NORTH-EASTERN RELICT COLONIES 41 



might have survived the Ice Age, without being affected by 

 the Ice-sheets ? 



Labrador was one of the areas which was believed to have 

 had an independent centre of glaciation, yet Professor Daly,* 

 after inaking a special study of the geology of Labrador, 

 remarked " nothing is more striking in the glacial geology of 

 the southern part of the coastal belt than the almost com- 

 plete absence of drift deposits." In the Torngat Mountains of 

 Labrador no signs of glaciation were noticeable above 2,000 

 feet. That there were considerable tracts of Labrador which 

 were free from ice must be evident, and I presume the Euro- 

 pean plant and animal migrants survived the Glacial Epoch 

 there and also further south. The island of Newfoundland 

 seems to have had quite a separate area of glaciation, and the 

 same was probably true of Nova Scotia, according to Pro- 

 fessors Chamberlin and Salisbury. f 



The two countries of Labrador and Newfoundland have 

 many species of animals and plants in common, and in both 

 no doubt a large part of the pre-existing fauna and flora sur- 

 vived the Glacial Epoch. I have urged in the last chapter 

 (p. 14) that the land probably stood at a much higher level 

 towards the beginning of the Pleistocene Period than at pre- 

 sent, the whole of the Bank of Newfoundland, and southward 

 as far as Cape Cod, being raised high above sea-level. While 

 I claim that the remainder of boreal North America has sub- 

 sequently become largely submerged, these eastern tracts are 

 likely to have remained above water, thus forming an asylum 

 for the survival of the arctic and Old World fauna and flora. 

 This opinion is confirmed by Professor Upham's J remark 

 that the elevation of the fossilif erous marine beds lying on the 

 glacial drift increases as we proceed north,-westward from 

 Boston, that is to say, inland, while along the lower St. 

 Lawrence it decreases again, so that in Nova Scotia actually 

 on the sea-coast marine deposits are wanting. 



The current geological theories of the Ice Age or Glacial 



* Daly, E. A., " Geology of Labrador," pp. 245251. 

 t Chamberlin, T. 0., and E. D. Salisbury, " Geology," Vol. III., 

 p. 336. 



{ Upham, Warren, " Marine Shells near Boston," p. 140. 



