278 MK. G. AV. LA.MPLFGH OK GLACIAL 



Glacial Shell-beds at Esquimault, V. I. — Proceeding now to my 

 own observations, I will first describe some sections I examined at 

 Esquimault, Y. I. 



Esquimault is a small village about four miles west of Victoria, 

 so favourably situated on a deep land-locked inlet, known as Esqui- 

 mault Harbour, that it has been selected by the British Govern- 

 ment as the site of their chief naval station in the North Pacific. 

 To increase its utility in this direction the construction of a large 

 dry dock was commenced some time ago on the eastern shore of the 

 peninsula on which the village stands ; and though at the time of 

 my visit work was suspended, owing to the failure of the contractors, 

 it had so far progressed that the excavation was nearly completed, 

 almost the whole of the floor-bed laid, and the side-walls partly 

 raised. 



As the bottom of the excavation was from 20 to 30 feet below 

 high-water mark, the sections exposed possessed peculiar interest, 

 an opportunity being afforded for studying the beds below sea- 

 level. It was seen that the dock had been excavated along a deep 

 narrow fissure in hard igneous rock, which had been partially filled 

 in and hidden by drift- deposits. The rock was probably a diorite, 

 and the drift consisted, in its lower portion, of a confused mass of 

 gravel, sand, and glacial clay, passing upwards into hard sandy 

 tiU. 



The excavation had been carried on chiefly in the drift-beds, but 

 touched the rock on either side, and also at the landward end of 

 the dock, where the fissure became so narrow as to necessitate the 

 quarrying of its walls. 



The bottom of the fissure was not reached, and there remained an 

 unknown thickness of drift below the floor of the dock, a sump-hole 

 sunk down 10 feet from the lowest level being still in clay and 

 gravel*. Along the sides of the fissure the surface of the rock, 

 whether vertical or horizontal, was everywhere beautifully glaciated, 

 except near the entrance to the dock. 



The dock has been excavated in a direction slightly crossing that 

 of the gully, which seems to run about W.S.W. and E.N.E. The 

 rock outcrops above the surface and rises in a steep broken ridge 

 close to the northern edge of the excavation, thus marking the limit 

 of the fissure in that direction ; while on the other side, though the 

 ground in the immediate vicinity remains low and is much obscured 

 by buildings forming the village, and by dump-heaps, there is reason 

 to think that the rock lies not far from the top. 



Before these works were commenced, the sea must have en- 

 croached somewhat on the drift-beds in the gully, so as to form a 

 short inlet into the land, there being a layer of recent shells and 

 other marine remains above the drifts over the greater part of the 

 sections. 



Work having been suspended for some time, the whole of the 

 sections were somewhat obscured by talus ; but that which crossed 



* This information was given to me by the engineer. 



