3G2 RISING OF THE LA.ND AROUND HUDSON BAY. 



500 feet, but on the eastern side of tlie bay no fossils have yet been 

 detected at such high levels, owing perhaps to the scarcity there of 

 marine deposits and to the fact that but little search has yet been made 

 for them. In the sandy deposits among the hills about 20 miles south 

 of Cape Wolstenholme I saw abundance of Saocicava rugosa and Tellina 

 grcenlandica, with smaller numbers of a few other species, at heights 

 varying from the sea level up to about 200 feet; and last summer I 

 found brackish water varieties of a number of the commoner species of 

 our northern marine shells up to 70 feet above the sea in the clay banks 

 along the lower portion of the Koddawai Eiver. 



Around the head of James Bay and up its western side the encroach- 

 ment of the outer lines of the forest upon the wide alluvial flats which 

 extend all along these shores and are constantly broadening toward 

 the sea is good evidence that a rising of the land is now going on. The 

 existing condition in this part of the bay is well described by Mr. A. P. 

 Low in speaking of Agoomski Island. On page 24, J. Geol. Survey 

 Eeport for 1887, he says : 



"The island closely resembles the adjoining mainland in physical 

 character, being very low and swampy. The shore line above high- 

 water mark is made up of muddy flats covered in part with grasses and 

 sedges, followed farther inland by thick growths of small willows, these 

 in turn giving place to small black spruce and tamarack as slightly 

 higher grauud is reached. The line of these trees is often over 2 miles 

 inland from high- water mark, itself a long distance from the sea at low 

 water." 



IS'o living mollusks are to be found in James Bay, except perhaps in 

 the northern part, owing i)robabIy to the muddy and brackish nature 

 of the water, but abundance of the dead shells of a considerable num- 

 ber of kinds are washed out of the clays forming the present shores. 

 Some of these belong to moderately deep-water species and are well 

 preserved, retaining the epidermis. This, of course, shows a recent 

 elevation of the sea bottom. 



Richmond Gulf, on the eastern side, is separated from the main bay 

 by a high bar of stratified rocks, which strike with its length and dip 

 westward or toward the open sea. This bar is cut through by several 

 gaps, all resembling one another, except in their heights above the sea, 

 and all bearing evidence of their having been well-worn channels of 

 communication at more or less remote times according to the greater 

 or less elevation of their beds above the sea. Only one narrow passage 

 now remains open or low enough to admit the water, but two others 

 are as yet only slightly raised above the tides. 



Some of the aboriginal geographical names around the head of James 

 Bay are significant of considerable changes in the topography since 

 these shores became inhabited by the natives who still occupy them. 

 The large peninsula between Hannah and Eupert bays is called 

 Ministik-oo-watum, which means wooded island with a cove or hole In 

 it, ministik being the Cree for a wooded island and watum for a cove oa^ 



