NORTH-EASTERN RELICT COLONIES 
41 
might have survived the Ice Age, without being affected by 
the Ice-sheets ? 
Labrador was one of the areas which was believed to have 
had an independent centre of glaciation, yet Professor Daly,* 
after making a special study of the geology of Labrador, 
remarked “ nothing is more striking in the glacial geology of 
the southern part of the coastal belt than the almost com¬ 
plete absence of drift deposits.” In the Torngat Mountains of 
Labrador no signs of glaciation were noticeable above 2,000 
feet. That there were considerable tracts of Labrador which 
were free from ice must be evident, and I presume the Euro¬ 
pean plant and animal migrants survived the Glacial Epoch 
there and also further south. The island of Newfoundland 
seems to have had quite a separate area of glaciation, and the 
same was probably true of Nova Scotia, according to Pro¬ 
fessors Chamberlin and Salisbury.f 
The two countries of Labrador and Newfoundland have 
many species of animals and plants in common, and in both 
no doubt a large part of the pre-existing fauna and flora sur¬ 
vived the Glacial Epoch. I have urged in the last chapter 
(p. 14) that the land probably stood at a much higher level 
towards the beginning of the Pleistocene Period than at pre¬ 
sent, the whole of the Bank of Newfoundland, and southward 
as far as Cape Cod, being raised high above sea-level. While 
I claim that the remainder of boreal North America has sub¬ 
sequently become largely submerged, these eastern tracts are 
likely to have remained above water, thus forming an asylum 
for the survival of the arctic and Old World fauna and flora. 
This opinion is confirmed by Professor Upham’s $ remark 
that the elevation of the fossiliferous marine beds lying on the 
glacial drift increases as we proceed north-westward from 
Boston, that is to say, inland, while along the lower St. 
Lawrence it decreases again, so that in Nova Scotia actually 
on the sea-coast marine deposits are wanting. 
The current geological theories of the Ice Age or Glacial 
* Daly, R. A., “ Geology of Labrador,” pp. 245—251. 
t Chamberlin, T. C., and R. D. Salisbury, “ Geology,” Vol. III., 
p. 336. 
J Upham, Warren, “ Marine Shells near Boston,” p. 140. 
