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Boulders at Little Metis. 37 



principally of orthoclase, gneiss, Labradorite rock and other 

 crystalline rocks from the Laurentian of the north shore, 

 here about 35 miles distant at the nearest point. With 

 these are masses of the hard sandstones of the Lower Silu- 

 rian rock of the south coast, and occasionally, though rarely, 

 blocks of the Upper Silurian limestone of the inland hills 

 to the south. 



The boulders of this belt, though stationary in summer, 

 are often moved by the coast ice in winter. This is well 

 seen where they have been partially removed to form 

 tracks for launching boats. In this case it is not unusual 

 to find in the spring that such tracks have been partially 

 refilled with boulders. On my own property, a track of 

 this kind was completely blocked a few years ago by an an- 

 gular boulder of sandstone nine feet in length, which had 

 been lifted from a spot a few feet distant ; and it is quite 

 usual to find in a boat-track, cleared in the previous sum- 

 mer, a dozen boulders of two feet or more in diameter that 

 have been dropped in it by the winter ice. Whether any of 

 these blocks are being drifted at the present time from the 

 north shore, is not known ; but they are moved freely ujd and 

 down the coast, and in dredging in depths of eight to fifteen 

 fathoms, I have found evidence that large boulders are not 

 uncommon on the bottom ; and judging from the small spe- 

 cimens taken up by the dredge, they are similar to those 

 on the shore, though apparently with a larger proportion of 

 flat slaty fragments. 



If the coast were now in process of subsidence, there can 

 be no question that the boulders would be pushed upward 

 and would eventually form sheets and ridges of boulders 

 embedded in mud, much in the manner of the marine 

 boulder-clays now found inland. 



Above high water, on certain portions of the coast, there 

 is a low terrace, only a few feet above the sea, and consist- 

 ing of sand, shingle, and gravel, often with fragments of 

 marine shells. Boulders are not numerous on this terrace 

 and are usually merely fragments from ledges of local sand- 

 stone. Bones of large whales occasionally occur on this 

 terrace. 



