86 CHANGES OF LEVEL IN NORTH AMERICA. 



■wild fowl ; its mainland side is a dense wilderness, and this part of the coast 

 was explored in canoes paddled by Indians. 



The harbour of Cascumpec is formed by an extensive peat-bog on one side^. 

 and^a long mound of sea sand on the other ; it has suflBcient water to float the largest 

 ships. The peat forms a perpendicular wall which was measured at low water, . 

 and found to be 19 feet beneath the sea. It is also perpendicular above the 

 water and forms the shore to the distance of two miles and a half. This peat- 

 bog is composed of the common sphagneous plants interlaid with the pine, hem- 

 lock, and other forest-trees and low bushes, some of which are still in upright 

 positions. There are no higher lands in the rear from which this bog could 

 have made a slide, nor any remaining site from which it could have departed. 



In the lagoon, the sea had flowed, at the time of the writer's visit, into groves 

 of maple, beech, birch, &c., which are constantly falling down from the sea- 

 water overflowing their roots. The marshes where they meet the water, are 

 filled with fallen timber ; and all taken together presents a desolate picture of 

 the changes that are still in pi-ogress. This part of the island is very low and 

 level ; and, from the gradual submergence of the land, the drainage of the 

 country is obstructed, and lands now capable of being cleared and cultivated, 

 will in the course of years be overflowed by the sea, unless the submersion should 

 be arrested. 



At numerous places on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the coast 

 of Labrador, deposits of sand and clay containing recent shells and relics of 

 marine plants are found at heights varying from 5 to 80 feet above the level of 

 the sea. These elevated tracts are seen, at considerable distances from the 

 present shores with notches worn out of the rocks by waves and currents of 

 water ; there are also limestones perforated by the Mytilus lithophagus, from 

 which the sea has long since been withdrawn. At some localities there are 

 also evidences of depression, similar to those already described. 



Labrador 8fc. — The Atlantic coast of Labrador and the Island of Newfound- 

 land present the same phenomena, although they are less perfectly delineated by 

 reason of the ice ; for ice-floes break down the shore, and icebergs deposit 

 mounds of sand, gravel and boulders along the sea-board, the winter and summer- 

 aspects of which are altogether dissimilar. 



Conclusion. — From what has been stated, it must not be understood that these 

 silent tmdulatory movements of the land are confined to the coasts and estua- 

 ries : they are manifest on the borders of the rivers and the great lakes of Canada 

 and also on the tributaries of the Mississippi. Slight shocks of earthquakes are 

 common in Canada and the United States ; but it does not appear, in the history 

 of those countries, that any material change in the relative levels of certain 

 tracts has been effected thereby. Admitting, however, that earthquakes have 

 been the cause of sudden sinkings and elevations of the land, and which would 

 produce anomalous results, there is a slow and constant undulatory movement, 

 of the earth's surface, which no doubt acts as much on the ocean's bed as upo 

 the dry land. 



