Prof. J. W. Spencer — High Continental Elevation. 211 



Eiver bring to light another valley, the floor of which is now- 

 covered by ocean waves to nearly 1200 feet — its continuation sea- 

 ward not having been ascertained. 



Were the continent elevated only 600 feet, the Gulf of Maine 

 would be replaced by a terrestrial plain, in some places 200 miles 

 wide, but traversed by rivers, one of which towards its mouth would 

 be 2064 feet deep, that is to say, the bottom of the fjord is now 

 submerged 2664 feet. Even this great depth may not be its maxi- 

 mum, for along the line between the opposite banks, at the mouth, 

 now beneath a hundred fathoms of water, we find that the sea is 

 nearly 5000 feet deep. Whether this represents an embayment of 

 the ocean, setting towards the valley, or a continuation of the fjord, 

 is not determined. 1 



The St. Lawrence River and Gulf bear the same testimony to the 

 existence of deep fjords extending from the rivers through the now 

 submerged plateau forming the margin of the continent. The lower 

 part of the Saguenay Eiver flows between stupendous walls, and 

 constitutes a fjord whose waters reach a depth of 840 feet. In the 



St. Lawrence River, a little below the mouth of the Saguenay, there 

 is a channel 1134 feet below the surface. This increases in depth 

 in passing seaward. In the region of the centre of the modern gulf 

 the floor of the old channel is now submerged 1878 feet, and the 

 adjacent valley 1230 feet, thus showing the canon as being over 

 600 feet deep. As at the mouth of the channel through the Gulf of 

 Maine, so at the mouth of that of the St. Lawrence, there is a deep 

 chasm, for enclosed between the banks, a hundred fathoms below 

 the surface, there is now the depth of 3666 feet, with water 2000 

 feet deeper just seaward of it. Although this ancient valley is over 

 sixty miles wide at its mouth, with a narrower channel, yet it is 

 not as broad as some portions of the modern so-called river. The 

 1 U.S. Coast Survey Charts. 



