376 Dr Richardson’s View of the Geognostical Structure , <$•■£, 
of the weather on the more elevated exposed rocks throughout 
the country, has formed a covering of alluvial matter of greater 
pr less depth to the subjacent rocks, which protects them from 
the further gnawing effects of the atmosphere. 
With regard to the large rolled blocks which are so plenti- 
fully scattered over the surface of some countries, and which 
have been considered to have been deposited by the waters of 
the flood, we have no remarks of moment to make. During 
our journey from York Factory to Fort Enterprise, we seldom 
had an opportunity of ascending out of the valley of the river 
through which our route lay, and any blocks of stone observed 
in such a situation, may as readily be supposed to have been 
transported by the river as by a more general cause. On the 
barren grounds, where we adopted a different style of travelling, 
the loose stones, which were very numerous, even in the most 
elevated situations, were, as far as we observed, similar to the 
rocks on which they rested, and may be supposed to be the more 
durable remains of the covering strata, which have been de- 
stroyed by long-continued action of the atmosphere. Their 
angular forms, and their resting places, often upon the very 
summit of the hills, militate against their having travelled from 
a distance. 
The very general, though rude, resemblance these rocks bore 
to large crystals, is a remarkable circumstance, and seems to in- 
dicate a crystallization in the great of the red granite, of which 
they were very frequently composed, and of whose beds or strata 
they are perhaps the remains. 
We may conclude with observing, that the preceding details 
show, that, in the regions we traversed, the rocks of the primi- 
tive, transition, secondary, and alluvial classes, have the same 
general composition, structure, position, and distribution, as in 
other parts of America which have been examined; and as 
these agree in all respects with the rock formations in Europe 
and Asia, they may with propriety be considered as universal 
formations, parts of a grand and harmonious whole, the pro- 
duction of infinite wisdom,” 
