QUATERNARY AGE. — CHAMPLAIN PERIOD. 543 



Glacial period was eminently a period of abrasion and of valley- 

 erosion, and of the gathering and transportation of earth and stones, 

 and also of some deposition along the course of the glacier, and much 

 at its terminus, the Champlain was the era of the general depo- 

 sition of this earth and stones, and the further distribution of it by 

 inland waters in the excavated valleys and lake-basins, and along sea- 

 borders. 



Facts demonstrate, moreover, that the period was not only one of 

 lower level than the present, but, further, that the amount of depres- 

 sion increased northward, so that the beds of rivers flowing south- 

 ward often had diminished slope in Champlain time, and the waters a 

 slackened flow, with, consequently, many expansions into lakes along 

 their course ; and that their exit to the sea was often by long and 

 wide estuaries. 



The Champlain period, or era of depression, includes two sub- 

 divisions : — 



1st. The Diluvian epoch, or that of the depositions from the melting 

 glaciers, which depositions began when the melting had far advanced 

 (the earth and stones having been in the lower portion of the glacier, 

 and the melting having been general over its surface), and which 

 continued — probably with some interruptions — until the melting 

 bad ended. Direct evidence of the final flood is contained in the 

 deposits (p. 546). 



2d. The Alluvian epoch, or the part of the era of depression after 

 the melting had ended, characterized by depositions of a more quiet 

 character. 



II. Hocks : kinds and distribution. 



1. Kinds of deposits. — The deposits of the Diluvian division of 

 the Champlain period are of the following kinds : (1) those that were 

 dropped by the glacier, after the period of melting set in, over the 

 hills where there were no waters to receive them, and which are, 

 therefore, unstratified ; and (2) those which fell into waters, or where 

 the waters could gather them up for transportation, and which there- 

 fore became more or less stratified. In other words, the unstratijied 

 and stratified Drift, as stated on page 527, were deposited mainly in 

 the Diluvian era of the Champlain period. 



To the Alluvian era belong the subsequent deposits of the period. 



In both eras, there were, outside of Glacial latitudes, and partly 

 within, other formations of various kinds in progress, like those of 

 the present day. 



A. Unstratijied Drift. — The unstratified Drift consists of sand, 

 gravel, stones, lying pell-mell together, as they were thrown down 



