BOUNDARY OF TEE GLACIATED AREA. 183 



of material coarsely stratified throughout its lower portion, 

 but capped at the summit by about forty feet of coarse, un- 

 stratified material abounding in large striated bowlders, which, 

 as they have been washed out by the erosion of the sea, are 

 falling down to the foot of the bluff in immense numbers. 

 Near the bottom of the bluff there are several strata of vege- 

 tal deposits. One of these, two feet thick, consisted almost 

 wholly of the fragments of the bark of the fir-trees which 

 are now so characteristic of that region. Fragments of wood 

 project from the freshly exposed bank in great abundance. 

 The meaning of these facts will be more readily apparent 

 after a study of the phenomena to the north of the strait. 



The Strait of Juan de Fuca is from fifteen to twenty 

 miles in width, setting in from the Pacific Ocean and run- 

 ning east and west. Its north shore, near Victoria, on Van- 

 couver Island, is remarkably clear of glacial debris. The 

 rocks, however, near Victoria, exhibit some of the most re- 

 markable effects of glacial scoring and striation anywhere to 

 be found. Immediately south of Victoria long parallel fur- 

 rows rise from the shore of the inlet, and ascend the slope 

 of the hill to the south to its summit, a hundred feet or more 

 above the water-level. At the steamboat-landing, outside of 

 the harbor, extensive surfaces freshly uncovered exhibit the 

 montonnee appearance of true glaciation, and, in addition to 

 the finer and abundant scratching and striae, display numer- 

 ous glacial furrows from six inches to two feet in depth, 

 from twenty to thirty-two inches in width, and many feet 

 in length. These grooves are finely polished and striated, 

 resembling those with which geologists are familiar on the 

 islands near the the western end of Lake Erie. Like the 

 corresponding grooves on the islands of Lake Erie, some of 

 those near Victoria also form graceful curves, adjusting them- 

 selves to the retreating face of the rock-wall. That the mo- 

 tion of the ice at Victoria was to the south appears not only 

 from the direction of the striae, but from the fact that the 

 stoss sides of the glaciated rocky projections are toward the 

 north. That they are due to glacial action, and not to ice- 



