233 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vili. 



Off the North-eastern Coast of Labrador, and generally on 

 banks ten or fifteen miles from the outermost Islands, there is a 

 loose fringe of stranded bergs for hundreds of miles. They are 

 continually " foundering," that is breaking up during the sum- 

 mer. Sometimes they are grouped together, sometimes a mile 

 a part, but still forming a continuous string as far as I saw them, 

 for a hundred-and-fifty miles, north-west of Cape Harrison. Some 

 years the fishermen say they are much more numerous than during 

 other seasons, but I rarely counted fewer than thirty within 

 view at the time from the deck of the Schooner, and often a 

 much larger number. Outside of the stranded bergs the giant 

 " Ice Islands" as they are locally termed, drift with the Arctic 

 Current south-easterly. Very few bergs were seen among the 

 Islmds, or between the stranded bergs and the Islands. The 

 shoals or banks " pick them up." In fact it is only small dis- 

 rupted masses that one meets with ; within the Islands Zone 

 the water in general being too shallow to float a berg of consi- 

 derable size. 



7. — Formation of Boulder Clay. 



During a period of subsidence the blocks of strata, boulders, 

 mud, and sand, pushed to and fro on the shallow-sea-bottom by 

 pan ice, ultim itely accumulate in hollows and ravines below its 

 action, and when the debris is pushed into profound submarine 

 valleys such as exist on the Labrador Coast, (being probably due 

 to former glacial action,) the mass will resemble Boulder Clays, 

 and in a sinking marine area it will accumulate to a great 

 thickness ; in a rising area it would be liable to be remodelled 

 by the action of the waves except, in the case of very deep val- 

 leys. There are not many kuown narrow and profound subma- 

 rine valleys on the north-eastern coast of Labrador, but those 

 which are known offer precisely the conditions required for the 

 accumulation of Boulder Clays or drift by the action of Pan 

 Ice. 



The seaward extension of Uksuktak Fiord, which lies a little 

 to the soutli of Hopedale, affords an apt illustration. Comman- 

 der Maxwell's soundings show a profound submarine ravine 

 between clusters of Islands for upwards of eight miles, in which 

 the depth reaches, 124, 126, 123, 106 and 130 fathoms. Between 

 the Islands of Niatak and Paul, near Nain, the lead shows 71 

 fathoms. It is evident that the material torn from the sur- 



