280 SABLE ISLAND—MACDONALD. 
As to its probable submergence, if then this island and its sub- 
marine surroundings belong to the Champlain period, and those 
are Champlain sands, we are enabled to comprehend aright the 
many changes that have come to this sand island or sand 
embankment. 
It is apparent that an island so constituted, having no solid 
strata whereon to rest, even if not participating in the general 
subsidence this coast is now undergoing, exposed to the full 
force of the unbroken waves of the Atlantic, before whose power 
its sand cliffs melt away in a manner that must be seen to be 
understood, must and will soon disappear beneath the waters. 
