Abandoned Beaches of Lake Superior. — Taylor. 119 
claj'^. But on closer axamination the boulders were all found 
to be projecting upward into the clay and really resting on 
the subjacent floor of drift or rock. In one case the cla}^ was 
found abutting against an almost vertical bank of gravel 
which it had apparently once covered over entirely. 
The red clay extends nearly toNordland station but grows 
thinner toward Dexter and appears Anally in only small 
patches here and there. Then comes a belt of sand and above 
that gravel. Bordering the edges of the marshes in some places 
north of Buda and south of Nordland there are small low frag- 
mentary ridges of gravel suggesting shore structure. This 
part of the valley appeared to be too narrow, however, to have 
built beach ridges by wave action. If they are shore forms 
they are probabl}' made by ice-jamming as is often seen on 
small lakes. The altitude of these surface gravels lying next 
above the red clays is about 1530 or 1540 feet above sea level. 
(930 or 940 feet above lake Superior.) I learned afterwards 
from Col. Dawson in Ottawa that there are old gravel terraces 
of shore origin on Dog lake towards the east (head of the 
Kaministiquia river) at about the same level.* 
Nothing whatever was learned of the boundaries of this lake 
or the situation of its outlet. The contour of 1540 feet, liow- 
ever, would indicate a lake of considerable size, at least fort}'' 
to fifty miles long and nearly as wide, and of very irregular 
shape, with an outlet most probably toward the southwest into 
the Rain}'^ Lake valley. Its waters must have been held in by 
the ice-lobe that tilled the Superior basin and stood as a wall 
across the eastward opening of the several valleys that con- 
verged to the lower Kaministiquia. The existence of a lake 
in this situation at this stage of the glacial retreat is quite 
contrary to the views of some glacialists, who would have the 
area of lake Kaministiquia still covered by the Kewatin ice- 
sheet. 
Independently of these considerations I had concluded that 
the faint strife on the north side of Mt. McKay indicated 
ice-motion from east to west, slightly north of west. But ac- 
cording to Dr. Bell Louis Agassiz observed strite in a valley 
near Ft. William ''running about due east."f (Jonsidering 
♦Possibly these are the same as those observed by Hind (1859) at Great 
Dog portage at 1435 feet. 
f'Geology of Canada," 18a3, p. 888. 
