375 



Menan there was formerly a marsh covered with trees, which 

 were cut down by persons yet living. The marsh has sunk so 

 much that the stumps of those trees are eight or nine feet under 

 water at low tide. 



Mr. Desor quoted, from recollection, a statement in Poggin- 

 dorff's Annalen for 1849, that the shores of Newfoundland are 

 undergoing the process of elevation. It was interesting to learn 

 that a corresponding process of depression is going on, as it would 

 give confirmation to Darwin's and Dana's views with regard to the 

 changes of level in the Pacific, they having stated that a rise in 

 one place is always attended by a subsidence in another. Mr. 

 Desor also referred to a statement which had been made formerly 

 by Dr. C. T. Jackson, that the inhabitants on the coast of Maine 

 believe the rocks on the sea shore to be growing. 



Mr. J. E. Cabot translated to the Society the passage from 

 PoggendorfT's Annalen, where it is quoted from the Newfound- 

 land Times, stating that the land near Conception Bay is rising. 



Prof. Wyman remarked, that while on a visit, during the sum- 

 mer of 1849, to Labrador, he had noticed on the shores of Great 

 Mecatina, shingle, pebbles, and rounded stones for a long distance, 

 far above high water mark. He also noticed rounded " heads " 

 of rocks thirty or forty feet above the highest drift weed, and 

 which had all the appearances of having been acted upon by the 

 surf He had noticed the same appearances at Bras d'Or and 

 Red Bay. At Red Bay he saw a large accumulation of the 

 remains of whales in a similar position. It is not known whether 

 they were carried there or washed up by the tide. If by the lat- 

 ter cause, the shore must have been much lower than it now is. 

 Many of them are so bulky as to make it improbable that they 

 were transported by hand. They are covered with moss and 

 bear marks of great age. None of the inhabitants in the vicinity 

 are acquainted with their history. It is possible that they are 

 the remains of whales captured by the Royal Fishing Company 

 of Miscoe in the seventeenth century. 



The President referred to the elevation in modern times of 

 large tracts of the coasts of Norway and Chili. He thought that 

 accurate observations should be made on our own coast by means 

 of fixed marks set up for the purpose. 



Mr. J. H. Abbot stated, that in 1849 a memorial had been 



