1911] Fernald,— Expedition to Newfoundland 153 
so far as I am aware, it is not even indicated, and except for the 
presence of the well-recognized submerged plateau off our eastern 
shores all further trace of the former coastal plain is lost. Its eastern 
limits, where it formerly met the waters of the Atlantic ocean, were 
probably where we now find the borders of this plateau to be, namely, 
at the 100 fathom contour.” 
“Shortly after the advent of the Ice Age the elevation had reached 
its maximum. The rivers had previously cut deep valleys through 
the easily eroded material forming the coastal plain, in their courses 
to the sea, and when the continental glacier, pushing its way south- 
ward and eastward, finally flowed over the edges and escarpments 
of the hard crystalline rocks onto the soft and incoherent material 
of the coastal plain it scooped it out to a great depth in places, and 
then, either carrying it forward in mass, or else pushing and squeezing 
it ahead in a great contorted ridge, capped by the boulder till, finally 
left it as part of the terminal moraine. .. .” 
“Just when the period of elevation ended and that of depression 
began, in fact, whether it was previous to, or subsequent to that of 
greatest ice accumulation, is yet a matter of controversy between 
authorities, but in either case on the retreat of the glacier, we may 
picture to ourselves the terminal moraine forming an elevated ridge 
extending through Staten Island, Long Island and the islands to the 
eastward, forming a continuous, more or less elevated land connection 
to the north and east, with what remained of the coastal plain sloping 
away from it on one side and a trough filled with the water from 
the melting glacier on the other. .. .” 
“The present rate of coastal subsidence, as calculated by Prof. 
Geo. H. Cook, and other authorities, is about two feet per century. 
At this rate, six thousand years ago practically the whole of the area 
included within the present twenty-fathom contour would have been 
above sea level — only the deepest parts of the trough of the Sound 
being below it. .. . This area, as may readily be seen, includes the whole 
of Staten Island, Long Island, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and 
Nantucket, besides a respectable portion of the submerged coast 
eastward and southward. It is also probable that at least a part of 
this area to the eastward, which at the present time is lower than the 
twenty fathom contour, has become disproportionately so in modern 
times by tidal scouring, and that it was actually and relatively higher 
formerly than now.” 
