224 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
chain of mountains, or strongly-dissected mountain plateau, extending 
one hundred and tifty miles north-northwest from Kangerdluksoak to 
Cape Chidley. In the southern part, the range has an average width of 
about fifty miles, but it narrows in the north. On the east, it is bordered 
throughout its extent by the Atlantic. Tectonically, the chain is closely 
related to the entire gneissic border of eastern Labrador, but its superior 
elevation and peculiar topography early marked it out as an orographic 
individual. Owing to the wild, forbidding, and awe-inspiring aspect of 
the mountain-wall, it is called by the Eskimo the home of the “ Torngat,” 
*1  Kohlmeister and Kmoch mention the name “ Torn- 
or “ bad spirits. 
wets ” for the N. W. extremity of the ranges,” which was mapped as such by 
Weiz.? So far as the writer has been able to discover, the only other 
name for any part of the system is that given to the east-central 
portion, the “ Nachwak Mountains” of Steinhauer,* or “ Nachvak 
Mountains ” of Kohlmeister and Kmoch.° There seems to be no good 
reason for regarding the whole highland belt as other than a structural 
and orographic unit. It is therefore proposed that the ancient name 
“ Torngat ”’ be extended so as to include all the belt from Hebron to 
Cape Chidley. 
For a summary of what little is known concerning the Torngats, the 
reader is referred to “ The Labrador Coast ” of Packard.® Lieber, Bell, 
and Koch have respectively made local studies at Eclipse Harbor, Nach- 
vak, and Ramab; all agree in emphasizing the wild, ragged, alpine 
nature of the relief. From end to end of the range, razor-back ridges 
and horns abound. These are separated by lower rounded hills and yet 
more conspicuously by numerous deep fiords and glaciated valleys or 
glens, the near relatives of the fiords. All three observers came to the 
conclusion that an alpine character has been preserved from preglacial 
times because the continental ice-cap did not cover the Torngats. Bell 
placed the average elevation of the local valley-glaciers of the ice-period 
at about two thousand feet above the present sealevel. As noted more 
fully below, this summer’s observations correspond very closely with his 
estimates. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute a glacial origin 
to the rounded profiles of many of the dome-shaped mountains that 
alternate with the horns. The former are to be regarded as the result 
1 Translation due to Rev. A. Stecker. 
2 Journal, 1814, p. 50. 
8 A.S. Packard, The Labrador Coast, p. 226. 
# H. Steinhauer, Trans. Geol. Soc. London, 1773, vol. 2, p. 488. 
5 Journal, p. 20. 
6 Pp. 3, 6, 19, 226. 
