Lacustrine Formation of Torryburn Valley. 19 
j European colonists found in })ossession of the country. The 
I deposits of the Southern Basin did not begin to accumulate rapidly 
I until the formation of the 50 feet terrace of the Saxicava period, and 
! are younger than the earliest of the lacustrine beds. Their thick- 
j ness is about seven feet, of which the lower four-and-a-half feet 
I are clays and sands with occasional layers of brown peat. About 
I six inches in depth from the top of these sandy clay beds the charcoal 
was found. The upper two-and-a-half feet of the deposit consists of 
dark brown and black peat which had accumulated after the basin 
ceased to be flooded with water carrying muddy sediment, and was 
converted into a swamp. Firs, cedars, alders and other bushes and 
trees helped to build up a mass or vegetable matter apparently after 
I man came upon the scene. And the beaver continued to build 
[ during the same period in Lawlor’s Lake. They were not 
I exterminated ; we do not know that they were even much disturbed 
by their more powerful and dangerous rival in the art of construct- 
ing dwellings. 
CLIMATE OP ACADIA DURING THE RECENT PERIOD. 
At the present day the climate of this region is very much milder 
than it was during the Glacial or Boulder-clay period. How it be" 
came ameliorated as time went on, is an interesting subject for inves- 
tigation, and has to some extent been elucidated by the writings of 
Dr. J. W. Dawson and others. The remains of marine animals en. 
tombed in the Post-Pliocene deposits do not so clearly show this, as do 
the remains of land plants, because they tell rather of the tempera- 
ture of the sea and its currents, than of the warmth or dampness of 
the air circulating over the land, or the influence of the sun in pro- 
moting vegetable growth. By means of the plants remains of the 
Champlain epoch Dr. J. W. Dawson has shewn that the climate of 
the Ottawa valley during that period, was about as warm as the 
southern coast of Labrador is at the present time. 
All of the plants named by Dr. Dawson as occurring in the marine 
clays of the Ottawa valley except the Balm of Gilead [Populus 
halsamifera) might now be found growing freely in a wild state near 
Saint John. There would, nevertheless, be many species of a more 
southern range mingled with them, showing a more genial climate, but 
I am inclined to think that the plants which occur in the lower part 
