BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 7, pp. 31-66, PL. 1 November so, 1895 



GLACIAL DEPOSITS OF SOUTHWESTERN ALBERTA IN THE 

 VICINITY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



BY GEORGE M. DAWSON, WITH THE COLLABORATION OF R. G. MCCONNELL 



(^Presented before the Society August 28^ 1895) 

 CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 31 



Physical features of the region 32 



Summary of previous observations 35 



Sections in the valleys of Belly and Oldman rivers 39 



Southern part of the Porcupine hills 44 



Plain and valley west of the Porcupine hills 48 



High wood river and vicinity. . . 49 



Highwood river to Calgary 50 



Sections in Bow River valley ".' 51 



Summary and discussion 58 



Introduction, 



The western plains and the Rocky Mountain region of Canada un- 

 doubtedly constitute one of the most important fields of investigation in' 

 connection with the glacial period in North America. The area there 

 characterized by glacial deposits is an enormous one, but the facts de- 

 rived from it have so far been accorded comparatively little weight in the 

 construction of hypotheses for the continent. Of these hypotheses those 

 in best standing have grown up chiefly during the detailed study of the 

 southern portion of the glaciated region of the east. Distance, and a 

 general unfamiliarity with the somewhat complex physical features of 

 this western region, have undoubtedly prevented a ready appreciation of 

 its phenomena, but these also must in the end be fully reckoned with 

 before satisfactory conclusions of a general kind can be definitely reached. 

 In former papers * the writer has endeavored to combine the observa- 

 tions made by himself and others in the Cordillera and adjacent parts of 

 the Great plains in a common scheme, although one admittedly of a char- 



*Am. Geologist, Sept., 1890, p. 153. On the Physiographical Geology of the Rocky Mountain 

 region in Canada. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. viii, sec. 4, 1890, p. 4. 



V— Bull. Geol, Soc. Am., Vol. 7, 1895. (31) 



