No. 4.] CHALMERS — SURFACE C4E0L0GY. 207 



this phenomenon, this distinguished geologist concludes that when 

 the land was at its highest level in the modern period — and stood 

 considerably above the height at wliich it now is — the waters all 

 around the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were warmer 

 owine: to the arctic current beinu- thrown farther from the shore, 

 perhaps outside of the banks, and these marine animals would 

 then emigrate thither from the south and spread themselves into 

 the Acadian Bay. The subsidence which has since set in has 

 caused the arctic current to run more closely to the shores of 

 Nova Scotia and Maine, this southern fauna has be<2:un to retreat, 



' 7 



and those species inhabiting the waters surrounding Prince 

 Edward Island and in the Baie de Chaleur have thus become 

 isolated. 



STRATIFKD MARINE SANDS, SEA-BORDER TERRACES, 

 ELEVATED BEACHES, l^TC. 



Stratified sands occur almost everywhere within this region and 

 overlie the Leda clays in most places to a greater or less depth. 

 The lower portion of these deposits is probably equivalent to the 

 Saxicava sand of Dr. Dawson, but no fossils have been detected 

 in them, except it is Mytilus eduUs, var. elegaus, which, at Ben- 

 jamin River and Black Point seems to extend upwards from the 

 Leda clay into their lowest strata. These sands attain their 

 greatest development near the mouths of the larger rivers, form- 

 ing in some places extensive stratified beaches, or with the under- 

 lying stratified clays have been sometimes shaped into a series of 

 terraces, the higher, altogether of sand and perhaps gravel, the 

 lower, Leda clay with a sheet of sand occasionally covering them. 

 At Bathurst there is a large area between the harbor and the 

 Tatta2;ouche River, extendino- westward to the St. Ann settlement 

 covered with these sands, making a terrace 125 to 150 feet above 

 sea level. This terrace or sand flat is the highest in the region 

 and appears to have derived tlie material composing it largely 

 from the rivers which here empty into the Bay, in a similar 

 manner to extensive sand flats or shoals now in process of forma- 

 tion outside of the harbor. One or two lower terraces are seen 

 in this vicinity, but their upper surface is very uneven and seems 

 to correspond with that of the Leda clay beds, the sands which 

 once covered them having been denuded to that level. Near 

 Jacquet and Charlo Rivers and Nash's Creek are smaller areas of 

 elevated beaches at a less height above the sea, and around the 



