210 A - S " PACKARD, Jr., ON THE GLACIAL PHENOMENA 



VIII. Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine, with a View of the recent 

 invertebrate Fauna of Labrador. By A. S. Packard, Jr., M. D. 



Read October 4, 1S65. 



1. Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Malne. 



IN its general features the Peninsula of Labrador is an oblong mass of Laurentian rocks 

 lying between the 50th and 60th parallels of latitude. It rises abruptly from the ocean ,s 

 an elevated plateau, forming the termination of the Laurentian chain, which here spreads 

 out into a vast waste of hills and low mountains. Thus, there is no well-marked sin de 

 Cham of mountains rising above spurs of smaller elevations, but simply a height of land 

 with isolated peaks, irregular in its course, from which streams take their rise and flow hv 

 various directions into the ocean. y 



This plateau of hills and low mountains rises abruptly on the coast from the ocean to a 

 height of 500 to 800 feet, and inland continues to rise in peaks to a height of from 1500 

 to about 2500 feet until it reaches the water-shed at a distance of 100 to 200 miles from 

 the coast On the western slope this plateau falls gradually away by an easy descent 

 towards the shores of Hudson's Bay. 



On the south, the coast has a northeasterly trend, following the coast line of the south 

 ern Atlantic border of the continent. From Belle Isle, situated at the mouth of the Straits" 

 of Belle Isle, the eastern coast trends in a northwesterly direction to Cape Chudleio-h thus 

 following the northwesterly trend of the northern Atlantic coast line of the continent 

 rom Cape Race m Newfoundland to the head of Baffin's Bay, near latitude 80° It thu 

 lies parallel to the western coast of Greenland. The northeasterly trend of the' southern 

 coast of Labrador is determined by the same course of the Laurentian range of syenites 

 and gneiss rocks, which forms the northern shore of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River Z 

 northwesterly course beyond the Straits of Belle Isle is likewise determined by a range of 

 syenites and trap rocks, upheaved in a general N. W. and S. E. direction. Thus the interior 

 plateau of Laurentian gneiss seems surrounded by a framework of igneous rocks which 

 has apparently preserved to this day the original form and proportions of the Atlantic 

 slope of the azoic nucleus of our continent. nuc 



Parallel to the Straits of Belle Isle and situated about 100 miles from the coast is an 

 important water-shed which terminates in a spur of high peaks, called the Mealy Moun- 

 tains, which on the southern shore of Hamilton Inlet (Invuctoke Bay) rises 1500 feet iUs 

 said above the level of the sea. Numerous rivers descend the steep southern slope into 

 the St. Lawrence. Of these the River Moisie and Esquimaux River are the largest They 

 arise from a chain of lakes on the summit of the water-shed, from 100 to 200 miles in the 

 interior which also give rise to a still larger river which flows into Hamilton Inlet and 

 bears the same name. I have been informed by residents that the Indians can travel n 

 their canoes from the mouth of the Esquimaux River across the counlrTto tire Hudson 

 Bay Posts in Hamilton Inlet. Professor Hind/ and Mr. Cayley* likewise state that l" 

 head waters of the River Moisie lie contiguous to those of the two above nam rivers - 

 .f the source of all the three rivers be not the same. The Moisie River forms part of the 



and Hist. Soc, Quebec, N. S., vol. i., p. 73. 



