No. 1 has six facets; No. 4, originally a rounded river
pebble, has been nibbled down to one flat face; Nos. 3
and 5 are battered subangular fragments on one side only]
The stones of the drift are of many kinds. The region from which it
was gathered may well have been large in order to supply these many
different varieties of rocks. Pebbles and bowlders have been left far
from their original homes, as may be seen in southern Iowa, where the
drift contains nuggets of copper brought from the region about Lake
Superior. The agent which laid the drift is one able to gather its
load over a large area and carry it a long way.
[Illustration: Fig. 89. Smoothed and Scored Rock Surface exposed
to View by the Removal of Overlying Drift, Iowa]
The pebbles of the drift are unlike those rounded by running water or
by waves. They are marked with scratches. Some are angular, many have
had their edges blunted, while others have been ground flat and smooth
on one or more sides, like gems which have been faceted by being held
firmly against the lapidary's wheel (Fig. 88). In many places the
upper surface of the country rock beneath the drift has been swept
clean of residual clays and other waste. All rock rotten has been
planed away, and the ledges of sound rock to which the surface has
been cut down have been rubbed smooth and scratched with long,
straight, parallel lines (Fig. 89). The agent which laid the drift can
hold sand and pebbles firmly in its grasp and can grind them against
the rock beneath, thus planing it down and scoring it, while faceting
the pebbles also.
Neither water nor wind can do these things. Indeed, nothing like the
drift is being formed by any process now at work anywhere in the
eastern United States. To find the agent which has laid this extensive
formation we must go to a region of different climatic conditions.
[Illustration: Fig. 90. Map of Greenland
Glacier ice covers all but the areas shaded]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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