156 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



stumps above the bottom of our bogs may be explained in either of two 

 ways : 1st, there have been no such alternations ot climate in this 

 region ; 2nd, the bogs have formed entirely since the last change of con- 

 ditions. An explanation of the latter view could be found in it if it could 

 be shown that our bogs answer to the lower and one-layered bogs of 

 Scandinavia, or in other words if it could be shown that this region has 

 been in recent times under the sea. At present there is evidence that 

 this coast is sinking/ but not to a great extent. Before this began, 

 however, in the Champlain epoch, as has been shown by Matthew (146) 

 the sea stood some 200 feet above its present level, a height which would 

 certainly submerge the sites of all of these bogs. Similar conditions 

 appear to prevail in the great bogs of the north shore of the province, for 

 in the several accounts by Chalmers of the bogs of Point Escuminac, 

 Point Cheval, and elsewhere, which are being cut away by the sea, expos- 

 ing natural sections, layers of stumps on the bottom are described, 

 but none above them are mentioned. It seems to me plain, therefore, that 

 all of our bogs yet examined are in basins compai'atively recently raised 

 above the sea, so recently that the bogs have grown within a single one 

 of the alternating periods, which, it is logical to suppose, our climate has 

 experienced in common with that of Scandinavia, though perhaps not 

 contemporaneously.^ To find evidence of such climatic changes it will be 

 necessary to find bogs of over 200 feet elevation above sea-level. But 

 when found they will teach little without the cutting of expensive 

 trenches. 



In this connection an imporl ant question arises as to the present con- 

 dition of the bogs, whether they are now growing or not. I have 

 already mentioned the belief of those who live near them, which is, how- 

 ever, of very little value as evidence. One fact, however, shows they are 

 still growing with some rapidity. Ai'ound the islands the moss may 

 plainly be seen to be rising on the trunks of the small trees. Also, 

 on the high part of the bog, the young larches when pulled up show 

 a number of their short branches buried several inches deep in the moss, 

 showing that the moss has grown up that distance in the time these 

 trees have been growing. One plant, 4 inches high above the moss, had 3 

 inches bearing branches below it, and a top-root of 8 inches below that ; 

 and several others show this feature to even a greater extent. It is not a 

 case of root-contraction drawing the stem downwards.^ On the drier 



1 Traus. Royal Soc. Canada, VIII., Sect. IV., 179. Also Report Geol. Survey 

 Canada, 1887, N. 25. 



2 Blytt (2a) traces these alternations to the precession of the equinoxes, which 

 theory requires that our bogs shall be in a wetter condition than those of Europe, 

 which seems true. 



■' There is, however, another way in which this may be explained. The bog is 

 constantly compacting, and hence sinking, and some upward growth of the moss 

 to compensate this could take place without increasing the height of the bog, and 

 thus trees may be buried. 



