24 C (GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP CANADA. 



Marsh (the extremity of Beacon Point), will serve to show the appear- 

 ance of the clay banks of the Nelson along its lower section. 



First Limestone The First or Lowest Limestone Rapid proved to be about seventy- 

 seven miles in a straight line from Point of Mai-sh, or about ninety by 

 the river. The foot of the rapid is in latitude 56° 3(3' G-1". Here, and 

 at twent3"-two miles higher up the river, the variation of the compass 

 is 11° 30', while at the place where the above photograph was taken it 

 is 8° 45'. Two more strong rapids over limestone occur at nine and 



First gneis?. ^^^^ miles respectively above the lowest one. The first gneiss is seen in 

 the bed of the river ten miles higher up, and the limestone in the 

 banks disappears at two or three miles further on. The high clay 

 escarpments of the lower part of the river contimie to the Limestone 

 Rapids, where they still have an elevation of about 100 feet, but they 

 have diminished somewhat where the limestone disappears ; and the 



Termination of [^j^re banks skirtinff the river terminate near the foot of a chute with a 



bare clay banks » 



«t Twelve-feet pei-peiidicular i)itch of twelve feet, sixteen miles above theThii'd Limc- 

 Chute. , 



stone Rapid. Beyond this, an occasional bank of clay is seen as far as 

 (tuH Lake, but around this body of water and up to Split Lake the 

 counti'V appears to be generally pretty k^vel. A few species of marine 



Marine shells , ,, ^ , , . , . , , . , ., . 



in clay. sliells Were observed in the upper parts oi the clay banks all the way 



from the mouth of the river to the twelve-feet chute just mentioned. 

 The only species met with at this upper limit were Saxicaoa rugosa 

 and TeUina proxima. The elevation, as indicated by l)arometer, was 

 upwards of 200 feet above the sea. 



Pre- laciai ^^^ ^3 report for 1878 it was stated that tlie lower part of tlie Nelson 



channel. River appears to flow in a pre-glaciai channel, l^^vidences ol the exist- 



ence of such a channel were ibund in Aarious places along the river all 

 the way to Split Lake. It was also mentioned in the repoi't referred 

 , to, that the straight portion of the river between this lake and Sipi-wesk 



Kiver channel ' o jr x 



along a great Hes ill a channel scooped out during the glacial period along the course 

 of a great dyke an<l afterwards tilled with pebbly- ^^'^J- f'» the neigh- 

 Loose shingle, bourhood of the Limestone Rapids, and for some miles both above and 



«kc., in hollows 



in boulder clay, below them, the hard boulder-clay has been excavated in many places 

 and the hollows filled with loose boulders, shingle, gravel, sand and 

 stratified clay. For a number of miles before coming to the First 

 Limestone Rapid the banks on both sides are about 120 feet high and 

 consist generally of unstratitied pebbly clay, but at a point on the 

 n(u-th we.st side, between two and three miles below the rapid, from 

 twenty-five to fifty feet of sand, gravel and cobble-stones rest upon 100 

 Compo.-'ition ofl^'^tof this clay. Close by, to the north-east of this, the river bank 

 river banks, consists of ycllow-drab fine sandy clay, and a little further on in the 

 same direction it consists of thirty feet of boulders, cobble-stones and 



