LAMPLUGH: GLACIATIOX IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. 59 
near its head where it again widens into a basin somewhat larger 
than that which forms Victoria Harbour. 
The whole of this part of North America, from Puget Sound 
northw^ard to Alaska,* is an area of depression, and the sea occupies 
deeply-excavated valleys which often run quite into the heart of the 
mountains of the Coast Range. A perfect network of licjrds, straits, 
and islands is thus formed. 
So little has marine erosion done towards the shaping of the 
land, that during the course of a voyage northward to Alaska along 
these narrow water-ways, I saw^ very few parts of the coast where 
if there was solid rock, the sea had as yet cut even a beach-shelf, 
though there were a few low sea-formed cliffs of till ; and the steep 
mountain- slopes on either side were generally seen to pass unbroken 
beneath the clear waters of the fiords. 
Glaciation. — In the area shown on the map, wherever the solid 
rock is seen, whether the outcrop be extensive or otherwise, it 
invariably shows signs of severe glaciation, even on the top of the 
highest hill in the neighbourhood. Mount Douglas, whose summit is 
696 feet above sea level. On the rocky bosses inland these signs 
have been partially removed by weathering, so that only the broader 
features remain ; but round the outer coast-line south and east of 
Victoria, where the waves are slowly stripping off the clayey covering", 
rocks can be seen in the low broken cliff showing the effects of 
glaciation, down to the most delicate and minute particular, as freshly 
as though the ice had just been removed from them ; and as one 
passes over their smooth wave-like surfaces, every step reveals 
something worthy of close examination. 
Of the rocks themselves, which are all metamorphic or igneous, 
I can give no accurate description, as my experience of igneous 
rocks has not been great enough to allow me to correctly describe 
or classify them. Dr. Dawson generally speaks of them as 'diorites' 
and ' felsites.' There seemed to me to be a great variety ; some 
north and north-west of the city, closely resembled granites in 
appearance ; whilst near Gonzales Point there were bedded rocks on 
the foreshore that looked liked baked and altered shales with 
* And probably also southward to California. 
