224 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



chain of mountains, or strongly-dissected mountain plateau, extending 

 oue hundred and fifty miles north-northwest from Kangerdluksoak to 

 Cape Chidley. In the southern part, the range has an average width of 

 ahout fifty miles, but it narrows in the north. On the east, it is bordered 

 throughout its extent by the Atlantic. Technically, the chain is closely 

 related to the entire gneissic border of eastern Labrador, but its superior 

 elevation and peculiar topography early marked it out as an orographic 

 individual. Owing to the wild, forbidding, and awe-inspiring aspect of 

 the mountain- wall, it is called by the Eskimo the home of the " Torngat," 

 or " bad spirits." x Kohlmeister and Kmoch mention the name " Torn- 

 gets " for the X. W. extremity of the ranges, 2 which was mapped as such by 

 Wei/. 3 So far as the writer has been able to discover, the only other 

 name for any part of the system is that given to the east-central 

 portion, the "Nachwak Mountains" of Steinhauer, 4 or " Nachvak 

 Mountains " of Kohlmeister and Kmoch. 5 There seems to be no good 

 reason for regarding the whole highland belt as other than a structural 

 and orographic unit. It is therefore proposed that the ancient name 

 " Torngat " be extended so as to include all the belt from Hebron to 

 Cape Chidley. 



For a summary of what little is known concerning the Torngats, the 

 reader is referred to " The Labrador Coast " of Packard. 6 Lieber, Bell, 

 and Koch have respectively made local studies at Eclipse Harbor, Nach- 

 vak, and Eamah ; all agree in emphasizing the wild, ragged, alpine 

 nature of the relief. From end to end of the range, razor-back ridges 

 and horns abound. These are separated by lower rounded hills and yet 

 more conspicuously by numerous deep fiords and glaciated valleys or 

 glens, the near relatives of the fiords. All three observers came to the 

 conclusion that an alpine character has been preserved from preglacial 

 times because the continental ice-cap did not cover the Torngats. Bell 

 placed the average elevation of the local valley-glaciers of the ice-period 

 at about two thousand feet above the present sealevel. As noted more 

 fully below, this summer's observations correspond very closely with his 

 estimates. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute a glacial origin 

 to the rounded profiles of many of the dome-shaped mountains that 

 alternate with the horns. The former are to be regarded as the result 



1 Translation due to Rev. A. Stecker. 



2 Journal, 1814, p. 50. 



8 A. S. Packard, The Labrador Coast, p. 226. 

 * H. Steinhauer, Trans. Geol. Soc. London, 1773, vol. 2, p. 488. 

 8 Journal, p. 20. 

 . e Pp. 3, G, 19, 226. 



