3-003-973 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Great boulder on the plains near Charlton, U.S., 1861. 'Geology of the Rocky Mountains and of the country between Lake Superior and the Pacific Ocean...In the spring of 1857 her Majesty's Government, at the suggestion of the Royal Geographical Society, constituted an exploring expedition into the British territories above mentioned...Near the elbow of the North Saskatchewan a remarkable group of boulders of limestone of enormous size crosses the country in a line parallel with the côteau between the Missouri and St. Peter's Rivers to the west. This line has been observed at points thirty and forty miles apart. They occur as great angular masses, consisting of several of the beds of limestone, the coherence of which, being very slight, proves that they must have been stranded without any great violence. One of these masses contains over 3000 cubic feet of stone, and rests on the plain obliquely, with its southwestern angle buried in the soil. Boulders are large rounded blocks, lying on the surface of the ground, or imbedded in the soil, different in composition, from the rocks in their vicinity, which have been therefore transported from a distance. They are also termed "erratic blocks".' From "Illustrated London News", 1861.