266 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
in length, the spits invariably lie on the lee side of the islands to which 
they are attached. In most cases they appear to be still growing on 
their points although the flanks may be strongly cliffed by the waves ; 
sometimes a spit will form a continuous bar from one rock-island to 
another. 
Finally, attention should be called to the largest single deposit occur- 
ring in the zone of emergence and the only relatively large example of its 
class of geographic form on this coast: the coastal plain north of Cape 
Porcupine. From the cape it stretches fifteen miles northwestward to 
Tub Harbor at the North of Hamilton Inlet. The plain averages nearly 
four miles in breadth. It is covered with a thick growth of scrub tim- 
ber which does not conceal its well graded character. The upper limit 
of the plain surface was estimated from a distance to be about two hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the sea; thence the smooth slope descends to 
the straight cliffs now being driven back by the actively encroaching sea. 
The plain has apparently lost rather more than a mile of its breadth in 
this way. There was a comparatively long halt in the process of eleva- 
tion when the sealevel was about thirty-five feet above its present 
position ; at that time there was developed a distinct bench that is 
visible in West Bay. The plain is underlain by stratified sands, and 
clays in which there are embedded a great number of large boulders, 
including anorthosite from the interior. The bulk of these materials 
may doubtless be referred to the drift as their original source. Many 
small consequent streams have been extended down the slope of the 
plain and are now deeply entrenched beneath its surface. The finest 
sand-beach on the Labrador sweeps in a great curve along the present 
shore. 
The clays of the coastal plain seemed to promise that in them, if 
anywhere on the coast, fossiliferous beds might be discovered ; but, 
even after prolonged search, the hope was destined to disappointment. 
Nor was better success to be had when other deposits of the coast were 
examined. It may be that organic remains are truly rare in them, but 
the short time permitted for the investigation of the beaches could not 
at all warrant this as the final conclusion. The rich finds of Packard 
at Hopedale and on the coast to the southward, certainly point to the 
expectation that the Labrador Quaternary may some day afford data 
sufficient for a fruitful comparison with beds of the same age all about 
the north Atlantic. 
