112 COMMISSION OP CONSERVATION 



waska, to beyond the limits of the sheet. While thus it is often very 

 difficult, except for the experienced woodsman, to traverse the forests 

 of the unsettled portions of the country on foot, the district is admirably 

 suited for canoe travel, and, by means of canoes, access may be had to 

 any part of it. 



The lakes, which are so numerous in this tract of country, occupy- 

 ing, as has been shown, shallow depressions in the plain, are, in some 

 cases, true rock basins, and, in other cases, depressions in the mantle of 

 drift. Other lakes have banks which are in part rock and, in part, 

 drift, occupying, in some instances, portions of a rock basin which has 

 been partitioned off, or partly filled up by a mass of drift. 

 A striking example of a rock basin is that occupied by Clear lake, 

 in the southeastern comer of the township of Sherborne. Still other 

 excellent examples are afforded by Compass lake and Stoplog lake, 

 situated in the granite country forming the western side of the town- 

 ship of Burleigh. This tract of country is free from drift, and consists 

 of a series of low ridges of granite running with the strike of the gneiss, 

 in the depressions of which He little lakes. Another peculiar example 

 is to be found in a narrow lake, nearly two miles long, crossing conces- 

 sions XII, XIII, and xiv on the west side of the township of Lutter- 

 worth, this lake depression being remarkable in that it cuts directly 

 across the strike of the gneiss in which it is excavated, throughout its 

 whole length. 



As an instance of lakes which lie in depressions in the drift, the 

 two lakes situated on lots 25, 26 and 27, of concessions x, xi, and xii 

 of the township of Harcourt, may be cited. They lie in a sandy pine 

 flat, which has an elevation of only a few feet above their waters, and 

 which is continuous with that through which the branch of the York 

 river draining these lakes flows, both to the north and south of the 

 lakes in question. Another lake about which very little rock is exposed, 

 and whidi may be said to occupy a drift depression, is Clearwater lake 

 in the township of McClintock. Oxtongue lake, in the same township, 

 as well as Beech and Maple lakes, in the township of Stanhope, are in 

 like manner almost entirely bordered by drift. Head lake, by the side 

 of which the village of Haliburton is situated, and many other sheets of 

 water in the area, have no rock exposed about their margins. 



Furthermore, it can be clearly seen from the surface features of 

 the country, that, in many cases, groups of these lakes, which are now 

 separate sheets of water, were at one time connected. The low flats of 

 stratified sand which separate them are clearly portions of the lake 

 bottom when the water stood at a somewhat higher level than at present, 

 while the higher land, which formed the original lake shores, can be 

 seen in the background bordering the plain. > 



Thus, in the southern portion of the township of Dysart, Head 

 lake, Grass lake, and the httle lake immediately to the south of the 

 latter sheet of water, were at one time connected with each other, and, 

 with Lake Kashagawigamog. In the same way. Drag lake formerly 

 extended ^to the southwest across the sand flat on concessions iv, v, 

 and VI of Dysart, to Long lake, on concession iv, and thence to Blue 

 Hawk lake, on concession i of Dysart. Drag lake was thus formerly 

 at least twice as large as it is at present, and probably extended to the 



