Northern Drift from the Rocky Mountains. 321 
to eighteen inches wide. The ice action is also well shown in 
the sharp peaks of the erupted, intruded rocks, having been 
broken off and the surface smoothed and polished, as well as 
grooved and furrowed, by the ice action on a sinking land, giv- 
ing to the numerous promontories and outlying islands which 
here stud the coast, the appearance of roundel bosses’ between 
which the soil is found to be composed of sedimentary alluvial 
deposits, containing the debris of tertiary and recent shelly 
beaches, which have, after a period of depression, been again 
elevated to form dry land, and to give the present aspect to the 
physical geography of Vancouver Island. 
The whole surface of the country is strewn with erratic boul- 
ders. Great masses of 60 to 100 tons in weight,—chiefly of 
various igneous and crystalline, as well as sedimentary rocks, 
sufficiently hard to bear transportation,—are found scattered 
everywhere over the island from north to south, and through 
the region lying on the western slope of the Cascade Moun- 
tains. Some of these syenitic or granitic boulders are of a fine 
grain and accordingly some of the chief buildings in Victoria 
are built from them. Iam not aware that any rock ofa simi- 
lar description is found in situ anywhere in Vancouver Island; 
1t appears to have drifted in icebergs from the north. Iam 
cordially of opinion with Dr. Forbes, that though the last up- 
heaval of the land, which might have taken place at a geologi- 
cally recent period, failed to connect Vancouver Island with 
the mainland of North America; it was at all events sufficient 
to effect to a great extent, the junction of numerous insular 
ridges, and thus to form a connected whole of what ‘was, and 
might have continued to be, only an archipelago of scattered 
islets. The upheaving force elevated and connected these and 
brought to the surface, the great clay, gravel and sand deposits 
of the northern Drift which had swept over, and been deposited 
on, the submerged land. These sands, gravels and clays, were 
now to form the soil of land, prepared for the habitation of man. 
These constituents of the drift remain, in many parts, eed 
Vancouver Island. Bauermann has described it as seen near 
Victoria, and I am to be able to vouch for the correctness 
of his description: it is extensively developed not only there 
