.^.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

«3

1.0

1.1

11.25

2.0

U IIIIII.6

*-}.

-f^^

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

'%-

23 WIST MAINSift^uT

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SI0

(716) 873-4503

'^:^%<^
<#

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CiHM/iCMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historicaf Microreproductions / Instltut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

Technical and Bibliographic Notaa/Notaa tachniqua* at bibiiographiqua*

Tha tnstituta has attampted to obtain tha bast
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographicaliy unique,
which may alter any of the images in tha
reproduction, or which may significantly change
tha usual method of filming, are checked below.

Coloured covera/
Couverture de couiaur

I — I Covers d:>maged/

D
D

Couverture endommagia

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restauria at/ou pellicula

□ Cover title missing/
Le titre de couverture manque

Coloured maps/

Cartas g^ographiquaa en couieur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encra de couieur (i.e. autrs que blaue ou noire)

r~l Coloured plates and/or illustrations/

Planchaa at/ou illustrations an couieur

Bound with other material/
Relii avec d'autraa documents

Tight binding may causa shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La re liure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distorsion la long da la marga intiriaura

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutAes
lors d'une restauration apparaissant dans la taxte.
mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pagea n'ont
pas iti film^as.

Additional comments:/
Commentairas supplimentaires;

L'Institut a microfilm* le meilleur exempiaira
qu'il lui a ete possible de se procurer. Lea dAtailt
&$ cat axemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du
point de vue bibiiographiqua, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la mAthoda normale de filmage
sont indiquAs ci-dessous.

r^ Coloured pages/

Pagea da couieur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^aa

Pages restored and/oi

Pages restaur^es et/ou pelliculies

Psges discoloured, stained or foxe<
Pages dicolories, tachatiea ou piqu4es

Pages detached/
Psges ditachaes

Showthrough/
Transparence

Quality of prir

Qualiti inigala de I'impression

Includes supplementary matarii
Comprend du material supplementaira

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

r^ Pages damaged/

r~n Pages restored and/or laminated/

rri Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/

rn Pages detached/

rri Showthrough/

r~| Quality of print varies/

r~n Includes supplementary material/

r~~| Only edition available/

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc.. have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Lea pages totalement ou partieilement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errara, une pelure.
etc., cnt M filmies A nouveau da facon k
obtanir la meilleure image possible.

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous.

10X

14X

18X

22X

26X

30X

12X

16X

20X

24X

28X

32X

Tb« copy filmatf htm hM bwin rcpredueatf ttianht
19 tff9 gantrosity of:

Art* and Cultural Library
St John's, Nawfbundland

L'Mamplairs film* fut rtproduit grica i la
fl«nir3«it* da:

« Arts and Cultural Library
St John's, Nawfoundland

Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha baat quality
poaalbia eonaidaring tha condition and lagibillty
of tha original copy and in kaoping with tha
filming contract tpacificationa.

Original eoplaa In printad papar eovara ara filmad
baginning with tha front covar and anding on
tha laat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa*
■ion, or tha bacic covar whan appropriata. All
othar original copiaa ara filmad baginning on tha
finit paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa*
aion. and ending on tha laat paga with a printad
or illuatratad impraaaion.

Tha laat racordad frama on aach microflcha
ahail contain tha symbol «^ (moaning "CON-
riNUED"). or tha symbol ▼ (moaning "END"),
whichavar appliaa.

Mapa, plataa, charts, ate., may ba filmad at
diff arant reduction ratioa. Thoaa too larga to ba
antirajy included in ona axpoaura ara filmad
baginning in tha uppar laft hand comar. laft to
right and top to bonom. aa many framaa aa
required. Tha following diagrama illuatrata tha
method:

Laa imagaa suh^antaa ont #tA raproduitea avac la
plua grand soin. compta tenu do la condition at
do la nattat* da I'axemplaira film«. et en
conformity avac laa conditions du contrat da
flimaga.

Laa axamplairaa originaux dont la couvarture en
papiar eat imprimte sont filmte en commandant
par la premier plat at en terminant soit par la
damMre paga qui comporta une empreinte
d'lmpreaajon ou d'illuatration. soit par la second
plat, salon la cas. Toua lea autrea •xampiairas
originaux sont filmte en common^ ant par la
premiere paga qui comporta une empreinte
dlmpreasion ou d'Uluatration et en terminant par
la damiire paga qui comporta une telle
emprainta.

Un daa symbolaa sulvanta apparaltra sur la
damlAra image da cheque microfiche, selon le
caa: la symbola — » signifie "A SUIVRE". le
symbola ▼ sjgnifia "PIN".

Laa cartea, planchaa. tableaux, etc.. peuvent itre
fiimia i daa taux da rMuction diffArants.
Loraqua la document aet trop grand pour itre
raproduit en un saul cliehA. il eat filmA A partir
da I'angla sup4riaur gauche, da gauche i droita.
et da haut en baa, en prenant le nombre
d'imagaa n^caasaira. Laa diagrammaa suivants
iiluatrant la m^thoda.

1 2 3

•U-

— ■ — H-

ICE & ICE -WORK IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

lUxtracted from tht Geological Magazine, July, August, September, 1876.]
Trubn£R & Co., 57 and 59, Ludgate Hill, London.

ICE AND ICE-WORK

IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

JOHN MILNE F.G.S., ^

:. •■■■■■■IB.^F TOKEI, .'AI'AN. ^/

IMIOPESSOH 01^ GEOLOO\ IN THE IMPBIIIAL

Kttractod from the Geological Magazine, Decade II. Vol. III., Niw. 7, 8, 't,
July, August, and September, 1876.]

ICE AND ICE-WORK

IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

" And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cokl ;
And ice, mast high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drift the snowy cliffs
Did send a dismal sheen ;
Nor shape of men, nor beasts we ken —
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there.

The ice was all arotind ;

It cracked and growled and roared and howled,

Like noises in a swound." — Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.

The rough MS. of this Article was placed in the Editor's hands by his friend
Mr. Milne early in 1875, but, owing to pro-occupation on th( part of Editor and
Author, was never put in type until this month, June, 1876. The author departed in
August last for Japan, and has therefore been prevented from again seeing or re-
vising his notes. The Editor trusts that this apology will be uccopted by the reader
should he find that the author has omitted to notice any papers on ice as a geological
agent, which may have been published since that date. — Euit. Geol. Mag.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland,

We often see a certain cause at work, and then its effect ; — and
the effect may be and is, doubtless, in many instances, peculiar
to the cause. In Switzerland glaciers are known to have rounded
and converted into " hummock "-shaped forma the rocks over which
they have passed ; whilst the rocks which were imprisoned in the
ice, and used as tools to scour the rocky bed over which they moved,
liave in their turn also received a definite impression.

Hummocky tracts of land like those in Switzerland are to be seen
in Scotland, Newfoundland, and other countries. Mounds of debris,
filled with scratched stones like those produced by a modern glacier,
are to be found in many places. These and other appearances, which
are peculiar to ice-action, are ascribed to it as their originators ; for,
whether they be of Permian or Pleistocene age, their origin would
seem to be identical.

By studying the effects of modem volcanic outbursts, similar
paroxysms can be shown to have occurred in bygone ages, — and
it is only by having a knowledge of the present, that any true
knowledge of the past can be obtained.

The action of ice upon the surface of the earth has been spoken of
in al> "Manuals and Text-books of Geology. De la Beche, Lyell,
Ramsi , 'kes, Geikie, and others, all discuss it in its various forms.

The tact that existing glaciers had once a wide extension was not
however observed earlier than 1821, when M. Venetz advanced the
opinion with regard to those of the Alps. In 183G these ideas were
strengthened by the observations of M. Charpentier ; but it was not
until the distinguished naturalist Agassiz — fresh from the same
Alpine school, where so many geological truths have been demon-
strated — visited Scotland in 1840, that the curious rcik-markings
in that country wore successfully shown to be identical with those
produced by the glaciers of Switzerland.

Glaciers have been regarded from many points of view, and have
been studied both mathematically and physically. Their effects have
been noted, and they are now universally admitted to have been
great tools in the modelling if not in the actual formation of the
surface configuration of the earth. They were first suggested and
shown to be a means of solving the puzzles of drift, rounded rocks,
strange scratchiugs, and boulders, and ever since take the precedence
of all other ice.

Their offspring, the Icebergs, have also been studied, and their
work has been duly chronicled. The manner in which they bear
rocks to warmer seas, and strew them broad-cast over the bed of the
ocean, and oven the way in which they may have aided in modelling
a rising area, has long been dwelt on ; but, being less important
tools in Nature's workshop than their parents the Glaciers, de-
servedly without such emphasis. There is, however, another form of
ice, which, from its unassuming appearance, although touched on by a
few, has apparently taken too low a place in the role of actors with
which it plays. This is the Coast-ice.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland, 5

My first sight of large masses of floating ice was on my arrival at
St. John's, Newfoundland, in the spring of 1872. On the morning of
tho IGth of May, we found ourselves wrapped in a fog, through
wliich a high bold coast was dimly visible. At length it lifted, and
we saw ourselves in a cliff-bound bay, at the head of which a narrow
entrance showed us a harbour filled with ice and ships. Near us
floated two great icebergs, whilst the sea around was covered with
smaller lumps jostling against each other as they rose and sank upon
tiiC swell. This Arctic scone is depicted as occurring at the same
place, but on a grander scale, in iho frontispiece of " Frost and
Fire," by J. F. Campbell, F.G.S.

This mass, consisting of floe-ice surrounding icebergs, was travel-
ling southwards under the influence of the cold Arctic current,
which, coming from the northern regions, after coasting along by
Labrador, sweeps onward past Newfoundland, to sink beneath the
warmer waters of the Gulf-stream in more southern latitudes.

On the coast of Newfoundland Icebergs generally make their
appearance about the 1st ef January. Their approach is heralded
by a number of smaller pieces. When we reflect upon the origin of
these bergs, it would appear that the greater number of them ought
to be disengaged from their parent mass, the glacier, in summer-
time. The semifluid mass, of which the glacier is made up, creeping
slowly, like a frozen river, down the valley by the aid of heat,
gravity, etc., has in summer-time its pace augmented by the incre-
ment it receives at this season of the year.* It then pushes itself
rapidly forward into the ocean, and there by the buoyancy of the
water the projecting ice-mass is detached and floated off. Why, there-
fore, is it that the bergs are not seen off the Coast of Newfoundland
at the close of summer, or at the latest in the " fall " of the year ?
The answer to this may be obtained from the inference of Sir
Edward Belcher, and other Arctic navigators, who tell us that in
very high latitudes the ice appears to be in motion much earlier
than it is farther to the South. On the 20th of May the western
side of Smith's Sound has been found to be quite open for navi-
gators in a boat, whilst Barrow Strait is not navigable till late
in August, The consequence of this would appear to be that
whatever ice may be set free far north early in the year is detained
in more southern latitudes until the fall. Another cause also
operating in keeping the ice off the coast until the spring of the
year may be the wind. Although icebergs, with regard to their
motion, and the direction of the wind, often present curious
anomalies, yet this must to a slight degree be influential on
their wanderings. In the "fall" of the year the prevalent winds
on the North American side of the Atlantic are generally speaking
from the west, which tend to keep all bergs out at sea, and thus,

' Sir James Ross, from his observations in the Antarctic Seas, infers from the
greater diit'erence between the temperatures of the sea and air in winter-time than in
summer, that it is at the former season of the year that the greater number of bergs
are detached.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland.

to obsorvora on tlio land, thoy would be lost sight of; but in the
spring of tho yonr the winds aro nioro or less northerly, which
woiild only aid the current in bringing tho ico along shore. The
most ap[)arcnt suggestion for tho detention of the ice before reaching
the shores of Labrador and Newfoundland is of course the distance
it has to travel ; but connidoring tho steady rate at which this is
carried on in tho stream which bears thorn, the eifocts of wind, and
the delay in tho breaking up of tho Southern Arctic barrier must
have the precedence.

I'heoreticnl considcrationa on tlie Flotation of Icebergs. — The ice-
bergs 1 had the opportunity of seeing daily for several weeks whilst
in the neighbourhood of St. John's, although irregular in their
outlines, were by no means of such varied form*? as many that were
seen afterwards. Several apparently very small pieces, projecting
perhaps not more than a foot out of water, when api)roached showed
themselves as considerable masses, their magnitude being hidden by
their submergence. In the " offing" "islands of ice," as tho bergs
are here called, wore to bo seen moving southwai'ds, whilst in the
bay several of them were always to be seen aground. These latter,
as they slowly roso and fell with the ever-varying swell caused by
the wind and tide, were deranging and grinding away the beds on
which they rested, ^he enormous power that one of these islands
of ico must possess to do such work may faintly be conceived by
approaching one of them in a boat, and then considering that,
although there is a mountain above water, there is from seven
to nine times its mass beneath the surface. The depth of water in
which one of these ponderous masses of ice can ground may often
be more limited than has generally been expressed. When the berg
first leaves its parent the glacier, its sides may be more or less
parallel to each other, and we may sometimes get a near approach
to a prismatic form. In this case not only would there be about
eight times tho bulk of ice beneath the water as there is above, but
also there will bo about eight times the depth, and we might
conceive, as Jukes and Gcikie tell us in their " Geology" (p. 41G),
that if the mass rises " 300 feet above the waves," we may imagine
that it " has its bottom 2,400 feet below them." In the Arctic and
Antarctic regions we may therefore imderstand the immense depths
at which an iceberg can ground, and there disturb the strata. As
bergs travel towards lower latitudes, as towards Newfoundland,
what with the beating of the waves and the changing of temper-
ature they of necessity lose a great deal of tho regularity of character
they may previously have possessed. Tho greatest loss appears to
be upon the portion exposed to the atmosphere, but, perhaps, more
noticeable " between wind and waters."

As this waste goes on, the berg must rise, and the ratio of the
height of tho exposed portion to tlio depth of that which is hidden
grows greater. Tho result of this is that the exposed portion be-
comes less and less in difimcter than tl.ut which is protected beno'jth
the surface of the water, which at last may be looked upon as x l> 'ud
of foot or pedestal.

J, Milnc-^Tcc and Ice-tcork in NewfoundlamL Y

Tlmt borgs, instead of descending in parallel sides beneath tho
surface of the water, rather extend outwards in tho form of a broad
base, depends on the assumption that the disintegration is carried on
at a greater rate above water than below.

Apart from these theoretical considerations, it world seem from
actual observations, that although iceljergs have occasionally been
Seen in low latitudes to ground in deep water, as mentioned by
De la Becho in his " Geological Observer," where one is recorded as
being stranded in 720 feet of water on tho Banks of Newfoundland,
the bulk of them is only to bo seen upon the shoals. In fact the
grounding of icebergs is used by both tho lishermen of Newfound-
land and Labrador as a means of finding out shallows which may bo
used as fishing-grounds.

If a berg is seen to ground some distance out at 3'^", its bearings
from the land are at once observed, and it is in this way that many
of tho banks have been discovered.

If, instead of taking such an extreme case as the one to which I
have been referring, where the generally peaked appearance of a
berg, as seer above water, might be imagined as standing on a wide-
spread flat base beneath the water, we consider the portion of the
berg beneath the water as being a general contintuvtion of that above,
even in this case it will be seen to be very improbable that the ice
extends to the great depth which is usually assigned to it.

For example, in the accompanying figure let A B be the surface
of water in which we see a piece of ice floating as indicated by the
black line, tho general direction of that beneath the water corre-
sponding to that which is above. Approximating to such a figure,
draw on the " give-and-take " system a many-sided pyramid, or in
the limiting case a cone approximately equal in volume to that of
the supposed berg. This is shown by the dotted line. We have
given that the position of the cone beneath the surface of the water
to that which is exposed are to each olhor in the ratio of 8 to 1.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice- Work in Newfoundland.

Therefore the vc'ame of the whole cone, which we will call V, is to
that which is exposed, which we will call v, as 9 is to 1, i.e. V _ 9

• ~r.

But also, as similar solids are to each other in yolume as the cubes
of their corresponding dimensions,

I _i_ (^ + H)'

where h equals the height of the small cone of ice above water, and
H equals the depth of ice below the surface,

whence MlE = V^ 9 = 2-080

:, H = ^ X 1-080

which is equivalent to saying that in a floating cone of ice the depth

below the surface of the water is but very little greater than that

V 8

which is exposed above. If the ratio of — had been equal to r, then

H would equal h, or the depth helow equal that which is exposed above.
That the cone would tend to float with the apex upwards rather than
downwards, may be inferred from the fact that this latter position,
where the base would be upwards, would raise the centre of gravity
nearer to the surface of the water, and thus bring about a condition
of equilibrium not so stable as if the apex had been upwards.

These considerations, it must be borne in mind, are purely theo-
retical, and are onlj' used as a means of giving a clearer idea of some
of the conditions under which ice may bo found floating, and esjjeci-
ally such ice as has suffered disintegration in its wanderings.

Aspect of Newfoundland. — It has been suggested that the so-called
glacial effects which are universally seen in temperate, and even in
tropical regions, may in many cases have been due to an ocean on
which great icebergs floated. These, as they moved from point to
point (like huge pepper-castors), strewed broadcast boulders and
detrital matter, such as are now to be seen over an area like that of
Kussia and parts of North America. The effect of the force of
impact of these tremendous masses has also been dwelt on, and the
way in which they could grind, smooth down, or rub up the surface
of a submerged area, has also often been referred to.

Should the aro<A thus acted on be a rising one, on its emergence it
may show definitely the characters that have been impressed upon
it, and these perhaps may in some respects be analogous to those
produced by land ice. In the explanation of the superficial aspects
of a country from some such considerations as these, one man
may take his stand ujion a glacier, and another upon an iceberg.
An iceberg theory has been advanced in the case of Newfoundland
as an explanation of the physical features of the island (see Quart.
Journ. Geol. Soc, 18Y4, vol. xxx. p. 722). From the numerous
raised beaches containing Mya arenana and other Atlantic species
still living in the surrounding seas, Newfoundland appears to have
risen in later geological times. The island itself, its principal bays,
its jnountains, its lakes and rivers, its lines of igneous protrusions,
its ice-grooves and scratches, and the general strike of the rocks,

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland.

which, as was shown by Jukes, may in part account for the
tendencies of the other features, have all been shown to trend from
about 27° E. of North to 27° W. of South.

These curious coincidences were in pari; explained by supposing
Newfoundland as a rising area submerged 3000 feet beneath its
present level, and some denuding agent like the present Arctic
current with its load of icebergs passing over it. This theory, I
believe, is looked upon as being considerably strengthened by ob-
servations over a large part of North-east America. With regard to
the Newfoundland portion of the Western Continent, I wish to show
that it is not so clearly to be demonstrated.

After watching several icebergs grounding, it appears to me that
they would tend to give anything but a parallelism in their abrading
action.

An iceberg aground slowly lurches and rolls, and turns from side
to side, as it is differently affected by the wind, the tide, or a cur-
rent, evidently tearing up and grinding in several directions the
strata on which it rests.

To conceive the method in which icebergs acted to form the
"parallelism of features," as seen in Newfoundland, a picture must
be drawn, which I am afraid will hardlv be taken as the true one.
As the island rises, the lines of valleys and of the hills have been
formed, and along these troughs, and by the ridges, the icebergs
pass. This initial direction may, amongst other causes, be due to
the configuration of pre-existing land, to the general direction in
which detrital matter is strewn by an ocean curreut. Whilst the
land is stiU beneath the surface of the water, we must imagine these
huge islands of ice tripping along from hill-top to hill-top, some-
times just grazing the sides of a submerged valley, and sometimes
scouring the surface of a hill, like butterflies before a breeze which
try to stop at every tempting flower.

That they may have scattered the boulders which are to be found
in most parts covering Newfoundland does not appear to be so great
an impossibility as that they were the originators of the parallelisms ;
but even these, from the observations made by myself and my com-
panion, the late Mr. T. G. B. Lloyd, F.G.S., during the summer of
1874, it appears to me that they might be ascribed to another origin.

Ice-Marhs in Newfoundland. — On the eastern coast of Newfound-
land, from the extreme South to Kirpon on the Noilh, a distance of
300 miles, boulders and other indications of ice-action are to be seen
in most parts ; reference to them has been made in the Quart. Journ.
Geol. Soc, London, 1874, vol. xxx., p. 725. Near St. John's, ice-
grooves and scratches are to be seen up to considerable heights,
whilst drift v/ ith well-marked stones cover the country. The narrow
neck of land that separates the Bays of Trinity and Placentia affords
considerable ovidenco of ice- work. Standing on the water-parting
whi; h divides the streams into one of these bays from those entering
tlie other, the contour of the country, which is typical of many
other parts of Newfoundland, may easily be viewed. All around is
a rough brown surface of berry-bearing bushes and stunted spruce.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfotmdlanch

dotted here and there, over whicli there are small soft green marshes.
These latter j^enerally form the border to many a quiet pool, the dark
surface of wliich seems only to be made as a reflector for a passing'
cloud or some bare ice-marked hummock, a few of which rise here
and there, forming undulations in the surrounding level. In such
places as this the rivers of Newfoundland have their source.
Looking down the valley towards one of the bays, your eye wanders
over a flat-topped expanse of spruce and other underwood, through
which a few scattered pine-trees sometimes lift their heads. To the
right and left of this dark mass of stunted underwood there is a
line of scai-p-faced hills, which look as though they might once have
been feeders of moraine to a glacier which, as it slowly pressed
itself downwards, ground against their sides. Above the clifi's along
the sky-line of the hills, a few large boulders are distinctly visible.
On climbing to the top of these hills, you would see beneath your
feet a chain of lakes and ponds dotted in amongst the trees. Each
of these would have its fringing of green marsh, across which a
dark line showing the trampled path of the wandering ' (Jariboo *
would be well marked. Connecting these lakes in their upper
portions are a series of rapids and small waterfalls ; whilst lower
down, as we approach the tideway, there are often long ' reaches ' of
steady water. Further north, similar signs are visible, — in Bona-
vista Bay, in Green Bay, and in many others.

In Green Bay, or, as it is sometimes called, " the Bay of Notre
Dame," on the highlands above Belt's Cove, the country, for many
miles in extent, is thickly strewn with boulders.

The climb up to this boulder-land (which on the side next the sea
forms steep cliffs) is a precipitous one ; on reaching the top you are on
a brown-looking country in the main undulating as if ice-worn. In
the depressions there are either small ponds or marshes, which are
bounded by bare hummocks. Sometimes a small cliif-like scarp
looks down upon you from still higher ground. The boulders are
strewn everywhere, but more particularly upon the highest ground,
and often upon extreme points. Several boulders were so perched on
two points that they formed an archway beneath, which could be
seen at a distance of several miles. In another case one boulder was
seen resting upon another. In form they were subangular. Frag-
ments were taken from these, and also from boulders in several other
districts, and, so far as my examination went, I found that, if not
represented by the rock of the surrounding country, they had
representatives further west, and this generally in the Laurentian
granites. Mr. Alexander Murray, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey,
has made the same observation. Now if these boulders had been
deposited by Icebergs, this ])ortion of Newfoundland must at the very
least have been 1000 feet lower than it stands at present. During
the time of its elevation, and especially at the time of its emergence,
those boulders must have been subjected to a considerable amount of
rough usage, and have received many rolls. If they were protected
by a covering of drift, which, to secure them from the action of the
sea, must have been many hundreds of feet in thickness, then the

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-icork in Newfoundland.

surface-configuration of the country might be difficult to be accounted
for. Rough treatment, such as boulders receive upon a beach, would
hardly have relinquished them in their present subangular condition,
nor would it have left them upon the highest ridges, or poised them
ui)on a peak, or perched them one upon another. On the other
hand, 1 think it would rather have tended to smoothen them down
and deposit them in heaped confusion in the valleys, and they would
probably, in that case, have been derived from the North-East rather
than from the West, as they seem to indicate. Let alone the
mechanical forces, which are constantly at work upon a beach, the
ordinary processes of disintegration, the result of subaerial conditions,
must have exercised considerable influence during the ages that
have elapsed, whilst the land was rising to its present elevation, and
this especially upon such soft rocks as serpentine, of which many of
these erratics consist. Such boulders as these seem to point to another
origin rather than to that of a sea full of icebergs.

Further to the north the same circumstances are here and there
presented. Sailing up the long straight shore of White Bay, a line of
hills, whose topmost heights are fringed with boulders, are seen
trending away before you to the northward, until their escarpment
which faces the Atlantic grows dim, and is lost to view in the distance.
After the red cliffs of Conohe (which are almost the only fragment of
Devonian Shale in Newfoundland) have been passed, Kirpon, the
most northern settlement in the island, is reached. Boulders are to
be found here, and some of them of immense size.

Western Newfoundland. — After leaving Kirpon, we pass the
northern end of the long range of granitic hills, running parallel
with the western coast, forming the great backbone of the country,
and which give to it, in some reppects, a contour not unlike that of
Arabia, the slope leading to the eastern coast being flat and long,
whilst that to the west is short and steep.

On the eastern side, from what I have already stated, it will be
seen that boulders often form a prominent feature in the landscape,
but on the west they have hitherto been found to be wanting. Last
year (1874), however, I found them at several places, especially in
Louis Hills. They all seemed to point to the Laurentian backbone
for their origin. Eoches moutonnues are not so prominent upon the
west as they are upon the east, but scratchings and groovings along
the shore (which will be spoken of hereafter uruer the head of
Coast-Ice) are common everywhere.^

Drift. — In addition to all these evidences of ice- work seen in the
shape of boulders and scratched rock surfaces, we have here and
there patched over the country large deposits of drift filled with
regularly striated rock-fragments.

1 Many of the effects of ice now seen in Nora Scotia are described by Dawson in
liis " Acadian Geolop-y," p. 64, et neq., us resembling those now produced by frost
and floating ice. Blocks of stone are shown to hav. travelled from elevation to
elevation, across valleys which may have been accomplished by ice-floes or bergs.
Other blocks again are shown to have travelled from low plains to the summit of hills,
which is explained on the supposition that the land at the time of their deposit being
slowly subsiding, and the ice-tields of successive years raising them higher and higher.

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland.

In the neighbourhood of St. John's the drift-covering is noticeably
full of such stones. Similar material covering the country may also
be seen in many other parts of the Avalon peninsula, where we
have good sections of an unetratified clayey base, containing both
pebbles and boulders.

Further to the north Mr. Murray has observed these superficial
deposits occurring on a much larger scale. In Little Bay, near
Terra Nova Mine, he has noted deposits consisting of " probably fifty
or sixty feet of stratified clay, gravel, and sand containing modern
marine shells at the height of about 40 feet above high-water mark."

In Hall's Bay, up Indian Brook, he also noted stratified deposits
of clay, " which is sometimes of a reddish and sometimes of a drab
or bluish colour." Although these stratified deposits appear to show
a divergence from what has hitherto been observed by Packard and
others in the neighbouring mainland of Labrador, they show con-
siderable relation and similarity to observations which have been
made further up the valley of the St. Lawrence in Canada. It
would seem that at no very remote period Newfoundland has been
almost if not entirely subjected to the action of ice. To this fact
the rounded hills, the basin-shaped hollows, the scored rocks, the
erratic blocks and the immense coverings of drift, all bear testi-
mony; but the mode in which all these phenomena have been
brought about is a matter so speculative that I shall refrain from
doing more than indicating a possible manner in which they may
have occurred, rather than attempting to give any definite solution to
such an obscure enigma.

Conclusions. — The general conclusions which might appear
naturally to result from a consideration of observations made by
myself during two summers travelling in the island, and also those
made by other geologists, are as follows : —

If Newfoundland has been steadily rising during past ages, as it
now appears to have done at no very remote geological period, it may
have been beneath the surface of the ocean. During the period
when it was undergoing elevation, no doubt a considerable amount
of debris and boulders were dropped by icebergs over its surface
when the Laurentian backbone, which would be the first land to
emerge, reached the surface, it formed a barrier for the coast-ice
which would carry its load of boulders and strew thera with those
of the bergs. This latter, as will hereafter be shown, might to
some degree have been influential in giving a definite character to
the rising area. After the final emergence the climate of New-
foundland might still have been a cold one, and the same highlands
which gave birth to coast-ice, probably next gave birth to glaciers
which scooped and hollowed out a great portion of the remaining
marine drift, and left the island with its present contour. After the
raising of the great North-East and South-East ranges, first coast-
ice flowed East and West, and afterwards the glaciers followed in
a similar direction, and thus perhaps the origin of the boulders, those
which are so curiously perched being due rather to the latter than
to the formei'. Thus it would scorn that icebergs and coast-ice pre-

J. Milne — Ice and Ice- work in Newfoundland.

3eably
ly also
|re we

both

^rficial
near

fifty

iodern
lark."
jposits
drab
show
rd and
con-
been
la. It
been
is fact
cs, the
testi-
) been
from

ceded glaciers, but to say what might have come before the former
of these agents, would only be diving deeper into the depths of a
sea of speculation. From the scantiness and want of detail in their
observations, it is useless attempting definitely to correlate them
with those conditions observed in the adjoining continent of America,
where it has been shown " that the oldest glacial deposits have
yielded evidence of inter-glacial mild conditions " similar to those
of the British Isles and Europe (Great Ice-age, Jas. Geikie, p. 428).

Coast Ice of Newfoundland. — Icebergs have an advantage over
coast-ice in their imposing appearance, which has perhaps been in
part instrumental in raising them to the high position which they
now occupy as workers of Geological changes. Many Manuals of
Geology, and many diagrams drawn to illustrate the same science,
have oft-times portrayed a well-known flat-topped berg, carrying
a rock, in the Antarctic regions; but neither books nor lecture-
diagrams, taken collectively, give any adequate idea of coast-ice as
a similar agent. From what I have seen of coast-ico and of its
effects, I feel persuaded that it is an agent of at least as great, if not
of greater universality than either glaciers or icebergs, and taken
as a whole perhaps also as an agent of equal power. Of the
various forms of sea-ice known as "berg-ice," "floe-ice," "pack-
ice," and the like, the portion I would more particularly draw
attention t(j is that variety which forms a narrow belt along the
shore, known in Greenland as the " Ice-Foot."

It would appear that in the formation of the " Ice-Foot," just as in
the precipitation of rain, and in the production of other natural phe-
nomena, we may have either one or many causes called into operation.
SometimeiS' these may all be equally active, whilst at other times the
role taken by one cause is more important than that taken by another,
all being governed by circumstances. Geikie, in " The Great Ice
Age," pp. 67 and 68, tells us that the Ice-Foot of Greenland " owes its
origin to the action of the tides." " Tlie first frost of the late summer
covers the sea with a crust of ice, which, caiTied upwards along the
face of the cliff by the tide, eventually becomes glued to the rocks."
It thus " grows in thickness with every successive tide, until it may
re-r^v, a height of 30 feet, and sometimes even more, presenting to
the sea a bold wall of ice, against which the floes grind and crush."

In Newfoundland and the South Coast of Labrador, although the
formation of the Ice-Foot is no doubt oftentimes very similar to this,
there are yet other agents, besides that of the tide, which are equally
active.

First wo will imagine this formation taking place on a gently-
sloping shore.

The Ice-Foot. — The blasts of December and January drive the
spray high up upon the land, and there it freezes as a cake of ice ;
day after day and night after night this continues, and the crust
grows thicker. A drift or fall of snow may help it in accumulating,
until it is at last from two to three feet in thickness. Stones of all
sizes, fi-om pebbles to boulders, on which this coating may rest, are
now firmly sot in " an icy maw " of ice, and are ready at the first

J, Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland.

movement to cut and grind a path for themselves. The first calm
weather the sea freezes out from this to form an equivalent to the
"bay-ice" of the Greenland whalers. This, however, is only a
thin coating, which is either broken up or piled upon itself by the
first rough water coming from the " outside," or is driven off by
a land breeze. This generally goes on until some portion of the
Northern pack, coming south, meets with an adverse wind and
is driven ashore. When we reflect upon the immense mass con-
tained in one of these moving fields of ice, we can hardly conceive
the energy that is stored within it. Everything has to give way
before it, and the coast-ice, with its set of gravers firmly bedded
in its base, is pushed high a id dry, sometimes as much as 100 yards,
back from high-water mark.^ It is in this way, by the coming in
of the Northern Pack, the rise and fall of the tide, and other causes,
that the land-ice is driven ashore, and many of the scratches and
grooves so common round the coast of Newfoundland have been
made. As a rule, these markings are remarkable for their definition.
Some of the scratches are so parallel, so long, and so like each other,
and even in their character from end to end, that at first sight their
origin might be doubted. Markings like these may be well seen in
the harbour of St. John's Island. The rock in which they are im-
pressed is a Calciferous Limestone, sloping gently seaward. It looks
as though it had been planed perfectly flat, and then a series of
parallel lines several yards in length, from three to six inches apart,
and from ^ to ^ of an inch in depth, had been evenly ruled across
the prepared surface. Sometimes, instead of these lines crossing an
even plane, similarly-marked smooth trough-like hollows have been
formed. These increasing in size in places give quite an undulating
character to the shore, as at the entrance to Terra Nova Kiver and
elsewhere.

Such a piling up of ice by the driving in of the pack, wh- ther it
be inland or ashore, is amongst the sealers termed " raftering." At
a certain distance out from land, where the pack-ice can float, it
breaks off from that which is cemented to the shore. This latter,
no matter how it may have been formed, whether by spray or piled-
up pack-ice, goes under the general name of "balacada." It has
been suggested to me that this term, like many Newfoundland
names, may have its origin from the Spanish, it being a corrupted
fonn of " barricade," a name very suggestive of the appearance
and conditions it is intended to describe. The edge of the " bala-
cada" is termed the "drain," which may average a depth of
about four fathoms, up and down, while through the agency of
wind and tide a continual chafing action is going on.* If the pack-
ice can float up and down along the foot of a cliff, or in deep water
near rocks, the consequences ivre the formation of horizontal grooves

* In the selection of Arctic papers for the Arctic Expedition of 1875, publiFhed
hy the Royal and lloyal Geographical Societies, p. 49, Robert Brown speaks of
sheet-ice and boulders during storms being driven and packed to a height of oO feet.

"^ The grating against vertical cliffs is referred to in De lu Becha's " Geological
Observer," p. 280, and at p. 282 on coast-ice generally.

J, Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Neuifoundland.

Inceive

and scratches, and these in cases are carried to such an extent that
the cliflf may be undercut. The " balacada," in a position of this
sort, is formed by the spi'ay, and projects out a foot or two from the
face of tlie cliff ; the drain, with its floating-ice, being beneath.

In addition to the work done in scratching and grooving by the
coast-ice, it also does much in the transportation of material. When
in deep water, dealing along the face of a cliff, by its own horizontal
and vertical movements, together with its continued force of impact
on a heaving swell, it must detach a considerable amount of material.
This, together with that which may fall upon its edge from the
rocks above (which appear to be universally greater at the breaking
up of a frost than at any other season of the year), is carried by the
coast-ice to a new home. The chief agent, however, in the transpor-
tation of material is the " balacada," barrier-ice or ice-foot, attached
to the shore. At low water this freezes to the ground on a shelving
shore, and is at once firmly attached to both boulders and stones.
When the tide rises, this ice, with its cargo, floats, and may be carried
away. The difference in level between neap- and spring-tides is
another cause which greatly accelerates the transporting power of
the " balacada." A land breeze assists in the dragging off of por-
tions that are only partially aground. These, with other causes,
are always, during the winter season, more or less in operation in
removing materials from one point to another.^

This immense transportive power of the coast-ice often occasions
severe losses to the fishing population of Newfoundland and
Labrador. Various articles, to remove which would involve con-
siderable difficulty, such as anchors and cables, having been left
upon the beach, have been carried off by the ice; — it has come
along, and after, so to sny, glueing itself to everything upon the
the shore, has floated off with all to which it was attached. At
three harboui's. Tilt Cave, Englee, and Goose Cove, I heard lamen-
tations over losses of this description ; and no doubt, upon inquiry,
similar cases might be recorded of every fishing settlement both
in Labrador and Newfoundland. The fishermen seem to have
transferred the name "Anchor Ice," from its original idea of ice
which anchors itself to the bottom, to ice of this description which
endangers the equipment of their vesse^ ^. Without actually freezing
beneath the surface of the water, as in some of the shallower parts
of the Baltic where ground-ice is formed, a species of anchor-ice is
formed by the freezing of the " balacada " so firmly to the ground
at low water, that at the rising of the tide it remains beneath the
surface of the water. The consequence of these transportive move-
ments is that much material, both boulders and pebbles are carried
out to sea, and then deposited in a manner similar to that which

' Spoukina: of the Greenland Ice-Foot, Geikie, in his " Great Ice k^e," p. 68,
says that " diirin<^ summer vast piles of rock and rubbish crowd the surface of the
ice-loot." " To .^uch an extent does +]iis rock-rubbish accumulate tliat the whole
surface of the shelf is sometimes buried beneath it, and entirely hidden from view."
" Aloni"' the part of the coast of Greenland where the ice-foot is shed at the end of
evcrv summer, the quatitities of rock debris thus borne seawards must be something
prod^igious."

J. Milne — Ice and Ice- work in Newfoundland.

has so often boon explained in the case of icebergs. Another con-
sequence is that similar materials are carried from point to point
along the coast, and on the disappearance of the ice are left as
monuments of its former existence. In places boulders may be
seen lining the shores in long lines, like tiers of barrels on a wharf,
as at Change Island. Boulders of this sort are referred to, and a
sketch of them is given, in Ly ell's Principles of Geology, vol. i.
p. 381. I have here spoken irrespective of the immense quantities
of boulders that are annually brought down attached to the ** ground-
ice " of rivers.

Movements of Coast-Ice. — On the first calm day the ice out at sea
along the edge of the pack commences to break up, and small lakes
and pools are formed between the pans. This appears to bo due to
the tide. In a calm five square miles of ice will rapidly open out
and spread over 20 miles, during which it is greatly smashed about
and tumbled. Capt. A. Jackman, to whom I am indebted for many
facts regarding the action and formation of coast- ice, informed me
that on one occasion he knew of two vessels closely wedged in the
ioe, which wei'o separated 20 miles apart in one night during a
calm. A wind from seawards only jams it the tighter on the land,
whilst one from the shore sends it off in a body until there is suffi-
cient water between it and the land, where a sea can form, upon
which the ice is speedily dispersed. In calm weather the pack
travels with the current, but at other times it follows the direction
of the wind. Icebergs, on the contrary, although affected by the
wind, have a more definite direction in their line of travel dependent
on currents. The consequence of this would appear to be that the
line of distribution of material derived from pack-ice is not so
definite in its direction as that of icebergs. In both cases the pro-
portion of the mass exposed above water to that which is submerged
is equal. The explanation therefore appears to lie mainly in the
fact that the pack only rests on the upper surface of the water,
which is affected by the wind, whereas the iceberg, descending to
greater depths, will move in a steady current unaffected by any such
surface disturbances. The ratio of the surface exposed above water
to that beneath it in the pan of ice, to that in the berg, must often-
times also be influential in the explanation of this phenomenon.
Should a berg bo entangled in a pack, and the tide be contrary to
the wind, the berg may hold its own against both the wind and
pack, and, so to speak, will force for itself a passage. Capt. A.
Jackman has, whilst frozen in the pack, travelled at the rate of from
two to three knots per hour past bergs, but whether these were
aground or not was not definitely stated.

Conclusiotis regarding Coast-Ice. — As before remarked, it would
appear that coast-ice might at least bo considered as an agent in the
production of Geological changes equal in power to either glaciers
or icebergs.

By this it is not wished to imply that a mile of coast-ice is equi-
valent to a mile of glacier, but rather that coast-ice, taken as a
whole, from the extent of its area, may be reasonably compared as

J. Milne — lee and Ice-work in Newfoundland.

a modelliDg and disintegrating agent of our globe with either the
glaciers or icebergs.*

Looking at the Northern Hemisphere only, and comparing all the
deeply indented coast-lines, say that of North America and Green-
land, every yard of which is more or less subject to the action of
coast-ice, with the portions throwing off glaciers to form bergs, it
will be seen that the coast-ice must in quantity be infinitely greater
than the glaciers. All the vast ico-fields which break loose from
the frozen regions of the North, and we read of them 300,000 square
miles in extent, and seven feet in thickness, are, in their passage
South, driven in upon the land, and help to grind the coast-line and
transport its boulders. The Northern field-ice, when it arrives in the
latitudes of Newfoundland, is often seen to be covered with boulders,
gravel kelp, and other materials, showing it to have been at some
time or other in contact with the coast. Ice of this description is
well known to the sealers, who carefully avoid it, knowing that
seals will not be found upon " dirty jam." From this, together
with other information I collected, it would seem that, amongst the
inhabitants of Newfoundland, the action of coast-ice as a transporting
agent is universally recognized, whilst icebergs in the same latitudes
are seldom seen with earthy materials upon them. Capt. A. Jackman,
during about 30 years of ice-service on the coast of Newfound-
land and Labrador, only once saw a mass of stone of any size upon
a berg, whilst coast-ice, with its load of material, has continually
been met with. That this should be the case appears on considera-
tion to be evident ; for at the outset, when the berg leaves its parent,
the glacier, in these Northern regions, it has but little moraine
matter to carry,* whilst afterwards the winds tending to drive it in
upon the shore seem to affect it but little.^ Now and then it may
disturb the strata, and perhaps cany off a portion of the material
forming some bank on which it has happened to ground, but to
approach the land, as coast-ice does after leaving its birth-place, it is
for ever debarred. Carried along by a deep-sea current, with but

* Although it may bo said that glaciers arc not alone confined to Arctic regions,
but art also to be seen in the highlands of more temperate climates, it must not be
forgotten the distance south that coast-ice is found along shores like those of
liabrador, Newfoundland, and Siberia, where glaciers are unknown.

2 " Owing to the inland valleys (of Greenland) being filled up and levelled to the
tops of the hills, there is ^vell-nigh a total absence of those long trains of debris that
thunder down the steeps of the Alpine Mountains, and gather in heaps along the sides
of the glaciers." — Geikie, " The Great Ice Age," p. 62. Dr. Eink, however, saw
moraines above Fpemivik.

» It might be argued that the bergs carry a burden of rocks and debris frozen to
tlieir bases; but iu (xeikie's " Great Ice Age," p. 61, we read: — "A few stones may
occasionally remain frozen into the bottom of the detached iceberg, but it is evident
that the greater portion of the sub-glacial deposit must remain at the bottom of the
sea," and at p. 71 we read: "By tar the larger number of Arctic icebergs therefore
contain no extraneous matter, and melt away in mid-ocean mthout leaving behind
them any record of their voyage." However it would be unfair not to quote from
the observations of Robert Brown (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1870, p. 687), who
states that on ascending an iceberg he " almost invariably found moraine which had
sunk by the melting of the ice into hollows, deep out of sight of the voyager sailing
past."

J. Milne — Ice and Ice-work in Nenifonndland.

■^4

little care for wind or wave, it cleaves a course through ice and
water to more southern regions.

The work done by a glacier is slow and steady. On its surface it
carries all that may fall upon it, whilst at its base it annually
smootheus for itself deeper and deeper the rocky bed on which
it rests.

When floating-ice is pushed ashore, we have a somewhat similar
action ; but in addition to this steady pressure, coast-ice has another
mode of acting which is wanting in the glacier, viz. that of impact.
A faint conception of what this is may be derived from the accounts
we read of Arctic travel. "The growling and roaring," " the crash of
meeting floes and fields of ice," "the broad fields of ice several
hundreds of miles in area broken up into countless floes," "the
hummocks and hills that are piled up under the tremendous
pressure," have all been spoken of.

Scoresby gives a calculation of the blow which must be produced
by one of these immense fields of ice which he mentions, as being
equal to that of 10,000,000,000 tons. Now all these tremendous
blows delivered by ice-islands floating down upon each other must
be given in a similar manner to a rocky coast.

After once seeing the broken masses of the icy " pavement " of these
Northern regions scouring along by cliifs and islands, jostling and
cannoning with all it meets as it rises and falls on the heaving swell,
one cannot help being impressed with the immense amount of work
that it is capable of performing.

Possibility of a sequence in Ice-Action. — Tt has now boen shown
how coast-ice may, to a certain extent, give a character lo a coast-
line ; how it may, by impact, remove all asperities, and how, by
a steady pressure, it may groove and scratch, and even produce a
surface not unlike the rochea moutonnees of the glaciers. We will
now consider whether those markings may be reasonably expected
to remain as permanencies.

In Newfoundland, which appears to be a rising area, there is
every reason to suspect that many of the markings seen round the
coast, which have hitherto been attributed either to glaciers or
icebergs, have been impressed by coast-ice. Whatever the iceberg
may have done when the now dry surface was beneath the sea, on
emergence must in all probability have been obliterated, and the
surface remodelled by the action of the coast-ice. A striking in-
stance of this modelling of what is probably a rising area is seen at
Funk Island. This island lies almost 30 miles out in the Atlantic
to the East of Newfoundland. It is about half a mile in length,
very low and flat, and is situated right in the stream of the Arctic
ice. The northern end of the island, which has every year to face
this tremendous pressure of vast fields of ice, is visibly worn down
and covered with erratic boulders ; whilst the opposite extremity is
a low but abrupt clifi". Had the flow of ice been from the south, the
reverse would probably have been the case, and the low shelving
wedge-like shore, which forms a slide for the ice to mount together
with its load of boulders, would have been at the opposite extremity

J, Milne — Ice and Ice- work in Neivfoundlnnd.

of the island. On a rising area of this bull the impressions tliat
have been wade appear certainly to affect in a permanent manner
oven the contour of the island, and it does not seem unreasonable
that scratches and boulders may in a rising area be similarly pre-
served. Should the rising area be in a climate like that of Green-
land, the effects of coast-ice would in time be planed away by
glaciers. If the area be a sinking one, the results may be reversed.
The surface configuration of the land, whether produced by glaciers
or other causes, will be remodelled by the coast-ice, and these in
their turn, on reaching deeper water, will be affected by the
icebergs.

Looking at the effects of ice-work in this way, we see that there
is a possibility of a sequence in their action. In high latitudes,
where the climate is a constant one, the sequence is definite. Should
the climate, however, be variable, we might have a surface scoured
by icebergs, and covered with debris not emerging from the sea,
until a warmer temperature had dissipated the icy pavement that
once floated, and in this way we might see the effects of icebergs in
the modelling of a land-surface.

THB XND.

■TBrSKN AV8TIN AMD B0H8, PKIMTBBI, HEBTFOBD.