112 LABRADOR 



ture of their rock-bands, but as well in the conspicuous 

 heights of the individual peaks. The strength of this 

 mountainous relief is principally due to the deep incision 

 of stream-made valleys in a portion of the Basement Com- 

 plex locally/ and in a geological sense recently, uplifted 

 far above the general level of the Archean plain. So far as 

 known, the Torngats thus owe their origin to the selfsame 

 processes that have shaped the low but much broken 

 plateau of the south. 



A third element in the scenery is found in the high gabbro 

 ranges of Nain, Port Manvers, and the Kiglapait. These 

 fine mountains may similarly have undergone recent uplift ; 

 or, on the other hand, they may be still high because the 

 gabbro is tougher than the surrounding rocks and from the 

 Archean time to the present has been more stubborn than 

 they in resisting the destructive activity of the weather. 

 It must be left to future investigation to decide as to which 

 alternative is to be preferred. Both may be true. 



Finally, the Kaumajet mountain-group, built on the 

 gently undulating floor of the Complex, and showing a 

 special composition and history, makes the fourth member 

 in our scenic divisions. The stratified rocks forming the 

 terraced slopes of the Kaumajets are the youngest solid- 

 rock formations yet discovered on the northeast coast of 

 the peninsula. No solid formation, with certainty repre- 

 senting any of the lifetime of the earth from the earliest 

 Paleozoic time to the present, has been found. 



In Labrador the net result of the geological activities of 

 this incomprehensible seon appears to have been to demol- 

 ish rather than to construct, to wear away old rock-terranes 

 rather than to build new ones into the framework of this 





