334 ON DRIFT ICE AS AN ERODING 
2nd. The direct and continuous action of ice upon a coast 
line nearly 1000 miles in length, and reaching from the source 
of supply almost to the limit of its drift. 
3rd. The phenomenon of a rapidly rising coast line. 
My enforced detention here by ice blockades drew my atten- 
tion to these advantages for study and evinced the close connec- 
tion between present conditions in Labrador and the later 
Pleistocene of the Maritime Provinces. 
General Appearance. 
The shore along the northern side of the Straits of Belle Isle 
is generally sloping, sometimes steeply so, rising at a shcrt 
distance into high rounded or rugged hills. On these slopes the 
sea has written both history and prophecy, the record being 
marked by ancient shore lines. Here and there, as at Henley 
Harbor, bold cliffs line the shore and give variety to what would 
otherwise be an intensely monctonous waste of rock and moss. 
North of Battle Harbor the mountains approach the shore more 
closely, and being of a rugged outline and pierced by deep inlets, 
and often faced with precipices, present a wild and forbidding 
appearance. Along the whole outer coast, for nearly 100 miles 
north of the straits, a tree is not to be seen. The islands 
especially are barren and storm-swept to a degree that makes 
this coast more like perfect desolation than any other place in 
the same latitude. The fine deep harbors, however, partly com- 
pensate for the extreme desolation of their surroundings. 
Thence, onward to Hamilton Inlet, the coast is lower; and long 
gentle slopes run up from the sea, and the hillsides are often 
clothed with trees. The headlands and islands, however, con- 
tinue bare, even moss being absent on some of the most exposed 
points and headlands. Such a thing as tillable soil, as we know 
it in Nova Scotia, I have not seen on this barren shore. Only 
on the flowage plains of the large rivers is there any soil worthy 
of the name; and on this ice-scoured shore its presence would 
be strange indeed. There, since the last glacial epoch, through 
