Excerpt from The Geological History of Lake Superior: Read Before the Canadian Institute, Toronto, April 15th, 1899

In the talk which I am about to give on the Geological History of Lake Superior I propose to endeavour to trace the origin and develop ment Of the lake itself rather than to sketch the geology of the surround ing country. The genesis of some of the great lakes, or rather of the depressions in the continent which they occupy, has been the subject of some investigation and of much discussion and speculation among geologists, but their researches and controversies have related mostly to the lower lakes, while but little has yet been written as to the geological history of Lake Superior. It was on this account, and because I have worked for many years on and around this inland sea and have paid some attention to this matter, that I have chosen it as the subject of my address to night.

Before proceeding to speak of the basin Of Lake Superior, I shall say a few words about the basins of the other great lakes, the origin of each Of which has been similar to the others, but in some respects different from that of Lake Superior. Sir Andrew Ramsay and Sir William Logan supposed them to be due principally to glacial action; that is to say, that they had been scooped out Of the rocks in which they lie, mainly by the denuding force of heavy and extensive masses Of land ice. Although the eroding or excavating power Of thick glaciers is very great, still it does not appear to have been sufficiently powerful 'to account for all that was formerly attributed to it. It has been pretty satisfactorily shown that during the glacial period their action in modify ing the surface features consisted largely in the transportation of pre viously decomposed and loosened rock.

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