334 OX 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 shrrt 

 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 monotonous 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 makps 

 this coast more like perfect desolation than any other place in 

 the same latitude. The fine doep 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, sin2e the last glacial eposh, through 



