266 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



in length, the spits invariably lie on the lee side of the islands to which 

 they are attached. In most cases they appear to be still growing on 

 their points although the flanks may be strongly cliffed by the waves ; 

 sometimes a spit will form a continuous bar from one rock-island to 

 another. 



Finally, attention should be called to the largest single deposit occur- 

 ring in the zone of emergence and the only relatively large example of its 

 class of geographic form on this coast : the coastal plain north of Cape 

 Porcupine. From the cape it stretches fifteen miles northwestward to 

 Tub Harbor at the North of Hamilton Inlet. The plain averages nearly 

 four miles in breadth. It is covered with a thick growth of scrub tim- 

 ber which does not conceal its well graded character. The upper limit 

 of the plain surface was estimated from a distance to be about two hun- 

 dred and fifty feet above the sea ; thence the smooth slope descends to 

 the straight cliffs now being driven back by the actively encroaching sea. 

 The plain has apparently lost rather more than a mile of its breadth in 

 this way. There was a comparatively long halt in the process of eleva- 

 tion when the sealevel was about thirty-five feet above its present 

 position ; at that time there was developed a distinct bench that is 

 visible in West Bay. The plain is underlain by stratified sands, and 

 clays in which there are embedded a great number of large boulders, 

 including anorthosite from the interior. The bulk of these materials 

 may doubtless be referred to the drift as their original source. Many 

 small consequent streams have been extended down the slope of the 

 plain and are now deeply entrenched beneath its surface. The finest 

 sand-beach on the Labrador sweeps in a great curve along the present 

 shore. 



The clays of the coastal plain seemed to promise that in them, if 

 anywhere on the coast, fossiliferous beds might be discovered ; but, 

 even after prolonged search, the hope was destined to disappointment. 

 Nor was better success to be had when other deposits of the coast were 

 examined. It may be that organic remains are truly rare in them, but 

 the short time permitted for the investigation of the beaches could not 

 at all warrant this as the final conclusion. The rich finds of Packard 

 at Hopedale and on the coast to the southward, certainly point to the 

 expectation that the Labrador Quaternary may some day afford data 

 sufficient for a fruitful comparison with beds of the same age all about 

 the north Atlantic. 



