The Pleistocene of Quebec was described by Logan in 1863 (Geol. Canada, pp. 917–926) and by J. W. Dawson, 1894, in his “Canadian Ice Age.” Dawson divided the epoch, as represented in Canada, into the early Pleistocene, the mid-Pleistocene, and the later Pleistocene. He did not accept the glacial theory as it is now understood, admitting only great local glaciers. His early Pleistocene deposits embraced the great bulk of the boulder clays. His mid-Pleistocene represents an interglacial period, during which were deposited the marine Leda clays, Saxicava sands, and their fresh-water equivalents. The climate was supposed to be milder than at present. During the later Pleistocene there was to some extent a recurrence of local glaciation and of deposition of boulder clay. This stage was followed, according to Dawson, by the Early Modern, which he regarded as the age of the mammoth and mastodon.
Mr. J. Stansfield has described with some detail the Pleistocene and Recent deposits of the island of Montreal (Mem. 73, Geol. Surv. Canada, 1915). The boulder clay is of variable thickness and does not appear to be divisible into beds of different epochs. The Leda and Saxicava deposits are present. When the latter were laid down the region about Montreal was depressed about 600 feet below its present elevation. This has been confirmed by Goldthwait (Summary Rep. for 1913, p. 211). Later it began to rise; and Stansfield thinks that when the elevation had reached about 100 feet less than that of the present the water of the St. Lawrence at that point had become fresh. He found some apparent evidences of a recurrence of glaciation after the Champlain stage, but, on the whole, left the question undecided. He published a list of about 85 species of marine invertebrate fossils, collected from the Leda clay about Montreal, and 22 species obtained from the Saxicava sands. Besides the invertebrates secured from the Leda clays at that place, there are two vertebrates, Phoca grœnlandica (p. [22]) and Delphinapterus leucas, or D. vermontana (p. [18]). At Rivière du Loup, in Temiscouata County, whale remains were reported in 1894 (p. [18]), which were thought to belong to Delphinapterus leucas. At Metis, Rimouski County, a jawbone of a whale has been discovered in the shelly marl of the lower terrace (p. [19]); whether or not it belonged to Megaptera boöps is not certain. The specimen of the former species was described by Leidy in 1856.
According to Logan’s report of 1863 (Geol. Canada, p. 920), the single bone was found in a brickyard. At the same place was found some vertebræ of the whale. At Bic, Rimouski County, has been found a nearly complete skeleton of a walrus, at an elevation of more than 100 feet (p. [21]). Dawson (Canadian Record Sci., 1895, vol. VI, p. 352) described a nearly complete skeleton of the whale which had been found at Montreal in the Leda clay, 22 feet below the surface. This Leda clay was supposed by Dawson to have been deposited at a depth of from 50 to 80 fathoms, which depth, he said, corresponded approximately to the marine shore-lines at Montreal at an elevation of about 470 feet above sea-level, and to the sea-beach at Smith’s Falls, above referred to. Hence at the time that the whale was buried the mountain at Montreal was only a rocky islet in the sea which prevailed then over the region from the Laurentian hills on the north to the highlands of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence.
At Tétreauville, in Ottawa County, on Ottawa River, have been found some bones, supposed to belong to the harbor seal, Phoca vitulina.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA, AND CAPE BRETON ISLAND.
All three of these regions were involved in the glaciation of the Wisconsin stage. According to Goldthwait (Summary Rep. for 1913, pp. 244–250), New Brunswick was the center from which the ice flowed out over the other two lands. From this center it moved southward over the western end of Nova Scotia, more and more southeastward over the rest of the peninsula, while over Cape Breton Island the direction was eastward and northeastward. Some indications were observed of an earlier glaciation. As regards post-glacial submergence, Goldthwait found that at St. John, New Brunswick, this had amounted to about 190 feet, while on Cape Breton Island no signs of any submergence were found. Robert Chalmers had arrived at similar conclusions; and these agree well with the theoretical isobases drawn by Taylor for that region (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv. LIII, 1915, p. 503). G. F. Matthew in 1879 (Geol. Surv. Canada, Rep. for 1877–78, EE, pp. 1–36) described the geology of southern New Brunswick. Few fossil vertebrates of Pleistocene age have been discovered in these countries. On Cape Breton Island mastodon remains have been found in two places, Middle River and Baddeck (p. [46]). As long ago as 1874 remains supposed to belong to Delphinapterus were found near the mouth of the Jaquet River, in the northernmost part of New Brunswick; but Professor G. H. Perkins has shown that the animal was probably the narwhal, Monodon monoceros. The discovery is discussed here on page [19]. At the southern extremity of New Brunswick, along Mace’s Bay, Charlotte County, a jaw supposed to belong to a species of Delphinapterus was found, which had been buried in the Leda clay (p. [19]). Near Fairville, at the mouth of St. John River, there has been discovered some bones of the seal Phoca grœnlandica (p. 21). In the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia is a skull of a walrus (p. [21]) found apparently in the water near Sable Island about 50 years ago. It is not certain that it is a Pleistocene fossil.
NEW ENGLAND.
Inasmuch as relatively few vertebrates belonging to the Pleistocene have been discovered in the New England States, it will not be necessary to enter into details regarding the geology of the glacial period in this region. Nevertheless, the subject is one of great interest and one which has engaged the attention of many geologists. For those who wish to enter on the study, the writer recommends first a paper written in 1906 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XVIII, pp. 505–556) by Frederick G. Clapp, entitled “Complexity of the Glacial Period in Northeastern New England,” which gives a brief history of the development of the idea that in the region mentioned there are evidences of more than one glacial and of more than one interglacial stage. There are also citations of the principal papers written on the subject. Among the writers cited are Shaler, Woodworth, Fuller, Upham, Stone, and Tarr. Clapp concluded that New England had been invaded by at least three ice-sheets and that these invasions had been separated by two interglacial intervals of long duration. On account of the greater thickness of the drift and because of fewer favorable exposures, due to the rocky nature of the coast and other causes, many difficulties are encountered in studying the deposits. He regarded absolute correlations as not yet possible. The last glaciation he accepted as corresponding closely with the Wisconsin, as displayed in States further west. What is known as Montauk drift, forming a part of the Gay Head interval of Woodworth, appeared to Clapp to correspond possibly to the Illinoian. Still older drifts would seem to have their place nearer the pre-Kansan (Nebraskan) than to the Kansan. What have been called “Leda clays” are found from Boston north into the St. Lawrence Valley. Clapp divides them into the “high-level” and the “low-level” clays. The former are the older and regarded as being about the equivalent to the Iowan stage. The “low-level clays” are referred to the Wisconsin stage. Another body of clays named by Fuller (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XVI, p. 375) the Gardiner clays, from their type locality, Gardiner Island, near the east end of Long Island, lies beneath the Montauk till and has been referred by Fuller to the Yarmouth interglacial.
In his paper cited Clapp presents (pp. 520–523) a list of the fossils, mostly mollusks, which have been collected in the Pleistocene deposits from New Brunswick to New York.
Along the New England coast are evidences of uplift which followed the retirement of the Wisconsin ice. Katz (Jour. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. VIII, 1918, p. 410) reported elevations of 155 feet at Stratham, New Hampshire, and 300 feet at Pawnal, Maine. Fairchild (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XXIX, p. 214) records the elevations at various localities in Maine.