SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 91 



thus indicated were those on which eroding agencies afterwards 

 shaped the country. 



The arrangement of the lakes in British Columbia, and their long 

 river-like forms, are very remarkable, suggesting at least the action 

 of glacier ice, which, though it may possibly have formed rock-basins 

 in some places, has generally, I believe, been instrumental in causing 

 lakes by the arrangement of the drift-material in preexisting hollows. 

 To the mode of formation of lakes in British Columbia T hope, how- 

 ever, on a future occasion to return, when more information may 

 have been collected. 



The fjords and passages of the coast, while quite analogous to 

 those of Scotland, Norway, and Greenland, probably surpass those of 

 any part of the world (unless it be the last-named country) in 

 dimensions and complexity. They also appear to differ from those of 

 Scotland and Norway in their narrower and more parallel-sided forms, 

 and in the height of the walls which bound them. They are, no 

 doubt, the valleys of rivers worn out when the coast stood at a 

 greater elevation, and are all continued inland by deep gorges, in 

 which streams still flow. The upper end of each inlet usually shows 

 a small area of low swampy land, formed of material brought down 

 by the river. It is continued seaward by a shallow flat for a short 

 distance, and then dips steeply down, like the front of a terrace, into 

 deep water. The arrangement of the material shows that the waters 

 of the sea have long maintained nearly their present level. In fol- 

 lowing the inlets down they are found to be very deep, often as 

 much as 150 fathoms, and sometimes over 200, though in most cases 

 they are marked on the charts as 50 or 100 fathoms and no bottom. 

 On arriving at the mouth of the fjord the water shoals — just as de- 

 scribed in Scotland by Mr. Geikie. This I believe to be caused by 

 the banking-up of sediment by the tidal currents, which run with 

 great fury up and down the coast, but flow with decreased power 

 into the sheltered fjords. There may be instances of true rock- 

 basins ; but the exact evidence required to put this question beyond 

 doubt has not been obtained. In view of the deep and narrow 

 chasms or canons, in which many of the western rivers now run, 

 and the difficulty, even if the whole outlet of a fjord is seen to be 

 over rock, of proving the non-existence of drift-blocked channels in 

 other directions, it is well to be cautious in the assumption of deep 

 rock-basins when other causes quite competent to the explanation 

 of the facts are at hand. 



An elevation of the coast of British Columbia to a height of 150 

 feet above its present level, would now convert the inlets of the 

 western part of Yancouver Island into a number of deep lakes, lying 

 among the mountains, with their lower ends stretching out on a level, 

 as a gently sloping plain of detrital material, over which their rivers 

 would seek the ocean. The analogy of this state of affairs to that 

 now obtaining with the strings of lakes following the slopes of some 

 of the mountain-chains of the interior, will be evident from a glance 

 at the map. 



The highest mountain at Vancouver Island (Victoria Peak) attains 



