The Origin of Lake Basins

Abstract

I HAVE been following with some interest the recent discussion in these columns concerning the power of ice to erode rock basins, since I have prepared for publication (presented at the December, 1893, meeting of the Geological Society of America) a paper describing some recent studies of my own upon this subject. After several years of study in the glacial belt of New England, having never found definite evidence of rock basins in lakes of large size, I came to the conclusion that the theory of rock basins had little value, particularly since, after having been before us for more than thirty years, so few instances have been proven. In my own case, and I believe also in others, the attempt had always been to trace a continuous rock line, and this I now believe to have been an entirely wrong method; for how many large lakes are there in which possible outlets may not be buried beneath drift areas?