140 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 



oxteiisivi'ly (loposiled in tlie Acadian l)ay, and in ])art have 

 heen raisin' out of the water in I'rince Edward Island, 

 wliile the whole bay was shallowed and in ])art cut off 

 from the remainder of the j^ulf by the elevation of ridges 

 of lower Carboniferous rocks across its mouth. In the 

 l*ost-]iliocene ])eriod, that which immediately precedes our 

 own modern ai^e, as 1 have elsewhere shown,* there was 

 great subsidence of this region, accompanied by a cold 

 climate, and boulders of Liurentian rocks were drifted 

 from Laljrador and deposited on l*rince Edward Island 

 and Nova Scotia, while tiie southern currents, flowing up 

 what is now the bay of Fundy, drifted stones from the 

 hills of New Ihunswick to I'rince Edward Island. At 

 this time the Acadian bay en joyed no exem})tion from the 

 general cold, for at (.'ampl)elltown, in Trince Edward 

 Island, and at IJathurst, in New IJrunswick, we find in the 

 clays and gravels the northern sludls generally character- 

 istic of the Post-jjliocene ; tiioui,di perhi)i)s the lists given 

 by Mr. Matthew for St. dohn and by Mr. Paisley for the 

 vicinity of liathurst, may be held to show some slight 

 mitigation of the arctic conditions as com])ared with the 

 typical deposits in the St. Lawrence valley. Since that 

 time the land has gradually been raised out of the waters, 

 and with this elevation the southern or Acadian fauna 

 has crept northward and established itself around I'rince 

 Edward Ishmd, as the Acadian Ijay attained its present 

 form and conditions. lUit liow is it that this fauna is now 

 isolated, and that intervening colder waters separate it 

 from that of southern New England ^ W-rrill regards this 

 colony of the Acadian bay as indicating a warmer climate 

 intervening between the cold Post-pliocene period and ti\e 



* Notes on Post-pliocene of Canada, Canadian yafurolist, 1872. 



