exploration has progressed it has been found necessary to put the ice dams farther 

 and farther back, until it now seems fair to say that the burden of proof rests Mnth 

 those who favor them. 



In view of these facts, I express again, and with increased confidence, the belief 

 that the Iroquois beach and the highest beaches in the lower Saint Lawrence, 

 Champlain, Hudson and Ottawa valleys, and in the basins of lakes Huron, Michigan 

 and Superior, and also in the valle}^ of the Red river of the North, are all one con- 

 tinuous shoreline of the sea. 



Fort \¥ayne, Indiana. 

 The fifth paper was — 



EXTRAMORAINIC DRIFT BETWEEN THE DELAWARE AND THE SCHUYLKILL 

 BY EDW^\RD H. WILLIAMS, JUNIOR 



This paper is printed as pages 281-296 of this volume. 



Following the presentation of these five papers there was an animated 

 discussion, participated in by the authors present. Remarks were also 

 made by I. C. White and President Dawson. 



* " The highest Old Shore Line on Mackinac Island," Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, vol. xliii, March 

 1892, pp. 216 and 218. 



