126 ROSS ON ELEYATiOX IN THE EARTh's CRUST, 



companion of another class, the great auk. Of prehistoric remains, 

 I only know the solitary gigantic thigh bones of a huge mammal 

 found at Cape Breton. Of those whose early extinction, perhaps 

 in our ov/n times we may reasonably expect, we may enumerate 

 the fisher, (M. pennanti), now very rare, and next the marten, 

 (M. americana). Both these great tree weasels require dense 

 cover. The beaver, twenty-five years ago nearly extinct, is rapidly 

 recruiting. The less value of his skin since velvet hats have been 

 patented is not sufficient to account for his re-appearance. The 

 few or no Indians now trapping in our forests is perhaps another 

 cause. With these exceptions, allowino; the sam^e influence to 

 exist, I see no reason why we should not retain our present fauna 

 for centuries, including the large ruminants. Our last arrival was 

 the wolf, endeavouring in vain to rehabit his old domains, to whom 

 the skunk and the raccoon alone give precedence. All these 

 coming in to us from the wild region of the Cobequid hills. Of 

 introduced species, with the exception of the mice, we have only 

 the horse (E. caballus), and the rabbit, (Lepus cuniculus). 

 Both these species have been allowed to assume the feral state on 

 Sable Island, a desert island about ninety miles south-east of Nova 

 Scotia, in the Atlantic Ocean. Whilst the rabbits in fifty years 

 have returned to one common silver-grey tint witli white coljars, it 

 is curious to remark how the horse in one hundred and fifty 

 years, the produce no doubt of the New England stock, has 

 returned to the habits and form of the primal stock, or wild horse 

 of antiquity, and reproduced all varieties of color, "not only the bay, 

 black and chestnut, but the rarer colors of piebald, duns, isabellas, 

 blue duns, and duns with striped legs and black lists down the back. 



/2 



Art. Y. Zones of Lines of Elevation in the Earth's 

 Crust. By Angus Ross, Esq. 



(Read January 8, 1872.) 



Eleven years ago I was living on Digby Neck, a prolongation 

 of the North Mountain Range, and a district which with its great 



