QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 93 B 



ment of Tertiary lignite was also observed. This lower part is filled 

 with marine shells, but all the specimens are tender and being imbedded 

 in a hard matrix, difficult to preserve entire. Several inches of the 

 upper part of the shell-bearing layer has been so affected by atmos- 

 pheric waters, that the shells have been completely removed leaving 

 hollow casts. This part of the bed has also been changed to a yellowish 

 colour. 



Mr. J. F. Whiteaves has examined the collection from this place, Fossils. 

 and enumerates the following species : — 



Hemithyris psittacea, Linn. 

 Modiolaria nigra, Gray. 

 Saxicava rugosa, Lamarck. 

 Puncturelta galeata, Gould. 

 Balanus — ? 



And fragments of bivalves, which are scarcely determinable. 



In several other places on this sound, similar sandy beds were seen Extent of clay 

 generally when near the water level well compacted, but were not fitf. sand depo " 

 again found to hold shells. At Echinus Point, on the south shore of 

 the first great expansion of the inlet, at low tide, a very hard sandy 

 clay almost like stone is exposed. It is charged with pebbles and 

 boulders, some of which appear to be ice marked. 



Deposits of this character probably underlie the whole flat country 

 between Masset Inlet and the east coast, while on the southern and 

 western margins of the expansions of the inlet superficial deposits 

 other than boulders, which are evidently derived from the mountains 

 of the immediate vicinity, are wanting, and ice marking was observed 

 in many places on the rocky sides of the valleys. 



On the little islands which lie immediately to the west of the entrance North to South 

 to Masset Inlet, on the open coast, glaciation, very distinct and heavy glaciatlon ' 

 though somewhat worn, was found, with a course of S. 10° E. or the 

 reverse. The mountainous axis of the islands in this their northern 

 part is not high, and this marking is further from it than elsewhere 

 seen. It is pretty evidently glacier work and not that of floating ice, 

 and the question presents itself whether it should be attributed to ice 

 passing off the islands themselves, or the edge of an ice sheet coming 

 down from the channels of the Prince of Wales Archipelago to the 

 north. Boulders are not commonly found along the north shore of 

 Graham Island from Eose Point to Masset, but from that place west- 

 ward they are abundant, and with the beach gravel, in many cases 

 formed of rocks which must have been transported from the mainland 

 to the north or east, and unlike those of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Erradcs. 

 It is quite probable, however, these erratics were carried here by 



