112 Report of the Brown-Harvard Expedition. 



Where the valleys widen sufficiently, they hold small ponds 

 or lakes, but this is of comparatively rare occurrence. Only 

 an occasional beck streaks the hillsides with a line of foam. 

 Thus the softening influence of water, snow, and vegetation 

 play a minimal part in determining the appearance of this 

 country, and leave unveiled the beauty of its huge masses. 

 On this account the absence of forests is a boon rather than 

 a detraction. The grandest scenery of Labrador begins with 

 the ragged shapes of the Kiglapait near Port Manvers, con- 

 tinues nobly with the groups at Cape Mugford, and cul- 

 minates in a magnificent climax at Nachvak. 



Nowhere can the student of geology and of the causes 

 of scenery better study his problems than here where nature 

 lays bare the manner of her working, without concealing its 

 stages and effects under the hindering veil of snow or of 

 vegetation. Clear and sharp stand out the evidences and 

 nature of glacial action ages ago, and of the alternate sinking 

 and rising of the land with reference to the level of the sea. 

 Beautifully plain appear the effects of denudation by frost 

 and water, as seen in the shattered summits, the forms of the 

 mountain masses, the accumulations of talus, and the great 

 curves and complexity of the valleys. Standing on one of 

 these heights, one can almost trace out the whole history of 

 the diversification of the original simple ridges into the in- 

 tricate system of varied peaks and valleys that now exist. 



Evidences of the former glaciation of this country are 

 abundant.* Dr. Daly established the fact that the main ice- 



* Low {Annual Report Geol. Surv. Can., Vol. VIII, 1896, p. 309 L) re- 

 ports, on the authority of his own investigations and those of Dr. Bell, 

 that there was no glaciation at Nachvak above 340 feet. 



