no The American Geologist. Febrnary, isfls 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE RESEARCHES RELATING 
TO THE GREAT LAKES*. 
|{y J. \V. SvENCER, Toronto. 
An old text book upon geology briefly says that the lake 
basins are due to movements of the earth's crust. What the 
movements were and how they affected the history of the 
great lakes was left a subject of discovery for recent years. 
In the mean while, theories arose as to their origin, the dis- 
posal' or modification of which was fraught with difficulties, 
as great as those of discovering the history itself. Ramsay 
had attributed the origin of the American lakes to glacial ex- 
cavation ;f Hunt, Newberry, Carll and many others had col- 
lected the evidence of buried channels occurring in the lake 
region. Gen. G. K. Warren J had followed up the observa- 
tions of Prof. H. Y. Hind § in the history of the Winnipeg 
basin, and proposed the northeast warping as closing the 
Ontario basin, to such a degree that he may be considered 
the father of lacustrine geology. But the great impetus 
towards the investigation of the great lakes is due to Prof. J. 
S. Newberry, ii whose contribution was followed by one from 
Prof. E. W. Claypole.^ To give a full account of the re- 
searches concerning the great lakes, and to tell how each 
author had contributed to the subject would make a very long 
chapter. As the present writer has been so closely connected 
with the pioneering study of the subject, and has announced 
progress from time to time before the American Association 
it seems a fitting opportunity to tell how his investigations 
have been influenced by his co-workers, leaving to others the 
narration of the most recent studies. 
Newberry follow^ed upon the lines of Ramsay in attributing 
the basins of the lakes to glacial excavations, yet there was a 
counter current in his writings which finally advocated that 
the glacial excavation had taken place only after their courses 
*Read at the Detroit meeting of the A. A. A. S., 1897. 
tQuart. Jour. Geol. Soc, Lend., vol. XVIII, pp. 185-204, 1862. 
i Appendix J,, Rep. of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., 1875; Am. 
Jour. Sci. (3), vol. XVI, 1878. pp. 416-431. 
§Report on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedi- ' 
tion. By Henry Youle Hind. Toronto, 1859, pp. 1-20. 
ll'Geology of Ohio, vol. II. 1874, pp. 72-80. ♦ 
1[On the pre-Glacial Geography of the region of the Great Lakes, 
E. W. Claypole. Can. Nat., vol. VIII, 1877, PP. 187-206. 
