76 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
In spite of many marked differences, there has always seemed to 
me to be an analogy, I would say, a correspondence, between the North 
Sea or German Ocean, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I have often 
thought of Elisee Reclus’ view that “ the western coasts of Europe and 
Africa correspond with the eastern coast of this continent, not with the 
western as analogy would indicate.” 
Both seas are, towards the north, bound east and west by elevated 
ancient rock-formations, Norway and Britain alike presenting to the 
sea bold rugged ramparts, just as Gaspé and Newfoundland do; but 
there is no counterpart of Labrador in the case of the North Sea. 
Both, again, become extremely shallow in their southern portions, 
the unresisting arenaceous beaches, of recent formation, and the friable 
chalk cliffs facing the German Ocean the sea perpetually devours, or as 
in the case of the Netherlands, large tracts of country are inundated 
by it just as the Chignecto Isthmus is still to some extent inundated 
to-day, and must formerly have been wholly submerged. 
Were the Gulf and Bay of Fundy continuous? 
If there was communication between Minas Basin and Halifax 
Harbour by the Stewiacke Valley, Grand Lake, and the lakes near 
Windsor Junction, to which geologists may, perhaps, raise insuperable 
objections, then the occurrence of oysters about Halifax Harbour, Jed- 
dore Head, and even further east, can be understood. 
The region at the head of the Bay of Fundy at any rate has been, 
“one of exceptional geological disturbance and complexity,’ as Dr. 
George Dawson said, and, if Prince Edward Island has been elevated not 
much before or after, geologically speaking, then the fauna of the Pas- 
samaquoddy waters and further south would have continuity with the 
waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But, it may be objected that the 
oyster is practically absent from the Bay of Fundy proper, which forms 
as it were a non-ostreate region between the prolific areas of Connecti- 
cut, New York, Maryland, etc., on the south, and Northumberland 
Straits on the north. With the closing of the Bay of Fundy its condi- 
tions, it must be remembered, would so change that the high tides, the 
famous “bore,” the increase in mud deposits, the stranding of jce in 
the shallows, and other physical, chemical, and biological changes, 
sufficiently account for the disappearance of the oyster. The Gulf ice 
would moreover not be retained in the cul-de-sac formed by St: George’s 
Bay and the Inverness shore of Cape Breton. If the northern ice passed 
into the Gulf at all to the extent to which it does now, it would be 
carried, with the local fields of ice, down the Bay of Fundy, and would 
disappear rapidly as it passed into the warmer zones. 
