452 A. F. BUDDINGTON 



of the plateau surface (Fig 2), the other represented in the broad 

 river valleys and lowlands at a height of 250 to 300 feet. 



The trend lines of the more impressive and marked physio- 

 graphic features have been controlled for the greater part by the 

 presence of ancient fault and fracture lines, which have to a large 

 extent determined the distribution of the underlying rocks, with 

 their varying degrees of resistance to erosion and weathering and 

 the consequent parallel lineaments of the present topography. 

 Joints have certainly played a prominent part in localizing the 

 erosive agents. 



Fig. 2. — Highland peneplain on granite; interior of the St. John's Peninsula; 

 about eight miles east of Holyrood. 



An uplift of the land following the period of glaciation is indi- 

 cated by several facts. The amount of this uplift has been stated 

 by Daly (1891, pp. 257-58), judging from the lower limit of undis- 

 turbed glacial erratics at St. John's, to be about 575 feet; but the 

 presence of perched bowlders in precarious positions on the tops of 

 hills at much lesser elevations (especially at about 300 feet) 

 around Conception Bay renders this estimate of doubtful value. 



GLACIATION 



The results of glaciation expressed in the present topography 

 point to the presence of local ice caps flowing into the individual 

 bays in a direction perpendicular to the major outHnes of the bays 



