No. 4.J HIND — NORTH-EASTERN LABRADOR. 229 



120 feet above the present sea margin, each step being about 

 four or more feet in altitude, such being the average thickness 

 of the beds of gneiss. In Lake Melville, Hamilton Inlet, the 

 process of breaking down the rock into steps, assisted by cleav- 

 age, is well seen on St. Patricks or Haines' Island, opposite to 

 the mouth of English River. Here and at various other parts 

 where a similar terrace or step disposition on the slope of the 

 hills occurred, I was reminded of the ; ' Gneiss Terraces" at the 

 Level Portage, on Cold Water River, an affluent on the Moisie, 

 which I described in 1862.* 



The Gneiss Terraces there are about 800 feet above the sea 

 level, and their aspect is similar to the steps in Tooktoosner 

 Bay, leading to but one conclusion, that surface outline, 

 where ice influence has prevailed, is largely due to the action 

 of coast ice upon strata in which cleavage planes and joints 

 readily assist denudation in the manner described. 



The process of detaching and carrying away the blocks separa- 

 ted by cleavage planes and joints may go on until the strata 

 exposed to this action are removed, or a change in the direc- 

 tion of the impinging masses of ice takes place, or until beds 

 are reached in which cleavage planes and joints no longer facili- 

 tate the operation, when the rasping down, and finally, the 

 polishing process begins, and a roche moutonnee results. These 

 operations occur in the spring only, when the coast fringe of 

 ice, which extends far out to sea, is brokeu up, and " pans " of 

 ice are formed by the disruption. 



3.— Pan Ice. 



" Pan" ice is derived from Bay ice, floes and coast ice, 

 varying from five to ten or twelve feet in thickness, all of which 

 are broken up during spring storms. When the disruption of 

 the ice sheet which seals the Fiords, the Island zone and the 

 sea itself for many miles outside, continuously, is effected in 

 June, the resulting " pans" as the fishermen term them, vary 

 in size from a few square yards to many acres in extent. The 

 uniform and unbroken mass of ice in the winter months, has no 

 lateral motion, it rises and falls with the tide, but is unaffected 

 by winds until the warmth of spring softens its hold on the 



* Vide, Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula — 

 Longmans, London, 1863. 



