74 PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH. 



sedimentary, and one must realize that there was a time in the 

 long, long ago when here was a shallow sea in which sand and 

 mud were being deposited in alternating beds with layers of 

 gypsum and sea-shells, and where at various times great swamps 

 existed in which grew the vegetation from which the coal of 

 today resulted. A glance at a geological map of the Island will 

 show that what is now Cape Breton was then a much smaller 

 land area made up of individual parts into and around which the 

 sea extended. It had, however, topographical features similar 

 to those of the present landscape, as the valleys of today are 

 found to be floored by these same sedimentary rocks that are 

 seen at Port Hood. The plateau of older rock that today oc- 

 cupies the larger part of the north and interior of the Island 

 existed as today, but the sea entered all the old valleys drown- 

 ing the rivers for a long distance towards their sources. Through 

 succeeding ages, the sediment laid down in the sea was changed. 

 The mud, sand, and gravel became consolidated into hard rock; 

 the shells became limestone; the vegetation, coal; and the gyp- 

 sum grew firmer. Slowly the land emerged from the sea, and 

 not unlikely the area where is now the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 became land, and the old St. Lawrence and other streams made 

 their way seaward and emptied far beyond the coast line of 

 today. Onwards through the vast stretches of time the land 

 was undergoing change — now elevation, now subsidence; but 

 always were the sub-aerial forces at work removing material 

 from a higher to a lower level, and the ocean waves beating upon 

 the coast tearing away here and building up there. A general 

 subsidence of the land allowed the sea to flood the lower course 

 of the St. Lawrence and cover a large part of the surrounding 

 area, and thus brought about the St. Lawrence Gulf, the waves 

 of which are now pounding upon the Inverness coast. A period 

 there was also, during which the whole country was covered by 

 ice as Greenland is today, and this event also left its impress 

 upon the land. These long-continued processes, at length, 

 resulted in the physical features of today with a somewhat 

 more extensive land area. 



The Less Distant Past and Origin of the Harbour. 



In the less distant past, the land stood some scores of feet 

 higher in relation to the sea than it does today. The continuous 



