GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 103 



heights above sea-level of from 2500 to 3500 feet for moun- 

 tains starting up out of the depths of the Atlantic. This 

 second mountain-group covers about 300 square miles . It is 

 called by the Eskimo the "Kaumajet" or Shining Moun- 

 tain, a name forming the exact equivalent of the Hindoo 

 "Himalaya," and recalling the considerable list of names of 

 peaks, as Mt. Blanc, the White Mountains, Mauna Kea, etc., 

 covered with perennial or evanescent snow- fields. 



So far as known the Kaumajets have a unique history in 

 the topography of the coast, and it is of special interest not 

 only in the discussion of the wonderful mountain-forms of 

 the present day, but because of an ancient record, a 

 geographic fossil long preserved beneath rocky leaves but 

 now visible, for the book is open and may be read. It will 

 be remembered that the Basement Complex was worn 

 down to an almost-plain before the earliest known fossil- 

 bearing rocks of eastern America (the Cambrian formations) 

 were formed. Let us imagine this old mountain-root land- 

 surface sinking deeply beneath the sea ; then imagine piled 

 upon it a thickness of 3000 feet or more of mud, sand, and 

 gravel, along with the lavas, flows, and ash, of sea-coast or 

 marine volcanoes. Such material, since hardened to form 

 well-bedded slates, sandstones, conglomerates, tuffs, and 

 trap-rock, was the raw stuff from which the Kaumajets 

 have been made. The whole mass, including the well- 

 buried Basement Complex, was long ago hoisted above the 

 sea, warped and slightly folded into great shallow troughs 

 and low arches (Fig. 15) . For countless millenniums the new 

 surface was given over to the patient but powerful attack 

 of frost and other weathering agents and the still more 

 destructive water-streams new born on that surface. The 



