HUKON COUNTY. 295 



through the sand of the ridge and through the peaty marsh soil between 

 the ridge and the Lake, presenting an appearance of having been 

 dropped from floating icebergs. About one mile south-west of Monroe- 

 ville a granite bowlder eight and a half feet long and five feet in breadth 

 projects four feet ten inches above the black mould of the prairie soil*; 

 others somewhat smaller are found here and there, and in places the sur- 

 face is thickly dotted with them. Careful examination was made, to de- 

 termine the question whether any or all of these were dropped after the 

 surface had assumed its present form. Many bowlders were found on the 

 sand ridge presenting such an appearance as suggested the inference 

 that they had been dropped upon the ridge, but an examination in every 

 case, where it was certain that they had not been moved by human 

 agency, showed that they were still resting upon the rock, or upon the clay 

 or gravel underlying the ridge, so that instead of resting upon the sand, they 

 are only partly buried by it. All the well-marked terraces at Berlin 

 Heights have bowlders scattered over them — the lower terraces showing 

 them in the greatest abundance — indicating that they were all a part of 

 the original Drift, cut away into terraces by the wave action, which 

 would naturally leave the bowlders as they are now found. On the prairie 

 soil, north of the ridge, bowlders are scattered here and there, and in 

 places the surface is profusely set with them; but they protruded from 

 the soil in the greatest abundance where the underlying rock or bowlder- 

 clay came nearest to the surface. During a long search, prosecuted for 

 the express purpose of settling this question, not a single bowlder was 

 found in its original bed which was not resting upon the rock or the 

 bowlder-clay. Every fact thus far observed tends to the conclusion that 

 all of the bowlders were dropped before the sand ridge and the prairie 

 soil was formed; but near the south-west corner of Berlin township, in a 

 primitive forest, composed mainly of large oaks, a great number of bowl- 

 ders was discovered resting upon the undisturbed vegetable mould. 



Many of these were lifted out of their beds, and the soil explored to a 

 considerable distance below them. It was found to be pure vegetable 

 mould, extending apparently to the depth of several feet. Certainly 

 every bowlder examined here, rested in and upon this black mould, and 

 the inference seemed at first sight inevitable that they had in some man- 

 ner been dropped upon it. A more careful study of their position and char- 

 acter, however, leads to the conclusion that these also originally constituted 

 a part of the floor of the old swamp, and were deposited in or upon the 

 bowlder-clay covered by it. They are now strictly superficial, resting on 

 the soil, very slightly embedded in it! If they were dropped upon the 

 surface of the swamp, this must have occurred when it was covered with 



