GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 137 



The map of Figure 17 gives a synopsis of the observations 

 so far made on the present altitudes of the highest shore- 

 line. The figures represent the number of feet, through 

 which the coastal belt at individual points has risen since 

 the Ice Period. The illustration indicates "that the uplift 

 on the Labrador has been greatest near Hopedale. Hamil- 

 ton Inlet owes in part its depth, and indeed its very exist- 

 ence as an inlet (it is but 10 fathoms deep at the Narrows), 

 to the fact that the part of the plateau in which it lies has 

 not been elevated as much as the land to north and to south. 

 The line rapidly rises as it crosses the Strait of Belle Isle, 

 and seems to be about 500 feet in height along the whole 

 eastern shore of Newfoundland/' 



It is further clear that the uplift is a real and independent 

 upward movement of the land and not a mere withdrawal 

 of the sea-water, lowered, it may be, in the filling of distant 

 troughs or basins formed by the recent subsidence of other 

 parts of the ocean-floor. On the contrary, the evidence is 

 unmistakable that "there has been unequal positive uplift 

 of the earth's crust. The force responsible for this great 

 piece of work has been applied locally and in varying degree. 

 The result is that to-day the actual distance from the centre 

 of the earth of every point on the highest shore-line is 

 greater than it was at the close of the Glacial Period." 



Why has the earth's crust been thus hoisted? Some 

 geologists believe that the crust is elastic and sensitive, even 

 to the load of an ice-cap, and that the upheaval of the Labra- 

 dor is due to the lightening of the load on the crust when the 

 massive glacier disappeared. It is certainly true that the 

 recent uplift of the northern half of the continent has been 

 most pronounced where the ice-load was presumably 



