1865.] Science in British North America. 143 



of them on hill tops, could not have been occasioned by glaciers. 

 The supposed universal glacier could have had no cliffs from which 

 to collect them, and it must have left them, after a transport of hun- 

 dreds of miles, on points as high as their origin. Moreover, boulders 

 are found in marine strata containing sea-shells, and these must have 

 been borne by floating ice. The boulder clay contains marine Post- 

 Pliocene shells in several places. 



4. The Post-Pliocene deposits of Canada indicate a gradual eleva- 

 tion from a state of depression, while there is nothing but the boulder- 

 clay to represent the previous subsidence, and nothing whatever to 

 represent the supposed ice-period, except the scratches on the rock 

 surfaces, which must have had the same cause as the boulder clay. 



5. The land and fresh-water deposits underlying the boulder clay 

 in varioiis places, show that the sea at the period in question had 

 much the temperature of the present arctic currents of the coasts, and 

 that the land was not covered by ice. 



The Eeport of the Survey throws light on the subject, by giving a 

 valuable table of the striations : these are found to run in two principal 

 directions nearly at right angles. Dr. Dawson had no hesitation in 

 stating his belief, that the force causing one of these sets had acted in 

 a direction from the ocean toward the interior, against the slope of the 

 St. Laurence valley. This is quite inconsistent with the glacier 

 theory, but is eminently favourable to the idea of ocean drift, such as 

 would be caused by a subsidence of the land — a fact proved by the 

 Post Pliocene deposits. The facts thus ascertained account for the 

 excavation of the American lake basins, which he compared to the pot 

 holes cut by rivers. The other set of striations would be caused 

 during a particular stage of elevation and depression, when the former 

 outlet would be obstructed. He finally expressed his belief that many 

 sea-beaches, gravel-ridges, and like margins, had been mistaken for 

 morains. 



Mr. William Gossip, Secretary to the Nova Scotian Institute, has 

 described the rocks in the vicinity of Halifax, NS. The report, 

 which appears in the ' Transactions,' gives an account of the relation ; 

 between the metamorphosed stratified rocks and the intruded granites 

 the former consist chiefly of slate and quartzite. In the Halifax 

 peninsula there is no granite. The slaty rocks, wherever laid bare, 

 are striated, and Mr. Gossip discusses the evidences of glacial action. 



Mineralogy. — Professor How, in the same ' Transactions,' com- 

 mences a series of notes on the economic mineralogy of Nova Scotia, 

 in this part treating of the iron ores and iron manufacture of the pro- 

 vince. The value of the provincial iron as compared with the best 

 English, is thus shown : — 



£ s. 

 English pig iron (Staffordshire), average per ton - 4 

 Acadian ... , f n .70 



English bar iron (Staffordshire) „ „ - 9 



Acadian ... M n - 15 10 



Compared with Swedish, their bars rank with the best qualities. 

 There exist in the province three localities for Titaniferous iron ore. 



