340 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



ice action, with the exception of the highest part of the Nucleus 

 — the mountains of the Labrador coast — which, except toward 

 the base, are still "softened, eroded and deeply decayed."'' 

 This extensive denudation served to remove all but mere rem- 

 nants of anv Paleozoic strata originally deposited on the Archean 

 of this area, while the deep decay of the Archean rocks them- 

 selves would account for the immense numbers of gneiss bowlders 

 in the drift, which in all probability are but smoothed cores of 

 "bowlders of decomposition." That an immense amount of 

 material was removed from the surface of the area during the 

 glacial age is shown by the immense quantities of Archean 

 material which occurs scattered over the surface of the Nucleus 

 itself, as well as in the drift to the south. The glaciation, with 

 the depression and uplift which succeeded it, was the last 

 episode in the evolution of this "original" Laurentian area and 

 one which impressed upon it its present surface characters and 

 type of landscape. 



It is now an immense uneven plateau, comparatively slightly 

 accentuated except along the Labrador coast. The surface is 

 covered with glaciated hills and bosses of rock with rounded, 

 mammilated, flowing contours interspersed with drift covered 

 flats and studded with thousands upon thousands of lakes great 

 and small. A country which in the far north is often bleak and 

 desolate, but to the south, where it is covered with luxuriant 

 forest, is often of great beauty, especially when clothed with the 

 brilliant foliage of autnmn. Even now, however, it is passing 

 into a further stage of its history, the smooth or polished 

 glaciated surfaces are becoming roughened by decay, the softer 

 gneissic and limestone strata are again commencing to crumble 

 into soil, and a new epoch has been inaugurated in which the 

 marks of the ice age are being gradually effaced. 



Frank D. Adams. 

 McGiLL University. 



^Robert Bell. — "Observations on the Geology etc., of the Labador Coast, 

 Hudson's Strait and Bay." Report of the Geological Survey of Canada. 1882-3-4, 

 p. 14, DD. 



