
‘234 B. N. A. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 
Hector says of them, that their whole eastern slope, with its broken 
country is “strewn with boulders, and worn into conical knolls and deep 
pot holes,” forcibly reminding him of the country where the south 
Saskatchewan intersects the Coteau des Prairies ;* and again on a foliow- 
ing page—“ The abrupt slope, facing to the east, follows a curved line to 
the north-west, and is everywhere strewn with boulders, principally of 
primitive rocks, and angular masses of chert and magnesian limestone.” 
539. The edge of the third prairie plateau is, however, toward the 
north, less definite than southward, and is broken up into separate systems 
of flat-topped hills; and the arrangement of the drift deposits no doubt 
partakes of the same irregularity. I cannot but believe, however, that 
the deep vallies, without outlet, which seem to have perplexed Dr. 
Hector in this region, are explicable in the same way as those found 
within the Coteau near Wood Mountain, and that there also great deposits 
of drift material have been piled on old surfaces seamed with pre-glacial 
vallies. Of these Dr. Hector writes—with special reference to certain 
instances in the Kar Hills, south of Battle River :—‘‘ The surfaces of the 
higher plains are in some localities traversed by profound rents, resemb- 

ling the vallies of great rivers, but which, after running for some miles, 
are generally found to be closed at both ends. They are often occupied 
by deep lakes of salt water, depressed 200 to 300 feet below the plain, and 
from 500 yards to a mile in width.” + . 
540. The frequent occurrence of saline lakes, in the rugged district 
of the edge of the highest prairie steppe, is also mentioned; and their 
position, generally at the same altitude, and along a well-marked old coast 
line, leads Dr. Hector to attribute their salinity to the remains of the 
salts of the sea itself. To me it would appear more probable, both from 
the composition of the salts, and the fact that similar saline waters were 
frequently found issuing from the rocks—especially those of Cretaceous 
No. 4—that they primarally owe their salinity to chemical action pro- 
eceding xmong the little consolidated beds of the Tertiary or Cretaceous ; 
and its persistence to the want of drainage vallies. Be this as it 
may, they are totally distinct in character and origin from the salt 
springs of Lake Manitoba, and the Red River Valley to the east. 
541. South of the forty-ninth paraliel, the continuation of this belt 
of drift material can also be traced. It runs south-eastward, character- 
izing the high ground between the tributaries of the Missouri and the 
* Exploration of British North America, p, 64, t Ibid., p. 221, 
