134 LABRADOR 
Where the glacial deposits had been unusually thick, still 
bulkier accumulations of sand and gravel were built by 
the waves in sheltered places. In the lee of many an island 
between Ford Harbour and Nain is an elevated spit which 
tails off from the island in beautifully even slopes from a 
few hundred feet to more than a mile in length. Often such 
a spit forms a continuous bar from one island to another. 
Other plateau-like sand deposits, as at Port Manvers, tie 
large islands to the mainland, or, in a unique case, underlie 
a true coastal plain of large size, as north of Cape Porcupine. 
The loose sands and clay of this plain have given foothold to 
a relatively extensive growth of scrub timber which, else- 
where, on the well-washed hills, finds little encouragement. 
Indeed, there is generally not enough soil on the outer shore 
to permit of the cultivation of vegetables; at some of the 
small ports in eastern Newfoundland, soil for the purpose has 
actually been imported in the form of ballast from England. 
So searce is either soil or loose material of any kind that a 
settlement on the Labrador has almost invariably had to 
seek a raised beach, often composed simply of large boulders, 
as the only available site for the graveyard. 
As an accurate, scientific description of scenery is neces- 
sarily founded on geology, so geological principles have 
often been evolved or at least brought into clearer light by 
the impressionistic influence of landscape. The extraordi- 
nary proofs of the recent upheaval of the Labrador cannot 
but force upon the visitor to the coast the question as to 
whether the elevating process still continues. The answer 
seems to be in the affirmative. ‘‘The almost universal 
belief of the old settlers on these shores is that in no other 
way can the changes in depth at familiar localities be ex- 
