1.18 GEOEGE MEKCEE DAWSON ON THE 



glacial phenomena which came under his own notice on Vancouver 

 and as far north as the Queen-Charlotte Islands. 



In regard to Alaska, Dall writes*, after describing his route 

 across the breadth of that territory : — " I have carefully examined 

 the country over which I have passed for glacial indications, and 

 have not found any effects attributable to such agencies;" and 

 again t, "Three years' exploration, with a strong disposition to 

 develop the facts of the case, failed to obtain on the shores of Norton 

 Sound, or in the valley of the Yonkon, any evidence whatever of 

 such action." If Alaska has indeed escaped glaciation, while 

 British Columbia and the adjacent regions have been so shaped by it, 

 the fact is an extremely remarkable one. It must be observed, 

 however, that Mr. Dall has failed to notice the evidence of glacial 

 action in the inlets of the coast, and, indeed, affirms that no traces 

 of such appear J ; while my own observations, confirmed and 

 extended to a wider area by those of Mr. Richardson, show that 

 glacier-work on a gigantic scale has occurred in them. In endea- 

 vouring to explain by any satisfactory scheme the sequence and 

 cause of the phenomena, one meets with many elements of uncer- 

 tainty and complication, arising not only from the very pronounced 

 and varied physical features of the country, but from our as yet 

 very imperfect knowledge of great regions of the interior. It may, 

 however, be well to give such conclusions bearing on these points as 

 a study of the region has enabled me to form. 



There is little doubt that the glaciation from north to south is 

 the earliest fact of the ice-age of which any record has yet been 

 found ; and the question arises as to whether this should be attri- 

 buted to glacier-ice as such, or to floating ice. If to the former, it 

 cannot be due to local action of any kind, as some of the localities 

 where grooving is observed are elevated above the whole sur- 

 rounding country, and the direction of movement required is con- 

 trary to the general inclination of the broken central plateau, and 

 towards a region in the vicinity of the 49th parallel which is nearly 

 blocked with irregularly traversed mountain-ranges. For reasons 

 stated in a former investigation of the glacial phenomena of the 

 Great Plains, I do not believe the theory of a polar ice-cap to be 

 applicable to the western part, at least, of North America ; but it 

 must be confessed that the indications noted in some places in British 

 Columbia more nearly answer to the kind of traces which such an 

 ice-cap would be expected to leave than any thing I have elsewhere 

 seen. The portion of the supposed ice- cap entering the central 

 plateau must, however, be imagined to have passed as a preliminary 

 across the mountainous region to the north of the Skeena and about 

 the Pindlay river, the Peace-river gaps lying obliquely to its 

 course, and being besides not sufficiently large to admit the requi- 

 site quantity of glacier-ice, even if the pressure was so applied as to 

 push it directly through the hollow. 



* Am. Journ Sci. and Arts, vol. xlv. p. 96. 



t " Observations on the Geology of Alaska," pub. in ' Alaska Coast Pilot,' 

 1869, p. 196. J Op. cit. p. 195. 



