OF LABRADOR AND MAINE. 229 



greater extent, and remained longer upon the coast, in 1864, than for forty years previous. 

 It was not only pressed upon the coast by the normal action of the Labrador and Green- 

 land currents which, in consequence of the rotatory motion of the earth, tended to force the 

 ice in a southwesterly direction, but the presence of the ice caused the constant passage of 

 cooler currents of air from the sea over the ice upon the heated land, giving rise durino- 

 the present season to a constant succession of northeasterly winds from March until early 

 in August, which farther served to crowd the ice into every harbor and recess upon the 

 coast. It was the universal complaint of the inhabitants that the easterly winds were 

 more prevalent, and the ice " held " later in the harbors this year than for many seasons 

 previous. Thus the fisheries were nearly a failure, and vegetation greatly retarded in its 

 development. But so far as polishing and striating the rocks, depositing drift material and 

 thus modifying the contour of the surface of the present coast, this modern mass of bergs 

 and floating ice effected comparatively little. Single icebergs, when small enough, entered 

 the harbors, and there stranding, soon pounded to pieces upon the rocks, melted, and dis- 

 appeared. From Cape Harrison in lat. 55 ° to Caribou Island was an interrupted line of 

 bergs stranded in eighty to one hundred or more fathoms, often miles apart, while others 

 passed to the seaward down by the eastern coast of Newfoundland, or through the Straits 

 of Belle Isle. 



Secular Jiisc of the Land. From all the indications noticed casually by us, such as the posi- 

 tion of beaches apparently very recently raised above the sea-level, so as to be just beyond 

 the reach of the waves, the land is slowly gaining on the sea. The Rev. C. C. Carpenter, 

 missionary at Caribou Island, in the Straits of Belle Isle, also informs me that this is his im- 

 pression gained both from his observations and information given by the settlers. To this 

 last source Mr. J. F. Campbell is indebted for the statement in his " Frost and Fire," that 

 the coast of Labrador is slowly rising. 



River Terrace Period. Owing to the great denudation of all drift material, and the hilly 

 character of the country, we find no broad terraced river valleys, such as characterize more 

 temperate regions. On the contrary, the rivers are a succession of ponds, connected by 

 rapids, where the stream plunges from one rocky terrace to the next one below, taking 

 the direction of natural ravines. Though the volume of these rivers during the Terrace 

 epoch, or period of great rivers, may have been greater than now, as evidenced by a few 

 small terraces upon their banks, we have no evidence that they ran in much wider channels 

 than at present, owing to the great height of their banks. 



Leda Clays. 



Their occurrence in Labrador. — At the mouth of Salmon River, a small stream flowing 

 into the Straits of Belle Isle three miles east of the mouth of the Esquimaux River, 

 occurred a clay-bank about ten feet high, and situated just above high-water mark, 

 which was dark blue and free from boulders. It contained in abundance Aporrhais 

 occidentulis, Serripes gronlandicam, and Cardium Hayesii. 



This deposit of clay is of more recent age than the deposits noticed below, as it was a 

 few feet higher, and situated more inland. It undoubtedly rests upon the lower fossilife- 

 rous gravel beds, though I did not see the point of contact. 



The most important deposits occurred at Caribou Island at the mouth of the Straits of 

 Belle Isle, at Pitts Arm in Chateau Bay, and at Hopedale. They consisted of sandy clays 

 and a coarse gravel found between tide marks, and extending beneath the water. Should 



