Diluvium. 



167 



truth of this statement in respect to the country about our western 

 lakes ; and Messrs. Jackson and Alger, in their recent, able memoir 

 on the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia, have drawn the 

 same inference from the present position of erratic bowlders in that 

 country. Do not these facts, in connection with those stated in this 

 report, render it extremely probable, that over the whole breadth of 

 North America, the current came from the north: although some- 

 what deflected in some places by local causes ? 



Nor is this all. The facts that have been observed in relation to 

 diluvial action in England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, 

 Russia, and the northern parts of Asia, seem to justify the inference 

 that the last deluge in those portions of the globe, came from the 

 north ; though modified in its course by local causes.* Hence it 

 would seem that this deluge, in all the northern parts of the globe, 

 had this direction ; and may have been produced by the elevation of 

 an extensive portion of the bottom of the Artie ocean. De La Beche, 

 in his recent able Geological Manual,! seems to regard the " center 

 of disturbance" as situated to the north of Europe; and leaves us to 

 infer that diluvial action in America was merely the result of the 

 mighty wave, proceeding from that center. But so far as I can judge 

 from the accounts which European geologists have given us of dilu- 

 vial action, in that quarter of the globe, I doubt exceedingly whether 

 it has left traces by any means as striking as in this country. As 

 to grooves and furrows in the rocks, for example, the writer above 

 quoted says, that " Sir James Hall even considers that a rush over 

 the land (in Scotland,) has left traces of its course in the shape of 

 furrows, which the transported mineral substances, moving with great 

 velocity, have cut in the solid rocks beneath." Such language im- 

 plies that these traces are by no means common, as in our country. 

 Have Ave not then reason for supposing that the " center of disturb- 

 ance" might have been situated nearer to this continent than to Eu- 

 rope ? although the general direction of the current on both conti- 

 nents seems to imply that its situation was not far from the north pole. 



* Mr. J. Phillips infers from recent examination in Yorkshire, England, that the 

 diluvial current there was from the north and northwest. And Mr. Murchisson 

 finds that the direction of the diluvial markings on the rocks in Brora district, 

 Scotland, is uniformly from N.N.W. to S.S.E. See Philosophical Magazine^ 

 Vol. 2, N. Series, pp. 140 and 150. 

 tp. 164. 



