210 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



crystalline. Gneisses, intrusive granites, syenites, gabbros, and traps 

 prevail from the Straits to Cape Chidley. 



The results of last summer confirm this general view, but it was found 

 that sedimentary formations not heretofore described appear in great 

 development on the shield border. At Pomiadluk Point, at Aillik Bay 

 and in the Mugford region, as well as in the long stretch from Saeglek 

 Bay to Ramah, the crystallines form the foundation to stratified series 

 of very diverse character. These merit particular notice in a sketch, 

 however brief, of the general geology of the coast. The extrusive lavas 

 of the Mugford series, the intrusive traps which occur in astonishing 

 profusion in the 700-mile belt, and the gabbros of Paul's Island and 

 vicinity will also claim attention. It will be shown that a correlation 

 of the strike-directions of schists and sediments indicate in the coastal 

 border a decided N.W.-S.E. trend which corresponds rather closely with 

 the average trend of the shore-line. Finally such observations as have 

 been made on the topography and physiography will be described in 

 connection with the bed-rock geology. 



From the Straits of Belle Isle to Paul's Island. 



General Topography. — As far north as Cape Mugford, over five 

 hundred miles from the Straits, the edge of the plateau is in plan 

 extremely ragged. Numerous fiords, ria-like bays and a vast archi- 

 pelago of outlying islands or skerries form a coastal fringe. The simi- 

 larity of landscape is so great that Forbes's description of the coast of 

 Norway on the route from Troudhjem to Bergen may be repeated for 

 this portion of Labrador. A sei'ies of inlets penetrates " in all directions 

 a low, bare, rocky land, partly island, partly continent, nowhere rising 

 but to a very small height above the sea, and so monotonous in charac- 

 ter", and destitute of long reaches, or natural landmai'ks, as to seem to 

 require an almost superhuman instinct for its pilotage." 1 



The contours of the islands are repeated in the hills of the low 

 plateau of the mainland ; the inlets, sounds, and narrow channels among 

 the islands (the "tickles" of the fishermen) represent the submerged 

 equivalents of the valleys on the mainland. From any command- 

 ing hill on island or mainland, the eye ranges far and wide over a 

 surface showing everywhere the evidence of universal and profound 

 glaciation. Unobscured by forest, soil, or thick drift, and singularly ex- 

 panded because of the crystalline clearness of the atmosphere, the view 



1 J. D. Forbes, Norway and its Glaciers, Edinburgh, 1853, p. 104. 





